Dear Muslim Friends,

I’m an American Christian, and I wanted you to know that I’m sorry.

I’m sorry that the loudest voices representing my faith tradition right now seem to be the most hateful ones, the most violent ones, the ones least like Jesus.

I’m sorry that these voices are making you feel unwelcome and unloved; that they are magnifying fear, leveraging ignorance, and trafficking in stereotypes.

I am sorry that they are causing you to experience undeserved animosity in the places you worship, raise your families, and do your work.

I want you to know that those bullies do not represent me, no matter how high a platform they have or how loudly their voices carry.

They don’t represent most of the Christians I know, either.

They certainly don’t represent Jesus. He preached that the peacemakers were the ones most replicating God’s heart; that a fierce and unrelenting love for our neighbor was the mark of a true disciple of Christ; that our religious convictions are defined by our willingness to welcome the stranger.

You see, so many Christians here fully realize that the people attacking you are fundamentalist religious extremists, too. There is little difference between them and those they so vehemently condemn. Like you, we recognize contempt and malice when they come decorated with righteousness, clothed in religion, and wrapped in scripture.

We understand well that hatred is not the sole property of any religion or nation, and we reject the broad and damaging brush they paint you with. You deserve to be fully seen, fully heard, and fully known, and to have your lives alone speak for you. We all do.

We know that so many of you, like so many of us, choose goodness and default to gentleness. We know that you, too, believe in the inherent value of all people and genuinely seek peace with those who live alongside you. We wake up each day seeking love, compassion, kindness, and mercy, and in so many fundamental ways, we are the same.

We are all together in this life, living shoulder to shoulder in the kindhearted middle of true humanity, stuck wedged between warring factions who don’t realize they are so very much alike. We are all their collateral damage.

I apologize for those who have bastardized the teachings of Jesus and weaponized our faith tradition in ways that cause you such pain. I am sorry that they are perpetuating violence with every dehumanizing comment, every incendiary sermon, every reckless stump speech, and every bit of social media slander.

But more than that, I am sorry that so many of us have been so silent in the face of it all. Most people don’t have the power, or the reach, or the influence that these propagandists have, but that can no longer be an excuse.

Just as the terrorists and zealots steal your voices and commandeer your spirituality, so the predatory presidents and the bigoted politicians do ours. We’re going to change that. We have to.

Right now, please accept these words as a beginning; as confirmation that we are fully disgusted with our misguided brothers and sisters, that we condemn their narrow-minded, unprovoked attacks on you and your faith tradition, and that we are fully committed to finding a better response to violence than more violence.

We will not meet fear with fear.We will not respond to bigotry with more of the same.We will not be drafted into their manufactured holy war.

So, until we can wrestle the microphone from those warmongers who have monopolized it, and until we can make sure that the voice of Jesus is the one most loudly representing us, please know that we are sorry.

We are called by our tradition to be forgivers, to be cheek turners, to be healers, to be peacemakers.

Many of us remember this.

Many of us desire this.

May this peace be in us.

And may this peace, be with you.

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