The following is a sermon that Bishop Craig B. Anderson recently gave at the Emmanuel Episcopal Parish of Orcas Island.
My sermon this morning is an attempt to respond to questions that I have been asked by members of our Parish and our community on the subject of: Should an Islamic Center be located on or near “Ground Zero” in New York City? With Jeremiah as my touchstone, Hebrews as my guide, and Luke as my inspiration. I shall attempt a prophetic response.
But first an update, an excerpt from The Week magazine (September 3, 2010): “More furor over mosque.”
The controversy over a proposed Muslim community center two blocks from New York’s “Ground Zero” grew more heated this week, with the proposed site attracting dueling demonstrations as key New York officials lined up on opposite sides of the battle. New York Gov. David Paterson proposed moving the Cordoba House project to an alternative site, while New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said it should stay put. With emotions running high, New York police this week arrested a man who allegedly stabbed a Muslim taxi driver in his cab. The driver was hospitalized in stable condition; the attack is being treated as a hate crime.
Nationwide, opposition to the project remains solid, with polls showing about 60 percent of Americans opposed to the center. Paterson said it would be “a magic moment in our history” if the project were moved to another site. Bloomberg said moving it “would undercut the values and principles that so many heroes died protecting.” The project’s sponsors have vowed not to move.
The proposed mosque is “clearly permissible under the First Amendment,” said Martin Robins in The Washington Times. But that doesn’t mean it’s appropriate. So long as they don’t give way to “irrationality and emotion,” opponents of the center are right to make “fervent requests that it be built somewhere else.”
“This is not a complicated matter,” said Richard Cohen in The Washington Post. Unless “you believe that an entire religion of upward of a billion followers” attacked us on 9/11, instead of a few twisted extremists, Cordoba House belongs exactly where it is planned. “In this case, the difference between compromise and defeat is nonexistent.”
And a brief reflection from a woman who witnessed the destruction on 9/11 from mid-town Manhattan:
Religious persecution wasn’t the only reason America came to be, but it was a key factor. The United States has also been a place where world citizens could reasonably expect to come to find work, even if their native culture forbade it, as in the case of women.
In the long view, we have benefitted greatly through the inclusion of all cultures, even those we have vilified. Once you seek to adjust that delicate balance of inclusion and tolerance, the American experiment is likely to fail.
And finally a theological reflection. A good bit has been said about the legal, the constitutional and religious rights. A good bit has been noted in terms of the psychological and emotional, “sensitivity.” A good bit has been debated philosophically as to the “wisdom” of a mosque near Ground Zero. A good bit, too much I think, has been aired in terms of the politics of Cordoba House. Not enough has been said about either the longer historical view or the theological and religious implications of a mosque near Ground Zero.
A few observations in that regard:
Jews, Christians, and Muslims are all daughters and sons of Abraham and Sarah. Religiously we are an Abrahamic family. Abraham, our common patriarch, binds us in a covenant relationship to our Jewish and Muslim sisters and brothers.
Historically, it did not take long for separation, defined in its most original sense as sin, to divide even brothers, such as Cain and Abel with the resultant violence and murder, (Genesis, chapter 4). Such separations have produced divisions within Judaism: Orthodox, Conservative and Reformed; divisions within the Christian Church: East and West and how many denominations today? 39 and counting; and within Islam, the Sunnites and Shiites, each with a wide variety of sects.
In addition consider the divisions between the Abrahamic faiths. One historical example suffices: we as Christians need particularly to remember a bloody period called the “Crusades” beginning in 1095 designed to recover the Holy Land from Islam and retain it in Christian hands. Crosses sewn on the clothing of Crusaders, swords in hand and motivated by the promise of indulgences and martyrdom, the Crusaders, a.k.a. pilgrims, brutally killed Jews and Muslims alike in the name of Christ. The purpose was to establish Latin States in Jerusalem and surrounding areas, and later to root out Islam in Spain. The brutality of the Crusades lasted over 400 years. There is no more unholy war than a “Holy War.”
Has anything changed? The Crusades continue under different names and with different motives on all sides. Cain and Abel, our religious ancestors, remain with us in the present.
In turning to this morning’s lessons, we might consider moving from rights to reconciliation, from law to gospel, from politics to forgiveness. Which brings me to a prophetic word: Imagine … if we were to join our brothers and sisters of Abraham – and establish an Interfaith Community Center at “Ground Zero.” Not two blocks from “Ground Zero,” not two miles away. But rather at the heart, the center of “Ground Zero” – a living memorial: “The Sons and Daughters of Abraham and Sarah Center for Reconciliation,” a center dedicated to prayer, education, reconciliation and shared ministry funded and staffed by Jews, Christians and Muslims. A memorial that, while acknowledging the tragedy, learns from it in building with the hope for reconciliation on the ashes of tragedy.
The alternative: to continue to destroy one another, in the name of Yahweh, Jesus and Allah through war and radical acts of terrorism. The God of our Father Abraham will not destroy us, but God will continue to weep as we destroy one another.
Bishop Anderson’s ties with New York City include his being the eleventh President and Dean of The General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church, a past President of The National Council of Churches and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations since 1994.
