PROJECT STRAIT GATE
November 5, 2011
Pastor Maury Davis and Staff
Cornerstone Church
726 West Old Hickory Blvd
Madison, TN 37115
615.865.6655
maury@cornerstonenashville.org
Dear Pastor Maury Davis:
Project Strait Gate has organized peace vigils on public right-of-ways outside many churches around the country. They have been supported and cosponsored by Christ Followers, Muslims and Jews who long for peace. We will begin our visits to your church at the Friday conference, and on Sunday, November 13, in time for your morning service. (see notes below)
Our friends in Nashville have pointed out to us that you have agreed to host a conference called The Preserving Freedom Conference on the evening of Nov. 11, featuring Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller. These speakers are inflammatory, anti-Islamits who engender, if not openly advocate, war in Iran. This program is not about “Shariah” law or “Jihad,” as it pretends. It is about war.
You should know the U.S. is on the brink of attacking Iran. It does not need “Christians” to throw gasoline on the flame. One or more hotels canceled the event with good reason, and you picked it up out of the gutter.
Jesus\’ church is not a warmaker. As best I can tell, not a grain of Christianity is presented to the audience at these programs. Jesus is left out entirely, for the simple reason that He does not fit into a hate agenda. One of the large signs that will be displayed in front of Cornerstone Church next Sunday will as the question, WHO WOULD JESUS BOMB? Every child knows the answer.
Have you not had enough of war in your lifetime? Did you not once claim that war made a killer of yourself? Jesus\’ forgiveness is always conditional on repentance, or do you think otherwise? He told the Prostitute at the Temple she was forgiven because she believed in him, but He sent her home with a stern warning, she must “sin no more.”
It is clear from your own public statements that you claim forgiveness for sins at least as grievous as those of the prostitute. I found your history with a Google search. How can you tell your congregation you are forgiven by the mercy of God, when you continue to aid and abet those who support murder and war? How can you use the church you claim is God\’s property for such a purpose?
Our prayer is that you will examine your position and make a Christ-like commitment to oppose the continued American slaughter in the Middle East and the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Evangelical churches and their members should be, but are not, the most peace-seeking persons on the globe. Your members are not peacemakers because of your support for Israel, a nation at war with its neighbors for all of its existence, and the only country in the world that openly imprisons an entire population at gun point.
Jesus is believed by all Christ Followers to have said, For as much as you have done it (he gave examples of both kindness and evil) to the least of my brothers, you have done it unto me. Please do not draw on cultic lies to claim this does not apply to Palestinian and Iranian children. If you enable those who promote the killing of even one innocent person, you do that evil unto Jesus.
We invite you to show us where Jesus ever made even one statement that allowed a Christian to approve or participate in taking the life (or the home) of an Iraqi, Afghani, Palestinian, or Persian, most especially the lives of women and children, who are always the victims of war. Please cancel the meeting and turn to peace.
Feel welcome to come outside and meet us in front of your church on November 13.
Toward the Strait Gate,
Charles E. Carlson
“The Unacceptable Cost of Judeo-Christianity; Its Legacy of Pain”: https://whtt.org/the-unacceptable-cost-of-judeo-christianity-its-legacy-of-pain/
The amazing story of this pastor Davis’ murder conviction: “A grieving son finds no justice on Rev. Maury Davis\’ path to redemption,” by Brantley Hargrove, Jume 18, 2009: http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashville/a-grieving-son-finds-no-justice-on-rev-maury-davis-path-to-redemption/Content?oid=1201523