Out of the Mouths of Babes

Daddy overheard a conversation recently, that he passes on to his readers:

Little Girl: Father, why did those Muslim people crash our airplanes and kill all those good people.

Father: Well, they were bad men, sweetie. Very bad men.

Little Girl: But they were Muslims, father. They talk about religion all the time. They pray lots more than you and Mommy do. And President Bush says that Muslims are peaceful people. He lets them pray in our big church, right there with Billy Graham.

Father: Well, darling, there are good Muslims and bad Muslims, you know. Only a few of them are bad ones. Just like Baptists, sort-of.

Little Girl: But what makes them bad, Papa?

Father: Well, the Muslims have some books that they kind-of pretend are like our Bible. The really bad Muslims believe the parts in those books that tell them it is good to kill all the Christians and Jews they can.

Little Girl: Do all the Muslims have the same books that say these awful things? And do they say they believe these books?

Father: Well, yes, I guess they do.

Little Girl: That sounds like hate, father!

Father: Yes, it's very hateful.

Little Girl: But I thought hate was bad. We aren't supposed to have "hate speech" or "hate crimes," are we, Father? How come Muslims get to tell everybody to kill people?

Father: Well, uh...

Little Girl: What if we had our own book that told us that it was a good thing for us to kill every Muslim we could find? Do you think our government would say that was okay?

Father: Now, sweetie, you are going kind-of fast here. There's a separation between religion and politics in our country. And I think maybe you're too young to understand the beauty and strength of diversity.

Little Girl: ...I don't understand a lot more than that.

Me either.

Daddy

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