I am a gay man who will readily check the box Christian (with a few clarifiers) when asked to describe my religious background. I live in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood, overwhelmingly Orthodox (we live inside the Eruv) ranging from Hasidic to modern, with a Conservative and Reform congregation within a few blocks. On Fall evenings I can hear the football game coming from the playing fields of one of the largest Catholic schools in the metro, which shares a parking lot, and occasionally meeting facilities, with Beth El synagogue right next door. The scrolling signs in front of the buildings regularly extend the neighboring group the appropriate seasonal or holiday greeting--a ritual I have come to enjoy with a deep sense of pride. Our congressional representative is African American and Muslim and is a vocal supporter of my right to get married. He overwhelmingly carried every precinct in the neighborhood.
A few years ago when a Christian fundamentalist group distributed gay hate literature door to door, the neighbors bought little rainbow flags that adorned almost every front walk for blocks. We have each other's backs. I drive carefully on Shabbat watching for eager children racing to get home, my neighbors stand with me against bigots who attack my family. And there is always a kosher food arrangement at the neighborhood block party.
So when I hear the panicked hyperventilating about an Islamic Community Center two blocks away from Ground Zero, I scratch my head.
I wonder why it isn't being celebrated. Why isn't this an opportunity to be our best selves, to engage in meaningful community building and mutual respect? Why is it that the moral high ground is being claimed by those ruled by fear and panic, and not those who watch their neighbor's back, standing up for their rights and striving to weave a stronger bond of community through pledged allegiance to our fellow Americans? Where are the leaders who speak with courage and with the conviction that we are a great nation because our Muslim neighbors can build a gathering place in the heart of a great city?
I walk my neighborhood, and I wonder what Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, and Tim Pawlenty would say to us. Are we wrong about America--this little slice of diverse solidly middle class families who work to maintain community and shared vision across many barriers, who have built a great school system through generations of sacrifice and vision, who elect a Muslim because he represents our values of hard work and personal responsibility, devotion to family, commitment to education, and willingness to care for the most vulnerable around us? Are we wrong for striving to live lives filled with mitzvah (a term my friends have added to my vocabulary)? Are we the ones who are wrong about America? Are we wrong when we walk past houses of worship with names that are unfamiliar and have a sense that this very diversity is what distinguishes us from the radicals who flew those planes in to the towers 10 years ago?
I want to know. Are we wrong?