“And in the end
You’re still my friend
At least we did intend
For us to work
We didn’t break
We didn’t burn
We had to learn,
How to bend
Without the world
Caving in
I had to learn
What I got,
And what I’m not
And who I am”
“I Won’t Give Up” – Jason Mraz
The first single from Jason Mraz’s fourth studio album, “I Won’t Give Up” became Mraz’s second top-10 single, peaking at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was nominated for “Best Love Song” at the 2012 Teen Choice Awards.
Mraz has stated that writing the song was a way for him to explore remaining friends and showing love and care for someone, even when a relationship ends. However, Mraz also said that the song is not just about relationships, adding that it’s about fighting for humanity in all we do and showing love to all people.
His background allowed Mraz to have unique insight to feeling a loss of love from an entire social group. As a youth, he was very involved in cheerleading, chorus, and drama, and this led Mraz and many around him to question his sexuality. When he did come out as bisexual more than 15 years later, many Christian artists who had performed songs he wrote over the years distanced themselves from him.
I try to avoid commenting on letters to the editor. As long as a letter is not threatening or crosses certain lines of decorum, I generally will print it, and those who agree or disagree with the sentiment in the letter have the opportunity to respond.
However, the anti-Muslim rhetoric in a letter printed on Wednesday was more than what I felt comfortable simply letting slide by. Especially when the rhetoric was based on being anti-Muslim as some sort of calling for Christians.
I believe strongly in my Christian faith, and I have had the honor of preaching as a lay preacher at multiple churches in Huron (and elsewhere). I will never condone the comments in that letter as a Christian or a human.
To address some of the comments made, we’ll start with the first assertion that a particular political party is “not standing with the Christians.” Quite frankly, that is exactly how this country was founded 250 years ago. While the majority of Founding Fathers were Protestant Christians, some of the more prominent among them were theists and deists, meaning they believed in a Creator, but not Christian doctrine.
The Constitution of the country directs that no official religion exists in the United States, so no political party should support any particular faith (nor intentionally make laws to inhibit a faith).
Muslims running for office is a good thing. That’s the way Constitutional republics work. All who live in the republic are given an opportunity to be elected. If elected, they are expected to represent the people who elected them, sometimes against their own personal preference.
Those who identify as Muslim represent 4.5 million people in the United States, or roughly 1.3% of the population. To be clear, that’s more than any individual Lutheran denomination other than the ELCA in this country and more than all combined Anglican, Congregationalist, or Adventist Christians in the country. Muslims own businesses, pay taxes, and contribute in many ways to American society.
Muslims comprise roughly 6,000 members of the United States military, have no single racial group as dominant (30 percent are white, 30 percent are Asian, and 20 percent are black). In 2021, those who identified as Muslim in the U.S. contributed nearly $2 billion to charity. There is at least one mosque in every state in the country, and half of the states have more than 10 mosques. In all, there are more than 2,700 mosques nationwide.
Jewish and Muslim believers in this country are the closest to Christian in their beliefs, sharing significant parts of their religious texts with the Christian faith. We do believe differently, but that does not mean any person of any belief doesn’t have the right to run for office in this country.
Before we begin to tear down “others” for their faith, their racial or sexual identity, their gender, or any other demographic category, it’s best to clean up our own house. As Christians, that means addressing plenty who have committed atrocities against women, children, and innocents throughout the world. Unfortunately, many of those offenders are still holding positions of authority and/or power within the Christian church and within various governmental roles.
Recent studies by the Pew Research Center have reported that from 2010 to 2024, more domestic terrorists in the United States self-identified as Christian than all other faith groups combined.
We can all be friends and care for one another, in spite of differences, but it does take a look at one another with eyes of love and friendship, not disdain and difference, before that can happen.
Leave a Reply