Transcript for April 16

But there is a struggle, deep struggle, going on for the understanding of what Islamic teachings are and a kind of rebellion against what Muslims have believed and practiced for the last 1400 years by a small group of people extremely angry and bitter about the historical and military defeat of the Islamic world during the colonial period, the post-colonial period, and now a cultural economic domination with apparent, outward political freedom and no way of having an outlet, politically in their own countries because of various dictatorships, most of which are, unfortunate, supported by Western powers or were created during the colonial period to support certain economic and political interests of the British Empire or the French Empire at that time, which have survived to this day.

All of this has caused a reaction on, on behalf of a number of people. They’re very small in number but they do receive money from certain countries which are oil-rich and which like to follow extremist policies. The vast majority of Muslims do not participate in the world view, and they’re being pressured by that small group precisely because that small group claims that the governments under which they live are not just, authentic Islamic culture is being destroyed, and all kinds of things down the line. People keep saying that the vast majority of Muslims have a hatred for the West. That is completely wrong. They have hatred for the interests of the West of the Islamic world if those interests are against interests of Muslims.

MR. RUSSERT: Jon Meacham, when you hear the phrase “Christian Nation,” “Christian Society” what comes to mind?

MR. MEACHAM: That it’s not the case, that we are not a Christian nation, that there’s no such thing. As it says in Hebrews, “We seek—we have no lasting city, but seek the city which is to come.” The idea that we are a Christian nation, we are God’s chosen people, has often been used to cloak and to justify some reprehensible social behavior and I think Lincoln was right when he said, “We, we’re not God’s chosen people, we’re his almost chosen people.” And I think that—I think everyone’s temperatures will go down, their blood pressures would go down if we realized that every political discussion, every political fight does not have to be a religious one. If you go to what I consider to be American secular scripture, Federalist 10, James Madison said, “We’re not a democracy, we’re a republic. Let religion be one force among many as we work these things out and let’s let the soul’s journey go forward as it will.”

MR. RUSSERT: I wish we had three more hours, but I thought a good way to end our discussion would be to give each of you 20 seconds to offer a spiritual wish for the American people. Pastor Osteen, your spiritual wish for the American people on this Easter Sunday:

PASTOR OSTEEN: Well, my prayer is that people would come to know Christ and his love and his mercy and that they would draw close to him and in turn that they would live long, healthy lives and see all their dreams come to pass.

MR. RUSSERT: Rabbi Lerner:

RABBI LERNER: My wish is that we could overcome our nationalism, recognize that every—that our well-being depends on the well-being of every other person on the planet equally created in the image of God, equally valuable to God, and our well-being also depends on the future of the planet itself and that the central religious task of the 21^st Century is to recognize the unity of all being, the unity of all human beings. And our central task to repair the damage that we’ve done for 150 years to this planet so that environmental crisis doesn’t wipe out the whole planet.

MR. RUSSERT: Father Neuhaus:

REV. NEUHAUS: All the people would come to know Jesus Christ is crucified and risen and find therein the deepest grounding of unity with other people. Because here is the incarnation of God himself. And the human project will not fail because God has invested himself in the human project, has faced up to everything that threatens the human project and has prevailed. And in America, this is the firmest ground for our living together with genuine pluralism, with real difference, because we are, in a sense, a Christian society. Not theologically speaking, no. We look for the new Jerusalem in the kingdom that is to come. But sociologically and historically, we cannot begin to understand what America’s about unless we understand the confused and conflicted Christian character of our history and present.

MR. RUSSERT: Sister Joan:

SISTER CHITTISTER: May we each grow in God and may we grow also in the awareness and the respect for the work of God in all others.

MR. RUSSERT: Professor?

PROF. NASR: I pray that first of all we will develop an inclusivism which is so embracing that it even understands exclusivism. Those who want to cling to their own religion as the, as the only religion, we must say even for them have respect. But there must be an overall inclusivism which embraces not only the children of Abraham, Islam, Christian, Judaism, but all other religions, and even those who do not follow religion. I know follow Father—Rabbi Lerner that question of the repair of the environment is of the greatest significance for all of our religious callings.

MR. RUSSERT: Thank you all. Layman Meacham, we’ll have to do you next Easter.

And we’ll be right back with our MEET THE PRESS Minute, the Reverend Billy Graham from June 9, 1957.

(Announcements)

MR. RUSSERT: And we are back. Nearly a half century ago, the Reverend Billy Graham appeared on MEET THE PRESS and talked about, you guessed it, faith, morality in America.

(Videotape, June 9, 1957):

MR. MARQUIS CHILDS (St. Louis Post Dispatch): You said the other night, Mr. Graham, that if this country is going to be destroyed, it will not be by communism but by moral deterioration from within. Now, you’ve been preaching for seven years and we’ve heard a great deal about the religious revival in this country, yet, year after year, we get new records of crime, juvenile delinquency and so on. How do you explain it?

REV. BILLY GRAHAM: That is—I explain it this way. First of all, I don’t think that this is a—that we have seen yet a genuine religious revival. I heard a president of a seminary say the other day that we’re seeing a revival of religion in America, but not necessarily the Christian religion. And one of the problems is this: We have a great deal of church-going in America, but we’re not relating this church-going to our personal daily lives. We have a hundred million people attending church in America, but those hundred million people are not going into their homes and their shops and their offices and in their business and putting Christ into effect. And that’s one of the reasons that I’ve been trying to emphasize in my preaching the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, trying to tell people how to apply Christ in their daily lives and in their social intercourse.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT: Reverend Graham is now 87 years old. On Monday, he received the 2006 George Bush Award for Excellence in Public Service from the Bush Presidential Foundation at Texas A&M. In a career spanning more than 50 years, Graham has preached in 185 countries to 210 million people.

That’s all for today. You can find links to the books, bios and Web sites of all of today’s guests on mtp.msnbc.com. A lot to think about. We’ll be back next week. If it’s Sunday, it’s MEET THE PRESS.

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