One listen to his sermon can unravel so much about this man.
I was in his Church on Sunday, September 12, 2010. He wanted 400 of his congregation members to sign up on the Pastors special 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 – assuming he figured 2400 new converts at $ 1000 per head would give him in excess of $2million in revenues of which some will go to the expansion and the rest as a reward 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.
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 Fox News that he refers to his sermon and because Muslim were listening to him, to look good, he falsified the statement and said that he would put 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 said, “No other religions teaches purpose of life, except Christianity”. Later on in the lobby I had a conversation with him – that Baha’i, Hindu and Islam and other faiths 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. By the way, most clergy in most religions make the very same false exclusive claims. Shame on them for faking in the name of religion.
What made me visit the church with a fellow Muslim and a non-Baptist Christian was his comment a week earlier, “Quraan is an evil book written by a false prophet" and amazingly 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 his own 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.
Pastor Dr. Robert Jeffress did not take up 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 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. “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.” On the other hand I asked him, not to become a Muslim but join me in creating cohesive socieities by respecting the otherness of other, which was a call from Jesus Christ to create heaven on the earth; blessed are the peace makers".
We did the most amazing conference on Quraan addressing difficult 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, Fred Phelps and others who have not made any effort to find the truth, let alone understand the book.
Ever since we declared our independence, 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.
We have to find sustainable solutions by
Links in the article:
1. The Quraan Conference Program http://quraanconference.blogspot.com/2010/12/quraan-conference-program-sequence.html
2. List of difficult Passages in Quraan
http://quraan-today.blogspot.com/2010/12/list-of-difficult-passages-in-quraan.html
http://quraan-today.blogspot.com/2010/12/list-of-difficult-passages-in-quraan.html
3. Graceful Closure to Robert Jeffress rants
http://quraanconference.blogspot.com/2010/09/graceful-closure-to-dr-jeffress.html
http://quraanconference.blogspot.com/2010/09/graceful-closure-to-dr-jeffress.html
4. Americans together
http://americatogetherfoundation.blogspot.com/2010/11/americans-together-building-cohesive.html
http://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 at http://www.mikeghouse.net/ and you can find all of his current articles at www.TheGhousediary.com
SEVERAL VIDEOS AND PRINT LINKS http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2011/10/pastor-robert-jeffress-and-his-bigotry.html