SBC leaders rap Islam, gays

Christian Century, June 19, 2002 by John Dart

WHEN GEORGE W. BUSH agreed to address via satellite the annual Southern Baptist Convention in mid-June, the president no doubt saw an opportunity to boost his proposed total ban on cloning prior to a U.S. Senate right and otherwise identify with fellow social-cultural conservatives in the 16-million-member denomination. And that he did.

"You and I share common commitments," Bush told the nearly 10,000 convention goers meeting in St. Louis. "We believe that a life is a creation, not a commodity, and that our children are gifts to be loved and protected, not products to be designed and manufactured by human cloning." Also in his brief address from the White House, the president thanked Southern Baptists for "your good works" and for being "good citizens of America."

Bush had noted that he is a Methodist himself. But outgoing SBC president James Merritt said in an aside after Bush's talk, "He's the closest thing we've had to a Southern Baptist-president in a long, long time"--an apparent dig at Southern Baptists Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

That could have been the highlight of the two-day meeting, which was expected to be routine with the unopposed election of another theological conservative as SBC president--Jack Graham--and the predictable .arrests of gay rights activists for a third straight year.

Instead, the meeting may be remembered most for the furor created when a former SBC president called the Prophet Muhammad a "demon-possessed pedophile" and Graham seconded the epithet later.

The remarks had the potential of putting Bush in the same pot with Muslim-baiters. In the weeks after the September 11 terrorist attacks, the White House distanced itself from conservative Christian criticisms of Islam and has worked to portray the administration as friendly to mainstream Muslims.

The remarks, condemned as "hate speech" by Muslim and Christian critics, were made by Jerry Vines, pastor of the large First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida, during a pastors' conference that preceded the SBC meeting.

"Some would have us believe that Islam is just as good as Christianity," said Vines. "Christianity was founded by the virgin-born son of God, Jesus Christ. Islam was founded by Muhammad, a demon-possessed pedophile who had 12 wives, the last one of which was a nine-year-old girl." In addition, Vines said, "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."

Told of Vines's remarks, an Islamic advocacy group based in Washington urged Bush on June 12 to defend

America's image in the Muslim world "by repudiating hate-filled Islamophobic remarks" made at the Southern Baptist meeting. "This type of deeply offensive, bigoted and inaccurate rhetoric hands a victory to those who wish to drive a wedge between Muslims, Christians and Jews," said Omar Ahmad, board chairman of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

In a June 12 news conference, the new SBC president called the statement by Vines "accurate." Arguing that Vines is very well informed regarding the history of Muhammad and the Islamic faith, Graham, pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, placed the former SBC president's remarks into an evangelistic context. "I believe that all religion apart from the faith that is ours in the Lord Jesus Christ is a works system. It is our desire to introduce people to God's grace," he said.

Pressed by a reporter on whether Vines's reference to Muhammad could be documented, Graham readily responded, according to Baptist Press: "History shows he had 13 wives and numerous concubines. He married one of his wives when she was six and had sexual intercourse with her at the age of nine."

According to Karen Armstrong's widely admired 1992 biography, Muhammad, the seventh-century figure should be compared to colorful leaders in Jewish scriptures like Moses, David, Solomon and Elijah, "who were passionate religious men but not paragons." Muhammad's first marriage was a monogamous one to an older woman who bore six more children. "Few people in Arabia at that time saw monogamy as a particularly desirable norm. In a tribal society, polygamy tends to be the norm," Armstrong wrote.

"The Bible is not at all squeamish about the sexual exploits of King David or the enormous harem of King Solomon, which makes Muhammad's look quite pathetic," Armstrong said. After the death of his first wife, Muhammad took two females as wives, a 30-year-old and a little girl. "Both marriages had a political dimension: Muhammad was forging important links of kinship." The marriage with the young girl was consummated when she reached puberty, Armstrong contends.

It was not immediately clear what Vines meant by "demon-possessed" unless he was referring to the 23-year period in which Islamic tradition says Muhammad received revelatory messages from God, beginning with an encounter with an angel who demanded that he "recite" the word of God. Muslims attach no divinity to Muhammad, regarding him as the final "messenger" of God.