Last night while driving
home I heard a live broadcast of a
gubernatorial candidates’ debate in
Tennessee. One question was about whether the
candidates would allow a mosque to be built in
a neighborhood. As I listened to their
responses, my stomach began to turn, and then
I considered my own question: Is this the
country we want?
It would be enough to write
this morning about the silly format of the
debate itself. Indeed, when I first tuned in,
it would have been easy to mistake the
broadcast for a bad TV game show. In one
segment, each of the four candidates had 15
seconds to ask another candidate a question,
and in turn that candidate had a mere 30
seconds to reply. When a candidate went over
the allotted time, a bell would go off –
“ding.” This happened to one candidate who
was asked why he voted for the TARP bill in
Congress. So, on and on the debate went, with
two moderators, chattering together as if they
were on Action News at 6PM. Such
debate formats make a mockery of critical
issues in people’s lives.
But as I listened there
emerged the question about mosques, and whether
the candidates would allow one to be built in
a neighborhood. There were two basic responses.
One came from a candidate who worried about
the radical elements of Islam. He implied that
the building of a mosque – any mosque –
should be equated with such elements. His
bottom line message: our main task in life is
to be vigilant against the enemy.
Other candidates invoked
lofty language about Judeo-Christian principles
being the backbone of our nation’s history,
and some even talked about freedom of assembly
and the right to free speech. But in all these
cases, such language was merely a quick segue
to say that the building of a mosque is a local
zoning issue (read: I’m not going to touch
this issue), and that all such decisions
should be made locally. And yet, even in these
answers, there was a clear and unmistakable
sense that none of these candidates would
suggest that a mosque should be built, as they
might a church or synagogue.
We live in a time when it is
easy to tap into people’s preconceived
notions, untested ideas, and basic fears. I
know there can be all sorts of local zoning
issues when citing any building near or in a
neighborhood. In my old neighborhood, there
were always concerns about a rapidly growing
church down the street. But working out zoning
issues is radically different from whether we
allow mosques to be built at all in
communities.
As I listened last night, I
recalled times growing up in Upstate New York
when I was the first Jew many people had ever
met, and when my school-age friends came into
our temple – any temple – for the very
first time. It was a different world to them.
Sure, I’m part of the Judeo-Christian history
of this country, but, it seems to me, it is
how we use that tradition today that counts.
Our partner in our recent
public broadcasting initiative, Nashville
Public Television, a major station in
Tennessee, has won community-wide plaudits for
stepping forward and genuinely engaging the
community in hot-button issues surrounding a
growing immigrant population in the community.
Beth Curley, the CEO of NPT, and Kevin Crane,
Vice President of Content and Technology,
demonstrated real leadership in their work.
It’s clearly possible, but it’s clearly a
choice.
On issues like the building
of a mosque, what would it mean for the
candidates to do the same – and for each of
us as well?