Prominent Christian leaders reassert constitutional right to evangelize The Layman Online Tuesday, June 6, 2000 Stung by assertions that preaching can lead to hate crimes, some of the country's most prominent Christian leaders are reasserting the constitutional right to evangelize. Eighty-four scholars, theologians, and church leaders have endorsed a document called "The Chicago Declaration on Religious Freedom: Sharing Jesus Christ in a Pluralistic Society." They include Charles Colson of Prison Fellowship, theologians Carl F. H. Henry, J.I. Packer, R.C. Sproul, and Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham. The leaders rejected the notion that evangelism undermines "a peaceful, pluralistic society and may lead to intolerance, bigotry, and even violence," and said that only a society that permits free discourse "can safeguard the true liberty, freedom, and human dignity we all pursue." The declaration also "acknowledges with shame that some Christian churches have failed to exercise proper respect for the rights and dignity of others," and rejects the use of "coercive techniques, dishonest appeals, or any form of deception." Evangelism leads to violence? Southern Baptists last year announced a plan to evangelize Chicago this summer. An interfaith coalition asked the denomination to reconsider the campaign, fearing that it might lead to violence against Jews, Hindus and Muslims. A Presbyterian, the Rev. Paul H. Rutgers, retired executive presbyter of the Chicago Presbytery, wrote the letter on behalf of the Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago, which he says is a group of 40 Roman Catholic, Protestant and Jewish communions. While urging Paige Patterson, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, to call off the volunteer evangelists, Rutgers did say they were welcome to go to Chicago to perform service projects. That was "the straw that broke the camel's back," Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, told the Dallas Morning News. Saying that evangelism leads to hate crimes is nonsense, he said. "The declaration puts our critics on notice that they're going to have to defend what appears to a lot of Americans to be intolerance." Salvation in Jesus disputed In January, Rutgers told The Presbyterian Layman that he disagreed with Baptist – and Christian – theology that salvation comes only through faith in Jesus Christ. "I cannot say [to non-Christians] that if you don't know Jesus, you're living in impenetrable darkness," Rutgers said. In his letter to Patterson, Rutgers warned that the evangelism effort could "disrupt the pattern of peaceful inter-faith relations in our community and unwittingly abet the designs of those who seek to provoke hate crimes by fomenting faith-based prejudice." R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said, "To link New Testament evangelism with hate crimes is cowardice posing as compassion. This is political posturing, not a serious argument. It greatly saddens me to see so many supposedly Christian leaders who are determined to avoid evangelization at all costs." Religion Today contributed to this report.

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