A press conference with famous evangelist Tony Campolo at the Baptist Centenary Congress Thursday highlighted and focused on discussions of interfaith relationships and topics of religious hatred growing in the UK.
Birmingham, where the Baptist Centenary Congress is being held, is one of the most highly diverse and multi-cultural city’s in Britain. When asked about how to reach out to people of all faiths, Tony Campolo suggested that Christian churches had to understand the young people in their churches first.
Several suspect bombers related to the devastating attacks on the London underground three weeks ago were arrested in Birmingham just before the Congress started. Some of the suspects and suicide bombers unveiled are shockingly just in their teenage years. This has raised the concerns of churches and other non-Christian groups over young congregations, and this issue was echoed by Tony Campolo.
Tony Campolo urged the churches to encourage young people to take the initiative to reach out to people of other faiths. He suggested that the peace making process between two different faiths can be started by very simple acts in every day life. For instance, teenagers of opposite faiths can meet together and discuss what they could do together to reconcile their two communities and to facilitate peace.
He said, “I believe only teenagers can reach teenagers with the loving message of Christ.”
In response to the new controversial Religious Hatred Bill approved by the House of Commons, Tony Campolo said that the state must not be allowed to say what can and cannot be said in a house of worship if it confines the freedom of speech of religious leaders.
Campolo emphasised that even when two religions make the basic statements of faith stating that their religion was the only way to salvation then this would obviously cause offence to people saying the otherwise.
However, Campolo did also go on to say that it had to be recognised that there was a clear difference between preaching hate and simply standing up for your personal convictions.
“If one group shows and spreads hatred to another group then it must be stopped. I am appalled if there is one religion preaching to hate and destroy believers of another religion,” said Campolo.
The basics, however, to overcome this preaching of hate and this evil was by doing good, and not using political powers he concluded.
The Congress was also a time Campolo chose to testify the Baptist Church in Britain for being so open to the diverse types of churches and worshippers there are, and this could even be seen from church to church in the UK.
Following on from Rick Warren’s earlier speech at the congress, Campolo emphasised the importance of local churches across the world and the local pastors that worked in them.
“The parent churches are used to change people into believers, but it is then the local churches that change people into disciples of Christ. If people are generally asked do you believe in God, or in Christ then they would answer yes, however, if they were asked do they go to church they many would say no,” he said.
“Making people into believers is only 10 percent of the job, but the other 90% is the local churches changing them into disciples of Christ,” Campolo concluded.
