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Southern Baptists Warned Against Religious Blitz

J M Shenoy

For Hindus in Chicago, who have been thinking of holding a demonstration against Southern Baptists for their insolent prayer book against Hinduism, a recent statement issued by some of Chicago's Christian leaders could be an encouragement.

Chicago and the neighboring cities have more than 50,000 Hindus. There are half a dozen Hindu temples in Chicago and the suburbs that attract devotees from not only the Windy City but also from cities in the neighboring states.

As Jews, targetted in an earlier tract of the Southern Baptists, joined Hindus in protests at Southern Baptist churches in Atlanta, Houston and Boston, several Chicago religious leaders became upset over the Southern Baptists's plan to bring 100,000 missionaries to Chicago next summer in a proselytizing effort. The Muslims have not reacted yet. The Southern Baptists had earlier published a booklet to pray for the salvation of the Muslims. Chicago has nearly half-a-million Muslims, a substantial number of them from the Indian subcontinent.

The Southern Baptists, who have 16 million followers in America, have missionaries across America and in more than 60 countries. Its campaign to bring missionaries to Chicago is the first stop in its new Strategic Cities Initiative to break out of its stronghold in the rural south-east.

The Hindu Students Council and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad might join hands with Jewish and Muslim leaders in protesting the Southern Baptists's efforts in denigrating their religion. The tract on Hinduism says that 900 million people living under darkness and not having personal moral responsibilities.

Though a few in the Baptist clergy have protested against the use of harsh language in the booklet, none has called for the withdrawal of the booklet from 40,000 Southern Baptist churches.

On the other hand, Jerry Ranklin, president of the International Mission Board, which produced the anti-Hinduism prayer book said recently that the protests just prove "the blindness of the world as never before".

The Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago, representing the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago and 39 other major Christian and Jewish institutions, sent a letter on Saturday warning that the event planned by the Southern Baptists in June "could poison interfaith relations and indirectly contribute to violence.

"That smacks of a kind of non-Jesus-like arrogance."

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