This could get me in trouble, but think about it:

At this point I can't imagine that anyone in the whole country is unaware of plans to build an Islamic-Center/Mosque at a site so close to where the twin towers were destroyed on 9/11 that the building currently on the site is damaged from the landing-gear of one of the planes. Various polls indicate that most Americans are opposed to it being built there. If Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf calls me and asks my advice, I'd encourage him to build the center elsewhere. (If you are reading this Feisal, my number is in the book.) However . . .

Whether our nation is a "Christian" nation or not, from a historical perspective is a subject of sharp debate. Based on influence that the Bible and Christian thought have had on our culture and institutions, it seems to me that in that sense we are. We need to be aware, though, that our Founding Fathers clearly, and purposefully chose not to create a government that supported a particular religion over others. I doubt that their thinking went much beyond a consideration of the spectrum of Christendom, and perhaps Judaism, but the laws they left us, confirmed by two-and-a-quarter centuries of practice clearly extend freedom of conscience even to those whose faith is radically different than the majority view. One of the wonderful freedoms we enjoy in these United States is that minorities are protected by law. As long as the few are exercising their rights lawfully, the majority cannot deprive them of that freedom.

In recent years many communities have become opposed to churches being built in their "back-yards." Objections range from traffic congestion, to noise, to loss of tax revenue. I wonder if there are other reasons that lurk below the surface. I'll not step in the same mud-hole as our President, but I do think we have to be careful how we frame our argument. Some of the rhetoric being used to discourage the building of the Cordoba Center in Lower Manhattan could be, with little change, used to oppose my grandmother's church from building a new Worship-Center on the south side of Hometown USA.

Let's just make sure that we speak in favor freedoms that we might need.

It's STTA.