{"id":62382,"date":"2011-09-13T09:57:43","date_gmt":"2011-09-13T14:57:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jesusneedsnewpr.net\/?p=9062"},"modified":"2011-09-13T09:57:43","modified_gmt":"2011-09-13T14:57:43","slug":"an-update-remembering-september-11-at-a-mosque","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2011\/09\/an-update-remembering-september-11-at-a-mosque.html","title":{"rendered":"AN UPDATE: Remembering September 11 (at a mosque)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is a guest post. I asked Lynn Grassmeyer, who was featured HERE<\/a> on my blog, to write in her own words what she experienced as she remembered 9-11 with a group of strangers at a mosque. These are her words…<\/p>\n

JUST A SEED <\/strong><\/p>\n

by Lynn Grassmeyer<\/p>\n

One day last week I turned on our local radio station to hear that the Murfreesboro Mosque had yet another bomb threat, this one was slated for 9\/11. If you know anything about Murfreesboro in the last year or so you know that it has been a hotbed of controversy stemming from a request to expand the local mosque there. The non-Muslim population came out to protest, and the rest is history (documented in CNN\u2019s \u201cUnwelcome\u201d.) As a humanitarian and believer in Jesus, I had stayed on the sidelines, not taking a stand one way or the other. Several times I attempted to write opinion pieces on the matter, but the words never came. But when I heard about the most recent attack I awoke to a call of action. A definite and precise one: to call the Murfreesboro Sheik and ask him what he wanted me to do for his people. How could I best serve them, I asked.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It was agreed that we would hold a candlelight vigil on 9\/11 on the grounds of the mosque, with police protection.<\/p>\n

I could hear the naysayers and critics screaming: \u201cThis is crazy! This is the wrong day, the wrong place to make a stand!\u201d (I guess they meant, the \u2018wrong people\u2019.) And it wasn\u2019t exactly the safest place to be either.<\/p>\n

In fact, one well-meaning friend cautioned that the O.T. Prophets would never have stood with them. \u201cIt would have incurred the wrath of God!\u201d Yikes! I certainly didn\u2019t want the wrath of God on me for showing up and lighting a candle, praying for healing and a chance to be a testimony. At least the cautious friend did ask if I was sure this was from God and not \u201cjust another cause.\u201d Good point. Well taken. I digested that and prayed some more. I pretty much knew what the Prophets were all about– but what would Jesus do? The devotions for that day mentioned being a bondservant or \u2018minister\u2019 of the Lord. \u2018Minister\u2019 or servant also acts as a verb as well as a noun. It is a word of action, not just something one is. That same day a friend put forth a challenge to Christians: \u201cWho is our enemy? No person is our enemy, the devil is, and the Muslim is my neighbor, whom I am to love as I love myself.\u201d It seemed clear enough to me that I was to go for it.<\/p>\n

On 9\/11 about 40 of us met in the parking lot of the Mosque. The rain shower gave way to a brilliant sunlight peaking through the trees just above us. The air was still and the atmosphere surreal. People from all over streamed in to join some members of the mosque. There were prominent doctors, moms, students and a Navy vet. Our mutual goal was to remember the victims of 9\/11 and to celebrate the freedoms of religion, peace and justice in America. I opened with an Arab greeting and thanked everyone for coming.<\/p>\n

We started expressing, in real and emotional terms, how 9\/11 had affected us personally. One girl, featured in the CNN documentary said it was a \u201cgut wrenching shock\u201d that day. She said, as a 10-year-old Muslim girl, she felt responsible and it haunted her. Another young man said as a 4th grader 9\/11 changed his life completely because his Dad went on to work for Homeland Security. As a Christian he had never met a Muslim before moving to Murfreesboro. He said he was honored to be at the vigil. A humble mom read a poem she wrote just for the event. She held back tears, as did we all. And finally one of the doctors said the most profound thing: \u201cI open people daily and on the inside I cannot tell color, or faith\u2014we are all the same.”<\/p>\n

Then without a definite transition the conversation and topic shifted slightly. The hatred and violence against the Mosque community was obviously something on our minds also. The squad car 200 feet from us was a reminder that some people weren\u2019t so friendly and carried serious grudges and prejudice against Islam and it\u2019s followers.<\/p>\n

All of us agreed it was only a few radicals who were perpetrating violence and hatred and that Murfreesboro was a good place, a decent city. The Sheik wanted us to acknowledge this to the world. The voice of violence would now be drowned out with the voice of love and forgiveness. It started with us. It started right then. I read parts of a message that MLK Jr. gave in \u201957 to a packed Montgomery church after recent bombings nearby. He said \u201cthe only weapon that we have in our hands is the weapon of protest\u2026.the great glory of American Democracy is the right to protest for the right\u201d. A most famous quote came after \u2026\u201duntil justice runs down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream!\u201d As I was talking I looked into the faces of soft-spoken veiled women, strong but subdued men and their offspring-people undeserving of\u00a0\u00a0what they\u2019ve endured this past year.\u00a0\u00a0Without warning I choked up as I tried to explain away the recent wrongs done in the name of Jesus and Christianity.<\/span> As the Muslim teenager felt responsible for those who radicalized a message to suit their evil actions, I too felt the Bible was being grossly misquoted and used for ill-will among some of the Christian protesters against the mosque and more sinisterly by the still active KKK.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As darkness fell, we lit our candles and had a minute of silence. I was praying a number of things, some of which I will keep personal. One was to ask that Jesus be revealed to those present and to the city of Murfreesboro. For me, Jesus is the Prince of Peace. <\/span>We ended by singing the \u2018Star Spangled Banner \u2018 together, with one voice, in one accord. Our candles were still lit, our American flags still waved.<\/p>\n

I am not a preacher, nor a professed missionary, but I do consider myself a servant. I did not give a sermon or talk on the four spiritual laws. But I know the Holy Spirit was there and the beginning of a healing balm, a seed was planted right at that spot. And it was precisely there that God showed up. Many Christian friends were praying for me, some in Canada, Europe and elsewhere. One gave me this passage from James: \u201cBut the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy, and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”<\/p>\n

Where are your seeds being planted?<\/p>\n


\nLynn Grassmeyer is a youth leader, Realtor and humanitarian in Mt. Juliet, TN.<\/em><\/p>\n

AN UPDATE: Remembering September 11 (at a mosque)<\/a> is a post from: Jesus Needs New PR<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/img><\/a>
\n<\/img><\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a guest post. I asked Lynn Grassmeyer, who was featured HERE on my blog, to write in her own words what she experienced as she remembered 9-11 with a group of strangers at a mosque. These are her words… JUST A SEED by Lynn Grassmeyer One day last week I turned on our…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":445,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,103,62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian","category-guest-post","category-media"],"yoast_head":"\nAN UPDATE: Remembering September 11 (at a mosque) - Jesus Needs New PR<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2011\/09\/an-update-remembering-september-11-at-a-mosque.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"AN UPDATE: Remembering September 11 (at a mosque) - Jesus Needs New PR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is a guest post. I asked Lynn Grassmeyer, who was featured HERE on my blog, to write in her own words what she experienced as she remembered 9-11 with a group of strangers at a mosque. These are her words… JUST A SEED by Lynn Grassmeyer One day last week I turned on our…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2011\/09\/an-update-remembering-september-11-at-a-mosque.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Needs New PR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-09-13T14:57:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.jesusneedsnewpr.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/9-11a.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"mpt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"AN UPDATE: Remembering September 11 (at a mosque) - Jesus Needs New PR","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2011\/09\/an-update-remembering-september-11-at-a-mosque.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"AN UPDATE: Remembering September 11 (at a mosque) - Jesus Needs New PR","og_description":"This is a guest post. I asked Lynn Grassmeyer, who was featured HERE on my blog, to write in her own words what she experienced as she remembered 9-11 with a group of strangers at a mosque. These are her words… JUST A SEED by Lynn Grassmeyer One day last week I turned on our…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2011\/09\/an-update-remembering-september-11-at-a-mosque.html","og_site_name":"Jesus Needs New PR","article_published_time":"2011-09-13T14:57:43+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.jesusneedsnewpr.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/9-11a.jpg"}],"author":"mpt","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2011\/09\/an-update-remembering-september-11-at-a-mosque.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2011\/09\/an-update-remembering-september-11-at-a-mosque.html","name":"AN UPDATE: Remembering September 11 (at a mosque) - Jesus Needs New PR","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2011\/09\/an-update-remembering-september-11-at-a-mosque.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2011\/09\/an-update-remembering-september-11-at-a-mosque.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.jesusneedsnewpr.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/9-11a.jpg","datePublished":"2011-09-13T14:57:43+00:00","dateModified":"2011-09-13T14:57:43+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/#\/schema\/person\/0fb9e65a33e9d02fd648519a35e556c1"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2011\/09\/an-update-remembering-september-11-at-a-mosque.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2011\/09\/an-update-remembering-september-11-at-a-mosque.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2011\/09\/an-update-remembering-september-11-at-a-mosque.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.jesusneedsnewpr.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/9-11a.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.jesusneedsnewpr.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/9-11a.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2011\/09\/an-update-remembering-september-11-at-a-mosque.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"AN UPDATE: Remembering September 11 (at a mosque)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/","name":"Jesus Needs New PR","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Matthew Paul Turner","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/#\/schema\/person\/0fb9e65a33e9d02fd648519a35e556c1","name":"mpt","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/786\/786b2858aad83fda00be76c042970ff7x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/786\/786b2858aad83fda00be76c042970ff7x96.jpg","caption":"mpt"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.jesusneedsnewpr.net"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/author\/mpt"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/445"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62382"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62414,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62382\/revisions\/62414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}