c. 2007 Religion News Service
Christians Report Progress on Proselytizing Code
(RNS) Efforts to establish a code of conduct to govern Christian churches’ missionary and evangelism efforts _ especially those aimed at other Christians _ took a major step forward when the World Evangelical Alliance said it would support such a pact.
“We see this as a major step forward on the way to getting the code agreed on among organizations representing a huge body of Christians,” said Juan Michel, a spokesman for the World Council of Churches, which is heading up the project with the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.
The code, expected to be finalized in 2010, would be directed at both inter-Christian evangelism and Christian mission to those outside the faith.
The decision of the WEA, which has 233 evangelical churches in more than 120 countries, was announced at an Aug. 8-12 consultation in Toulouse, France, attended by a broad spectrum of Christians, including Pentecostals and evangelicals, as well as WCC-churches and Roman Catholic representatives.
Efforts to create a code of conduct on conversion come at a critical moment. In Afghanistan, the Muslim-rooted Taliban holds more than 20 Korean Christian aid workers as hostages and in Latin America, Catholic leaders have voiced increasingly sharp criticism of evangelicals and Pentecostals for seeking to convert Catholics, and between Orthodox and Catholics in Russia.
The Rev. Thomas Schirrmacher, a German theologian who heads the WEA’s International Institute for Religious Freedom, said the code would seek to “establish the borderline between acceptable forms of mission protected by religious freedom, and undue forms of trying to convert people.”
“`Evangelical’ and `ecumenical’ Christians have never been as close in this regard as they are today,” he said.
At the same time, Schirrmacher said it will be very difficult to nail down specific “unethical means” of conversion.
Enforcement will also be a problem. Neither the WCC nor the WEA have any formal enforcement powers over their members. WCC officials also said that despite Vatican participation in the process, any code is unlikely to become official policy within the Roman Catholic Church.
At the Toulouse consultation, the Rev. Tony Richie from the U.S.-based Church of God, said the code of conduct would not be about “whether” Christians evangelize, but “how” they do it. He drew a distinction between “dialogical evangelism” and “aggressive evangelism.”
And Schirrmacher stressed that the code “will only make sense if it is not directed against evangelicals and Pentecostals but written together with them.”
WCC officials were heartened by the meeting.
“The fact that Protestants, Orthodox, Roman Catholics, Pentecostals and evangelicals were able to meet an discuss such a complex issue is in itself a success,” said the Rev. Hans Ucko, a Swedish theologian who heads the WCC’s program for interreligious dialogue.
_ David E. Anderson
Church-State Group Complains After Baptist Endorses Huckabee
(RNS) A church-state watchdog group is urging the Internal Revenue Service to investigate a top Southern Baptist pastor and radio personality, saying that he violated tax laws by endorsing presidential candidate Mike Huckabee.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State says California pastor and radio host Wiley Drake, the second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention, broke the law by endorsing Huckabee for president. Huckabee, who is seeking the Republican nomination, is a former Southern Baptist pastor.
On Aug. 11, Drake released a letter saying “I am going to personally endorse Mike Huckabee. I ask all of my Southern Baptist brothers and sisters to consider getting behind Mike and helping him all you can. …I believe God has chosen Mike for such an hour.”
Drake’s letter was written on stationary from his First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park, Calif., and referenced his title as second vice president of the 16 million-member Southern Baptist Convention, according to documents provided by Americans United.
Drake again endorsed Huckabee Aug. 13 on his radio show, “The Wiley Drake Show.”
“Federal tax law is clear,” said the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United. “Churches and other nonprofits may not endorse candidates if they want to keep their tax exemption. I am confident that the vast majority of Americans do not want to see their houses of worship politicized.”
Drake responded on Tuesday. “In light of the recent attack from the enemies of God I ask the children of God to go into action with Imprecatory Prayer, especially against Americans United for Separation of Church and State.”
_ Daniel Burke
Quote of the Day: Rowena Duplessis of New Orleans
(RNS) “I can accept now that God only loans us our children. If he gave his son, then I can’t complain that mine is gone.”
_ Rowena Duplessis, a New Orleans resident who lost her home during Hurricane Katrina and her son, to suicide, last fall. She was quoted by USA Today.
KRE DS END RNS
