{"id":867,"date":"2010-08-14T12:27:38","date_gmt":"2010-08-14T16:27:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/youdidntask.org\/blog\/?p=867"},"modified":"2010-08-14T12:27:38","modified_gmt":"2010-08-14T16:27:38","slug":"does-the-constitution-really-matter-to-christians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/youdidntask.org\/blog\/2010\/08\/14\/does-the-constitution-really-matter-to-christians\/","title":{"rendered":"Does the Constitution Really Matter to Christians?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tTo hear Republican and Tea Party candidates tell it, the current administration is truly a threat to the Constitution<\/a> and the wishes of the founding fathers.<\/p>\n

Yet it seems not to be the wishes of the founding fathers that are motivating positions taken by so-called conservative politicians.\u00a0 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.
\n
\nFox News reports that:<\/p>\n

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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The question of who do you want to be your neighbors generally reveals irrational fears and negative stereotyping.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>, and Franklin Grahams<\/a> apparently are offering nothing to uphold the rights of Muslim Americans.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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:<\/p>\n

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

“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.<\/p>\n

“This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable.”<\/p>\n

President Barak Obama, August 13, 2010<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Continue reading →<\/span><\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-perspective","category-race-relations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/youdidntask.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/youdidntask.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/youdidntask.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdidntask.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdidntask.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/youdidntask.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/youdidntask.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdidntask.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdidntask.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}