More Senselessness

Yesterday, I talked a little bit about the horrific shooting at the Sikh house of worship in Wisconsin.  I contended, maybe a little boldly, that racism and religious hatred is so widespread that the amount of public outrage over the massacre has been muted, especially in comparison to the movie theatre shooting in Colorado a few weeks ago.

Today, we have exhibit B that racism and religious hatred is on the wax in this country.  Dateline: Joplin, Missouri - the same community devastated by a huge tornado last year.  The town's mosque and Islamic community center was burned to the ground last night; this is the second fire to hit it in less than two months.  The first fire was confirmed arson thanks to video surveillance; the video cameras were destroyed in last night's fire, but arson is again suspected.  

This, of course, isn't the only mosque flap in recent memory.  Since 2010, a mosque just outside of Murfreesboro, Tennessee has been hit with legal challenge after legal challenge just to open its doors - it's set to do so.  In the meanwhile, they've been victims of all sorts of vandalism.  And then, of course, there's the whole "Ground Zero Mosque" debacle.

I am not Muslim.  I have no interest in becoming Muslim, Sikh, Jewish, Hindu, Shinto, Mormon, Pastafarian, Methodist, or anything other than what I already am.  But, even with my Lutheran identity firmly established, I still don't get why on earth we can't, as a nation and as Christian citizens of a nation which gives religious freedom to all its people, live and let live when it comes to the existence of non-Christian religious communities.  OK, we don't see eye-to-eye on plenty of key theological issues with Sikhs, Muslims, and others. But, if I have the right to go to my quirky little Lutheran church on the corner of Fullerton and St. Louis, then then why do we work so hard to deny neighbors of other faiths that same right?  

And why, dear Jesus, do we attack them?  Is this some sort of twisted notion of evangelism - if we burn their mosque, then they'll come to our church and find Jesus?  Can we not grasp the seemingly easy concept that not everyone with a turban is Muslim, and 99.9%+ of Muslims aren't terrorists, but are instead people like the ones next to you in your church pew who just want to make a living without having their place of worship turned into charred ruins because they don't believe that Jesus is their savior?  Have we decided that, somehow, we're God's new avenging angels and are called and entitled to burn the infidel?  Have we ever considered that the sort of attitude that undergirds the shooting in Wisconsin and the arson in Missouri are in no way, shape, or form different than the sort of attitude that drives groups like al-Qaeda?

I just don't get it.