Author: Alan Cooperman
Publication: Mercury News
Date: May 8, 2003
URL: http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/5813075.htm
Evangelical Christian leaders from
across the country called Wednesday for fellow ministers such as Jerry
Falwell, Franklin Graham and Pat Robertson to stop making broad, inflammatory
remarks about Islam.
"Since we are in a global community,
no doubt about it, we must temper our speech," said the Rev. Ted Haggard,
president of the National Association of Evangelicals, which organized
the gathering of about 40 pastors, missionaries and heads of religious
charities that are active in Muslim countries.
The conference at a Washington hotel
represented the first organized effort by evangelical Christian groups
to rein in their rhetoric and agree on guidelines about what -- and what
not -- to say about Islam. The primary motivation, speakers made clear,
is concern that remarks intended for a domestic constituency have reverberated
through the Islamic world, inflamed Muslim governments, sparked riots,
endangered Christian aid workers and made missionary efforts harder.
A consistent message at the four-hour
session was that evangelical Christians should not sugarcoat their theological
differences with Islam, but must make their dialogue more respectful.
"We're not compromising the truth
here, we're not whitewashing another religion, but we need to learn to
speak the truth in love and friendship," said Susan Michael, U.S. director
of the International Christian Embassy in Israel, who called for building
"compassionate evangelicalism."
While no one at the meeting defended
Graham and the other preachers who have made incendiary remarks about Islam,
several speakers criticized what they called "wishful thinking" and "oversimplifications"
about Muslims from mainline Protestant leaders and President Bush, who
have described Islam as a religion of peace.
For years, evangelical Christians
have denounced restrictions on religious freedom and proselytizing in Islamic
countries. But after the Sept. 11 attacks, prominent preachers began calling
Islam a religion of violence and describing its seventh-century founder,
Muhammad, in terms that Muslims found insulting.
Graham, who gave the invocation
at Bush's inauguration, has called Islam an "evil" and "wicked" religion.
Robertson portrayed Muhammad as "an absolute wild-eyed fanatic . . . a
robber and brigand." Falwell called the Muslim prophet "a terrorist."
None of those ministers attended
Wednesday's conference. Nor did any Muslims.
"We felt that we weren't ready,
that we had to have a conversation among ourselves first," said one of
the organizers, Diane Knippers, president of the Institute on Religion
and Democracy, a Washington think tank that monitors Christian groups.
Knippers said Graham was invited
because his humanitarian relief organization, Samaritan's Purse, is a member
of the National Association of Evangelicals, but that a scheduling conflict
prevented him from coming.
Haggard said he would invite Graham,
Falwell, Robertson and other major TV ministers, pastors of mega-churches
and heads of evangelical denominations to a follow-up meeting within six
months to refine a three-page set of proposed guidelines on Christian-Muslim
dialogue.
One calls for addressing "the deep
differences between Islam and Christianity" without making "negative judgments
about Islamic beliefs and practices" the "principal theme of the Christian
participants in the dialogue."
