ST. LOUIS (AP) — The public policy chief of the Southern Baptist Church on Wednesday gave an impassioned defense of the denomination's support for the right of Muslims to build mosques in the United States.
The Rev. Russell Moore responded to a question by Arkansas Pastor John Wofford’s at the SBC’s annual meeting in St. Louis.
“I would like to know how in the world someone within the Southern Baptist convention can support the defending of rights for Muslims to construct Mosques in the United States when these people threaten our very way of existence as Christians and Americans.”
Moore immediately fired back saying that a government that threatens Muslims today could threaten Christians tomorrow. He concluded that supporting the rights of Muslims to build houses of worship wasn’t a hard call to make.
“Sometimes we have really hard decisions to make. This isn’t one of those things. What it means to be a Baptist is to support soul freedom for everybody.”
Moore didn’t shy away from other controversial issues. He noted the Southern Baptist Vonvention, the nation's largest protestant denomination, remain firmly opposed to abortion, same sex marriage, and equal facilities access for transgender individuals.