You know, I think it’s a shame that people have to behave in such silly, stupid ways. What is it about over-zealous religious people that blinds them so? Why can’t they see the rich opportunities for deep healing and reconciliation available to them in this situation, especially at Ground Zero? No. They can’t see anything beyond their own thick and sticky ideology, unfortunately. They would rather busy themselves with pissing matches and skip the healing embraces; they prefer ownership claims over the sharing of life and living. Like a dog, they lift a crooked hind leg and recklessly spray their foul scent all over a plot of simple rocks and dirt just so they can lay claim to it. Fine! You win! It’s all yours! Just know that that’s all you will ever own in this world and the next.
In response to the controversial plans to build an Islamic mosque in New York City near the place where Muslim terrorists killed nearly 3,000 people in 2001, an Internet evangelist is planning to establish what he calls the 9-11 Christian Center at Ground Zero.
Bill Keller of LivePrayer.com, an Internet ministry that claims over 2.4 million subscribers, is planning on opening the Center at a temporary location near Ground Zero this September before announcing a permanent home beginning in 2011.
Keller told WND that he sees this as an opportunity to take a stand for Christ within a block of where the World Trade Center towers once stood and “give people a place where they can come to pray and find true peace and hope at a time when so many lives are in turmoil.”
“I watched in disbelief … as they announced the Muslims would be building a $110 million mosque just a few blocks from where their Muslim brothers perpetrated the greatest act of terror on U.S. soil in history,” writes Keller on the Christian Center’s official website. “After I got over being angry, I got on my knees in prayer. I knew God was calling me to do something, but what?”
“The mission is simple,” Keller further explains on the center’s website. “Have a place at Ground Zero where people can come to hear the real, uncompromised Truth right from God’s Word and find the only true hope there is, faith in Jesus Christ. We will combat the lies of this world and Islam with the Truth. We will combat the hatred of this world and Islam with love. We will combat the violence of this world and Islam with peace. Finally, we will combat eternal death this world and Islam brings with life everlasting!” (source)
Any Christian who honestly understood the life and lessons of Jesus of Nazareth would be signing up to actually help these Muslims build their mosque at Ground Zero.
Too, any Muslim who has anything to do with the mosque at Ground Zero should go out of their way to invite people of other faiths into their midst for forgiveness, reconciliation, and healing.
This goes both ways, people. The only ones preventing it from going both ways is us. The “What’s mine is mine” attitude has no place in faith relationships. Blind ideology is not a spiritual gift or fruit. Blind ideology is a spiritual and human detriment. Divinity is bigger than that and calls us towards a bigger vision of community.
This is not a competition people. Do not make it one. It is just rocks and dirt, after all. The rest is ideology.
I can’t remember the whole quote, just the end “… but thinking makes it so.”
Oh, I remembered my friend Google –
“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so”. from Hamlet Act II Scene II
I know my first response to hearing about Muslim mosque being built at ground zero was that perhaps it was an opportunity for reconciliation, but I also wondered about having just one faith represented. I was hoping that several faiths would work together to build some center devoted to conflict resolution or something like that. But what’s happening (to me) seems to be a further desecration of the lives lost. But that’s probably just me …
I agree so much with you Shawn. Blind devotion is a detriment. The terrorists were actually less blind, in my opinion, than some who are complaining about a building that is blocks from the site in the first place. Our nation’s true enemies are quite thoughtful and are loving this!
I personally would not “help” build a mosque, though I would certainly not be a roadblock. And, in a multicultural America we embrace people, not symbols. I think that is what Jesus would do. Sometimes our symbols are used to divide us and that kind of blindness hurts us all.
Nope. I think your last paragraph is huge, Sonja. What an opportunity offered to work together and heal centuries of pain and detriment.
@Rich: I can totally respect what you expressed in the above comment. If only there were more of you in the world. :)
FRAUD ALERT! http://princessxxx.wordpress.com/2010/07/07/the-lies-of-bill-keller/