Who’s Afraid of the Southern Baptists?
It’s no mystery why the Southern Baptists have been growing: They evangelize.
Anybody got a problem with that? Well, the Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago does. You see, the Southern Baptists hope that the year 2000 will see some 100,000 Southern Baptists come to Chicago to perform social service and witness verbally to the Baptist faith.
So, what’s the problem? It’s a free country, isn’t it? Freedom of religion, and all that.
Well, according to an excellent news story in The Wanderer (Jan. 6, 2000) by Mark Tooley, a Methodist, the Council is principally worried that Baptist evangelism could provoke “hate crimes” against non-Baptists. Yeah, right! Does anybody have evidence that Baptist evangelizers incite violence? Would the Council lobby the government to forbid Billy Graham from holding revival meetings? Would the Council try to ban Jerry Falwell from TV?
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