A few things I know

• We were not founded as a Christian nation. The vast majority of the Founding Fathers of the United States were followers of the Renaissance and proclaimed Deists. As in, they believed in God's existence as our creator, but did not believe in the Bible or His subsequent intervention. And if you think about it, we kicked the English out because they were specifically Christian. So while I'm a Christian, please don't spout that "Nation built on Christian values" crap to me. Revisionist history doesn't help anyone, Texas.

• We were founded as a tolerant nation.... regarding all religions. In 1796, we created and signed the Treaty of Tripoli, which stated: "As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries." This language was very specific, deliberate and intentional.  We were to be tolerant of Muslims.

• Tim McVeigh was a Christian.  (Remember him?) And the last I checked, there were no protests about the weeping Jesus statue across the street from the Oklahoma City federal building bombing.  And why was that?  Seems like a bit of a double standard, doesn't it?

In spite of our long history of tolerance and understanding, growing crowds continue to protest the building of a mosque because it happens to be near Ground Zero in New York.  That terrible tragedy, where lives and a country's innocence were destroyed by some whack-job extremists who didn't even understand their own religion, or they wouldn't have done it in the first place.

But in spite of that, it makes me so angry frustrated sad that people are so ignorant of our own foundations, of the very threads that have stitched us together as a country, that they are willing to spout specifics from the 2nd amendment when it suits them, but want to toss out the 14th when it doesn't; preach love when it's easy, hatred when it isn't.

Let the mosques be built; in New York, in Tennessee, and anywhere else there are groups of people coming together to worship a higher power. Worship where you choose, and let others do the same.  And let's not let a few nut jobs mold our entire way of thinking about others.  Because really, isn't that what Jesus would have wanted?