Southern Baptist leader defends religious liberty for Muslims

[rug]

By Adelle M. Banks | June 15, 2016

(RNS) Southern Baptists are usually the first to defend religious freedom. But when it comes to Muslims, some want to draw a line.

At their annual meeting in St. Louis, an Arkansas pastor said Baptists shouldn’t support the right of Muslims to build mosques, especially “when these people threaten our very way of existence as Christians and Americans.”

That suggestion was soundly rejected by Russell Moore, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, who pointed to the dangers of government dictating who should have religious freedom.

“The answer to Islam is not government power,” he said. “The answer is the gospel of Jesus Christ and the new birth that comes from that.”

http://religionnews.com/2016/06/15/southern-baptists-debate-religious-liberty-for-muslims/