In the last blog posting I wrote about TheCall: Detroit that took place November 11 in the heart
of the city. As I watched portions of the 24-hour assembly where Christians prayed for the city, I
was touched by how Christ-centered and Spirit-inspired it was. The assembly was characterized
by lively faith, anointed prayer, and powerful praise to the Triune God. The attendees reflected a
loving heart for the city of Detroit. The tension, conflict, disorder, and disunity that have come to
characterize the Occupy Wall Street people were not evident among the 30,000 or so people who
took part in TheCall: Detroit.
There were religious leaders in Detroit who opposed what TheCall and its promoter Lou Eng-
els were attempting to do at the prayer assembly.The pastor of an historic Black church in De-
troit charged that TheCall would divide rather than unite with its message of hate. It was label-
led anti-Muslim, anti-homosexual, and anti-abortion. A Muslim cleric was concerned that the
attendees of the assembly would go into the city's streets to vandalize mosques and persecute
Muslim people. Apparently there was a group of Christian pastors who denounced Engels as
un-Christian, un-American, and idolatrous. They even criticized the pastors of some of Detroit's
largest African-American churches for being deceived by Engels. Engels and TheCall move-
ment were charged by a small group of religious leaders with being connected to the radical re-
ligious right and bringing divisiveness and fear into the city by its politics of deception.
An African-American cleric organized a small group of protesters that marched from Occupy
Detroit to where people were gathering for TheCall assembly. Nearly fifty demonstrators pro-
tested at the entrance of TheCall, displayed protest signs, listened to the minister give a speech,
and then left after an hour. I am saddened by the conduct of the ministers and their little flocks
of protesters. They represent the slow decline of the historic mainline Christian denominations.
They are fixated on fighting injustice, racism, the loss of reproductive rights, homophobia, ex-
clusivism, and so on. It is most unfortunate that they are blind to Christ's death for the forgive-
ness of sin, his burial, his resurrection from the dead, his ascension into heaven where he sits at
the right hand of theFather as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and his coming again in power
and glory.
It is hard for me to understand the protests against Lou Engels and TheCall. Where I perceived
a mass outpouring of Christian unity, love for Jesus Christ, and love for all people, there was a
small group of Christian leaders, people of mainline denominations, and other protesters who on-
ly saw hatred and bigotry. The result was that they went berserk. Two radically different per-
spectives on things were exhibited. It makes me wonder where their hearts are. I stand with
TheCall, not with the protesters.
Blessings to you and yours,
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