As more information came to light about the San Bernardino shooters and their extremist views, a vigorous debate continued to unfold over national security and tolerance. GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump provoked international controversy with his call for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.”
Donald Trump: “Our country cannot be the victim of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in jihad.”
Many across the faith community condemned the plan as discriminatory and a violation of religious liberty. The Council on American-Islamic Relations said their faith was being unfairly singled out by a lynch mob. Thousands of US faith leaders wrote an open letter urging Trump to repudiate his comments. Reverend Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, called the plan “reckless rhetoric.”
Russell Moore: “The idea of banning people from the country simply because of what they believe? It’s shocking to me. When I first heard this, I had to stop and say, did I really hear that correctly and listen to it again. It’s really troubling.”
He said his evangelical beliefs motivate him to speak out.
Russell Moore: “I believe that all people are created in the image of God and that faith is not something that can be coerced into existence or coerced out of existence. And so when we treat people in demeaning ways, we’re really assaulting the image of God. And so, for me, this is first and foremost a theological issue when we treat our Muslim neighbors this way.”
