WASHINGTON — Southern Baptist Seminary President Al Mohler and two other evangelical leaders have criticized the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) for its involvement in an attempt at Muslim-Christian dialogue. The criticism came in a Jan. 3 article on CitizenLink.com, which is part of Focus on the Family.
The critics said NAE President Leith Anderson and Rich Cizik, NAE’s vice president for governmental affairs, should not have added their names to a letter titled “Loving God and Neighbor Together: A Christian Response to ‘A Common Word Between Us and You.’”
Mohler stated that the letter seems to marginalize the uniqueness and divinity of Christ and that Anderson and Cizik’s participation represented “naiveté that borders on dishonesty.”
The response said the signatories “were deeply encouraged” by the Muslims’ earlier letter. They said they received it “as a Muslim hand of conviviality and cooperation extended to Christians worldwide” and they wanted to respond by extending “our own Christian hand in return, so that together with all other human beings we may live in peace and justice as we seek to love God and our neighbors.”
The letter, published in a Nov. 18, 2007, New York Times advertisement and spearheaded by four prominent Christian scholars at Yale Divinity School in New Haven, Conn., was signed by a broad array of more than 300 evangelical, mainline Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox Christian leaders in the United States and abroad. Among the signatories were Timothy George, dean of Beeson Divinity School at Samford University in Birmingham; Charlotte R. Ward, life deacon at First Baptist Church, Auburn; and Rick Warren, senior pastor of Saddleback Church, Lake Forest, Calif.
It was a response to a letter signed by more than 100 Muslim leaders from around the world, calling for Muslims, Christians and Jews to find commonality for the sake of preventing further religious suspicion and conflict.
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