When Christmas Was A "Popish Superstition"

Maybe we Protestants are the problem! Foreshadowing the controversy over Cordoba House (charges of nefarious foreign influence, demands that it move uptown), angry Protestants were outraged when St. Peter's Catholic Church was built in lower Manhattan beginning in 1785. On Christmas Eve in 1806, they started a riot (they were doctrinally against Christmas) in which a policeman died. Read about it here.

Quote Of The Day

Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf, interviewed tonight on "60 Minutes":

If 9/11 happens again, I want to be the first to die.

I learned something else from Scott Pelley's report. Hundreds of Muslims have been worshiping in the Cordoba House building for over a year, ever since a nearby mosque lost its lease. Do Newt Gingrich and Renee Ellmer propose to evict them?

Ellmers' Glue

Hat tip to Andrew Sullivan for this paste wad contest between CNN's Anderson Cooper and Renee Ellmers, the Palin-backed Republican candidate in North Carolina's second congressional district who's trying to rescue her sagging campaign against Rep. Bob Etheridge with a commercial equating Muslims with terrorists.

I don't think Cooper did as well as Sullivan suggests. He didn't push hard enough when Ellmers refused to rule out the possibility that Cordoba House's Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf himself was a terrorist. Then he let her get under his skin by accusing him of being anti-religion. Near the end, she goes right over the top by saying that the residents of her district are "Christian people," insulting every non-Christian in North Carolina and the country. Lamely, Cooper just asked if she wanted Muslims' votes. I'd say that's a big no. Jews need not turn out, either.

Afterward, Cooper whined about how mean she was. It was a tie until then, but when you have to get the last word after your subject's camera's been turned off, it means you lost. What the confrontation makes you understand is that if a person has no shame and is willing to say whatever is necessary to win and get power, you can't argue or reason with her. Cooper may believe it's his job to stay neutral and get the facts. But at what point does the obligation to speak truth against ignorance and prejudice take precedence? What if she had said her district consisted of "white Christians"? We'd demand that he denounce her as a bigot. Isn't what she did say also false and incendiary and therefore just as bad?

RCP says the district's still leaning Etheridge's way, but this year, no one can tell.

The Wages Of Sin?

Pastor Terry Jones has a $200,000 bill from the city of Gainesville for security costs it incurred (but, he claims, never told him he'd have to pay) in the buildup to his planned Sept. 11 Koran-burning.

Serves him right, many are probably saying. But let's remember that, in the end, he didn't do it. Some of the damage was done already, especially injuries in demonstrations by Muslims in Afghanistan. But it would've been far worse if he hadn't backed down. Because he did, for whatever reason, a little Christian forgiveness is in order.

As for the security bill, local police had to step up their planning dramatically because of the media frenzy over Jones' plans, which occurred as the result of the controversy over Cordoba House in Manhattan, which was whipped up as part of Republicans' midterm election tactics. So maybe he should send the bill to the GOP.

Just Say Yes, Imam

The whole ministry of Faisal Abdul Rauf, the imam behind Cordoba House, is based on interfaith dialogue. Here's an opportunity to have some. Pastor Terry Jones of Gainesville, Florida probably wouldn't have been his first choice. Cardinal archbishops and Episcopalians make much more presentable table mates when you're planning lunch at the club. But sometimes the spirit of God chooses our conversation partners.

Rauf shouldn't be expected to bargain away his controversial lower Manhattan site to keep an oddball pastor from gratuitously insulting every Muslim in the world and putting our troops at risk. But he'd earn the respect of many Americans, and some additional leverage in his battle to make his vision a reality, by taking the meeting.

Sing Freedom, Cook Pork

Writing at the conservative NRO blog, Reihan Salam nails it:

What I find bizarre about some of the conservative response to Cordoba House is not just the objection to the construction of the mosque, but the conviction that it should be stopped by any means necessary—even if that means violating conservative principles about property rights, rule of law, and federalism.

Part of supporting limited government is understanding that sometimes, things you don’t like will happen, and the government (especially the federal government) won’t do anything about it. Getting to do what you want comes at the price of other people getting to do what they want—including build mosques where you’d prefer they didn’t.

Given the number of people who are personally grieved (as opposed to politically motivated) by the idea of a mosque and cultural center two blocks from Ground Zero, it would obviously be better if it were built elsewhere. After all, why would faithful people, worshiping a merciful and loving God, want to give offense or injure feelings? When I was discussing the matter last week with a wise, constitutionally-minded friend, he said that using government power to stop the project would constrain the possibility of grace on the part of the project planners and others.

In this case, grace would be a gracious retreat to different space. But calling for the use of raw state power, wrapped in the velvet glove of historical preservation or concern for public safety, in order to interfere with the practice of a certain kind of religious observance is just about the least conservative thing I can think of. I'll hasten to add that most of us think that way most of the time. We desire a benefit or a policy outcome -- preservation of the death penalty, abortion rights, gay rights, national security, whatever -- and so we use lobbyists and lawyers to get it for us. The framers knew that people were constitutionally utilitarian, which is why they wrote a constitution that put process and certain immutable principles first.

Some people like to say that the terrorists hate what we take to be immutable western and American values. These are summed up nowhere better than in the First Amendment. Ground Zero was consecrated nine years ago as another of its living temples. I can't tell you the number of times I've heard people say or imply that putting process principles ahead of outcomes is for sissies. But not where the hallowed ground itself cries freedom.

We can dislike the idea of the Cordoba House and yet defend to the death its right to exist. Here's what my wise friend said (his tongue deep in cheek, wishing to illustrate colorfully that freedom comes in many forms): "My solution: Let 'em build it, and next door build a gay bar aimed at Muslim men, and upwind build a very smokey pork ribs joint. Now where's the grace in that?"