By Ken Blackwell & Ken Klukowski on 6.26.09 @ 6:09AM
On the sidewalks of Dearborn, Michigan, Christians need to be
able to practice their faith too.
In Dearborn, Michigan, where the local mosque's call to prayer is
broadcast over the town by loudspeakers, a group of Christian
evangelists were told that they could not pass out Bibles on the
sidewalk during a festival. This is part of a growing national
trend to disfavor Christian expression and traditional speech,
and reflects a disturbing direction in public policy in America
today.
The city of Dearborn hosts one of the largest per-capita Muslim
populations in the United States. With many immigrants from the
Middle East, Dearborn reflects the Islamic character of these
residents. Nothing illustrates this better than the fact that
Dearborn is one of the few cities in this country where you can
hear the Islamic calls to prayer from the local mosque all over
the city, broadcast over loudspeakers.
However, this city has also seen a recent demonstration of
religious intolerance against adherents of a different faith. A
group of Arab Christians wanted to hand out copies of Christian
literature on the sidewalks during the annual Dearborn Arab
International Festival, which attracts over 100,000 people. The
ministry group, Arab Christian Perspective, was denied permission
to hand out material on the sidewalk and was told they could only
do so from inside a small booth assigned to them by festival
organizers. The group sued, and a federal judge has refused to
grant their request to be able to offer information on the
sidewalks.
This is only the latest example of such one-sided action. Four
years ago, a federal judge in Indiana who has been nominated by
President Barack Obama to the Seventh Circuit appeals court,
David Hamilton, ordered that prayers in the Indiana statehouse
could be offered to "Allah" but could not be offered in the name
of "Jesus." (This suit was later dismissed by the Seventh
Circuit, on which Judge Hamilton will now sit.)
And although washing stations for Muslims are being constructed
in some public restrooms, witches (adherents of the pagan
religion Wicca) are being granted rights to practice their faith
in prison, and other accommodations of various faiths are
happening, the Ninth Circuit appeals court recently held that a
war memorial in the shape of a cross in the Mojave desert must be
removed, and even blocked a land swap deal with the Veterans of
Foreign Wars to take over the memorial in exchange for donating
equal land back to the public park, ordering the memorial's
destruction instead. (The Supreme Court has now taken this case
on appeal.)
Despite the mainstream media's ignoring of these things, the
reality remains that Christians are denied equal rights of free
speech and freely exercising religion that other groups are
enjoying. This amounts to denying religious equality to millions
of Americans.
This country has a rich tradition of religious tolerance. America
has always been a country where most of its citizens profess to
be Christians, despite President Obama's insistence that we are
not a Christian nation and instead calling us one of the world's
largest Muslim nations. And we have the world's best record of
religious tolerance of other faiths held by a minority of
Americans, despite President Obama's suggestions during his
ongoing worldwide apology tour that America is sometimes
intolerant in our "arrogance."
Religious tolerance should mean that the government benevolently
accommodates everyone's faith in our society so long as it is
peaceful. Christians should be free to pass out literature on
sidewalks, practice their faith, and share the Christian gospel
to others, just as those of other faiths can freely talk about
their faith with those around them.
America's melting pot contains every religion found around the
world. Although not all religious beliefs can be equally true
(because the teachings of any one faith contradict some teachings
of other faiths), it is not for the government to pick winners
and losers in theological matters. We all have the legal right to
practice and share our faith with others, and the Constitution
requires that the government be equally tolerant of all peaceful
expressions of faith, regardless of whether others find it
offensive.
It's time that Christians were shown the same courtesy that
government is showing to others.
topics:
Islam, Religious Freedom
