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A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything.
- Friedrich Nietzsche
As if we needed anything else to divide Americans over Islam and 9.11, this past week has seen a new strain of Christian theology introduced into the American popular vernacular- “9.11 Christian”. This strain of “Christianity” has been evident in American ideological/religious thinking since 9.11, though it for the most part has been blessedly disorganized and fractious. While “9.11 Christians” may still be disorganized and fractious, there’s a new kook-church and it’s equally kooky, Muslim-hating, fire-and brimstone pastor bent on sowing division and hatred in lower Manhattan. This is not your father’s turn-the-other-cheek, forgive-in-order-that-you-shall-be-forgiven Christianity.
It’s been difficult to ignore the Sturm und Drang and the bile that’s been spilled over the “Ground Zero Mosque”. That the Park 51 community center project is neither a mosque nor at Ground Zero matters not to those who succeeded in manufacturing an issue for their own political self-aggrandizement. If you came to the debate with an empty vessel for a brain (which seems to be the case for far too many otherwise well-meaning drones), you’d think that Islam was a religion fueled by pure Evil. You’d be convinced that the “Ground Zero Mosque” will be a super-sized monument to Islam’s glorious victory over decadent and evil American hegemony on 9.11. And why might you be thinking those things? Well, it might be due to people like Pastor Bill Keller, who’s a Christian in the same sense that Jeffrey Dahmer was a vegetarian. Keller’s theology holds that his- and only his- belief system is The One, True, and ONLY Faith ©. He virulently opposes Islam and anything that smacks of Islam anywhere near Ground Zero, and yet he’s more than willing to insert his own hateful, Christian-in-name-only beliefs into this debate.
The only thing that separates Keller’s intolerance from that of the Taliban is that Keller isn’t killing Infidels…at least not yet. Keller represents a branch of the American Taliban distinguishable from the Islamic version only by it’s lack of a requirement that adherents pray towards Mecca five times daily. Keller’s Christian Taliban theology is every bit as hateful and virulent as the Islamic version…and yet no one has said “BOO!” about his plans to build a “Christian” church near Ground Zero. Or does freedom of religion only apply to Conservative, White Christian zealots skilled at inflaming public passions?
A bigoted pastor who has assailed gays and Muslims is launching the “9-11 Christian Center at Ground Zero” a mere two blocks from the World Trade Center site this Sunday, but so far the project hasn’t drawn a peep of protest from those who are outraged by the “ground zero mosque.”
Pastor Bill Keller of Florida said today he will begin preaching Sunday at the Marriott at 85 West Street (see proximity to ground zero here). A weekly service is planned at the hotel until the $8 million 9/11 Christian Center finds a permanent space. (Fundraising is going well, Keller told Salon today.)
To get a sense of where Keller is coming from, consider his project’s website, which calls Islam a religion of “hate and death” whose adherents will go to hell. It also says: “Islam is a wonderful religion… for PEDOPHILES!”
It’s hateful, intolerant zealots like Keller who demonstrate conclusively that the terrorists have won…and it’s Americans like Keller who have handed them their victory. Instead of acting like a man of God and living the teachings of the Jesus Christ he purports to revere, Keller has chosen the path of ignorance, hatred, and intolerance…which are Christian values in the same way that Bill Gates is in the market for an iPad.
What Keller seems to forget (or has simply chose to ignore) is that Muslims worship the same God he does. He ignores the reality that Islam is not the problem- those who distort Islam in support of their hateful agenda are. He fails to recognize that his version of Christianity is a mirror image of radical Islamofascism. In preaching his message of hatred and division, he provides a convincing argument for those Islamofascists who contend that America is bent on destroying them. To Keller’s way of thinking, American SHOULD be bent on destroying Islam…which only serves to demonstrate the depth and breadth of his ignorant hate-filled theology.
If Keller wants to build his church, then more power to him…as long as he recognizes and understands that the First Amendment guarantees freedom of religion to ALL religions. This country was founded by those fleeing the very same sort of religious oppression that Keller seems to be willing to traffic in. What he seems to forget (or has chosen to simply ignore) is that this is NOT a Christian nation. America may be a country with a Christian majority, but the Constitution does not discriminate when it comes to freedom of religion. If those behind the Park 51 community center wish to build in lower Manhattan, they are free to do so. There is no law that can or should be used to prevent the project, and a true Christian would understand that their religion is no more (or less) worthy of enjoying the protections of the First Amendment than any other.
Keller, whether intentionally or otherwise, has become the poster child for the reality that the terrorists have won. They’ve been victorious because they succeeded in turning Americans against themselves and the very freedoms provided for by our Constitution. They’ve succeeded by making Americans fear what they refuse to understand, and by convincing Americans that their version of Christianity is The One, True, and ONLY Faith ©, and that all other faiths are the stuff of idolators and heathens who hate America and wish primarily and only for our destruction.
I can only hope that Pastor Keller has a reserved parking space waiting for him in Hell.
Somewhere warm and breezy, Jesus weeps into his Corona….
