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Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| Southern Baptist statements against Islam |
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| Taalibatul_ilm |
| 06/12/02 at 10:02:54 |
| [slm] New Southern Baptist president rejects calls to repudiate pastor's comments about Muslims Wed Jun 12, 7:44 AM ET By ALLEN G. BREED, Associated Press Writer ST. LOUIS - The new head of the Southern Baptist Convention has rejected calls to repudiate what a Muslim group is calling "bigoted" and "hate-filled" statements made by one of its pastors. The Rev. Jack Graham, elected the convention's president on Tuesday, said the Rev. Jerry Vines' comments about Islam were "accurate." Vines, a former convention president, told conventioners at a pastors' conference Monday that many of this country's problems can be blamed on religious pluralism. Pluralists "would have us to believe that Islam is just as good as Christianity, but I'm here to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that Islam is not just as good as Christianity," Vines, pastor of First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Florida, told several thousand delegates at the gathering in St. Louis. "Islam was founded by Muhammad, a demon-possessed pedophile who had 12 wives — and his last one was a 9-year-old girl. And I will tell you Allah is not Jehovah either. Jehovah's not going to turn you into a terrorist that'll try to bomb people and take the lives of thousands and thousands of people." Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the comments were outrageous. "It's really unfortunate that a top leader in a mainstream Christian church ... would use such hate-filled and bigoted language in describing the faith of one-fifth of the world's population," Hooper said Tuesday. "This is the level of bigotry that requires a clear statement from the top leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention." Graham, of Plano, Texas, said Vines' statement "is an accurate statement" and that he would not condemn his colleague. "I will not respond to Dr. Vines' statement, other than to say that anyone who follows any path who wants to go to heaven should look carefully at who they're following and what they believe," he told reporters. William Merrell, a spokesman for the SBC executive committee, said the comments were made outside the actual meeting, and that it was not the SBC's place to comment. Ingrid Mattson, vice president of the Islamic Society of North America and a professor of Islamic studies at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut, called the comments "medieval." She said statements like this from such high-placed religious leaders can lead to violence against Muslims. "It makes me wonder what's the hateful religion right now that we should be worried about," she said. In another development, the convention was disrupted Tuesday by gay-rights activists, who tried to disrupt outgoing President James Merritt's keynote speech. A dozen protesters were on hand from the group SoulForce, which claims Southern Baptist teachings lead to violence against gays, bisexuals and transsexuals. "Stop killing us," one man shouted as police dragged him behind the curtains at America's Center. "Stop the spiritual violence." "God loves his gay children," a woman shouted. As the protesters filed onto the convention floor, Merritt took aim at the media and Hollywood — groups he said nearly unanimously accept homosexuality, according to surveys he cited. "We now face the fact that there are certain groups that are going to protest us every year," he said. "They have let me know in their correspondence, 'We are not going away.' Well, I've got news for the pornographer, the adulterer, the homosexual, the pedophile, the abortionist. We are not going away either." Fifty protesters were arrested in all. The Southern Baptists claim more than 16 million members. As of Tuesday, fewer than 9,500 delegates had registered for the two-day convention, down from a record of more than 45,000 set in 1985. |
| 06/12/02 at 10:04:59 |
| Taalibatul_ilm |
| Re: Southern Baptist statements against Islam |
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| mwishka |
| 06/12/02 at 10:24:18 |
| please, don't anyone start having what could be called "opposite and equal" hateful thoughts toward this man or anyone you associate in your mind with him. (and that's especially as in 'categories' of people..) as far as i can tell in my life, ALL statements of bigotry are immensely revealing statements of the depth of one's ignorance, the nature and wording of which arise directly from one's personal background and experiences in life. what is he really saying? he's saying that he doesn't even know what he's talking about. i might have liked to hear ibrahim hooper comment more on the ignorant nature of the statements than on what he felt was the content of hate contained in them. sigh......:( i've found that when someone says anything that you makes you feel a deep emotional reaction inside, that that is a clue to you that you have just been called upon to summon your greatest wisdom and patience, and that your task is now to overcome ignorance, and your own reactions, using your highest level skills at communication. when someone says things that are unbelievably ugly, you have to sneak beneath the ugliness, take a moment to consider where they came from, how they were constructed, and what the greatest fallacy of their content is -- and then you have work to do. you have to now exceed in quality and wisdom, and with the greatest calmness and strength, what has been put forth from a mind that is closed, "uneducated" as in inexperienced, uninformed, and fearful. mwishka |
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