{"id":1149,"date":"2010-11-16T05:00:09","date_gmt":"2010-11-16T12:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=1149"},"modified":"2010-11-16T05:00:09","modified_gmt":"2010-11-16T12:00:09","slug":"baptist-birds-kentucky-mosques","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=1149","title":{"rendered":"Baptist Birds & Kentucky Mosques"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a transplanted Southerner living in the high desert of New Mexico, I\u00a0am constantly trying to disciple the church flock on the\u00a0finer points of our cherished Baptist distinctives.\u00a0 Every time that we have a potluck fellowship at church, it gives me another opportunity to\u00a0teach these Southwestern folks about the cherished Baptist Bird.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The first few times that I mentioned this, some of the ladies — who clearly were not from the South —\u00a0gave me quizzical\u00a0looks.\u00a0 It was then that I proceeded to explain to them that the official Baptist Bird, at least where I grew up in the South (and yes, Florida was still considered part of the “South” when I grew up), was none other than chicken.\u00a0 Fried.\u00a0 And lots of it!<\/p>\n

I’m making inroads with the folks in the church kitchen for our Wednesday night meals, but they still insist on serving non-fried chicken in enchiladas with green chili sauce poured in liberal amounts over the top for good measure.\u00a0 Maybe my teaching isn’t as good as I think it is.\u00a0 Go figure.<\/p>\n

Now, some may be thinking, “What does the Baptist Bird have to do with Kentucky mosques?”\u00a0 I’m glad you asked.\u00a0 It seems that the town of Mayfield, Kentucky has finally approved a zoning request for a Muslim worship space in a vacant\u00a0storefront<\/span>.<\/a>\u00a0 A group of Somali Muslims, most of whom are employed (here it is) at a local chicken processing plant <\/span><\/strong>in the area, were granted the right to\u00a0convert a storefront\u00a0into a place for Muslim prayer and worship.<\/p>\n

It took three tries for this group of Somali Muslims to have their zoning request approved.\u00a0 First approved, then rejected, and finally approved, this became\u00a0yet another\u00a0test case for religious liberty and tolerance in the wake of the more (in)famous Ground Zero mosque controversy in NYC.<\/p>\n

While some Baptists, including yours truly,\u00a0do not love the idea of a mosque near Ground Zero<\/a> (even though there is widespread acknowledgement that the\u00a0Muslim group in NYC has every right — constitutional and zoning — to build the mosque in the proposed location), the case of the Mayfield “mosque,” at least for Baptists, should be different.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Why?\u00a0 Because the Somali Muslims in Mayfield, whether they realize it or not, support Baptists by processing chickens that are no doubt used in potlucks and dinners on the ground throughout Baptist churches\u00a0in America.\u00a0 If they support our expression of religion (fellowship and eating — Acts 2 — look it up), it is only right that we support them in their expression of religion.<\/p>\n

For those that either do not have a sense of humor or do not appreciate my humorous take on this important matter, please be assured that my above arguments were made with tongue firmly planted in cheek.\u00a0 Obviously, there are even more important reasons than the Baptist Bird for supporting the Somali Muslims’ right to open a prayer center in Mayfield, KY.<\/p>\n

What better reason than fried chicken could there be for Baptists to support Muslims in Mayfield?\u00a0 Why, the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights, of course!\u00a0 The First Amendment protects the rights of all people to freely exercise their religion — or no religion at all — without fearing that the government\u00a0will apply a different set of rules to a “minority” religious group\u00a0just because it does not happen to like the religion that is being exercised.\u00a0 Such appeared to be the case in Mayfield, KY.<\/p>\n

When a group of Somali Muslims requested a zoning change so that they could use an empty storefront for a place of worship and prayer, the local zoning board initially approved their request.\u00a0 After some of the residents heard about the proposed “mosque,” they demanded that the zoning board rescind the zoning change.\u00a0 A\u00a0concern for parking\u00a0at nearby businesses was the primary reason given why people did not want the Muslims to use the vacant building.\u00a0 Religious animus toward this Muslim group may have also played a role, but whatever the real\u00a0reasons, the zoning board did in fact rescind their original approval.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As you might imagine, the ACLU then got involved.\u00a0 It was not long before the zoning board, on the third try, finally approved the zoning change, thus allowing the Muslim group to move forward with their plans for the worship space.<\/p>\n

The Mayfield Muslim misstep illustrates the continuing debate involving Baptists and others regarding religious liberty and tolerance in an increasingly pluralistic and post-Christian culture.\u00a0 While we may not agree theologically or doctrinally with Muslims or some other religions, Baptists must always be careful to defend the religious freedoms of those who are in the minority.\u00a0 After all, it wasn’t that long ago that Baptists were not part of the protected majority, but rather found themselves belonging to a persecuted minority.\u00a0 And, believe it or not, we could be in the minority again someday.<\/p>\n

It’s hard to imagine, but see how you might feel if the shoe were on the other foot.\u00a0 Baptist churches are just about on every corner in Kentucky and other places in the South.\u00a0 However, there probably aren’t that many Baptist churches (at least of the SBC kind) in places like Dearborn, Michigan which boasts a rather large Muslim population.<\/p>\n

Baptists would be a distinct minority in that community.\u00a0 As a member of a minority religion in Dearborn, how would you feel if the same thing happened to a new Southern Baptist church start that happened to the Somali Muslims in Mayfield?\u00a0 Would you think that the zoning board was just doing its job or would you somehow feel that they were discriminating against those “Baptists?”<\/p>\n

Religious liberty and our First Amendment rights are some of the most precious freedoms that we enjoy in this country.\u00a0 The protections afforded to us in the First Amendment to the Constitution are to be cherished by all, but most especially by Baptists.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even when we may\u00a0disagree on how\u00a0to interpret the First Amendment in specific situations, may we\u00a0be forever\u00a0clear in our belief that the free exercise of religion is for every American, not just Baptists.\u00a0 That’s one distinctive we Baptists should all agree on.\u00a0\u00a0Oh, and\u00a0fried chicken too!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a transplanted Southerner living in the high desert of New Mexico, I\u00a0am constantly trying to disciple the church flock on the\u00a0finer points of our cherished Baptist distinctives.\u00a0 Every time that we have a potluck fellowship at church, it gives me another opportunity to\u00a0teach these Southwestern folks about the cherished Baptist Bird.\u00a0 The first few…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18,21,29,43],"tags":[128,213,293,3379,3388,641,687,3391,3392,826,913,1060],"class_list":["post-1149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-freedom-of-religion","category-freedoms","category-islam","category-worship-2","tag-baptists","tag-chicken","tag-dearborn","tag-freedom-of-religion","tag-islam","tag-mayfield-kentucky","tag-muslims","tag-politics","tag-religion","tag-religious-liberty","tag-somali-muslims","tag-zoning-board"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LP7G-ix","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1149\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}