Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention: aren't you glad this guy is advising the government on religious freedom?

You gotta love the irony. Dr. Richard Land is a honcho in the Southern Baptist Convention, and an influential foe of the Cordoba House project in New York City (AKA the Ground Zero Mosque, or, more accurately, “the two-blocks-away-and-not-even-visible-from-Ground-Zero Muslim Y and prayer room”). Land is president of the Southern Baptists’ Ethic and Religious Liberty Commission and — here’s the kicker — a member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. His job with the federal commission is to advise the federal government on policy designed to promote religious freedom abroad. His idea of religious freedom in New York City is that there should be a “mosque exclusion zone” near the site of the 9/11 attacks — as if all Muslims are the same and support al-Qaeda. Once again, hypocrisy rules in the religious right, whether it’s civil rights, gay rights, women’s rights, or now, freedom of religion. With these guys, their preferred policy is usually “Freedom for me, but not for thee.” Land isn’t an exception, but the rule.

Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention: aren’t you glad this guy is advising the government on religious freedom?

John Grooms is a multiple award-winning writer and editor, teacher, public speaker, event organizer, cultural critic, music history buff and incurable smartass. He writes the Boomer With Attitude column,...

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4 Comments

  1. Freedom, progress, conformity, tradition. Which of these is a bad thing?

    Where would we be without some level of conformity and tradition? Where would we be if there were unlimited freedom and progress? Isn’t the environmental movement about restraining some freedom and progress?

    One man’s trash is another’s treasure, I guess.

  2. For Republicans you’re allowed to be free so long as you do exactly what they want you to.

    Ignorant pigs, each and every conservative out there.

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