Terror Threat Level Elevated … Due to Methodists

Early last month, when the mosque controversy was first emerging, we posted a commentary that warned about “The Return of the Wedge Issue.” 

We’re not prescient. In fact, we’ve been quite surprised at the way this matter has morphed into a national controversy. 

With so many more pressing matters, it seems absurd that construction of place to worship would generate such debate. 

The latest development involves some prominent people’s attempt to qualify their opposition to the mosque as a matter of “sensitivity” to 9-11 victims and their families. 

This is a fascinating twist. The notion is that it would be insensitive to build a mosque in the vicinity of the WTC site. 

The unspoken underpinning of this argument is that a religion, Islam, attacked the twin towers that day. 

We should all know this isn’t true. Terrorists attacked. They were members of a political organization that pretty much has its own religion, a substantially different, and indeed, warped version of Islam. 

Parallels are always difficult in a situation like this, but it’s somewhat akin to the notion of blaming the Methodists for the killing of Buffalo abortion doctor Barnett Slepian a few years back. 

That’s right, the Methodists. Here’s the reasoning: The killer, James Kopp, said he was following God’s orders. Among those who defended him was the Rev. Flip Benham, director of Operation Save America and an ordained Methodist minister who said at the time that unless abortion was outlawed, “we are in store for more bloodshed in the streets—the likes of which will sicken even the sturdiest among us.” 

Let’s use the same logic that is now being applied in the mosque matter. Kopp didn’t murder the doctor in his home, his religion did. We, therefore, must oppose construction of any place of worship in Buffalo that is associated with that particular religion. Now Kopp was apparently associated with a fundamental Christian sect that included some former Methodists. But we won’t put too fine a point on it, we’re just going to indict all the Methodists.  They aren’t to be trusted. That “Open Heart, Open Minds” motto of theirs is just propaganda. 

This is absolutely nuts, right? Of course, it is. But it’s no less nuts than blaming all Muslims for the acts of a fanatical few on 9-11.