Baptist Urges Prayers for Muslims’ Conversion

Southern Baptist Convention President James Merritt has asked members of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination to pray for the Christian conversion of Muslims on the last day of Ramadan.

In a statement released Monday, Merritt asked Southern Baptists “to pray and fast that God will miraculously and supernaturally reveal himself through Jesus Christ to Muslims on that day.”

Merritt said Christians should join in the time of fasting observed by Muslims during Ramadan.

“Just as they can pray and fast, we want to pray and fast that they will find the true way to heaven, and this is through Jesus Christ,” he said.

Merritt also voiced concern about religious pluralism in America.

“If Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven, the only true religion therefore must be Christianity,” he said. “Every other religion gives a false hope of having a relationship with God. That’s not what I say, that’s what Jesus says.”

Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American Islamic Relations, responded to Merritt’s words by saying: “It’s a free country. If he wants to have Christians fast and pray, we’re hardly in a position to tell people not to,” Hooper said.