Metro Detroit clergy warn against radical Christian group TheCall

Thousands of Christians are expected to gather Friday night at Ford Field for a 24-hour prayer rally that is drawing criticism from religious leaders who say it promotes division and intolerance.

“It’s about turning America back to God,” said Lou Engle, a Kansas City-based pastor who is leading the prayer rally, known as TheCall.

But metro Detroit religious leaders and experts say the group preaches a radical ideology that promotes hatred of gays, Mormons, Oprah Winfrey, Catholics and, increasingly, Muslims.

TheCall’s leaders are from the New Apostolic Reformation, a charismatic branch that was involved with the controversial Christians-only prayer rally in August for Texas Gov. Rick Perry that kicked off his presidential campaign.

The group’s militaristic language and calls to “take back the land” of Muslim Americans has worried metro Detroit mosques, which are stepping up security Friday.

Engle and his supporters are coming to Detroit in large part because of the region’s sizable African-American and Muslim-American communities.

Some supporters have been visiting metro Detroit churches over the past month, speaking against Islam, homosexuality and abortion. The group says that African Americans have been cursed by Satan over the past 40 years. Earlier this year, Engle said that the tornado that wrecked Joplin, Mo., was a sign from God because abortion is allowed.

Engle and his supporters say they want African Americans in Detroit to lead the way in converting the Muslims of Dearborn and metro Detroit. Then, in their scenario, those converts will go to the Middle East to convert Muslims there.

Read this entire article in the Detroit Free Press

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Find out more about “TheCall” HERE