A New Lowe In American Life

Does the cowardice of the Lowe’s Corporation in the face of a fringe Christian group’s opposition to the TLC reality show All-American Muslim matter? Yes. Television programs and advertising are a barometer of the American psyche, and this recent incident says we are sick and getting sicker.

Ten years ago on the TV show 24 Federal Agent Jack Bauer taught us that very Muslim was a jihadist. Today the complaint against All-American Muslim is that no Muslim is a jihadist. The jihadis have so cleverly integrated into American life that even Jack Bauer couldn’t find them. And if we aren’t careful the All-American Muslim will result in the All-Muslim America.

Is this simply all-American bigotry, or is there something to this?

Let’s be honest: Islam intends to conquer the world. But so does Christianity. This doesn’t mean that all forms of Islam and Christianity and all Muslims and Christians are intent on world domination, only that the theologies of both faiths hold out hope for a day when, to borrow from my own people, “The Lord will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one Lord, and his name will be the only name,” (Zechariah 14:9). The only difference between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam on this point is whose name will be the one final name: Yahweh, Jesus, or Allah? This question of the dominant name has been enough to fuel wars for millennia. So when Bill Shakespeare asks, “What’s in a name?” the answer is millions of slaughtered human beings.

If you’re a patriotic American, an American committed to the secular ideals of our founding Masonic fathers (full disclosure: I'm a 32^nd degree Mason), this is something to be feared. But who is doing the better job of taking over America, Christians or Muslims?

My money is on the Christians. Compare Jack Kennedy’s 1960 speech on religion where he declared “I believe in an America where the separation of Church and State is absolute” to that of Mitt Romney’s religion speech in 2007 where he tried to convince people that Mormons were Christians, too. And then compare both to the current crop of GOP presidential candidates who are bending over backwards to prove their Christian bone fides so that they can pass the totally unconstitutional religious test for public office that is now central to the Republican Party, and that in the next presidential election will be central to the Democratic Party as well.

America is in danger of becoming a theocracy, but it will be Franklin Graham and not Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (Supreme Leader of Iran) who leads it.

Lowe’s motto is “Never stop improving.” I wish they and we would take this to heart. There is still time, though not all that much time.