Yesterday’s terrible events on the border with Gaza, in which 58 were killed and 2,000 injured – events which Haaretz termed a “predictable disaster” – have caused even some strong supporters of Israel to be critical. All of this came on the day that the new US embassy in Jerusalem was officially opened.
Given the dramatic events at the border, the presence of Christian leaders at the embassy opening seems like a small detail in a tumultuous day. However, this should not pass unnoticed. One of those present was Pastor Robert Jeffress, a Southern Baptist who claims that you cannot be saved by being a Jew and who has a history of making derogatory comments about other faiths and the Catholic Church.
Some might remember Jeffress for his frequent condemnations of Mormonism as a “cult” during the 2012 presidential campaign and his urging of Christians not to vote for Mitt Romney, a Mormon, during the Republican primary.
But Jeffress has also called Islam and Mormonism heresies “from the pit of hell,” suggested that the Catholic Church was led astray by Satan, accused then-President Barack Obama of “paving the way” for the Antichrist and spread false statistics about the prevalence of HIV among gays, who he said live a “miserable” and “filthy” lifestyle.
In recent years, Jeffress has frequently denounced Islam, calling it an “evil religion” that “promotes pedophilia” because the Prophet Mohammed married a 9-year-old girl. (Many modern Muslim scholars disagree about her age.) The pastor has also said that Mormons, Muslims and Hindus “worship a false god.”
Late Sunday evening, Romney tweeted that Jeffress is “a bigot” and shouldn’t “be giving the prayer that opens up” the embassy.
About an hour later Jeffress responded, saying “Historic Christianity has taught for 2,000 years that salvation is through faith in Christ alone. The fact that I, along with tens of millions of evangelical Christians around the world, continue to espouse that belief, is neither bigoted nor newsworthy.”
(Links in the original story via CNN)
There are many Christians around the world who would be alarmed at the bigotry which some leading pastors display. We need instead to be promoting tolerance and social justice, which might – just possibly – be a better contribution to peace.