The Religious Left and the Ground Zero Mosque

The American Spectator ^ | 8/27/2010 | Mark Tooley

[markomalley]

How fascinating that the U.S. Religious Left, usually so indifferent to religious liberty when relating to churches, at home, or abroad, has zealously embraced the Ground Zero mosque controversy as a Manichaean struggle between freedom and bigotry.

Churches, especially larger ones, routinely battle zoning bureaucracies or community resistance in the U.S. Poor St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church lost its sanctuary on 9-11 and has struggled for 9 nine years against government inertia to rebuild. If evangelicals had sought to tear down a 150-year-old building near Ground Zero to construct a high rise mega-church and "cultural center" for evangelistic outreach in lower Manhattan, funded by murky sources, the reaction among New York elites can be easily imagined. The groundbreaking, if ever, might occur around 2025, almost certainly at a different location.

But the Cordoba House Ground Zero mosque has been zealously embraced by New York's mayor and countless others, with fast tracked hopes of completion within one year, just in time for September 11, 2011. The psychology behind the enthusiasm for the mosque on this particular site almost certainly includes a multi-culturalist fervor for non-Western religious and political movements. Touting the Ground Zero mosque is a cheap way to advertise virtue and tolerance in contrast with the ostensible xenophobia of all skeptics.

The zest for the Ground Zero mosque by the chief of the National Council of Churches (NCC) is especially revealing. NCC officials once plausibly spoke for millions of U.S. church members. The NCC has its own towering temple of sorts in Manhattan, the Interchurch Center on Riverside Drive. When built 50 years ago, it symbolized confident Mainline Protestant domination of American culture. But in recent decades, the eviscerated NCC has come merely to echo the surrounding liberal secular culture of its upper Westside neighborhood next to Columbia University.

[Erik Latranyi]

If Mayor Giuliani would be in office and come out in support of the St Nicholas Church, liberals would be screaming “SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE”

Their hypocrisy knows no bounds.

[SonOfDarkSkies]

Religious left?

Is that like "Congressional ethics, government efficiency, jumbo shrimp, journalistic integrity?"

[Yardstick]

*Bump*

[SonOfDarkSkies]

Appeasement is what it is and there is no need to appease Christians because Christians don't threaten them (except with the truth)!

And appeasement is just a politically correct name for cowardice. The left is appeasing islam the same way playground sissies are friendly to bullies and the way that cowards in the workplace kiss what's above (their bosses @sses) and kick what's below (their subordinates).

The operative rule here is "never trust a coward...they are quite willing to sacrifice YOU to save their own collective @ss."

[CORedneck]

When the islamist are in control, these libreals or “useful idiots” will be killed along with the rest of us ! The key is to stop them !

[vanilla swirl]

““useful idiots” will be killed along with the rest of us ! “

unfortunately they are under a strong delusion. Having drunk the kool-aid it hasn’t quite killed them yet.

[bray]

The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Pray for America

[SumProVita]

Is there any way we can help St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church?

[NEW YORKCITYGOPMAN]

NO, there is a strong Religious Left in America:

The Berrigan Brothers, Father Drinan, Jesse Jackson, William Sloan Coffin, to name a few.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

It's because they get to be for "religious freedom" and anti-Christian at the same time. A non-Christian and anti-Christian religion arouses sympathy for liberals. They would be the first ones in line to complain about a Christmas Nativity display in New York. But there is no sense that Christian civilization is something to defend or what a post-Christian, post-American would would be like. How many liberals have spoken out for the right of St. Nicholas Orthodox Church to rebuild? Who on MSNBC has covered that? There is the suspicion that they only get interested in "freedom of religion" when there is an anti-Christian spin to the story. Perhaps MSNBC will present commentary on the persecution of Christians in Middle Eastern countries. Maybe the Obamas could look into it when they get back from vacation.

[Ptarmigan]

There are many leftists who call themselves Christians.

Appeasers=Enablers