To hear Republican and Tea Party candidates tell it, the current administration is truly a threat to the Constitution and the wishes of the founding fathers.

Yet it seems not to be the wishes of the founding fathers that are motivating positions taken by so-called conservative politicians.  Citing public polls that would forbid a mosque two blocks from ground-zero in New York City, many politicians are quick to invoke public sentiment against mosques in general and the NY City one in specific.

Fox News reports that:

A CNN/Opinion Research poll released this week found that nearly 70 percent of Americans opposed the mosque plan while just 29 percent approved. A number of Democratic politicians have shied away from the controversy.

Still, public sentiment around the fear of people unlike themselves is generally intense and wrong-headed. Imagine a survey that asked AngloAmericans how they felt about Latino families living next door. Or a few years back, African Americans.

The question of who do you want to be your neighbors generally reveals irrational fears and negative stereotyping.

The people who should understand this best are the leaders of the faith communities, who attempt to work daily against the dark side of humanity. Yet I am not hearing, for example, from white Christian leaders, except for those who wish to paint all Muslims with a very broad brush. The Pat Robersons, and Franklin Grahams apparently are offering nothing to uphold the rights of Muslim Americans.

Isn’t there one Christian man in a position of prominence who understands that it is not right to say, as did the Jewish Anti-defamation League, that Muslims have certain rights but they just should not use them because of the irrational linkage between moderate Muslims and militant extremists.

Isn’t this matter of such consequence that someone needs to stand in the face of political reprisal and state the obvious — that we are about to violate the very Constitution that the founding fathers left us.

Recently there was one case where a rather prominent Christian man and student of the US Constitution stood against the tide of public opinion and called our nation back to our true values:

“As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country.

“That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances.

“This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable.”

President Barak Obama, August 13, 2010