The ethics of conversion
By Alexander Carpenter
You may have been aware that Christians churches throughout the world have been gathering recently to knock out a ethics of conversion. The Associated Press writes: Evangelical groups have
joined efforts spearheaded by Roman Catholic, Orthodox and mainstream
Protestant churches to create a common code for religious conversions
that would preserve the right of Christians to spread their religion
while avoiding conflict among different faiths.
The World Council of Churches, which joined the Vatican last year
in launching talks on a code, said Wednesday that the process was
formally joined by the World Evangelical Alliance at a meeting earlier
this month in France.
The code aims to ease tensions with Muslims, Hindus and other
religious groups that fear losing adherents and resort to punishments
as extreme as imprisonment and even death for converts from their faith
and foreign missionaries.
And ReligioScope reports:
“‘Evangelical’ and ‘ecumenical’ Christians
have never been as close in this regard as they are today. Thus,
something that would not have been possible 30 years ago has become
achievable,” said Thomas Schirrmacher, a German theologian who chairs
the WEA‘s
International Institute for Religious Freedom. “It would be the first
time ever that such a broad Christian backing is given to an agreement
of this kind.”
Adventism’s own North American Religious Liberty Association (I’m a proud member) has a position on this, and executive director James Standish shares his opinion below.