The Presbyterian News Service removes an article & The Nation of Islam dialogues with a Presbyterian Church (Update)



Louis Farrakhan the leader of the Nation of Islam

The Presbyterian Outlook still has an article, “Committee seeks tools to help congregations engage in interfaith relationships,” posted that was posted by the Presbyterian News Service yesterday, January the 24^th. Today the PNS has taken it down; I had decided to write about it, I will still write. The article, I believe shows how much the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has descended into hate, ignorance and false teaching.

The posting gives examples of how different pastors and churches have supposedly practiced inter faith dialogue. The authors write:

“These examples, shared at a meeting of the General Assembly Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations (GACEIR) in Louisville, January 20–22, highlight the increasingly vital role of interfaith activities in Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregations.”

While I don’t believe that this is the reason the posting was taken down I want to write about one particular example, that is, the Reverend Dr. Mark Lomax, pastor of First Afrikan Presbyterian Church in Lithonia and his church’s dialogue with the Nation of Islam. How does one dialogue with a religious group that began as a hate group?

I have written about Lomax before since he is a pastor who not only uses cultural African ways of worship, he refers to God using ancient Egyptian gods which are not gods.

I went to the Nation of Islam’s web site wondering if the leader Louis Farrakhan had changed his positions. I saw immediately an interview of Farrakhan by Alex Jones of infowars.com. I thought that this would give me a clear view of Farrakhan’s religious views. But not really. Jones and Farrakhan were agreeing on several conspiracy theories, most involving a cabal of global elites who were taking over the world.  

The founder of the Nation of Islam was Wallace Dodd Ford (aka Fard Muhammad) who considered “himself to be an incarnation of Allah …” He designated Elijah Muhammad to be his successor.[1]  Theodore Gabriel author of the section on the Nation of Israel in New Religions: A Guide, writes of Elijah Muhammad:

“Elijah Muhammad enunciated a myth that depicted blacks as the original human beings created by Allah, and whites as the result of a generic experiment conducted by a black scientist named Yacub. The whites would be destroyed by blacks at the ‘end times’, now imminent, a day interpreted as the judgement day of which Islam speaks.”

Louis Farrakhan upholds the words and person of Elijah Muhammad as the prophet of their religion. In a speech he states:

 “I am a student of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and I could never thank Allah enough for His merciful intervention in our affairs in the Person of Master Fard Muhammad, The Great Mahdi—Who is in the world, and is championing the liberation struggle of our people, particularly in the United States of America. I greet all of you my dear and wonderful brothers and sisters with the greeting words of peace; we say it in the Arabic language:  As-Salaam Alaikum.”

And yet, there is more vitriol in Elijah Muhammad words than, surely, any PC (U.S.A.) member should accept. Dialoguing with The Nation of Islam is somewhat like dialoging with a neo-Nazi group, the only difference being the skin color.

Craig S. Keener and Glenn Usry in the book, New Religious Movements present an even clearer picture of the Nation of Islam, not only writing of their racism but also of their differences with Christianity.

Of the Nation of Islam’s racism they write:

“According to Elijah Muhammad, whites are devils by nature; there is no way out for them. People should stop preaching that God loves all people, he warns. God certainly does not love whites; in fact, he hates them. In Elijah’s understanding the Bible teaches that hell is the final destination for all whites, “an appointed people for hell fire from the beginning of their creation. Furthermore, biblical promises for the righteous can only apply to blacks.  … Whites constitute the Adamic race in the Bible, a devil race formed by the evil scientist Mr. Yakub to avenge himself against the pure and upright black world.”[2]

There is also anti-Semitism in the writings of the Nation of Islam. In the text of the interview of Louis Farrakhan by Alex Jones, Farrakhan states:

“This is why John Kennedy was killed. He understood the conspiracy and as far back as the Founding Fathers of this nation, they knew that there would be those who would try to take over, set up a Private Central Bank. They were told to guard against that and under Woodrow Wilson, in 1913, the guard left. William Rockefeller met on Jekyll Island with Paul Warburg and his brother who were from the Rothschilds. They wanted to set up like the five children of Rothschild, Sr., the Bank of Italy, the Bank of Austria, the Bank of France, the Bank of England, all started by the banking family.”

“Well, who cares who the politicians are,” Mr. Rothschild said, “as long as we control the wealth.” So they bankroll both sides of a conflict and end up ruling both sides. …”

Using Jewish names and bankers to implement Jews in both depression and war is anti-Semitic and untrue.

Which leads to another example in the PNS posting and I think perhaps the reason the story was removed, “In New York City, Jewish rabbis and Christian pastors have studied together a book about the contentious issues related to Israel/Palestine.” The book was not named which is an unusual for a news report in a denomination racked by controversy over Israel and the Palestinians. In fact, there are a few books that are a part of that controversy.

Update: The PNS has now added this posting back to their news site. They have however changed this statement, "In New York City, Jewish rabbis and Christian pastors have studied together a book about the contentious issues related to Israel/Palestine." to "In New York City, Jews and Presbyterians have hosted book studies reflecting on different sides of the Israel/Palestine conflict." Also after writing of the Westend Presbyterian Church in Manhattan and a Jewish congregation the authors write "The congregations also have engaged in a series of book studies reflecting on different sides of the Israel/Palestine conflict."

The further the denomination moves away from the biblical gospel the deeper she moves into unsettling dark bogs of heresy.

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[1] Theodore Gabriel, “The Nation of Islam,” in New Religions: A Guide, Editor Christopher Partridge, Foreword, J. Gordon Melton, (Oxford University Press 2004).

[2] Craig S. Keener and Glenn Usry, “The Nation of Islam,” A Guide to New Religious Movements, Ronald Enroth, Editor, (Downer Grove: Inter Varsity 2005).