Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Pastor Robert Jeffress Ignites Quraan Conference

Originally written on November 30, 2010
10 Non-Muslim clergy from different denominations & Muslims from different denominations participated

Pastor Robert Jeffress attacks Mormons, Muslims, Catholics, Jews, Buddhists and Hindus consistently, he calls them all cults. Please note that I am not highlighting his affiliation with the Dallas Baptist Church, there is no way, the Church approves hate or ill-will towards other humans, it goes against the very teachings of Jesus Christ.

As a society we have faltered in blaming the group or the religion for the acts of individuals. The words of Pastor Jeffress generates fear, anxieties hate and ill-will, it is him and not the reflection of his Church, even if the congregation sheepishly claps and gives a standing ovation when the pastor calls out, “Islam is an evil evil religion and Quraan is a book written by a false prophet” with full passion.


Please remove any bias you may have against Baptist Church because you’ll find bigotry in every denomination and every religion and no one can cast the first stone. In a short span of 7 years, in my own town Dallas, just one Baptist Pastor’s ignorance is overwhelmed by many Baptist pastors, just to name a few who reflect the inclusive teachings of Jesus with substantial backing are Late Pastor Roy Harrell of Thanksgiving Square, who led the Christian Coalition prayers representing several denominations at the Unity day USA program in 1985.

Pastor George Mason of the Wilshire Baptist Church who was the first one to agree to be on the panel of demystifying the myths about Quraan in the Quraan conference and Pastor Bob Roberts who has led many expeditions in exploring common grounds among faiths, including a joint commemoration of 9/11 by Muslims and Baptist. By the way, both the gentlemen were recipients of the “Pluralist Award” in 2009 for their work in living with no bias towards others.
The chronological sequence of the events from the day Pastor Robert Jeffress called Islam and evil evil religion to the Quraan Conference. Much of the documentation is on the Television, Dallas Morning News and atwww.QuraanConference.com

This is how it began:
What made me visit the church was his comment a week earlier, “Quraan is an evil book written by a false prophet" and shamelessly, his congregation clapped and gave a standing ovation for a hateful speech in the name of Christ.

The intent of this piece is to understand Pastor Jeffress, unless more research is un-earthed, he seems to be a charlatan duping his congregation with falsities in the name of Christ.
One listen to his sermon can unravel so much about this man.
First, I must give credit to the man Mr. Jonathan Halsey of the Unificationists Church, who saw that it was an un-Christian thing to preach hate in a Church and he gathered Mr. Marzuk Jami and myself to attend the Church with him on Sunday, September 12, 2010. The day was a busy one for me as I had a major program Unity Day that evening. Alexis Yancey wrote a timely press release to the media.

The four of us including Paul ….. walked into the Dallas Baptist Church in down town on Sunday, September 12, 2010. During the sermon, I observe, he wanted 400 of his congregation members to sign up on Pastors committee; he would not proceed with the sermon unless he had the count. Their goal was to bring at least one potential convert to the church through the fall, spring and summer seasons.

He is an incredible mathematical genius – 2400 new converts at $ 1000 per head would give Pastor Jeffress in excess of $2million in revenues of which some will go to the expansion of the Church and the rest as a possible reward to him for his work.

During his sermon he shared the story of one of the convert founders who had donated over a million dollars and continues to dole out the monies. The Pastor was seeing the rainfall of green bucks.

Someone piped in his ears that a few Muslims are in his congregation and he duly asked us to stand up and had us acknowledged by the congregation. It indeed was a nice gesture.

In his sermon he told that he would walk and put the fire out on a Jewish home, but on the 3rd day he said on My Fox News that he would reference the story of putting the fire out on a Muslim home. Both the videos should be available on FSB site and of course Fox news.

In the same sermon he praised the lord and extolled Jesus Christ, which Muslims do it with their heart. Indeed, Jesus is my mentor. The he adds, “No other religion teaches purpose of life, except Christianity”. Later on in the lobby I had a conversation with him – that Baha’i, Hindu, Islam and others teach the purpose of life – to serve God and his creation. I asked him if he had studied other religions to have made that claim. He simply ignored the question.

What made me visit the church was his comment a week earlier, “Quraan is an evil book written by a false prophet" and shamelessly, his congregation clapped and gave a standing ovation for a hateful speech in the name of Christ. I implored him to tell the truth or at least find the truth and share it with his congregation; he refused even to find the truth for this congregation. In that speech, he was berating Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism and Judaism. I am really surprised how the Jewish community let him get away with it, he may be the only one or they may look to him as a looney barking aimlessly. I am glad the African Americans and Jewish Americans will nail any one for one wrong word against them; Muslims need to learn from them and not take the crap from these men ( and of course a few women too).
What followed later were exchanges on NBC 5 and FOX 11 and write ups in Dallas Morning News. All of which is chronicled in the Bibliography below.
Pastor Dr. Robert Jeffress chickened out to my challenge to host the Quraan debate on his own turf. I offered him copies of the Quraan translation by Muhammad Asad, giving him the benefit of doubt that he may have read the two false translations out of 25 some translations. Steve Blow of Dallas Morning News framed my interview very well, “In the Middle Ages, European leaders commissioned a hostile Quran translation to foster warfare against Muslim invaders. Later, Muslim leaders produced another translation to inflame Muslims against Christians and Jews.” I asked the Pastor to invite all the Islamophobes and do a conference and put the falsities behind and look for better relations.
He had the biggest challenge of his life and he chickened out on that tood. “Pastor, I will present the right Quraan translation to you, you gather all the Islamophobes and let’s have a talk. If you find three evil things in the Quraan, I will abandon my religion Islam and join your Church, the Baptist Church.” We need to do a conference and put the falsities behind.
We did the most amazing conference on Quraan addressingdifficult verses by Non-Muslims clergy bringing a graceful closure to Pastor Jeffress rants.

Myths are manufactured about others without any substantiation; it is an old business of maligning others to have a momentary gain. Quraan is challenged by Pastor Robert Jeffress, Pat Robertson, Terry Jones and others who have not made any effort to find the truth, let alone understand the book.

Ever since we declared our independence in 1776, we have been tested time and again by various political, economic and religious forces to divide us, however, at the end we have come out strong as one nation. The Civil War, the Great Depression, the World War, Pearl Harbor, Women’s rights, Abortion, the Vietnam War, Civil Rights, Budget Deficits, Unemployment, 9/11, the Iraq and Afghanistan War have all been difficult, but we will make it through and sanity will prevail.

The Quraan conference, Understanding GLBT, Quraan, Anti-Semitism, race, gender and other issues are American issues and not Jewish, Muslim or African American issues. We understand that a few are committed to pitting one American against the other for their own gains.
As Americans Together, we will find solutions to the issues we face and we are indeed committed.

Links in the article:

The Quraan Conference Program
http://quraanconference.blogspot.com/2010/12/quraan-conference-program-sequence.html

List of difficult Passages in Quraan http://quraan-today.blogspot.com/2010/12/list-of-difficult-passages-in-quraan.html
Graceful Closure to Robert Jeffress rantshttp://quraanconference.blogspot.com/2010/09/graceful-closure-to-dr-jeffress.html

Americans togetherhttp://americatogetherfoundation.blogspot.com/2010/11/americans-together-building-cohesive.html

Mike Ghouse is committed to building a cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day to the media and the public. He is a speaker thinker and a writer on the topics of pluralism, cohesive societies, Politics, Islam, interfaith, India and Peace. Over a thousand articles have been published on the topics and two of his books are poised to be released on Pluralism and Islam. Mike's work is reflected in 4 website's and 27 Blogs indexed athttp://www.mikeghouse.net/ and you can find all of his current articles at www.TheGhousediary.com
VIDEOS AND PRINT LINKS
Richard Ray of Fox4 News interviewed me about Pastor Jeffress and the Quraan at 11:00 AM this morning, however due to time constraints, or other reasons they have edited out the critical points about killing the infidel and Quraan Translations. I will recreate that interview and post it on the web in a few days, right here.

The challenge is simple; I will present the right translations of the Qur'aan to Rev. Robert Jeffress in his congregation and challenge him to find 3 evil things about Quraan, if he does, I will go work for his ministry, if he does not, I ask of him to retract the thoughtless cavalier statements he made about Islam and Quraan, and take up the challenge of becoming a peace maker.

Thanks to the Islam bashers for telling me what is it that bothers them, they have time and again given me a list of about 60 verses, and I have made serious effort to address them most directly at: http://quraan-today.blogspot.com/ I have dealt with some of the Islamophobes who have made their business by maligning others including Islam, in this case. Look at their websites; they shamelessly ask for money, people should seriously debate if their money is going to bring peace or chaos.

Whether it is Pastor Jones, Jeffress, Phelps or Robertson, the media has failed to nail down the exact words or phrases that cause them to make such divisive declarations, and the unfinished business is frustrating the public.

America needs peacemakers who can boldly clarify the un-truths and myths about each other for the sake of peace. We owe peace and security to each one of the 301 Million Americans, our efforts ought to be directed so everyone us can live without fear, without harassment and without prejudices. My question to Pastors Jeffress, Jones, Phelps, Robertsons and their likes is this; Didn't Jesus pray and worked to create the kingdom of heaven on the earth, so all of us can live freely?

Some 2000 years ago, Jesus delivered the sermon "Blessed are the peace makers" on Mt. Beatitude, I was there and felt the power of that statement. I walked where Jesus walked on via Dela Rosa; I was baptized in the river Jordan where Jesus was baptized. Symbolically, I accepted Jesus’ message to become a peace maker by drenching myself in the holy water.

The role of people of religions is to mitigate conflicts and nurture goodwill. I ask Rev. Robert Jeffress, Rev. Pat Robertson, Rev. Fred Phelps and Rev. Terry Jones to walk the journey of peace with me.

Pastor, Muslims Meet to Discuss Quran
Published : Monday, 13 Sep 2010, 4:52 PM CDT

Richard Ray
FOX 4 News
Adapted for Web by Tracy DeLatte, myFOXdfw.com

DALLAS - First Baptist Church of Dallas Pastor Robert Jeffress said he has no regrets about calling Islam an evil religion. But on Sunday he gave a warm welcome to a group of Muslims visiting his church.

It was an unusual meeting of the minds. A pair of Muslim leaders showed up unexpectedly wanting to talk to the pastor, not sure what kind of reception they’d get.

“We have some very special guests here this morning. Leaders, members of the Islamic faith in Dallas and I want you to join me in giving them the warmest First Baptist welcome you can,” Jeffress said to his congregation.

Muslim Mike Ghouse was part of that small delegation and afterward met with Jeffress to discuss the Quran.

“He asked us to stand up and there was a good welcome. It was beautiful. I really liked that,” Ghouse.

He is convinced that Jeffress and most Americans have only read mistranslations of the Quran, where ugly language about Christians and Jews has been incorrectly inserted.

“What he said about the Quran and Islam I agree with him. He has read the wrong translation. To find the truth, to be peacemakers, we have to find the truth for the sake of a secure America. His statements are divisive and offense,” Ghouse said.

A study last month by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that over the past five years the percentage of Americans with a positive view of Islam has dropped dramatically from 41 to 30 percent.

Jeffress said he enjoyed his meeting with Ghouse and the others, but still believes he has read an accurate translation. He expresses no regret for what he’s said about the religion.

“I have to regrets at all. I think some of my statements have been mischaracterized simply because the whole statement wasn’t given. I don’t believe most Muslims are terrorists. I don’t think most Muslims oppress women. But there is something within the religion of Islam itself that I believe incites violence,” he said.

Jeffress said he thinks he can disagree in a loving and kind way.

“I think we need to quit walking on egg shells. I think we do need to tell the truth. We tell it in love. But we still tell the truth,” he said.

Ghouse and the others involved in the meeting said they’d like to meet with Jeffress again in the future to have a deeper discussion.
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