Sarah Posner, associate editor and blogger at Religious Dispatches Magazine, reported on comments made recently by Rep. Peter King (R-NY), chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, on the Frank Gaffney radio program. His broadcast remarks [which I personally did not hear] were directed against American Muslims and his personal belief that they are totally unsupportive of any efforts to counter terrorist activities against the United States; and as such, American Muslims are "not" American. Unaware of any statistical data to back up such a claim, I can only say that, in my opinion, I believe such a remark to be a gross over-generalization in order to meet Mr. King's own personal agenda.
However, one brief comment Rep. King specifically made was blatantly over-the-top and is clearly a falsehood:
"[W]hen a war begins," King said, every ethnic and religious group unites as "Americans."
Whatever sphere of this world that Peter King is speaking from is foreign to the world that I, as a pastor, inhabit. I personally know of thousands of persons, and countless congregations - Christian and non-Christian - who do not, at the rattling of sabers, "pop to attention" and "fall in line" to blindly follow the god of war. Instead, ours is a allegiance to, and following of, the one God of all Creation; whose birth into this world as the "Prince of Peace" we Christians celebrate and honor by our efforts to live reconciling lives with all our sisters/brothers - whoever and wherever they may be.
Mr. King may speak for some in this country, but certainly not for the vast majority of persons of faith whose lives are governed, not by patriotic fervor or blind following, but by personal commitment to higher divine principles of peace and the unity for all of God's precious creation.
Based on Rep. King's criteria, I guess that I, and countless others, are now equally included on his list of "unAmerican" Americans.
View the entire Posner blog at: On Gaffney’s Radio Show, Rep. King Suggests Muslims Aren’t American | Religion Dispatches
Rev. Michael Kirchhoff
United Church of Christ
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