Evangelist's Tsunami Efforts Stir U.S. Muslim Group 1 hour, 53 minutes ago By Manuela Badawy NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. Muslim group on Thursday accused evangelist Jerry Falwell of using money donated for tsunami relief to convert people in South Asia to Christianity and called on the Bush administration to denounce his actions. In an e-mailed weekly newsletter called "Falwell Confidential," which was obtained by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the evangelist said: "Hundreds of thousands are in dire need of medical attention and personal counseling. And in this heavily Muslim part of the world, millions have never even heard of Jesus Christ." The newsletter, which is distributed by Jerry Falwell Ministries, said donations would be used to distribute food and Gospel tracts in the region. A Muslim who received the e-mail passed it on to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, council spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said. According to a statement on www.falwell.com and Liberty University's Web site, the school is preparing a team to travel to India, Sri Lanka and other countries in South Asia. Falwell founded Liberty University. "Distribution of food and medical supplies, along with the dissemination of thousands of Gospel tracts in the language of the people will be the primary tasks of the team," the Web sites said. "Mission trips to the Asian region by many (Liberty University) students will follow in the months, and perhaps years, to come." But Dr. Eddie Pate, professor and leader of Liberty's tsunami aid effort, said he did not plan to take "any materials or pass anything out." He said the team is going to South Asia to work with local Christian groups that are distributing food and medicine, and helping small businesses restart. Falwell's office declined comment. The evangelist sparked controversy in 2002 when he called Muslims' prophet Muhammad a "terrorist" during a television interview. "This is not the first time we hear about this kind of proselytism," Hooper said. "This has a negative impact, first, on interfaith relations, and second, on the trust and work of legitimate institutions working there." Hooper said missionaries acting as relief groups could hurt rather than help these vulnerable societies. "It would make work for legitimate institutions more difficult. It also harms America's image, which is already pretty tarnished in the rest of the world." The White House had no immediate comment. Earlier this week, reports that the missionary group WorldHelp planned to airlift 300 tsunami orphans from the Muslim province of Banda Aceh to Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, to raise them in a Christian children's home, caused a stir among Muslims. The group has dropped its plans, according to media reports. WorldHelp officials were not immediately available for comment. The tsunami has killed about 226,000 across Asia. This is precisely why my dislike for the likes of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson is growing by the day. To capitalize on a natural disaster for the sake of spreading Christianity is just pathetic. The fundamentalist religious right's self affiliation with the GOP is one of the reasons why a lifelong conservative like myself is compelled to vote Democrat.
What is wrong with spreading your faith while you are contributing your time and money to help people? Are the missionaries going over there withholding their help from people that refuse to convert to Christianity? Are the people you are decrying even required to help at all? It isn't too often that people are criticized for helping the less fortunate, unless they are Christians.
I don't mind the evangelizing, but I feel sorry for those whose first taste of Christianity will be Falwell's brand.
The problem is not the idea of spreading your faith while helping, but rather capitalizing on one's misfortunes and being disingeneous in your intent. I have a problem when you say "Help tsunami victims." and then use that help to contribute towards prosletyzing. That's exactly why Falwell is saying when he says that tsunami contributions will be used for food and Gospel leaflets. Judging by the article, the people that I am decrying are helping the people out of self-interest as much as altruism. When Falwell states that the part of the world is Muslim and a lot of the people have never heard of Christ, that tells me that he is not interested in helping the people for the sake of helping them. There are missionaries around the world who raise money for prosletyzing and I have no problem with that whatsoever. If you are religious, then you have an obligation to spread your faith. It is because some people felt that way and approached me that I became a practicing Muslim. I'm sorry to go on a rant here, but I'm tired of people hinting that Christians somehow get the short end of the stick in America. That is simply not true. The Christian population of this country gets just as much latitude as any other faith. In our public high schools, we make students read parts of the Bible for its literary value. I have no problem with that at all. But I guarantee you that if you make that a Qur'an instead of a Bible, all hell will break loose. As a matter of fact, that is exactly what happened at UNC-Chapel Hill in 2002 when a professor assigned freshmen students a reading assignment out of a book entitled "Approaching the Qur'an" by Michael Sells. Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and every other conservative talk show host ripped that professor into shreds. Parents were protesting left and right. You have Jerry Falwell and Franklin Graham say that Islam is a religion of hate and that the Prophet Muhammad is a terrorist. I bet you 90% of the population doesn't even know that such comments were made and they probably wouldn't care even if they knew. I have never heard of a Muslim leader in America ever make disparaging remarks against Christians and I sincerely hope that no Muslim leader would make such a baseless claim. But if it happens, I guarantee you that it would be pandemonium. It will be just like what happened with the UNC professor. All of the things I said above apply across the board for everyone. Thailand, India, and Sri Lanka are not Muslim countries and they were ravaged by the tsunami. My sentiments towards Falwell are exactly the same as my sentiments towards anyone else. I am a Muslim and I do not want any Muslim organization going into these countries spreading Islam in the name of spreading relief aid.
At my high school, there were like three or four Christian type clubs. And they got all the perks and ****.
What is wrong with that....good job...who cares what faith the people follow..... People can make up their own mind, right AggieRocket? Who are we to judge? And how is it different than what some Muslim groups do to poor communities? Answer: It isn't. DD
I do not adhere to Falwell`s views although I applaud him for helping and trying to spread the word. They can make up there own mind, and if people who have never heard of Jesus Christ get to know a little bit about him and get help at the same time its a good deed done. If the countries dont want the message that is being delivered with their aid then dont ask this particular group to help. As a Christian, I believe in spreading the word especially in places where they have never been introduced to it. What they do with it is strictly up to them
I don't know Falwell's heart...I don't know him personally, so I really can't speak for him. But as a Christian, I can tell you that when I share my faith it's not with some sinister intent. It's not because I want mindless clones following me around. It's not because I want their money. It's because I have a joy in my life that I hope others can experience. Maybe they will...maybe they won't. If something is great to you...something is really important to you...and you feel it could be for others...you SHOULD be sharing that. Not ramming it down anyone's throat. But just presenting it. That's part of taking care of others, I believe. Christians believe we have very worldly, physical needs which must be met...and we saw that from Christ, who healed the sick and fed the masses. But they also believe, as Christ taught, that there are deeper issues that must be addressed to truly help someone. For me, that's what this is about. But again...I don't know Falwell's heart.
Da Da, I think Aggie would be against this sort of "soul profiteering" if Muslims were doing it as well. The biggest problem that I have (which I think Aggierocket shares) is that Falwell seems to be dangling his aid like a carrot to try and convert the sinner's with his hyper focused message of Christian salvation. I dunno, but I find it a little sick that while they are giving food to a person who just lost his entire family that they dangle a pamphlet about Christ's Love infront of them and ask them if they have accepted Jesus as their "personal Lord and Savior". I've gone on several "mission" trips with the Episcopal church to Honduras, the slums of Mexico and Guatamala--we brought food, medical supplies/aid, and clothes. However, our "mission" was to help people, not proselytize and try and convert them. The same is true of our soup kitchen; if you were hungry, you came and ate. I guess I get a bit riled, in that I have experience with providing Humanitarian relief and working in developing nations through the auspices of the church and have been told by so called evangelicals that I was basically sinning for not spreading the good word to those people. For example: Once, while attending the University of North Texas(we had a near cult-like Campus Crusade for Christ) a zealous young man gave me a fictional comic-book pamphlet in which two famous missionaries from Africa get on a plane and sit next to a convicted Killer who had been released. Naturally, the recent convict had accepted Jesus as his savior and his sins had been washed away. He was excited to meet the missionaries and asked them about their work an how many souls they had converted. The missionaries replied that their aid was strictly humanitarian and they described all the wonderful work that they had done. The ex-killer/recent covert gets a fiery look of righteousness in his eyes, quotes a bible passage and tells the missionaries that they are doomed to hell for not spreading the word--i.e. works alone do not save you. Of course, the plane crashes and you see a picture of an angel lifting the soul of the ex-killer to heaven where he and the missionaries are at the pearly gates. God casts the missionaries to hell for not spreading the good news and welcomes the ex-killer. Cute story huh? Great way to convert--just scare people, or Muslims that have just lived through one of the greatest natural disasters ever. That kind of crap makes me over-heat and I get this impression from Falwells crusades and the ridiculous, twisted messages that fall from his righteous mouth.
do you know Falwell is doing that? i'm not hearing that aid is conditional. it's just an opportunity to share as you meet new people in a distant land. handing off a pamplet after you've fed their family...i see nothing wrong with that.
Max, let me say that I will try and imagine the spirt of evangelicalism with your thoughts and insight in mind. I don't know Falwell's heart, I just don't trust him and I automatically lash-out....I try not to....but after being accosted one to many times by those type folks, I get a little defensive.
Accosted? They accosted you? ac·cost ( P ) Pronunciation Key (-kôst, -kst) tr.v. ac·cost·ed, ac·cost·ing, ac·costs (1)To approach and speak to boldly or aggressively, as with a demand or request. (2)To solicit for sex. Or they annoyed you by trying to engage you in conversation. Sounds like a bit of oversensitivity. DD
3 Even if he isn't using a stick and carrot, I think that aide should be given to these people without a message. If he wants to crusade at a later date? Fine. But providing aid and using it as a means to slip your message in is disengenous, to ME anyway. Spend your donations on food and aid, not gospel CD's and NSV Bibles.. I say this purely from my experience, which I will say I have been places and seen things in some of these countries that most here could not imagine--and there are countries that are even worse off!!
ok...can't change your opinion. i just see it very differently. if Christ is truly who we say he is, i think we do people a disservice by not sharing that to some degree...at least sharing our own joy. again...i don't want to hear anyone using fear as a tool...or making aid conditional. that's ridiculous. but we already have Bibles...we already have pamphlets. just print 'em out and take 'em with you. there is the Great Commission after all.
Not at ALL DD, you hit the nail on the head--ACCOSTED. The CCC was banned for a period of time for being so aggressive and rude--spreading a message to folks who didn't always want to hear it. And doing it using ambush tactics and invading your personal space or just out-n-out slander. Like standing in front of the Campus Clinic and calling the girls who got birth-control whores and sinners. I promise you, I'm not making this up. Not just proselytizing, JUDGING in the name of their version of God. That is why my hair stands on end when I hear of tactics such as Falwells....maybe I'm overreacting..
Fine, Then give your own money, but this is his congregations money so they have the right to spend it how they see fit. I see nothing wrong with trying help these people and giving them a message at the same time. As a Christian I believe in spreading the word, not pushing it down someones throat, but spreading it none the less. If he can help AND spread the word, more power to him. Its his congregations money and they should be free to use it however they feel best.
come on..i would never do that. i've participated in Friday prayers at a mosque, before. i have muslim friends. i don't agree with their conclusions, but i still love those guys.
