An official with the Georgia Baptist Convention says that the American promise of religious freedom doesn’t include Muslims.
[Gerald] Harris, editor of the Christian Index, the official newspaper of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, initially drew fire when he penned a June 6 editorial asking why the leading agencies of the Southern Baptist Convention were joining other groups in the legal fight by Muslims in New Jersey who faced opposition in building a mosque.
“While Muslims around the world and in our own country are shouting ‘Death to America,’ should we be defending their rights to build mosques, which often promote Sharia Law and become training grounds for radicalizing Muslims?” Harris wondered.
To his credit, Russell Moore, the head of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, supports construction of the mosque.
Moore: Religious liberty for non-Christians as well https://t.co/ifJBRiMetC
— Russell Moore (@drmoore) June 9, 2016
This shouldn’t even need discussion in a country whose greatest conceit is its guarantee of religious freedom for all — implemented by the Founders as a device to end the millennia of sectarian warfare provoked by the uncompromising imbecilities of the devout. It’s a sad reminder, too, of the rarely acknowledged truth that Christian and American ideals are incompatible, that the contest between Caesar and the Invisible Wizard will continue.