Islam threatens both the American way of life and Christianity, said a Nashville-area minister who is preaching a four-part sermon series on the evils of Islam.
“I want to go on record as telling you that I believe the greatest threat to the American way of life, to the Constitution of the United States of America and to the gospel of Jesus Christ, is the religion of Islam as it stands today,” said Maury Davis, pastor of Cornerstone Church, according to the Tennessean.
Davis, an Assembly of God minister, said, “It is a great task that you and I have to infiltrate the Muslim community.”
“Political correctness” was preventing many clergy from speaking about the “evils of Islam,” Davis said.
Bill Sherman, pastor of First Baptist Church Fairview, challenged sermons that could contribute to hate and violence, according to the Tennessean (www.tennessean.com).
“If you’re going to sow hate, if you’re going to sow ill-will, then you’re going to motivate some folks to do some things they shouldn’t do,” said Sherman, former pastor of Woodmont Baptist Church.
A number of conservative evangelicals and fundamentalists have voiced opposition to interfaith prayer services and President Bush’s positive statements about Islam, including a Ramadan dinner hosted at the White House.
AgapePress.org reported that “to many Christians, the President’s actions and statements since September 11 regarding Islam have crossed the line from simple tolerance, a Christian virtue, to outright endorsement.”
Joe Glover, leader of the Virginia-based Family Policy Network, told AgapePress.org, “There is something very … disturbing, especially about an evangelical Christian in the White House, embracing Islam, which is a belief system that obviously is against the will of God.”
Glover said Bush’s “endorsement of a false religion will further alienate Christians and hurt him severely in the 2004 election,” AgapePress.org reported.
Davis told the Tennessean that his sermons were “prompted by the increasing visibility of Islam in mainstream America, which has sometimes resulted in evangelical faiths like his being eclipsed.”
Chuck Colson, Franklin Graham and others have criticized Islam and those who have spoken favorably about it.