Obligatory mosque-themed entry.

I feel that my thoughts on this mosque nonsense are expected.

And if you know me at all, then you probably have a pretty good idea where I stand on this.

I am a huge supporter of freedom of religion. If I had to choose one freedom out of them all that is the one I would not want to be without. Every thought I have on this issue has to be filtered through that fact.

When I first heard about all of this, I was reminded of a case about 5 years ago or so when a group of Christians were evidently trying to get the Koran banned in England on the basis that "Hate speech" is illegal in England. Regardless of the opinion you may have on this issue, it shocked me that these probably well meaning believers had completely overlooked the fact that if they had been able to accomplish this feat of banning a religious text in their country, they were setting a precedent that almost certainly would come back to haunt them at some point.

This is sort of the same thing. If our government is going to get involved in the process of telling people where to put their religious centers, that sets a bad precedent for people of all religions.

It just seems to me that people on both sides of the aisle are really quick to defend the constitution when it benefits their side of the argument, and quick to trample it when it doesn't. There are activist judges and politicians who don't respect the constitution on both sides. I've found that as long as a person's particular party of preference is in power they have no problem with the patriot act or not respecting our freedom of religion because they will be doing it in ways that benefit that person's party beliefs.

Let's just remember though that your party might not always be in power, so the Patriot Act power we gave Bush that you might have been okay with might not be so great if you don't like Obama.

My personal opinion on all this stuff is that it's pretty tasteless to build a mosque at that location. If the leaders of this mosque/community center really wanted to heal some wounds, now would be a really great opportunity for them to come out and say that they agree that what happened on 9/11 was tragic, and that they hope to heal the wounds it caused, and that in an effort to make that happen the first act would be to find a new location for their center. Tolerance and understanding should come from both sides. But we can't be willing to sacrifice probably the most important freedom a Christian in this country has in order to win some symbolic battle that honestly doesn't matter that much.

I will mention, however, that Obama's refusal to offer any personal opinion on this matter is kind of silly. I am glad I'm not a politician. I feel like people pleasing all of the time would be a lot like being castrated.

I have no desire to be castrated.