A Plea for Tolerance of Muslims: What Would Jesus Do? (Final Update), or simply, “Christian Tolerance“, (which is the title of this post at Daily Kos), Evans Liberal Politics, May 12, 2010, April 24, 2010, and also November 11, 2009 under a different title, and published on Daily Kos as well, by Evans Liberal Politics owner Paul Evans: this was written right after the Ft. Hood shootings, when the nation seemed especially inflamed against Muslims. It is still just as timely as ever. I did edit the post and hopefully improved it. I also thought it was important enough that it deserved its own page.

The article has been thoroughly rewritten with a special plea for active caring in our lives. An attempt is made to show a religious basis for CARING as the main value of any sort of God in the universe.

See specifically, Pat Robertson: Islam isn’t a religion; treat Muslims like fascists, The Raw Story, November 10, 2009, by Daniel Tencer, large excerpt quoted verbatim.

See Blaming Muslims For the Fort Hood Massacre Will Only Create More Victims, AlterNet, November 9, 2009, by Wajahat Ali.

See How the idea of religious toleration came to the West, Google books, an insightful look at the terrible history of intolerance in the Christian church, and a history of the march of Western thought towards tolerance.

Note from Citizens for Legitimate Government: Don’t Jump to Conclusions: “Military not told about Ft. Hood suspect’s e-mails 11 Nov 2009 Two high-profile anti-terrorism task forces did not inform the Defense Department about contacts between a radical Islamic cleric and the Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people in last week’s rampage at Ft. Hood, a senior Defense official said Tuesday. The FBI and the Joint Terrorism Task Forces investigated e-mails that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan sent over the last year to Anwar al Awlaki, an imam in Yemen who espouses a radical Islamist ideology and who has ties to militants. However, officials said, task force members concluded that the communications posed no threat and had been undertaken as part of Hasan’s research on Muslims, the military and post-traumatic stress disorders.”

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Commentary by Paul Evans: The election of 2008 was supposed to be about the triumph of the politics of hope over the politics of fear. For a time, it seemed that it might go that way. But the right wing in America, the neocons and FOX News and Rupert Murdoch, The Bushes and the people who populate the Free Republic and kindred websites will not let fear and hate die. To those in the status quo, it is “useful.” To those on the far right, it is their meat and potatoes, their recruiting tool, their means of rallying the base, and their hope for 2010 and 2012. The recent tragedy at Ft. Hood, where an Arab-American of Palestinian descent killed 13 and wounded some 31 troops, has served as a rallying cry for these people.

One can understand why those of a neocon mentality would wish to inflame American opinion over this tragedy, which in fact may or may not represent an act of domestic terrorism, almost by definition. This is what those people are about. But when our own Christian religious leaders fan the flames, it’s time for some soul searching.

There are several thousand Arab-Americans serving in the armed forces. I dare say some of them have died for their adopted nation. According to the Arab American Institute, “at least 3.5 million Americans are of Arab descent.” These people, immigrants and descendents of immigrants, as were ALL Americans at some point in the past except Native Americans, now stand to undergo a near-pogrom of hate and perhaps violence directed at them. Look, there are 1.3 billion Muslims in the world (about half of whom are Arab by ethnicity), and they all believe in a God, their God, Allah, but God nevertheless. Even if you you believe in the literal truth of the Bible, they would be descended from the same father as the Jews call their ancestor. I’m sure they are very spiritual people. Yet on November 10, 2009 (?date not exact), we found one of the main conservative ministers in America, Pat Robertson heaping hate, vitriol and near calls for violence against Muslims. Let me provide some direct coverage from The Raw Story so you can see just how sick, and full of hate this man is towards a world religion which he denigrates so.

Tencer quotes Robertson as claiming “that Islam is ‘not a religion,’ but a ‘political system’ bent on destroying all the world’s governments.

“Nobody wanted to go after him (the shooter Hasan) because of political correctness,” Robertson said on Monday. “We just don’t talk about somebody’s quote ‘religion,’ even if the religion involved beheading infidels and pouring boiling oil down their throats.”

Robertson said Islam should be treated like a fringe political movement. (As is exclaimed on several Arab websites, “a fringe movement with over 1.3 billion adherants?” ~ Paul Evans)

“If we don’t stop covering up what Islam is … Islam is a violent — I was going to say religion, but it’s not a religion, it’s a political system, it’s a violent political system bent on the overthrow of the governments of the world and world domination,” Robertson said. “You’re dealing with not a religion, you’re dealing with a political system, and I think we should treat it as such, and treat its adherents as such as we would members of the communist party, members of some fascist group.”

Robertson pointed the finger of blame at the US military, suggesting that the families of the 12 killed and 30 wounded have a strong case for suing the Pentagon.

“Those in the Army should be held to account for the fact they let this man loose,” Robertson said.

This is not the first time that Robertson has aired controversial views about an act of violence on American soil. In 2001, shortly after the 9/11 attacks, Robertson agreed with fellow preacher Jerry Falwell that the attacks were God’s punishment for the US allowing abortion and homosexuality.

“I really believe that the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who try to secularize America … I point the finger in their face and say you helped this happen,” Falwell said, to which Robertson replied: “I totally concur.”

Both evangelists issued apologies for their statements later.

[[Apparently, Robertson, the neocons, and the entire Republican Party are not intelligent enough to differentiate between the Islamicist movement (about 30 percent of Muslims who are, admittedly politicized) and radical Islam (about 3 to 4 percent of Muslims) versus the religion of Islam, which are not the same thing at all. In a similar way in the United States, the Republican Party has acted as though it had an exclusive sway on the word "Christian", although we certainly don't equate "Republican" with "Christian", do we?]]

Tencer also quotes a “birther lawyer” as stating that “Fort Hood proves soldiers should be allowed to disobey orders.”

Disobey how? In open rebellion?

Look, the whipped up frenzy the right wing was able to create after 9/11, part of which was Robertson’s disgusting “God’s punishment” reasoning, which I remember was quite prevalent in the media and around the internet, resulted in the neocons pushing us into the Iraq war. Now Robertson is pushing hate towards the second largest religion in the world. STOP IT. Stop it now. Stop it before we have violence in the streets, before something really insane goes on like arson against Muslim families’ homes….. or other such violence. Or like….some idiot, some moron with a gun deciding Ft. Hood is really too much the President’s fault, just as Robertson and FOX News are hoping. Yes, that’s what I mean. Before we have another Jack Kennedy or Robert Kennedy or Martin Luther King — because of HATE.

But this isn’t really about just hating “ragheads” is it? Not where it’s coming from, at the higher levels. It’s about seizing power here in America by the right wing. It’s about 2010. It’s about somehow putting this on the liberals, putting this on Obama, and if it takes a worldwide hate war heating up between three quarters of the world’s population, well, they don’t give a damn about that. They WANT that. It fits their whole Armageddon, Left Behind, blow up the world mindset. Because that’s what Jesus wants, right?

But think about it just a bit, my fellow Christians, before you buy into it. At all. We had a phenomenon about two-three years ago in this country, where everyrone from our preachers to our three year olds were asking, “what would Jesus do?” Well, DID Jesus EVER discriminate in ANY way against anyone at all, based on what they believed? Did he not try to help the Samaritan woman? Jews were not supposed to speak to women outside of Judaism at the time, but he tried to help her. What about the Roman Centurian, did he not heal that man’s son, while yet the man was a pagan and a member of a group who oppressed and ruled the Jews as a foreign people? Did he not call his disciples from among those who were not well thought of, a tax collector and an oppressor of the followers of Christ? Matthew and Paul?

Did Jesus not love, did he not help, every single person he came in contact with in his life? Have we forgotten that God so loved the world…. Not just part of the world…. Have we forgotten that God is love?

Instead God is being turned into hatred and divisiveness….WHY????

I hate to say it, I hate to think it.

This is being spread, this hate, this vast potential for violence and even horrible war, why??

So that the Republicans can return to power.

Jesus, they are misusing your name. How sad you must be.

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Clarification of this page’s intent:

The diary is directed to anyone, Christian or otherwise, but coming from a Christian perspective, because it is an analysis of what Christians are doing, in the name of Christianity, that isn’t very Christian at all. At lease insofar as Jesus’ life and how he lived it should be reflected in how we should behave as Christians. In the original article, that is, the republication of it on April 24th, I myself left a comment which I wish to reproduce here:

Whether you are a Christian or not, you really need to admit that if you base your religious “take” on how Jesus lived his life on earth, insofar as we know it, as it is reported and as they felt about the details of his life, he NEVER threatened with God’s wrath, never said anything like about the end of the world, or at any rate, the ONLY way he interacted with the people he came across was to BE CARING… If you look at the principle called “Logos”, which is to be understood according to both the pre-Socratic Greeks and the early Christians as “the logic of the universe”, there are many principles, nouns and adjectives which have been written about “Logos” but there is only ONE value, and that value is “CARING”. It is NOT the old testament God of the Hebrews nor is it the God of the book of Revelations. It is how Jesus lived his life.

(And caring is the Golden Rule.)

This article is an attempt to show that the incitement to hatred of Muslims is outside of anything we know about Jesus, and furthermore is in it’s root core a disingenuous attempt to mold opinion towards a Republican victory in 2010 and 2012.

In other words, Pat Robertson is making a politically expedient USE of people’s faith to bring hatred against a different religion, solely so conservatives (politically) can seize power.

That is a sad misuse and misrepresentation of everything Jesus stood for, that’s my point. At least considered in terms of how he is reported to have lived his life on earth.

I am quite interested to know that 24 percent in the U.S. are not Christian… I am very sympathetic to anyone who believes differently and would never judge anyone and I don’t believe Jesus would either. Judge not lest ye be judged.

But what the conservatives are doing in terms of making the whole political dispute in America a matter of some kind of faith test or battle cry is disgusting. To me and to anyone, Christian or otherwise, who cares about this country.

A total misuse of faith. Must be abhorrent to Jesus. If you believe he is a caring person. If you look at how he lived his life on earth. If you believe God is love.

There is no compromise. CARING IS the Golden Rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And this costs. Sometimes it costs your life. And it sustains the Universe. Caring is not aggression, no matter the reason. You CANNOT kill, you cannot hate, and you cannot HURT, and be caring. And caring is exactly the word that describes how Jesus lived his life. If you think about what living a caring life IS, what you have to do in your life to BE caring, it is living the Golden Rule in your life. And THAT is the OPPOSITE of hate. IN FACT, it is not just not hating, it is not even just tolerance, it is acceptance and loving kindness. THAT is what the essence of Christianity must consist of.

Let us rededicate our lives to this goodness, this essential caring nature of the Universe, this Universal Reason or Logos whom we call God or Allah or whatever you wish to call HIM, (or even Her), and who is embodied in the record of just how Christ lived his life here on earth. For truly, God is love, and if we are not loving (by which I mean actively caring) in how we live our lives, that is abhorrent to God. It is caring which is the value of God.

One very cogent way of looking at God is to think of Him in terms of this Logos (Wikipedia article on Logos), the Divine Word, if you will, and the only value of Logos is CARING. I myself believe caring to be the only true value of God. ~ Paul Evans

Please feel encouraged to listen to Gordon Lightfoot, Pride of Man.

See Why Can’t Religious Right Groups Stop Lying About Hate Crimes Legislation?, The Huffington Post, May 13, 2010, by Alvin McEwen.

See The Dangers of Religious Passion, The Huffington Post, May 13, 2010, by Clay Farris Naff.

UPDATE: See Concern Is Voiced Over Religious Intolerance, The New York Times, September 7, 2010, by Laurie Goodstein.

UPDATE: See Building on Faith, The New York Times, September 7, 2010, by Feisal Abdoul Rauf.

Let me summarize why I wrote this article with a comment I made to this diary at Daily Kos. The comment was under the title of “The Point of it All”:

Why be tolerant? Why not be entirely selfish in your life, allow yourself cunning, conniving, deceit, things like this, hurt people when it benefits you??? Why in the world would you want to make the sacrifices and endure the inevitable suffering involved in living a truly caring life. Because that is the only way you will know any sort of real peace in your life. It puts you in touch with a more universal sort of love. The only way to HAVE that peace and love is to BE caring and do DO the right thing no matter what it costs you. The more you are caring in your life, the more you will know peace and love. That is something very universal in the way things work.

Read, Tomgram: Engelhardt, The Urge to Stay – Yes We Could, Get Out!: Why We Won’t Leave Afghanistan or Iraq, Tom Dispatch, April 24, 2010, by Tom Engelhardt.

UPDATE: See Who Would Jesus Shoot?, Antiwar.com, January 22, 2010, by Charles V. Peña.

“Abel’s blood cries out ‘vengeance’—Jesus’ blood cries out ‘mercy’”. –Jacquelyn K. Heasley

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Pat Robertson’s Hate Speech on The 700 Club

A Tale of Tolerance

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