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3. Jerry Campbell, president of the Claremont School of Theology
Campbell knows the lasting emotional power of Sept. 11 — his daughter was at the Twin Towers Marriott on that day and barely escaped with her life. But as the head of Southern California's leading Christian seminary, Campbell says Christian love of neighbor must motivate Christians to support the mosque and Muslims.
• On whether the mosque should be moved out of prudence, if not political necessity: "God doesn't recognize prudence as the primary reason to do anything. God's calling is often imprudent, at least by human standards. It wasn't prudent for Moses to go to Pharaoh and demand the people be let go. It wasn't prudent to lead the people into the Dead Sea, into the desert and beyond. It wouldn't have been exactly prudent for Noah to build a great big boat. But it was an act suggested by God. It wasn't prudent for the Samaritan [in Jesus' parable] to step in and help the man who was beaten up. It was a risk he took."
• "It's really kind of a sad moment for me in local American history that this [controversy] has happened."