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WASHINGTON, May 7 — Evangelical leaders meeting here today denounced as
"dangerous" and "unhelpful" the anti-Islam remarks made in the last year
by leaders in their own movement and proposed new guidelines for churches
to follow in relating to Muslims.
At the same time, the religious leaders reaffirmed their commitment
to proselytizing, and they accused mainline Protestants and groups like
the World Council of Churches of holding "naïve" dialogue sessions
with Muslims that minimized theological and political differences.
The meeting came at a time when Christian leaders are deeply divided
over whether their goal should be to coexist with Muslims or to convert
them. It was convened by the National Association of Evangelicals, which
represents 43,000 congregations, and the Institute on Religion and Democracy,
a conservative Christian group in Washington that often critiques mainline
Protestantism.
Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals,
and pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, said to the 40 leaders
attending today, "Since we are in a global community, no doubt about it,
we must temper our speech and we must communicate primarily through actions."
It has been more than a year since major evangelical leaders, like the
Rev. Franklin Graham, the Rev. Jerry Falwell and the Rev. Jerry Vines,
past president of the Southern Baptist Convention, began publicly branding
Islam, or Islams prophet Muhammad, as inherently evil and violent.
Mr. Graham, son of the evangelist Billy Graham and head of a global
missions agency, Samaritans Purse, said last year that Islam was "a very
evil and wicked religion." Mr. Vines described Muhammad as "a demon-possessed
pedophile."
The evangelical leaders here today issued what one of them called a
"loving rebuke" to their colleagues for remarks that they said tarnished
American Christians and jeopardized the safety of missionaries and indigenous
Christians in predominantly Muslim countries.
Dr. Clive Calver, president of World Relief, the relief and development
agency of the National Association of Evangelicals, told the group, "Its
very dangerous to build more barriers when were supposed to be following
one who pulled the barriers down," a reference to Jesus.
In an interview, Dr. Calver said that when he was working recently in
the Mideast with Muslim members of the Red Crescent relief agency, Mr.
Grahams comments were circulating widely.
"Its used to indict all Americans and used to indict all Christians,"
said Dr. Calver, who is British. "It obviously puts lives and livelihoods
of people overseas at risk."
None of the evangelical or Protestant leaders who were criticized attended
the meeting today.
Sayyid M. Syeed, secretary general of the Islamic Society of North America,
said in a telephone interview that he welcomed the evangelicals statements
and encouragement of interfaith dialogue — even the emphasis on sharing
the gospel with Muslims.
"I dont have any problem with that because interfaith dialogue does
not mean diluting the individual traditions of the different faiths," Mr.
Syeed said. "All it means is that we respect each others world view."
Those here said that they did not want to undermine the missionary work
of their fellow evangelicals and that they would soon convene a session
with those they had criticized.
A spokesman for Mr. Graham said that he was in San Diego for a mission
led by his father and could not be reached for comment.
Mr. Falwell, reached by telephone, said that he regretted saying in
a "60 Minutes" interview last year that he had concluded after reading
books on Islam that "Muhammad was a terrorist."
He said he was unhappy to learn of todays event only through calls
from reporters, but supported the evangelical leaders call to temper the
language on Islam.
"In this media-sensitive world, we must be cautious that we walk a tightrope
that does not allow offending others while at the same time never compromising
what we believe," Mr. Falwell said. "At the same time we cannot expect
hundreds of thousands of evangelical church leaders to go silent when somebody
asks what they think about any religion, just because those religions might
kill their missionaries."
The guidelines for churches proposed today are notable for urging evangelicals,
who have not made a priority of interfaith dialogue, to interact more with
Muslims. But the guidelines promote a fundamentally different approach
to interfaith relations than that used by mainline Protestant groups.
The evangelicals emphasize that Christians should use dialogue sessions
with Muslims to "give testimony to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, because
it is our duty to do so." The guidelines also urge Christians to use dialogue
to spell out the differences between Christianity and Islam, and to call
Muslims to account for the lack of religious freedom in Muslim countries.
Alan F. H. Wisdom, vice president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy,
who drafted the guidelines, said that much of the dialogue that Christians
carried on with Muslims across the United States after Sept. 11, 2001,
was motivated by "a genuine, perhaps naïve wish to be reassured that
they dont all hate us."
Mr. Wisdom said, "There has been the tendency to put reconciliation
above witness to the truth here."
Responding to the criticism in a telephone interview, Dr. Robert Edgar,
general secretary of the National Council of Churches, which represents
mainline Protestants and Orthodox denominations and frequently engages
in dialogue with Muslims, said that he agreed that each faith must not
dilute its own distinctions.
But Dr. Edgar said: "We disagree that you cant have dialogue unless
you talk about Jesus. My belief is that dialogue is best built on relationships.
People have to get to know each other, to trust each other, to like each
other, and in some cases to even love each other before real learning and
listening takes place."
