Imus Quells Father Morris's Concerns

Ever conscious of his manners, Father Jonathan Morris, a Fox contributor, debated this morning over whether to refer to the host of this program as “Imus” or as “Don.” Either way, he wouldn’t be using one of the myriad more colorful names usually employed by those addressing the I-Man.

Morris’s parish, St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral, is in the SoHo neighborhood of New York, a stone’s throw from Ground Zero, where debate has raged recently over whether a Muslim group should be allowed to build a mosque steps from the former World Trade Center site.

“Every fiber in my religious body immediately jumps and says, we gotta let them do it,” said Morris, citing the principal of reciprocity as his rationale. “If one person can do it, if one nation can do it, if one group can do it, the other group should be able to do it.”

But Morris’s position has evolved over the last few weeks, and has synced with a different principal. “With every single right that we have also come obligations,” he explained. “And one of those obligations is respecting the common good of society.”

As such, he believes the Muslim community should have been more stringently regulating itself. “Muslims should be outraged by this, and saying, ‘That is just sticking a finger in the wound,’” said Morris.

He scolded President Obama for weighing in on the issue, pointing out it should be the concern only of local government officials. Morris further compared the desire to build a mosque near Ground Zero to the Muslim habit of building mosques as symbols of conquest.

“I’m not suggesting this is a conquest,” he said. “But this stands there, and it looks like that to a lot of people. It should be the Muslims themselves who stand up and say, ‘This is inappropriate.’”

Though Imus thanked the Father for his remarks, Morris sighed and supposed he’d take some heat for his opinions. He conceded, however, that he thinks he’s on Jesus’s side in this instance.

“That’s all you’ve got to worry about,” Imus, a minister in the Universal Life Church, assured him.

-Julie Kanfer