The Ground Zero Mosque and the Ground Zero Church

In all the hubbub over the Ground Zero Mosque, most people don’t know that the a Greek Orthodox Church destroyed on 9/11 is getting jerked around by NYC.

In a rare moment of agreement with President Obama, I think he is simply right that insensitive Muslim clods have the right to build their mosque wherever they want. My reasoning for this is simple: just as I don’t believe in anti-free speech bubbles outside abortion clinics, so I don’t believe in anti-freedom of religion bubbles at Ground Zero. I regard GOP demagagoguery on this matter as pernicious, just as I regard Planned Parenthood demagoguery on free speech as pernicious. So if the Muslims do the paperwork, pay the bills, and build the mosque, that’s their right, just as jerks all over America have the right to annoy their neighbors in the public square with all manner of obnoxious expressions of belief. That’s what the Bill of Rights is for. Do I think the Mosque is the right thing to do or in particularly good taste? No. I think the people doing it, if they were serious about “healing” would follow the example of the Carmelites at Auschwitz (who truly had the best of intentions) and pull out in deference to the feelings of a huge number of their fellow citizens. But do they have the *right* to put their big expensive piece of rock where they want to? Absolutely. And I think we have to defend that right or abandon the notion of religious liberty.

However, since this is so, it is likewise the case that the Greek Orthodox, who are not being insensitive to anybody’s feelings by building a Mosque de Triumphe, but are merely trying to rebuild what was already theirs, should not be jerked around by NYC. And just as it is telling that the Thing that Used to be Conservatism is whipping the crowd into a frenzy over what used to be called “freedom of religion”, so the Thing that Used to be Liberalism (especially embodied in the MSM) is observings such stony silence as this quiet campaign of anti-Christianism is being carried out.

Satanic Ecumenism marches on.

Update: La Pelosi adds her own form of demagoguery to the debate by championing the standard lefty loathing of free speech to offset righty loathing of Muslim freedom of religion. “Opposite evils, so far from balancing, aggravate one another.” – C.S. Lewis

And one of my readers is actually trying to tell me we aren’t living in a civilization of fear. Amazing.