A trustee of the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board has resigned in protest of the agency’s participation in a legal brief last year supporting construction of a New Jersey mosque.
The IMB and SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission were among 20 religious groups — including the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty — filing a brief last May arguing that communities cannot arbitrarily apply different standards to Muslims wanting to construct a place of worship just because their religion is unpopular. A federal judge ruled in the mosque’s favor Dec. 31, citing in part the coalition’s amicus brief.
Dean Haun
Dean Haun, pastor of First Baptist Church, Morristown, Tenn., told the Baptist and Reflector he didn’t know the IMB had signed the friend-of-the-court brief in support of the Islamic Society of Basking Ridge, N.J., until he started receiving emails and phone calls after it became public knowledge.
“I had to tell them I knew nothing about the IMB joining in this amicus brief, because we were not informed about its signing at our early May meeting,” Haun, a past president of the Tennessee Baptist Convention, told the newspaper.
An FAQ on the International Mission Board website says the agency “supports freedom of religion for all people both in the United States and around the world” but “does not in any way support the mosque financially or with human resources.”
Publicly supporting religious liberty for Muslims in the U.S. also gives IMB workers credibility when they lobby foreign governments to afford similar protection to Christian minorities overseas, the statement says.
Haun told the state convention news journal that he understands religious liberty but not why the IMB would want to jump into the fray. “When I look at our IMB mission and purpose statements, I cannot see how this action meshes with them,” he said.
“If we defend the rights of people to construct places of false worship are we not helping them speed down the highway to hell?” asked Haun, who chaired the IMB’s Northern Africa and the Middle Eastern Peoples Committee for two years.
“I want no part in supporting a false religion even if it is in the name of religious freedom,” he said. “Our Baptist institutions’ names will be on this brief setting legal precedence and supporting the right of mosques to be built all over our nation for years to come.”
Haun, a strong supporter of Israel who runs a ministry to Messianic followers of Jesus in the Holy Land, said he believes Islam doesn’t qualify for First Amendment protection because it isn’t really a religion.
“In my opinion Islam, which means to ‘submit,’ is a geo-political movement that seeks to replace our values and even our faith with Sharia law,” he said. “I doubt if the situation were reversed if the Muslims would stand up for our religious liberty.”
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