Going to Church


Last night at the Campbell Baptist Church Zachariah Anani was supposed to speak on "Could Jihad be Coming to your Neighbourhood?" the second of four lectures on "The Deadly Threat of Islam." He didn't. Instead, like the rest of us in the audience, he listened to Donald McKay, the Church's pastor, briefly defend the two of them from accusations of hate mongering and then ask the overflow crowd to accept Jesus Christ as our saviour.

The uproar over the lecture series has dominated the front pages of the Windsor Star for the past week. Local politicians and community leaders have united behind the Muslim community, condemning the church for depicting Islam as inherently violent and oppressive. Anani's Canadian citizenship has been called into question by Windsor West MP Brian Masse, who wants to know if the admitted former terrorist had disclosed his past when he immigrated from Lebanon. The police were asked to lay charges under the hate crimes laws, but say that so far they have insufficient evidence to do so. There is a campaign to remove the church from the list of election polling stations. The Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches in Canada has expressed regret "for any offence or anxiety arising from the lectures."

After standing in line in the church's parking lot for half an hour and then listening to the opening prayer and the singing of Amazing Grace and the national anthem I was disappointed to hear that Anani would not be speaking. There were wry looks from the reporters and TV crews covering the event. However many in the mixed crowd of Evangelicals and Muslims seemed relieved.

The pastor's homily brought back childhood memories of sitting in the Kingdom Hall a few blocks away, listening to the congregation overseer preach about the false religions of Christendom. Indeed, my sister Diane, who now attends Campbell Baptist, tells me the pastor recently took on the Mormons, and from an announcement on the wall I could see that Roman Catholicism is going to come up for discussion in the near future.

McKay spoke about the difference between good Jihad (fighting evil) and militant Jihad (terrorism.) He then said the Crucifixion was God committing Jihad on Jesus and I was unsure which category that fell into. After 20 minutes he ended his remarks and invited us to enjoy some informal fellowship in the reception room next door. From the report in today's paper I see many, including Anani and members of the Muslim contingent, took him up on the offer. I left, feeling that as an agnostic and anti-theist any observations I might make would not go over all that well. A bit cowardly I admit and not my finest hour as a defender of free speech.

It is unclear whether Anani will return to the pulpit next week, when the topic is supposed to be "Why the Islamic Faith is Indefensible." Pastor McKay says the meeting is still on and people will just have to come and see what actually happens. I think I'll give that one a pass.

------

See also my post last Friday over at the Popinjays: Little Church in the Motor City. My use there of the term "diaspora" doesn't seem quite correct but so far no one has objected. Which reminds me, I'm using anti-theist in the sense Hitchens does, a belief that all religions are harmful.

Posted: Fri - January 19, 2007 at 01:20 PM          

©