I love thought experiments…
A friend poses the following: Imagine that there really were these fundamentalist Christian terror cells all over the United States, as the Department of Homeland Security imagines. Let’s say a group of five of these terrorists hijacked a plane, flew it to Mecca, and plowed it into the Kaaba.Now let’s say a group of well-meaning, well-funded Christians — Christians whose full-time job was missionary work — decided that the best way to promote healing would be to pressure the Saudi government to drop its prohibition against permitting non-Muslims into Mecca so that these well-meaning, well-funded Christian missionaries could build a $100 million dollar church and community center a stone’s throw from where the Kaaba used to be — you know, as a bridge-building gesture of interfaith understanding.
Read the rest at NRO: Ground Zero Thought Experiment – The Corner – National Review Online.
OOOO Joel,
Isnt the point that we should be more tolerant than the Saudi Government. I get that they wouldnt ever allow such a thing and thats the point of this “experiment”. However, when have we ever wanted our standards for religious freedom to match the levels of the Saudi Government! I know for sure I am grateful that America is about 1 million times more tolerant and that religious freedom and the freedom to practice religion where ever is woven into the very fabric of our society.
And at this you now know I am a loyal reader of your blog…I Guess the cat is out of the bag!
I fully expect a well written rebuttal by Friday evening!
Well, I see you’ve been watching your fair share of the daily show, now haven’t you? (I seem to recall Stewart making a similar point on his show).
I happen to fully agree; I’m grateful we have religious freedom here as well… and I do think we should have a higher standard than Saudi Arabia.
And perhaps it is worth making the point here that I don’t think Andy McCarthy or many others who oppose the building of the mosque… are advocating for a lower standard. Additionally, I do not see any evidence that there is opposition to it because Andy doesn’t believe in religious freedom. (there may be a few nuts that disagree, granted). But there is a difference between having the right to do something and exercising that right in the appropriate time/place/manner. If you follow Andy’s logic, you can only conclude that such behavior would be an incredible embarrassment, an slap in the face to the people living around Mecca (probably to the entire muslim world). In the same way, many people find the building of a mosque so close to ground zero equally insulting. AND THEY DON’T WANT TO BE INSULTED. That’s Andy’s point. You can not want to be insulted and still believe in religious freedom. Not wanting to be insulted doesn’t make opponents bigots or intolerant… it just makes them a bit, well, sensitive.
I think this was “the point” Andy McCarthy was trying to make.
Welcome to inner workings of my mind though… glad to hear you are reading!
you and your clever CODE wrapper. Oh, I saw that.