Apr. 23 2010
Survey: Protestant Pastors View Islam with SuspicionNASHVILLE, Tenn. – Protestant pastors in the U.S. have a negative view of Islam and more than half agree with Franklin Graham’s statement that Islam is an “evil” religion, according to a just-released study by LifeWay Research. More than 4 in 10 agree that Islam is dangerous and promotes violence.
Graham, son of Billy Graham, stirred controversy in 2001 by saying Islam is an “evil” religion. Recently, Graham called Islam offensive and wants Muslims to know Jesus died for their sins. In response, the U.S. Army yesterday rescinded an invitation to Graham to speak at a May 6 prayer service at the Pentagon, calling his comments “not appropriate.”
Most Protestant pastors, however, agree with Graham according to a telephone survey of 1,000 church leaders conducted March 1-9, 2010, before the current controversy.
The survey included questions about the differences between the religions, giving the respondents the opportunity to choose between positive and negative descriptors.
“When given the choice, they consistently chose the negative descriptions,” explained Ed Stetzer, president of LifeWay Research. “This should not surprise us – Protestant Christianity is, in a sense, a competing faith, and that comes through in the survey.”
Protestant pastors were asked which is closer to their beliefs: Graham’s widely reported comment that Islam is “a very evil and a very wicked religion,” or former President George W. Bush’s remark that “the Muslim faith is based upon peace and love and compassion.”
Forty-seven percent of the pastors surveyed believe Graham’s assessment of Islam is accurate, and an additional 12 percent agree with both Graham’s and Bush’s statements. Twenty-four percent agree with the former president’s statement only. The rest could not decide.
“This means a majority of Protestant pastors chose statements that agree with Franklin Graham’s statement,” Stetzer said. “Of those who chose only one statement, respondents agree with Graham over Bush at a 2-to-1 rate.
“Franklin Graham’s belief about Islam is a mainstream view among Protestant pastors.”
Additionally, those identifying themselves as evangelical are more than twice as likely to agree with Graham’s assessment of Islam.Other findings:
– Three out of 4 pastors disagree with the statement, “Christians and Muslims pray to the same God” – 69 percent disagree strongly.
– Eighty-two percent say Islam is “fundamentally different from Christianity.”
– Forty-two percent agree that Islam “promotes violence.”
– Four in 10 say the religion is “spiritually evil.”
– One in 3 says Islam “promotes charity.”
– Twenty-eight percent consider the religion “relevant today.”
However, a minority of pastors, especially those from mainline denominations, hold a more positive view of Islam.
One-quarter of all pastors agree “the Islamic religion is a relevant and viable religion for today,” including 11 percent who strongly agree. Similarly, 19 percent say Islam is “spiritually good” and 16 percent characterize the religion as “tolerant.”
Those who strongly agree they know a Muslim personally are more likely to agree with Graham that Islam is “evil” (43 percent) than with Bush’s statement that it is a religion of “peace and love and compassion” (28 percent). Despite agreeing that Islam is an “evil” and “wicked” religion, those who strongly agree they know a Muslim personally were more positive in their reaction to statements about Islam promoting charity and being spiritually good.
“We should not say that Protestant pastors are uniform in their view and in no way does this study show they think that Muslims are bad people, but it does show concerns about the religion and its impact,” said Scott McConnell, associate director of LifeWay Research.
Regardless of their views about Islam, 6 in 10 pastors agree that Christianity and Islam should seek to coexist in America.
“This is not the first survey to look at the perception of Islam,” explained Stetzer. “Pew and others have pointed to negative perceptions among the American people. However, it is important to consider the religious view of the leaders of the largest faith group in America: Protestants. The fact is Protestant pastors tend to hold a negative view of Islam, but they also believe they should seek to coexist.”
LifeWay Research is an evangelical polling organization in Nashville, Tenn. More details of the study may be found at www.lifewayresearch.com.
Funny how McConnell and Stetzer, try and downplay the results of the survey.
Pislam can go to hell where it belongs together with mo and allah and every damned arselifter on the planet!
Its reported that Mahound one said that hell had lots of women in it. He claims to have seen it for himself. I bet he felt right at home there.
There is a 15th century fresco in some north-italian church depicting the pedophet having a great BBQ with the devils. Supposedly the arselifters has tried to have had it destroyed numerous times throughout history, so far with out any success. Perhaps the artist had a vision of it like Allison Dubois lol.
There's also a statue in a Belgian church or cathedral of Mahound under the foot of some saint.
They want to silence, or destroy what they do not agree with.
Under Islam, hell has more women than men.
Then there is this….
004.056
YUSUFALI: Those who reject our Signs, We shall soon cast into the Fire: as often as their skins are roasted through, We shall change them for fresh skins, that they may taste the penalty: for Allah is Exalted in Power, Wise.
The one I was thinking of was Mahound telling women he saw mostly women in hell. I think it had something to do with giving to charity.
If the Islamic scriptures were true, you, I, and Robin are in for it.
Bukhari (54:487) – Someone asked, "O Allah's Apostle This (ordinary) fire would have been sufficient (to torture the unbelievers)," Allah's Apostle said, "The (Hell) Fire has 69 parts more than the ordinary (worldly) fire, each part is as hot as this (worldly) fire." In other words, ordinary fire isn't hot enough to torture non-Muslims. Therefore the fire in Hell is 69 times hotter.
Yikes!
I thought western women where hot but I guess I was wrong LOL.
It was narrated from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) that women will form the majority of the people of Hell. It was narrated from ‘Imraan ibn Husayn that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “I looked into Paradise and I saw that the majority of its people were the poor. And I looked into Hell and I saw that the majority of its people are women.”
(Narrated by al-Bukhaari, 3241; Muslim, 2737)
It was narrated that ‘Abd-Allaah ibn ‘Abbaas said: The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “I was shown Hell and I have never seen anything more terrifying than it. And I saw that the majority of its people are women.” They said, “Why, O Messenger of Allaah?” He said, “Because of their ingratitude (kufr).” It was said, “Are they ungrateful to Allaah?” He said, “They are ungrateful to their companions (husbands) and ungrateful for good treatment. If you are kind to one of them for a lifetime then she sees one (undesirable) thing in you, she will say, ‘I have never had anything good from you.’” (Narrated by al-Bukhaari, 1052)
ungrateful for good treatment. Oh, right! I'd love to know what arselifters consider bad treatment of women.
Which is funny because arselifting bints are the poorest in pislamic societies. I guess there's no room for them in jihadi heaven. Or they have no use for 72 female virgins.
That’s because they’re too busy having their butts in the air so many times a day that they don’t have time to do some decent work.
That's why I call them arselifters.
I was trying to be a little more “delicate” ;o)
Buttlifters? Too bad Moonies is taken!
Point taken….
Its time to take a stand against Islam before its too late! We are looking for those who are willing to do so . Contact us, [email protected].
You know, my experience with Protestant Pastors is that, while they know Islam is a different religion, and they will even voice that idea on occasion, they will not stand up against
Islamic slavery in Sudan,
Islamic Jihad in Israel
Murder of Christians in Nigeria, Egypt, etc.
They are completely weak-kneed.
The disappointing part of the survey, is that they think Christianity, and Islam can coexist. If not stopped Islam will dominate Christianity here as well. They need to learn the lessons of Christianity in the Middle East.
They need to be educated about it. I suspect most don't really know the first thing about it because they were never taught. That's to be expected, I suppose, but its never too late.
Here's a 10 min clip from a longer documentary about slavery and genocide in Sudan. I just want to make a disclaimer that there is some really disturbing scenes in it but I want to spread it anyway. All people naive about co-existing with pislam needs to see it.
http://allahuakbar.se/wordpress/?p=9282#comments
Thanks Robin.
WOW! I'd like to see the full documentary. It looks to be American.
I went to YouTube to learn a little more but there weren't many comments. However, the uploader seems to have a few videos. Here's the link to his channel 0
http://www.youtube.com/user/islamthreat
Ah, found the original source http://myslave.tv/myslave_tv.html
You know, my experience with Protestant Pastors is that, while they know Islam is a different religion, and they will even voice that idea on occasion, they will not stand up against
By the way, "Cancer of American-Islamic Relations". That's great. Good one.
Thanks! Keep up the good work over there, as well.
Pastorius makes an essential point that the pastors will not stand up to Islam. Responding to him ChristopherL makes the point that the pastors believe they can coexist with islam –This is equivalant to knowing there is a deadly ailment but doing nothing to treat it, meaning America will be destroyed by islam.
One person who will stand up to fight islam is Steve Klein, he is thinking of founding a movement called ABOLISH ISLAM which is necessary if America will survive as a nation. It is absolutely impossible to coexist with islam and history proves this a billion time over and over.
Pastorius and Christopher, you fellows are what makes America, America,
Martel Sobieskey
They may want to think about the name a little more. Calling it Abolish Islam might get it labelled as a hate group. I'd suggest something a little more covert like Coalition for Anti-Islamic Response (CAIR). Robert Spenser and Pam Geller have SIOA.
I think that the SIOA name is great. If American Muslims are truly secular, (which they are not) they would not want the country Islamized.
Yes, but that's their aim. Introduce sharia, etc. We see this often enough in Europe, the US and Canada, Australia and elsewhere. They telegraph their intentions way too soon but not enough people take notice.
It will require all the Christian denominations in the US working together. I'm not sure how large the various groups are but I suspect its Baptist, Catholic and Protestant as the 3 biggest. If they can all agree on coordinating against pislam, then people are bound to pay attention.
Agreed ~ & I think that time is nigh. I know several Christian groups around here are working with Jewish leaders, & I heard something about Catholics making friends with the Protestants ~ which has been a lo-oooong time coming. "pislam", by the way, is as good as "arselifters" ~ I'm going to start Tweeting both 🙂
Be my guest! LOL!
I like Michael Savage. I love his rants about pislam. 🙂
As a Catholic, I can tell you that the great majority of our clergy believes as does Dr. Graham. The problem we all have, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs etc., etc. is that none of them dares to say so publicly, or to educate his congregation regarding the islamic menace.__Why are we so afraid to speak out? The bad guys certainly show no reluctance to brainwash their flocks of mosque rats.
Here's what the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal Pell, had to say about the koran –
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2006/s16…
Keysar Trad is a local arselifting apologist. Originally from Lebanon, I believe.
Personally, I wish Pell would be more aggressive and assertive about his statements. Australia has a high proportion of Catholics with Protestants being mainly Anglican. (We don't have a large number of Baptists here, unlike the US.) So anything he says would influence a lot of people. I believe he's also high up in the church hierarchy.
Here's what the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal Pell, had to say about the koran –
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2006/s16…
Keysar Trad is a local arselifting apologist. Originally from Lebanon, I believe.
Personally, I wish Pell would be more aggressive and assertive about his statements. Australia has a high proportion of Catholics with Protestants being mainly Anglican. (We don't have a large number of Baptists here, unlike the US.) So anything he says would influence a lot of people. I believe he's also high up in the church hierarchy.
Gary, as an ex-catholic I agree with suprkufrB that they just don't have the guts to stand up and take a stand. Some how todays PCness has creeped into the church at a level thats made it it's own worst enemy when it comes to saying anything bad about anything. I remember the picture of Pope John Paul holdning a Koran in the Vatican yacking about interfaith dialog, well I think that somes up the resistance you are going to get from the Catholic church when it comes to Islam. Nada, we're -ucked if the Christians leaders don't stand up and make this their main message. If not they will be telling Christians 100 years from now to have faith and follow the example of Jesus of suffering and persecution, which will be at the hand of Muslims.. It's so easy to see but getting people to see it is next to impossible..
You're right, Mike. Now if only they voted Pell in as the Pope rather than Ratzinger.
19 percent say Islam is “spiritually good” and 16 percent characterize the religion as “tolerant.”
How many different ways can I say FOOLS!
Infinitely many?
Its time to take a stand against Islam before its too late! We are looking for those who are willing to do so . We need to stop talking about what we should do and ACT. Politics will not stop Islam. Only the Church can do the job. Contact us, [email protected].
To know just how evil Islam is and how deep the rabbit hole goes, you need to cram Islam's long history and master all the key facts. The best place to do it free online is the Historyscoper, to get started find the time and clickhttp://go.to/islamhistory
I read your work. It’s brilliant. I’ve sent people who act intrested about Islam to your site, but you know how hard it is to find time and all with taking the kids to school, coffee at Star Bucks, gettting in shape, shopping on line, watching the latest reality show or American Idiot, trying to figure out what new car to buy, reading the latest magazine on fashion, and oh how could I forget about my golf game. OK I’ll stop. Thanks for all your time and effort, It hasn’t gone unnoticed with me..Michael Elmore
Stopping Islamic encroachment in the United States of America will probably mean having to remove from office Barack Hussein Obama and also taking down Islam's arch-enabler George Soros. Both Obama and Soros are ruthlessly aiming to destroy the United States of America and replace it with a puppet dictatorship of an Islam-friendly new World Order. I don't imagine any of us thinks that Barack Hussein Obama is voluntarily going to step down from the US presidency this year, in 2012, or any other year. I don't think anyone believes that he is going to do a single thing to stop Islam's advancing and increasingly violent global jihad either. And he most certainly isn't going to do anythig to make any os us safer from islamic terror attacks either.
Islam is an evil totalitarian political ideology that uses violence to subjugate humankind and which uses archaic theology to hide itself behind. Barack Hussein Obama is an evil man who has usurped the US presidency to enact an agenda of enabling jihad. George Soros is an enemy of the American people and democratic government– and a friend to the global jihad (despite his being a non-Muslim).
It seems that there are still too many that are ignorant of what islam is. And the Catholic Church should be ashamed of itself because they are mostly just 'useful idiots'.
if you are a christian or a pastor/leader of a church then you should recognise that every religion in this world that doesnt recognise jesus christ as the saviour/lord god is not for god but against god…so to all who wear a cross on sunday yet disown jesus every other day -eg the pope..sorry your not a christian but a fake deciple.. we all have sin in our lives but god commands us all as his followers to stand up & preach the gospel of jesus daily in our lives-its every christians job-every christian is equal,,so pope snap out of it waving you hands dressed in robes like your royalty get out of your golf cart & tell the truth that jesus is alive & that he is the only way
Keep up the fight!