In response to the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) holding its annual convention at a Christian church for the first time ever, that church — All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, Calif. — has received over 25 hate emails and threats.
For the first time in its history, the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) is holding its annual convention at a Christian church. But now the council’s host, All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, Calif., is facing vitriolic backlash.
The church has received over 25 hate emails and threats since Friday, Rev. Susan Russell, senior associate for communications at All Saints, told The Huffington Post Wednesday. She blogged about the MPAC event for HuffPost Tuesday, and spoke to the negative reception the church has faced so far.
Russell sent text of some of these messages to The Huffington Post, including a quote from one comparing Islam to Nazism and calling Muslims “Body Snatchers.” Another quote reads, “You are Consorting with the Enemy that is Killing Christians Worldwide.”
Russell writes of another, from South Carolina, that reads, “The problem is that by providing cover and legitimacy to an organization dedicated to overthrowing the Constitution, and substituting Sharia law therefore, you endanger my country and my grandsons’ future.”
All Saints Church, which is known for its progressive activism, is used to receiving criticism, usually from more conservative Christians. Still, the church’s reverend, Ed Bacon, said in his sermon Sunday that these were “some of the most vile, mean-spirited emails I’ve ever read in my life, talking about All Saints participating in terrorism,” as Russell recounted in her post.
The emails started coming in after the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD), a conservative Christian group, published a criticism of the convention venue Friday. “Yet again, the Islamists are taking advantage of naïve Christians with a desire to show off their tolerance,” the IRD wrote on its website.
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Categories: Americas, United States