NAPERVILLE, IllINOIS, January 22, 2016 (by Timothy C. Morgan, Religious News Service): HPI provides this news item to inform Hindus of the kind of predatory tactics used by some Christians to gain converts from traumatized communities.
Evangelical leaders are calling on American Christians to welcome Syrian refugees in their communities despite anxieties over differences of religion — arguing that it is an opportunity to preach the gospel. “We are having the wrong conversation about refugees,” Richard Stearns, head of the aid group World Vision, told a meeting of evangelicals. “We have managed to make the suffering of millions all about us. God wants us to share their pain.”
Around 500 people attended the GC2 Summit at the Community Christian Church, a Chicago-area megachurch. GC2 is a reference to the Great Commandment and Great Commission in the New Testament, which require Christians to love God and their neighbors, and to evangelize. Ed Stetzer, executive director of LifeWay Research, an evangelical polling organization, called it “the largest gathering of evangelicals on refugees ever.” The aim of the summit was to spark a new church-based outreach to the physical and spiritual needs of refugees similar to the faith-based outreach to people with HIV/AIDS that began about 15 years ago. Evangelical groups involved include World Vision, World Relief, the Willow Creek Association, Saddleback Church, the Southern Baptist Convention and the Humanitarian Disaster Institute at Wheaton College.
In the audience, Raed Awabdeh, pastor of the Arabic Church in Sacramento, Calif., said the GC2 message resonated with him. A Syrian immigrant, Awabdeh established an Arab-American Learning Center in Sacramento, where up to 30 Muslim families per day come to the center for assistance with school supplies, transportation, housing and employment. “Invite the Muslim to sit with you. Make true friends. Be the gospel and preach the gospel,” he said, adding that Christians should not engage Muslims in theological argument. He also said attitudes toward Muslims change when churchgoers get to know refugees. “Refugees are precious in God Almighty’s sight,” he said. “This movement needs us to get in the game.”