"Let There Be Peace on Earth"

In this morning's paper, a local gentleman wrote in the "Letters to the Editor" section his appreciation for the opening of a new mosque in our town. He wished them well and had a couple suggestions for them. This is my response.

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Dear Editor,

I’m sorry I missed Alan Levin at the inauguration of the new mosque. We left right after the ceremony to work on our house where a water pipe broke under the slab.

I find Mr. Levin’s concept for the mosque’s members to be an opening for discussion. He suggests that they seek to end contributions to those minority groups in the Middle East that prevent freedom for women and non-Muslims and that they seek to change the educational systems in those countries to train children for productive work rather than for martyrdom.

I admire his hope that a group that small (I saw about fifty men, women, and children among their participants) could begin such a movement.

Our church has only a few more members. Our Muslim friends should call on us to cut off funding for radical Christian groups who hate Catholics, Jews, and all other people not of their persuasion and to make sure that all home schooling and Christian academies teach real politics instead of the kind that feels American militaristic imperialism is God’s will.

My church should ask Mr. Levin’s synagogue to seek to end funding to those Zionist groups that have led Israel to subject Palestinians to apartheid and that we should urge Israeli schools to teach that they are to be a blessing to the nations in order to deserve any God-given land rather than operate as the only ones with a right to the land.

Smaller groups than ours have provided the impetus to begin such movements.

We sing a song at the end of every Sunday service, “Let There Be Peace on Earth . . . And Let It Begin with Me.”

Let it begin with us all.