Lee's Essay on Ethics Daily

Tokens host Lee C. Camp shared an essay on Ethics Daily's website responding to some recent events which took place here in middle Tennessee. Lee writes, Yet again, middle Tennessee has made national news for another embarrassing episode of apparent bigotry.

In a meeting in which a representative of the local Muslim community asked her community for an extension of graciousness and indicated her own dismay at the burning of a mosque, some members of the audience jeered, and even cheered, when she mentioned the burning of the mosque.

"What about 9-11?" one audience member can be heard to shout.

I was asked by a reporter for a national public radio story, whether I found the behavior shocking in our day and age, whether we have not come further in an extension of tolerance than this.

I replied that I do not find the behavior shocking: hatred and inhospitality are as old as the hills.

But I do continue to find such behavior ironic, and find the public discussion about the differences and similarities between Christianity and Islam altogether failing to get at what I take to be some of the most important and overlooked points.

Read the full essay here.