Nazis don't have the right to put up a sign next to the Holocaust Museum in Washington. We would never accept the Japanese putting up a site next to Pearl Harbor. There's no reason for us to accept a mosque next to the World Trade Center.
Although I find the tsunami of distorted and inflammatory remarks by Gingrich and his tribe to be despicable toxic sludge in the ocean of world rhetoric, I can dismiss them knowing their ulterior motives.
When I read opinion polls of my brothers and sisters in America, my soul sickness turns to mourning.
Sixty-eight percent say that immigration policy should emphasize stricter enforcement rather than integrating illegal immigrants into U.S. society.
Forty-eight percent believe that the United States should end the practice of granting citizenship to U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants.
Seventy percent of voters say that the Muslim group has the right to build a mosque and cultural center near Ground Zero, but 63 percent say that it is wrong to do so.
This snapshot into our nation's psyche comes from a Quinnipiac University survey of 1,905 registered voters nationwide, carried out between Aug. 31 and Sept. 7.
What ails me to the bone and marrow is that most of my fellow citizens polled would wear a Jesus cross proudly beneath their flag lapel pin. They boisterously call for our return to being a "Christian nation."
I am the son of a fundamentalist Christian preacher. I was weaned on the Word of the Lord. I was also indoctrinated with multitudes of narrow viewpoints. Yet, I kept reading, praying and taking to heart the precepts of Jesus.
Even though I am a Universalist now, I am more committed than ever to being a disciple of Jesus.
His teachings continually nurture and challenge my conscience: "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."
We live in the wealthiest, most privileged nation on the planet. One would think that out of our abundance a spirit of generosity would erupt and roll like an ever-flowing stream. On the contrary, if these polls have any validity, it appears that we have become a country of fearful, shriveled, stingy, mean people.
I'm not advocating that we establish no boundaries or demonstrate no backbone. I am making an appeal that we nudge a bit closer to a couplet of Rabbi Jesus' sayings that manifest true freedom: