NYPD "Training" Films and the Disease of Bigotry

Recent revelations about the so-called training film about Islam and Muslims shown to as many as 1400 New York City Police officers are a stark reminder that religious bigotry is as insidious as a cancer. Commissioner Kelly of the NYPD, who at first distanced himself from the film, "The Third Jihad," later was forced to apologize for it by revelations that he had allowed himself to be interviewed for the film, an anti-Muslim screed masquerading as a "documentary." Unfortunately, though he admitted the film was "inappropriate," Kelly tried to minimize the possible impact of its message by saying that it was shown in a "side room on a continuous loop."

Sadly, Kelly and Mayor Bloomberg, (who has stood by his commissioner), both seem to have missed the point. The fact that Mr. Kelly lent his image to the film at all cannot help but be seen by the men and women of the New York Police, by the Muslim community of New York City and by everyone else as an endorsement of its content. Even an unequivocal condemnation of the film along with a heartfelt apology would be seen by those who are already suspicious of our fellow Americans of the Islamic faith as a "wink wink nod nod" after Kelly agreed to be part of a movie which feeds every nasty stereotype about Muslims, including the idea that they want to make the United States a Muslim nation. But Kelly didn't give an unequivocal apology or condemnation of the film and he did not offer to do the only appropriate thing in the wake of this shameful episode: pro-active training with NYPD officers to counteract the effects of seeing their commissioner in a movie that promotes a negative image of the Muslim citizens they are sworn to protects and to serve.

There are those who have made it obvious that they believe that too much has been made of this incident. But acts of terror continue against Muslim Americans and others who are mistaken for them, negative myths and fears are rampant among non-Muslims about Islam and Sharia and the upshot of all this is that Americans of the Islamic faith are not able to enjoy the virtues of liberty and opportunity that are the foundational promises of our nation. More than that, our entire community is being poisoned by the cancers of bigotry and fear with the apparent endorsement of the Commissioner of the United States' largest police department.

Religious bigotry, like any cancer, can spread far beyond its original starting point, poisoning our relationships with our neighbors and undermining our commitment as a nation to the founding principles of liberty and justice for all that are what make this the great nation it is. As a diverse nation of immigrant people from every part of the globe, this experiment in human liberty that we call the United States can only grow and thrive if we are zealous in our insistence on the safeguarding of the dignity and rights of all religious, ethnic and racial minorities. The fact is after all, one way or another we all are, have been, or will be minorities of one kind or another. Commissioner Kelly and Mayor Bloomberg need to do a lot more than some halfhearted apologies and inadequate explanations for this incident. They need to do extensive training and re-training of NYPD officers and they need to proclaim loudly and clearly, by their deeds as well as their words, that all residents of this city of immigrants will be protected, served and honored by our police and other civil servants every day, all the time.

911, Ten Years After

This year will be the tenth anniversary of the heinous attacks of September 11, 2001 that brought down the World Trade Center, damaged the Pentagon and took the lives of thousands of innocent people.In the after math of this terrible tragedy, we the people of the United States came face to face with our vulnerability and joined the ranks of nations for whom terrorism is a reality of daily life. At the same time, the outpouring of sympathy and solidarity from places all over the world reminded us of the possibilities for bridge-building from the ashes of this terrible act reminding us that even from the ashes of destruction, new and even better life is possible. Many claimed then that the world had changed forever, and in many ways, both positive and negative, they have been proven right.
In addition to the horrendous loss of innocent life and the fear that became a part of our national consciousness in a way unprecedented since the darkest days of the Second World War, 911 has left us with deep and lasting wounds, some of the worst of which may have been those inflicted not by the murderers, but by our own body politic in the aftermath of these terrible attacks. The hastily passed USA Patriot Act for instance, has undermined our constitutional liberties in ways that defy undoing by creating an extra-legal category of actions and individuals not protected by our civil and criminal or even military laws. The stain of torture in places like Abu Graib and Guantanamo have shamed us as a people who have prided themselves on their adherence to moral standards even in the face of enemies like the infamous storm troopers of Hitler's Third Reich, while the quagmires created by our invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, have sapped our economy, our national will and our confidence in the bright shining beacon on the hill that most of us have understood our nation to be in the world. Acts of individual bigotry against Americans of the Islamic faith have sky-rocketed and despite the assurances of then President Bush that we were not at war with Islam, government sanctioned surveillance, warrantless wire tapping, deportations and even imprisonment of US citizens and resident aliens of the Muslim faith indicated otherwise as America seemed to be opting for security at the expense of liberty and a national hysteria not seen since the days of Senator Joe McCarthy.
The news, however, has not been all bad. For even as individuals and even government agencies seemed to be waging war not only on Islam but on our own constitution the spirit of the American people, our sense of fairness, our generosity and "the live and let live" ethos characteristic of this nation of immigrants has prevailed in many important ways, especially in the various faith communities of our nation. Even as the infamous pastor Terry Fox threatened to burn the Qu'ran, for example, in a naked appeal to bigotry and xenophobia, and the haters led by Pam Geller fought to stop the Park 51 Community Center and Mosque near ground zero, even as Representative Peter King, ignoring all evidence to the contrary, was holding hearings on the "radicalization of Islam" people of faith, clergy and laity were rallying to support our Muslim brothers and sisters with rallies, with interfaith educational efforts, with demonstrations and joint projects. Thanks to the public example and loud rebukes of some of his fellow representatives, Rep. King's hearings have faded into well-deserved obscurity. Here on Long Island, the courageous members of the Islamic Center of Long Island have been active and visible in interfaith outreach, aide projects for the community and the world, and in joint ventures with Temple Beth-El, the Long Island Council of Churches, the Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives and, of course, the Interfaith Alliance of Long Island.
Ten years after the dark days of the 911 attacks, we have an opportunity to do it right this time- to work together as people of faith to build a better, more inclusive community together. Much has happened in ten years, some bad, much good. The "Arab Spring" across much of the Middle East has inspired many Americans to begin to see that the aspirations of the people there are much like our own and that the twisted religio-political version of Islam claimed by the terrorists is no more representative of this great faith than the so-called Christianity of Timothy McVeigh is representative of the Christian faith. As we commemorate this important anniversary then, let us do so not to revisit old wounds, but rather in the spirit of a renewed commitment to the aspirations of our faiths and of our founders as well, to make of this nation a blessed community, empowered by its wonderful diversity and dedicated to liberty, opportunity and justice for all.

DOMA- What are We Really Defending?

The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), according to it's title, is a federal law passed to defend the institution of marriage in the United States, an institution that certainly seems to need, if not defense, at least a whole lot of help. The problem is, I think, what exactly is DOMA defending marriage against? Because it is hard to see how this legislation helps with the high rate of divorce for instance, or the pressures of modern life that seem to take such a toll on this vital institution.

Instead, the truth is that far from being a defense of arriage, DOMA is an attack on it, both as a civil and a religious institution. It's an attack on the integrity of our constitution and on the basic civil rights of individual Americans as well. DOMA is an attack on marriage because it codifies this diverse and important institution in a manner that fails to recognize that diversity and excludes people who wish to, by their participation in that institution, strengthen and enlarge it. By preventing GLBT people from joining in civil marriage and with that, from enjoying the benefits and taking on the myriad of formal (and informal) civil and social responsibilities inherent in the institution, we impoverish marriage, lessen the number of individuals who get married and, (as they are forced to form alternative relationships and partnerships), we highlight those alternatives as viable and reasonable for all Americans. Marriage as an institution declines.

DOMA is also an attack on our constitutional principles in several basic and very important ways. First, while there are federal tax benefits for married people, in general, the regulation of the institution is clearly understood as a state, not a federal function. DOMA, by refusing to recognize same-sex marriages in those states that have legalized them, is usurping the sovereignty of the states and doing so in the second way it undermines our constitution, by undermining the constitutional principle of equality before the law. As our long (and continuing) battle for civil rights for people of color has established firmly, to imbue an institution with "special" rights and responsibilities and then define it so as to deny access to that institution to a whole class of citizens violates that principle. To use religious understandings of marriage to do so, is even more of a constitutional problem in a nation in which we have a separation of church and state.

That leads to another issue with DOMA, because the religious understanding of marriage as between one man and one woman is A religious understanding, not THE religious understanding and so, not only does DOMA deny GLBT couples from being married civilly, it also invalidates religious marriages for GLBT persons married in traditions (like my own) that understand marriage religiously in ways that do not exclude LGBT people. DOMA, by design as well as effect, codifies one, religiously based understanding of marriage at the expense of millions of our citizens, at the expense of marriage itself, at the expense of state sovereignty, and at the expense of those religious and secular understandings that accept and endorse GLBT marriage. That's an attack on all of us and its time to repeal DOMA

"to bigotry, no sanction; to persecution, no assistance..." Congressman King vs the American Ideal

The words printed above were written by George Washington to the leaders of one of America's oldest synagogues in Newport, Rhode Island, as part of his assurance to the Jewish citizens of Rhode Island that this experiment in democracy would be something hitherto unheard of on this earth: a nation, by law, in which religious favoritism and bigotry would have no place. That promise, however imperfectly implemented throughout our history, has shone like a beacon of hope to persecuted people all over the world- people who have, by their contributions to our shared history proven beyond any doubt what diverse peoples can do together, in a society in which liberty,dignity and opportunity are available to all. When we have allowed racism, religious bigotry, or any form of prejudice to influence our behavior as a nation, from slavery, to Jim Crow to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, we have ultimately and always come to repent of that betrayal in bitterness and shame.

Unfortunately, political and personal opportunism as demonstrated by the likes of demagogues like Father Coughlin, Governor George Wallace and Senator Joseph McCarthy, has always been part of the public life of this nation as well. There have always been voices in our country, as in every other, making their bones or their careers by fanning the flames of prejudice against those whose race or faith or ethnicity or political views place them in the minority. Congressman Peter King of Long Island appears poised to become on of those demagogues with his plan to hold congressional hearings clearly designed to cast suspicion on the patriotism of Americans who happen to belong to the Islamic faith and to link them to terrorism. Despite public statements by law enforcement officials, including the FBI that Muslim Americans have and continue to assist them in combating terror, despite the fact that the trend toward terrorist acts in this country is increasingly found among domestic right-wing groups, rather than Islamists, King is focusing only and entirely on Muslims in genuine McCarthy style, calling as his witnesses, politically motivated individuals with particular axes to grind with the religion of Islam, none of which have anything to do with terror.

By doing what he is doing, Peter King is not simply demonizing the religion of Islam, or persecuting one group of people, he is attacking the principle of equality before the law, a foundational principle of our American democracy, and he is doing it by sanctioning bigotry on religious grounds. There is nothing more un-American and all of us, whatever our faith or political views should be outraged. If Congressman King believes congressional hearings are an effective means of combating terrorism and not just a political side show aimed at furthering his own career, then he should be looking at all forms of terrorism aimed at our country and considering the opinions of those who are on the front lines of the battle against terrorism, the FBI, Homeland Security and other law enforcement officials whose opinions he has thus far ignored. As people of faith, as patriotic Americans we must not stand by while our fellow citizens have their dignity stripped away and their commitment to this nation questioned simply because of their religious faith. The only way to stop this kind of pandering is to make it politically unprofitable for people like King. Please join us and stand up for America and Americans!

Gunfire and Rhetoric

Most of us are still reeling from the terrible massacre perpetrated by an obviously disturbed man in a shopping mall in Arizona in which a federal judge and a nine year old girl are among those killed and a congresswoman is fighting for her life in an Arizona hospital. No words are adequate to the magnitude of such a crime- in which people attending a public forum were targeted. The horrendous assault on human life is compounded by the assault on the very fabric of our democratic values in what is no less than an act of terrorism.

Also disturbing, though perhaps a necessary part of the process of dealing with this terrible deed, have been the accusations hurled from all sides of the political spectrum. These range from the patently absurd insistence from the always over-the-top Glenn Beck that the shooter was a liberal (the evidence points to disjointed but decidedly right wing political views), to the insistence by voices on the left that Sarah Palin, with her target-studded political map is directly responsible for this man's heinous acts, to the words of Senator Kyl who seems to be insisting that this act was solely a product of the shooters (obviously) disturbed state of mind.

Beck's predictably ridiculous comments notwithstanding, I think it is clear that this was a disturbed individual, but it is equally important to pay heed to the words of the Sheriff of Pima County, Arizona who pointed out that the atmosphere of overheated and hateful rhetoric that has come to characterize our politics, especially on the right, cannot be discounted when we look at the rise in acts of violence directed at people whose views or whose religion, sexual orientation or immigration status have made them targets of the right. After the plans for Park 51 for example, the Muslim community center planned in downtown NY City were announced for example, the vitriol against Muslim Americans reached a fever pitch with one self-proclaimed Christian pastor even threatening to hold a Qu'ran burning ceremony. Vandalism against mosques spiked and hate crimes against Muslims and Muslim institutions did as well. Members of a Unitarian congregation in Tennessee were gunned down a year ago by a man whose hatred of "liberals" was, in his own words, fanned by the rhetoric of right wing pundits and politicians and let's face it, putting targets on people may not rise to the level of an exhortation to kill them, but the violence of that image is impossible to ignore. It is wrong to make Sarah Palin responsible for what this young man did, but it is right to point out that we don't need and we are not well served by violent images and rhetoric in our political discourse. At best, they polarize us as a people and demonize our fellow Americans, without whose opposing views democracy is not possible. At worse, they are provide a justification for those who are already inclined to violence.

If the left is better, they are only a little better, possibly because they are slightly less enamored of their firearms. Self-righteous finger-pointing is not constructive and it belies the obvious: that all of us, of all political stripes are responsible for toning down the self-righteousness and the hate speech. Disturbed people don't need us egging them on, even if that is not what we intend to do, but more to the point, hate speech has no place in a democracy. The people we disagree with are our neighbors and our friends and they are trying to do what we are trying to do, to make the country a better place. A democracy requires us to be able to disagree in an enthusiastic but civil manner. We need to stop threatening each other, stop looking down our noses at each other and stop calling each other names. As people of faith, we have a special responsibility here. We need to lead on this and insist on civil, nay, compassionate discourse, spirited but loving debate and we need to remember ourselves as we remind our flocks that as Dr Martin Luther King Jr, said,"... the ends are inherent in the means." You can be right and still be wrong if you can't remember that the person you are arguing with is a human being like you. Enough dead public servants, enough dead children, enough with the hate speech. Mistakes have been made all around- let us honor the victims of this tragedy with our resolve to be more civil and more reverent for the rights as well as the lives of our neighbors.

Channeling Joe McCarthy

In an op-ed piece in Long Island's Newsday news paper this past Sunday, Congressman Peter King wrote an article justifying his intention to hold hearings on Muslims in America and domestic terrorism.In it Rep. King noted an abrupt change in his attitude toward Muslim Americans after 911 based on a remark by an individual Muslim (uttered in the heat of the moment during a contentious discussion) in which this individual indicated, not that the terror attacks were in any way justified, but that they might have been the work of someone other than a Muslim extremist group- a remark Mr. King says, the public record to the contrary notwithstanding, were never properly repudiated by Muslim leaders. In point of fact, it was not only retracted by the individual who made it, but denounced publicly over and over again- a fact to which I can personally attest.

Even if it wasn't, no one has demanded that I or any other Christian leader publicly apologize for the remarks of Terry Fox, the infamous would-be Quran-burner of central Florida and therein lies the crux of the issue. Peter King, is an elected representative of the US government who is sworn to uphold the constitution. That includes the right to be an individual whose patriotism is not subject to congressional hearings because someone else makes a statement that offends- even if it offends your local congressman. It is a sad commentary on Mr. King's own character that his opinion of an entire religion is apparently turned 180 degrees because of one or even a few ill-thought-out remarks, but it is worse when he uses his office to initiate a witch hunt against a group which, also contrary to what he claims, the Federal Bureau of Investigation as well as our local police commissioner have lauded for their cooperation with law enforcement in the fight against terror. But facts rarely matter when political opportunism rears its ugly head. Muslims are a vulnerable group, easy to victimize under the guise of concerns about security. A few well publicized incidents of domestic terror recruiting among Muslims in America, provide the excuse and anxiety about Islam and Muslims the fuel for a return to the Joe McCarthy-style congressional witch hunts that cast a shadow over our democracy, ruined countless innocent lives and disgraced our nation in the early 1950's. Is the threat of domestic terrorism real? Of course it is- not only or even primarily from Muslim extremists, but from right wing religious extremists in the mold of Timothy McVeigh, from so-called "sovereign citizens," armed militias and a number of other groups, the majority of which have nothing to do with Islam- extremist or otherwise. But King apparently doesn't see a political pay-off in going after domestic terrorism in general. Instead, he is picking on a vulnerable minority, cynically exploiting the fears of Americans and like his predecessor, Senator McCarthy, bringing shame to this nation, even as his enemies rejoice that America seems to be at war with Islam after all.
Shame on you Congressman King, shame on you!

The War on Christmas Revisited

It's that time of year again, when the Christian celebration of Christmas is upon us and the inevitable complaints about the so-called "War on Christmas" are being aired in many quarters in America. As more and more merchants are changing their "Merry Christmas" greetings to "Happy Holidays," as public schools and institutions are changing their "Christmas" pageants to "Holiday" pageants and Menorahs, Kwanzaa candles and even Star and Crescents are showing up in public places alongside of creches and Christmas trees, the complaints get louder and more urgent. Many of us Christians begin to wonder if indeed there really us a plan out there somewhere among the powers-that-be to erase this most important religious and cultural celebration from our land. Hey, what's wrong with "Merry Christmas" after all?

Not a thing- and as a Christian clergyman, I believe not only that Christmas is one of the two most important celebrations of our faith (Easter is the other), but that those who say that any religious celebration or proclamation has no place in the public square are not only wrong about what our constitution says, but profoundly misguided about the nature of religious belief itself. I believe as well that there is a indeed a kind of "War on Christmas." But that war is not being carried out by some secret cabal of anti-religious zealots, or by the so-called "liberal media" or by any of the other boogey-men (or boogey-women) one hears so much about from cable pundits. Rather, the war on Christmas is an internal affair that began when we Christians started turning the celebration of the birth of our Savior into a commercial buying spree so excessive that it became a cornerstone of our consumer economy and when far too many of us began looking for the "Christmas Spirit" at big box stores and malls, or in religious displays in the Village Square rather than where our faith has always said that spirit would be found. That is, in our houses of worship, among the poor and those whom the consumer economy has left behind and in acts of love and generosity that reflect our understanding of the incredible act of love we celebrate in the birth, the ministry, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Christians claim to be disciples of a Messiah who eschewed political and cultural domination, proclaiming instead that his kingdom "is not of this world." We are the followers of one who said that he would be found not among the wealthiest and most fortunate, but among the least and the last, a rabbi who told those who would attain righteousness to "sell all you have and give the money to the poor." When we seek to dominate the public and secular arenas with our symbols at the expense of our neighbors, when we turn his birthday into an orgy of consumption, when we look for the spirit of Christmas in stores, it is we who are waging war on Christmas, not some "liberal" cabal. When we are subjected to skepticism about this day's meaning by others because of those patterns of behavior, that too is a self-inflicted wound and one that should be cause to "look to the plank in our own eye," as Jesus said, and not "the mote in our neighbor's eye."

We have the right as citizens of a free society to proclaim our joy at the celebration of our Messiah's birth and the duty as Christians to put that faith into practice in our public as well as our private lives. But the teachings of Jesus would seem to make it clear that doing so would be more about caring for the least of his brethren, coming together in worship than about demanding merchants say "Merry Christmas" rather than "Happy Holidays." Our religion calls us to struggle in our Savior's name to live our lives more compassionately and our faith more courageously, and maybe worry a bit less about getting "our" symbol up on the Village Green or our celebrations' name on the local school pageant. If those kinds of concerns are what Christmas is about, then the war is already lost because we've become just one more competing special interest group vying for power. But faith, all religious faith is about much more than that. Christmas is about the birth of Jesus Christ, about his love, his grace, his gift of salvation rather than about us. Remembering that and putting it into practice- that's how we'll "win" this one. To my fellow Christians, have a blessed Christmas. To my friends of other faiths, God bless and to all of my fellow human beings of ever faith and no faith, may this year bring you joy and good things!

A Rose by any other Name

In very era of America's relatively brief history as a nation, through every crisis, there are those among who insist that THIS TIME is unique, that this time, the crisis we face is so overwhelming, our need so dire that we cannot afford to abide by the foundational principles of our democracy, that we need to bend or break them for the sake of our survival. Whether it is the suspension of Habeas Corpus during the Civil War, the Alien and Sedition Acts of the early 20th century, the internment of Japanese Americans in World War II or the suspension of constitutional rights related to the Patriot Act, the internment of "enemy combatants" or the secret torture chambers at Gitmo and in CIA prisons throughout the world, arguments have been well and sincerely raised as to why the rules by which our society is governed, and along with them the principles that gave life to those rules are too lofty to be truly followed in the "real world."

And yet, as fiercely as we might defend these "exceptions" as they occur, so (history has taught us) we will come to regret them with the passage of time, when the heat of the moment is over and the crisis is past. As cooler times give way to cooler heads, we come to recognize that not only have we shamed our nation and our own most cherished beliefs, but that the suspension of our constitutional protections have not helped us to defend ourselves, they have not advanced our cause, they have not helped us surmount the crisis or win the war. Rather, they have demeaned and tarnished the cause in which they were employed and if anything, set it back by painting our most cherished freedoms not as unalienable rights, but rather as "luxuries" only for the best of times in direct opposition to the crucible in which they were first forged, the fight for human liberation that gave birth to this nation.

When we say, yes to civil liberties, but not for suspected terrorists, or for people of nations with which we are at war, or yes to religious liberty, but not for people of minority faiths or faiths which are shared, even if in name only with enemies of our country, we are putting conditions on all liberty. We are then taking what our founders declared as a fundamental human right and reducing it to a privilege of power. Our founders, not so far removed from the ethnic and religious wars of their countries of origin, still suspicious and all to familiar with the abuse of power by majorities over minorities understood that liberty is either for all or for none, that rights are only rights if they cannot be revoked by popular sentiment or national emergency and that freedom could not ever be defended by denying it, not even a little bit. In this current climate of fear, when so many are willing to throw the rights of others "under the bus" in favor of the illusion of security, we would be well advised to take the words of Ben Franklin, one of the architects of our democracy very seriously: "Those who are willing to sacrifice liberty for a little bit of security, deserve neither liberty nor security." Indeed, they may find that they do not have it all.

Park 51: a Christian response

An acquaintance of mine, irritated and apparently surprised to hear that a Christian minister was a supporter of the Park 51 project to renovate a mosque as a Muslim community center near Ground Zero, called me a "Muslim lover." This person had written an article in which he had outlined some of the atrocities committed by those claiming the Muslim faith, particularly over the past few decades and it was, I have to admit, an impressive list of horrific acts resulting in the deaths of thousands of innocents. No such faith, he opined, could claim to be a religion of peace and no such faith should be practiced just a few blocks from where 19 young men claiming that faith had taken so many lives.
A reasonable argument on the face of it, unless one looks, (as Christ commanded) to the plank in our own eye at the bloody history of those who have claimed the Christian faith: from the greatest genocide in human history, perpetrated by the same nation that not only launched the Protestant Reformation, but gave Christianity so many of our theologians,to the 8000 Muslim men and boys slaughtered at Sebrenica in the mid-1990's by the "Christian" Bosnian Serb militias, to the "troubles" of Northern Ireland, the massacres of Native Americans, the Crusades and so on and so forth going back at least 17 centuries, in which the people who received Christ's commandments to love their neighbors as themselves instead twisted that religion of peace and reconciliation into an excuse for war, conquest and genocide. Jesus called upon the one without sin to cast the first stone and recognize that it is not another faith that is my enemy, but the hatred and self-righteous rage that would hold an entire people or religion or nation responsible for the perceived sins of a few.
I was called a "Muslim-lover" as an insult but in truth the epithet is a challenge and a compliment: a challenge to make it true through obedience to the commandments of my Savior to live his love in the world and a compliment because at least one person seems to think that I am already doing it. Christ's people, according to the New Testament, are commanded by our Lord to be lovers, not only of God, but of all of God's people of every faith and no faith. We are the disciples, after all, of an itinerant Jewish preacher who risked alienating his own disciples in order to reach out and embrace enemies, to offer his hand and his love to infidels, heretics and pagans. We believe that this man of Nazareth was the Logos, the Word of God himself and that his admonition that we love these "strangers" and "enemies" not just in word, "but in truth and action," was not just a moral teaching worth emulating but one of God's two Great Commandments on "which hang all the law and the prophets," and on which our own faithfulness will be judged. That is why I (along with clergy and lay people from nearly every major Christian denomination)support the efforts of my sisters and brothers of the Islamic faith to locate a holy place near ground that is hallowed, not by the deaths of the innocents, but by the efforts of those who work together to build a new and better world from the ashes of that terrible tragedy. That is what the resurrection faith of Jesus Christ tells us is the will and commandment of God and that is what Christians are commanded to do. Imam Rauf has reached out to his fellow Americans and to all people of faith and good will with an opportunity to live the love that as Christians we are commanded by our Savior to live. Islam did not destroy those innocent lives on 911, any more than Christianity built the death camps or commanded the genocidal paramilitaries of Bosnia-Herzegovina- hatred and self-righteous rage did. We do not serve God, our nation or God's people with more of the same. We do that, by recognizing an opportunity for reconciliation and seizing it, together.

What's Wrong with Prop 8

Marriage is a touchy issue and the debate over marriage equality is one that often generates more light than heat. Partly this is due to the fact that despite our nation's commitment to a separation of church and state, they often intersect and marriage is one of those intersections. Like most clergy, I not only preside over religious marriages, but over the civil institution of marriage as well, when I am called upon to sign marriage licenses and thereby act as an agent of the state. For me, the issue is less complicated because I believe that my Christian faith sanctions all marriages by any and all people committed to live together in fidelity, honor and love, and because I believe that Jesus' message was clear, that family are the people who love you, irrespective of gender or blood.

But for many traditions, marriage is about procreation, a sacrament. For these traditions, the struggle to accept marriage equality is more difficult. Luckily for them, there is a separation of church and state in this country. No law can require them to sanction or perform any marriage they do not approve of. Civil Marriage, is a legal institution, not a religious one. Some clergy and traditions, like me and mine, are happy to perform these marriages because they are, in our understanding valid. But if we did not, no law could make us. That is what is wrong with Prop 8, it takes that choice away for all people and it denies the benefits that go with the institution to people based on who they are. That separation of church and state goes both ways and right now, under current laws, there is no choice for anyone, those GLBT folks who wish to marry or the clergy who wish to transmit God's blessings on them. Equality under the law, freedom of choice, freedom of religion, all of these are being denied under proposition 8. That's not only shameful, it's anti-American. If you don't believe in marriage equality, that's your right, but it is not a license to deny the rights of your fellow Americans.

Mosque Controversy Continues

As the politicians of both parties succumb one after the other to the hysteria surrounding plans for a mosque in lower Manhattan, we can see how fragile religious liberty really is in this country and why those of us who care about it need to make our voices heard. Recently, democratic congressman Steve Israel joined the nay-sayers by characterizing the efforts of Imam Feisal and his group to go forward with the project as "insensitive." But it is the opposition that is insensitive. Sensitivity would be demonstrated by a willingness to recognize, as President Bush said, the we are not at war with Islam, but with a small group of extremists who are as likely to persecute the Sufi Muslims who are building this peace center as they are Christians, Jews or any other people they don't agree with. Sensitivity would not demonize this effort at creating a venue for peaceful understanding because it happens to be Muslim-initiated, but would rather see this for what it is: an opportunity to demonstrate that we in the United States practice what we preach, religious liberty for all. Sensitivity would recognize that the whole world is watching to see if we really do embrace moderate Muslims with open arms or if we are against all Muslims, as the extremists claim. Finally, sensitivity would recognize, as New York's mayor and President Obama have, that freedom is either for all, or for none and that if we suspend that freedom for those we do not understand or for anyone, we are not the nation we claim to be. The people of lower Manhattan have voiced their support for this project. The mayor of New York is standing up for New Yorkers of every faith to worship how and where they choose. Clergy of every faith are standing with Imam Feisal because Jews and Christians, as well as Muslims and people of every faith understand that we are called to love the stranger, embrace the outcast and seek peace. To attack this mosque is to attack our constitution, our liberty and more importantly, our faith. Let's hope that Imam Feisal and his group are able to stand fast and move ahead- for all of our sakes.

The Furious Flight Attendant

What do the travails of Mr. Slater, the flight attendant who found instant celebrity with his dramatic exit from his job have to do with the Interfaith Alliance? Well, a lot actually. Because Mr. Slater's temper tantrum and the response to it by so many people is one more indicator of one of our nation's most pressing problems: the loss of civility (and maturity) in our public discourse. Lauded as some kind of folks hero, what this man did was throw a public hissy fit for reasons that remain unclear, curse out the people he had contracted to serve, then endanger public safety as he released an emergency slide, slid down it and ran away. Far from being heroic behavior, his was a selfish and hostile act. The fact that he has been applauded reminds us of the sad reality that we have lost the ability or even the understanding of why we need to exercise self-control and restraint in our public discourse. We see that reflected in the mud-slinging and hate speech that has come to dominate cable TV "news" shows, and, ultimately in the polarization of our society. As we seek to live together in this increasingly complex and multi-cultural society, it becomes more and more important that we be able to disagree civilly, that we are sensitive to one another and that we learn restraint and self-control. Mr. Slater's behavior was the opposite of that. It was infantile and inappropriate, that it is seen as otherwise is not only a shame for all of us, it bodes ill for our society.

Religious Liberty at stake in plans for Downtown Mosque

The recent controversy over plans to develop a Mosque and community center in the "ground zero" area of Manhattan is very poignant reminder of just how far we have yet to go in terms of the protection of religious liberties in this country, but also a proclamation in some ways of how far we have come. On the one hand, we see angry and outraged protesters being egged on by opportunistic politicians seeking to fan the fires of bigotry and fear for their own political gain. The ADL, in a decision that is disappointing to say the least, has unfortunately joined this effort in a move that puts a lie to its own history of defending religious tolerance.

On the other hand, Mayor Bloomberg is standing tall for the principles of liberty and equality before the law for all Americans by standing with the supporters of the project, which include not only the Community Board representing the area in which it is proposed, but responsible religious leaders of every faith and the majority of the people who live in the downtown area.

Religious liberty and the right to worship where and how one wishes is one of the foundational liberties on which this nation is built. The unspeakable acts of September 11, 2001 were an attack on those foundational liberties by a group of terrorists who would deny those rights to anyone who does not think or worship as they do. In addition to the many other of their fellow Americans, about 200 Muslim-Americans died in the World Trade Center attacks. What more fitting tribute to what this nation stands for than a Mosque to be built alongside of the churches and synagogues already in the area. Those who oppose this effort are fighting against those very liberties that the heroes of 911 died to protect. They have missed the point and their actions are un-patriotic, inconsistent with the faith traditions of Christianity and Judaism among others, and misguided and simply wrong. The peace center at the new Mosque will hopefully become another place of dialogue, understanding and hope. It deserves the kind of courageous support that the Mayor and the people of downtown Manhattan are giving it. We all need to support it as well.

AZ Hits a New Low

It's hard to believe that the state of Arizona could sink any lower than the recent legislation making it the "show me your papers" state, but the legislature and governor have managed to find a way with the new legislation outlawing ethnic studies programs in public schools and specifically targeting Latino studies programs in the Tucson public schools, programs that teach students about their heritage and highlight the contributions of their ethnic groups and leaders to the American story. 30% of the people of Arizona are of Hispanic heritage, many of those people having resided here long before Arizona was a part of the United States and long before the influx of European-Americans who now seem so hell bent on wiping out their ethnic heritage using the excuse that by knowing who they are and where they come from, non-European individuals will somehow be less interested in being constructive members of the society they live in.

Not only does such an idea violate everything we know about human beings, it is as thinly-veiled an attempt to educationally disenfranchise a whole group of people as the new laws regarding proof of citizenship or residency are an attempt to politically disenfranchise them. Adding further hyperbole to this situation is not helpful, but it is hard not to see this as an attempt at a kind of ethnic cleansing as Arizona is attempting to deprive 30% of its people first their legal rights and now their history. As Americans, we need to see this as what it is, an attack on the constitutional rights of some of us that could just as easily be an attack on the constitutional rights of any or all of us. As people of faith, we cannot help but be outraged by this attempt to deny the equality and value, even the humanity of our fellow human beings because of their ethnic heritage and the first couple of steps on a road that in so many places in the world has led to atrocity. No less than the Jim Crow laws of the past, our fellow human beings are being deprived of their humanity as they are deprived of their rights and their history and we cannot stand by and let it happen. Join me now in letting Governor Brewer know how we feel about this abomination, and in boycotting all things Arizona until sanity and decency are restored.

Scapegoating Immigrants in AZ

The tide of anti-immigrant bias and discrimination has reached a new low with the new law in Arizona which criminalizes illegal immigration and provides for police and other law enforcement officials to profile, stop and demand proof of citizenship or legal residency from those they suspect of being in this country illegally. Although the Arizona governor denies that this law will lead to racial profiling, no rational human being can possibly believe that Arizona police will be stopping Celtic looking men and women looking for illegal immigrants from Ireland or any other individuals other than those of obvious Hispanic origin. In short, what this law has done is to create and apartheid system where people of Latino origins will have to carry their "papers" with them at all times to satisfy the demand of police officers who in turn are now expected to add to their duties, acting as immigration agents.In this blatant pandering to the hysteria surrounding the issue of illegal immigration, Arizona has undermined the most basic tenets of our constitution: the right to equality before the law as it quite obviously singles out Latino-Americans for special scrutiny and government harassment.

That is not the only problem with this Jim Crow law for Latino Americans. Besides usurping duties constitutionally assigned to the federal government, it will make Arizonans less safe as those who are hired to protect and serve are burdened with enforcing this policy in a state with a huge Hispanic population, composed at least in part by people who have lived in Arizona long before it became a part of the United States. It will serve to effectively disenfranchise Americans because of their ethnicity and it could blow a serious blow to the economy of a state which is dependent on agricultural workers, many of whom are in this country without documents. But perhaps most importantly, it is blatant persecution of people because of their heritage-an insult to everything this nations stands for. It is an outrage to people of faith as it sets apart a group of human beings as less equal and less worthy than other human beings and it puts bigotry before compassion. The Rev. Al Sharpton is right when he reminds all who will listen that just as too much of our history has been marred by racist laws and customs against African-Americans, the same is true with laws like this for Latino-Americans. It is time for patriotic people of faith and good will to stand up and condemn this racist and anti-American legislation. Shame on you Arizona, like the states of the deep south during the years of Jim Crow, you will not easily live down your bigotry!

The Separation of Church and State: Why it's so important today

"It's the economy, stupid." President Clinton's campaign slogan seems even more applicable today than it did when it helped him win the white house 18 years ago. Even as President Obama struggles to reform our broken health care system, as the war in Afghanistan heats up and all the other problems that beset our society continue to plague us, the economy is number one in the concerns of most people. Issues like civil liberties, and particularly religious liberty somehow seem less important when you are worried about your job or about keeping your home. The fact that our current president is much more moderate in his rhetoric and seemingly less determined to push a particular partisan religio-political agenda puts these issues even further on to the back burner for many people. President Obama doesn't subscribe, after all, to the same triumphalist ideology that his predecessor did. We don't worry about his Office of Faith Based Initiatives pushing an "evangelical Christian only agenda," and his more respectful, more inclusive rhetoric raises hope for an America that truly does embrace freedom and respect for all of its people.

Unfortunately, that rhetoric has not been matched with action when it comes to actual policies. Although the Office of Faith Based Initiatives may be less targeted toward one particular group under this adminstration, it is still in operation and it still can operate essentially as the adminstration wills and so the executive is still in a position to support some religious groups and programs over others. In other words, we have a good king perhaps, rather than a bad king, when what our constitution requires is no king at all. The danger of churches and other religious groups functioning as arms of the government has not been mitigated and that is a problem not just for the state, but more importantly for we people of faith who worry about the abridgement of our religious freedom and the stifling of the prophetic moral voice of faith when our purse strings are held by government. Religious minorities in particular, have much to be concerned about. Presidents come and go, popular sentiments can favor one group one year and another the next, the that is why we have legal and constitutional protections for the rights of minorities and that is why we need to fight until they are restored.

The Patriot Act, perhaps the most grevious assault on our constitution in modern history remains largely intact. Though we applaud the President's efforts to close the torture chambers and the infamous prison at Guantanamo Bay, we maintain the immoral and illegal fiction that there are human beings who can be classified as outside the rule of law, as well as the threat than Americans as well as others can have their civil and constitutional rights taken from them merely by being classified as "terrorists" or "enemy combatants." When government can take away the liberty and rights to due process of any of us, none of us is safe. That is why we need to continue to fight until the Patriot Act is repealed.

Just as importantly, as people of faith, we need to struggle against the trivialization of our faith by those who claim to be defending it. When a justice of the Supreme Court justifies the placement of a cross on federal land by calling it merely a "marker" of a place of the dead, the most important religious symbol for a fifth of the world's population is being disrespected in a signficant way. The Cross is not just a grave marker, it is a symbol of hope and new life for millions of Americans. When another federal judge justifies the placement of the Ten Commandments in a public place by saying it is a historical symbol he or she is trivializing a core doctrine of the faith of three great relgions, Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Anytime our religious symbols or language is used in the service of a political or cultural agenda, those symbols and faiths are being diminished and misused. The Interfaith Alliance understands that and it fights to protect the religious and civil liberties that caused so many of our ancestors to come to these shores in search of, if not a promised land, than certainly a land of promise. Join us and help us keep that promise!

Saying Goodbye to an Authentic Hero

This week marked a tragedy, not only for those of us who were privileged enough to know her and work with her, but for all of us and any of us who are truly intrested in creating a more just and compassionate society. Norma Cohen, who passed away this past week was the heart and soul of the Long Island Chapter of The Interfaith Alliance inspiring us all with her keen intellect, her insights, her absolute integrity and her willingness, even as her seemingly boundless energy finally began to fail her, to get down and do whatever it took to defend the religious and civil liberties of her fellows, and to promote peace. Even in the last few months, when it became harder for her to get to our meetings, her spirit loomed large in everything we did as it always will. One of the proudest moments of my life was watching her receive the honor she deserved at the national Interfaith Alliance banquet this past Fall and to be privileged enough to sit with her and her remarkable husband and family at their table.

Norma Cohen was a remarkable woman of many gifts, who understood that we are put on this earth to share what we have for the benefit of all. She was always on the side of right, but she was never self-righteous. She had little patience for hypocrisy or oppression, but she had a lot of patience for people. She and Harvey were an inspiration both in the work that they did and in the way they lived their lives together, in the family they raised, in the big and the small things they did. Like all of us at TIA and in all the various capacities that she served her fellow human beings, I will miss Norma more than I can express. But I will always be proud, very proud to remember that she called me "friend." Hers was a life well lived, a life that mattered.

End the War in Afghanistan

President Obama, the latest Noble Peace Prize honoree, has sorely disapointed many of his most fervent supporters with the decision to send 30,000 additional US troops to Afghanistan, a war which we were told 8 years ago was initiated for the purpose of routing the terrorist group Al-Queda. Despite his eloquent and no doubt heart-felt rhetoric delivered at the US Military Academy at West Point, those of us who are old to enough to remember the Vietnam War could not help but have a terrible sense of deja-vu. Now,as then, an otherwise progressive, ground-breaking president with an agenda of social change long overdue allowed himself to be sucked into a quagmire of death and destruction by listening too much and too hard to those whose business it is to make war. Now, as then, an American president's vision seems to have forgotten that democracy is not, nor can it ever be imposed at gun point by a foreighn power, no matter how well-intentioned. Having inherited a war without direction by a president who was too busy pursuing hiw own dreams of global empire to actually complete the mission he had originally claimed, President Obama seems destined to head down that same road as he tries to build a nation in Afghanistan, a country that can boast of having defeated every imperial power in history that has tried to do that very same thing. Long divided into tribes and factions, Afghanistan has a long history of very little central government and an antipathy toward foreignors; an antipathy that has not subsided with the installation of the corrupt regime of Hamid Karzai in Kabul by the US and it's allies. For eight years our troops have been stretched to the breaking point by the two wars begun under the Bush administration and it is time to bring them home to the honor they deserve not to waste more lives in a fruitless attempt to build a western style nation in a country and culture we neither understand nor appreciate, trying to build a nation that no one seems to want or care about other than those whose feeble grasp on power in the area around Kabul is bought with the blood of coalition troops and the lives of countless innocent Afghan civilians.

If our purpose remains to root out the terrorists, that has been accomplished, if not totally by our direct effort, then also by the fact that Al-Queda has simply moved on to other safe havens in failed states and tribal areas in Somolia, Yemen and Pakistan. We can declare victory and go home. If we are seeking to build a nation in Afghanistan, we must be prepared for decades of bloodshed in an attempt to do what this small place has successfully resisted since the beginning of history. Afghanistan has been at war for 30 years this time around. We have to ask what we can possibly expect to gain by throwing 30,000 more of our young men and women into that killing field. Perhaps we should look more closely at our own history, at the principles of our own democracy and the circumstances of our own founding and recognize that Afghanistan deserves what we all deserve, a chance to forge their own destiny, whatever it will be, according to their own lights, without a gun to their head. We need to be ready to help, not with predator drones, and human fodder for their killing fields, but with genuine aide, contingent on their adherence to the principles of self-determination, liberty and the right of peoples to make their own history. If Vietnam taught us nothing else, it should have taught us that.


Al-Queda, now thought to have less than 100 members in-country, is no longer based there

Religious Discrimination Hurts us All

Despite some of the positive changes that have occurred in terms of the acceptance of diversity in our country with the election of our first African-American president and improved relationships with Muslim nations across the world, the backlash against that progress has contributed to a rise in discrimination and hate crimes against Muslim-Americans. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the outrage of extremists on the right over the election of President Obama fueled by the hate speech of pundits in the media like Beck and Limbaugh, the difficult economy- all of these contribute to the search for scapegoats, particularly Muslims. Since much of the anti-Muslim sentiment in this country has been, if not perpetrated, at least encouraged by government policies, not to mention government officials that have made Islam out to be the enemy of America and our democracy, Muslim-Americans are often fearful of the police and loathe to report abuses outside of their own communities. This makes Muslim people easy targets, for politicians who build their campaigns on fear and bigotry and for those who take it on themselves to discriminate, and even attack Muslim people and their property.

Besides the obvious outrage against morality and our nation's cherished ideals of religious liberty and equality in the pursuit of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, these acts committed against our fellow Americans are an affront and a challenge to us as people of faith and good will as well. Every one of the world's great faiths commands it's adherents not just to tolerance of those who are different, but to justice in our dealings with them. Just as our Declaration of Independence declared that all of us are equal and endowed with our Creator with certain unalienable rights, the Abrahamic religions command us to go beyond justice, to love of the stranger, the one who is different. This is, we here at TIA-Long Island believe, is more than an admonishment not to engage in acts of hate and discrimination, it is a commandment to pro-active advocacy for our brothers and sisters of every faith (as well as no faith). The rise in hate crimes in particular is a challenge not just to Muslims, but to Christians and Jews and especially the clergy to stand up and stand with our Muslim brethren, to demand justice, to preach it from our pulpits and to be visible in rebuking those, particularly those who claim our traditions, as a justification for these acts. I invite all Christian and Jewish clergy in particular to join us at TIA-LI in a new effort to become advocates for Mosques, on-call resources and educational leaders in our own communities and in the public square. It's time for us to speak truth to power, practice what we preach and erase the blight of prejudice that is like a plank in the eyes of our congregations and traditions. Get involved, join TIA- Long Island the national Interfaith Alliance. Together we really can be the change we want to see in the world.

Marriage Equality: It's about time

Few of the current debates about social issues generate as much heat and as little light as the one about marriage rights for gay and lesbian Americans. As Maine recently became the fifth state to legalize marriage equality and California was gearing up for a re-match on it's infamous Proposition 8, Governor Patterson of New York and Mayor Bloomberg of NYC also "came out"publicly with their support for marriage equality in New York. As Patterson and Bloomberg both said, marriage equality is a matter of equality before the law.

They're right. Marriage is a legal institution in this country as it is in most countries. It comes with legal rights and responsibilities, special tax status,and other provisions that married people enjoy. If those rights are denied to some people simply because of who they are, that is a denial of one of our most fundamental constitutional rights, namely equal protection under the law. Just as miscegenation laws were invalidated a generation ago, laws against same-sex marriage should be invalidated now because they deny an entire class of people access to the rights and privileges of an institution open to others.

Of course, most of the arguments against marriage equality are religious, not legal. Luckily for those who have a religious objection to marriage equality, the Interfaith Alliance and other groups like us have been fighting to maintain the wall of separation of church and state that protects their right as religious groups and organizations to choose to marry whom they choose according to their beliefs. Marriage equality is about civil rights to marry under civil law, contrary to some of the propaganda put out by some groups opposing marriage equality, no religious organization or clergy person can be forced to perform same sex marriages any more than any of us can be forced to perform any marriage under the current statutes. This is not about forcing anyone to do anything, its about fairness, its about family, its about the pursuit of happiness for everybody. That's about as American as you can get. It's about time.