[StBernard] Legal or Moral

[Westley Annis]

By Rabbi Marc Gellman, Tribune Media Services 

THE MOSQUE AT GROUND ZERO: A NOTE FROM MG 

I've been deluged with responses to my column on the proposed mosque, and I
thank all of you for your passionate concern. Since I wanted to link my
comments to an interesting question about a bar mitzvah in a Knights of
Columbus Hall, this cut short the space I had to deal with the issues
related to the controversy. 

I remain convinced that most people of good will support the view I endorsed
-- that proponents of the mosque have an absolute right to build it because
of our values. Period. I also believe that the right thing to do is for them
to agree to move the mosque because of their own values of compassion for
the families of the 911 victims. This must be their choice, however, and
they should not be bullied or coerced into relocating the mosque. 

I would hope they will come to understand, as Pope John Paul II did
regarding the proposed convent at Auschwitz in 1984, that sometimes what you
have the right to do is not the right thing to do. It is a mark of the
greatness of Pope John Paul II that he didn't worry about appearing weak or
succumbing to outside pressure. He simply realized that the purpose of a
building is more important than the location of the building. If the purpose
of the proposed mosque and community center in New York City is to build
bridges, this can't be done by burning bridges down. 

The part of this controversy that ought to disturb all of us the most, and
the part that troubles me in my soul, is the tendency on both sides to
demonize those with whom they disagree. Believing that all those people who
oppose the mosque are covert bigots, and believing that all those who
support the mosque are covert terrorists does more than degrade the debate;
it also degrades each of us who fall prey to this divisive thinking. We
simply cannot live together if we think this way. 

I'm thinking of the old Jewish legend that asks why God made just one person
(Adam) at first. The answer given is that God never wanted anyone to be able
to say in times to come, "My ancestor was greater than your ancestor." 

I'm thinking about the true story of an officer in Abraham Lincoln's Cabinet
who protested to the President about his practice of always mentioning the
number of Confederate dead at Cabinet meetings. "Who are they to us, Mr.
President?" Lincoln answered: "Thank God, the world is larger than your
heart." 

I'm thinking about the teaching of Rabbi Nachman, who died 200 years ago
this year. One day, he was walking down the street and suddenly stopped
short and pointed to a man across the street. He asked his students, who
were walking with him, "Who is that walking across the street?" They looked
and said, "That is nobody. It is just the man who draws water for the
village." He yelled at them, "You are not my students and you will never be
my students until you can look across the street and say to me, 'Rebbe, that
is the image of God walking across the street.'" 

Understand me. I am not naive. To those who want war with us, they shall
have war, but I refuse to believe the worst about my Muslim neighbors. I
hope they have the generosity of spirit to move the mosque even if they
don't legally have to move it. The solutions to the mosque controversy and
to the problems of our world will not come from a zoning board or a
courthouse. The solutions will come from the human heart. The solutions will
come from understanding the stories I taught you, and these poems, and the
will of our loving God through the prophet Isaiah that we become a shelter
in the storm (Isaiah 25:4). 

Looking up at the stars, I know quite well 

That, for all they care, I can go to hell. 

But on earth indifference is the least 

We have to dread from man or beast. 

How should we like it were stars to burn 

With a passion for us we could not return? 

If equal affection cannot be, 

Let the more loving one be me. 

-- W.H. Auden 

He drew a circle that shut me out. 

Heretic, rebel a thing to flout. 

But love and I had the wit to win, 

We drew a circle that took him in. 

--Edwin Markham 

May God bless us every one.