American evangelist Billy Graham. "It is not the statement that I would want to make," said Doug Birdsall, the Executive Chair of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization (LCWE) in an interview with BosNewsLife.
Birdsall, 53, referred to preacher Franklin Graham’s media statements in which he described Islam as "a very evil and wicked religion." Graham has refused to apologize for the remarks he made following the September 11 terror attacks in the United States.
"I personally have many Muslim friends. But I decry the evil that has been done in the name of Islam, or any other faith – including Christianity," Franklin Graham later said.
However LCWE official Birdsall suggested to BosNewsLife that the "evil religion" comments could make it more difficult for the Lausanne Movement to evangelize in an already "increasingly hostile world " towards evangelicals.
THE CROSS
"We do know that the Cross, we are told in the Gospel, will be an offense to the world," said Birdsall, a former missionary himself, in reference to the estimated 200 million Christians persecuted for their faith around the world.
"It is not that we can work out to be loved, but we want to be loving. We may be stoned, we may give our life, but not because we have been inflammatory in our presentation. We simply must represent the Gospel as a truth from God."
Ironically, Franklin’s father, Billy Graham, played a key role in establishing the LCWE and Lausanne movement, named after the Swiss town where its first congress on world evangelization was held in 1974.
"I think the context in which [Franklin Graham’s statement] was made, it was unfortunately
inflammatory," Birdsall said about Muslim protests against the remarks. "To call it [Islam] an evil religion," was wrong, he stressed. "There are other ways to communicate differences, rather than [to say] something that seems to be a frontal attack not just on a religion but on a whole region of the world."
"RELIGIOUS GARB"
Birdsall said, "We can’t as cultures wrap our values in religious garb. So when we are seen to attack [and say something] that is offensive to a person’s faith, we are challenging their whole culture."
He spoke in the Hungarian capital Budapest where on Saturday, June 23, delegates began leaving after a week-long international meeting on evangelism, where dealing with different cultures was an important theme.
The LCWE gathering, which brought together nearly 400 Christian leaders from over 60 countries, was a "preparation session" for the third ‘Lausanne’ congress on world evangelization, which will be held in October of 2010 in Cape Town, South Africa, organizers announced.
Since 1974, when 2,700 evangelical leaders from 150 countries attended, there has been only one other LCWE world congress on evangelization in 1989 with over 3,600 officials from 190 nations attending ‘Lausanne II’ in Manila, Philippines.
NEW REFORMATION
Birdsall said participants in Budapest agreed it was time for a "21st century Reformation in the Church." He added evangelical churches in the West are in some ways dealing with the same "power and money excesses" that started the 16th century Reformation. "It is time for more humility," he said.
Birdsall noted that the ‘Lausanne III: Cape Town 2010’ International Congress on World Evangelization will be held exactly 100 years after the first major world meeting on evangelization and missions in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Delegates agreed the world has changed since that historic 1910 meeting. The Lausanne Movement must therefore include "more leaders from the Global South", a reference to both developing nations and especially African Anglican Church leaders who oppose same-sex marriages allowed by several Western churches, confirmed Birdsall.
"We are very committed to recovering a very strong moral frame work for the Church and society globally, but particularly in places where churches already exist but where we had such a tremendous loss of moral power in these places." He said particularly Europe had become a new mission field for African and other evangelists. Participants agreed.
GREATER OWNERSHIP
"The significant outcome of this week was a sense of greater ownership by African leaders. [The world congress on world evangelization] of 2010 cannot be a continental event…Our goal is to get everyone involved from the broader church," said Peter Tarantal, who represents the evangelical Global Leadership Working Group (South Africa).
Leaders also made clear that before and after the 2010 world congress the Lausanne Movement will "have to maintain the importance of evangelism in a hostile world," according to a statement released at the meeting.
With support of leaders "from the Global South" Lausanne wants to reach out to "the next generation, marginalized people and children at risk" and help those suffering of hunger, poverty and HIV/AIDS.
Delegates also noted the importance of urban evangelists in the 21st century. Birdsall: "We want to move forward together with a united focus on evangelization."
