Spiritual Freedom at Ground Zero

If we all reflect on our experience, we will admit that when we live from a sense that we have been wounded, we become trapped in resentment. From this resentment, we then injure others. We are always faced with a basic choice: to forgive or to maintain the resentment. If we choose to maintain and feed the resentment, our own mental and spiritual well-being suffer.

We are currently faced with a related choice: to support or to oppose the construction of a mosque two blocks from Ground Zero. Those who have opposed the construction of the mosque have pointed out that Ground Zero is sacred ground because people were martyred there. We would do well to very closely read the writings of Rene Girard who has analyzed the dynamic of such an understanding of sacred. Girard points out that religious and other cultural movements occasionally dip into the dynamic of what he calls the primitive sacred which has its roots in the dynamic of scapegoating and violence. In other words, we have a very deep unconscious tendency when we are wounded to look for other wounded, ally with them in accusing another, and bond in our efforts to exclude that other. We find this very dynamic in those who oppose the mosque. Charles Krauthammer has called the mosque "sacrilege," pointing to other situations where hallowed ground was encroached upon by the other. Newt Gingrich has likened it to allowing Nazis to set up camp next to the Holocaust museum.

What Krauthammer and Gingrich both forget is that the Imam who is building the mosque very strongly condemned the 9-11 attacks and that the mosque is to support efforts aimed at healing and reconciliation. They also forget that there were muslims killed in the 9-11 attacks.

I respect both Mr. Krauthammer (whose piece was written very well) and Mr. Gingrich. I also respect the feelings of the families of those who were killed in the attacks. Nevertheless, respect for the feelings of those who have been wounded calls us all to examine how those feelings are moving us to structure our open society. We need to allow people to feel what they feel, but we also need to understand what those feeings are doing to us. At this time, we need to examine these feelings within the context of all of our spiritual traditions and we need to pay close attention to what our spiritual traditions say about forgiveness, anger and resentment. Because I am a Christian, I will now write from that tradition and I will read the insights of those who write from other traditions: As a Christian, I find the Gospel narratives of the empty tomb and resurrection, in which Jesus overcomes woundedness and breathes his Spirit upon his followers enabling them to forgive sins, to be liberating. If I am to imitate the risen Christ and thus join in his resurrection, I cannot live from my pain but from his grace. Once again, the writings of Rene Girard are helpful here. I also think that Gil Bailie and James Alison are helpful.

After studying our spiritual traditions, let's study our constitutional tradition (as our President has done). We know we are a nation founded upon freedom, freedom of religion being the first principle enumerated in our Bill of Rights. In our freedom, we are faced with a choice: on one hand we can live in primitive woundedness and resentment and not rise to the glory that God would have us dwell in. On the other hand, we can forgive, make basic distinctions between the 9-11 fanatics and the whole of Islam, and demonstrate to the world just how life-giving the first amendment is. For our own freedom, I hope we as a country chose to support the construction of Cordoba House two blocks from Ground Zero.