Pasamba, this just goes to show you the ignorance of the Christian right
and to a degree an extension to W. The southern baptists along with their
Christian coalition pals with congress are nothing but road blocks to
finding a meaningful peace settlement in the middle east. Unfortunately W
is too inept to deal with them, he always buckle under pressure.
Daddy Sang


> [Original Message]
> From: Pasamba Jow <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: 6/12/2002 7:11:44 PM
> Subject: SOUTHERN BAPTIST LEADER ATTACKS ISLAM/CNN
>
>       Southern Baptist leader won't reject slurs on Islam
>
> ST. LOUIS, Missouri (AP) --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.Get your FREE download of MSN
> Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com.
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