By Adelle M. Banks
Religion News Service
A small group of evangelical leaders met with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Friday (Oct. 26) to support a two-state solution to achieve peace in the Middle East.
The meeting follows a July 27 letter that a larger coalition of evangelical leaders sent to President Bush to “correct a serious misperception” that all evangelicals oppose creating a Palestinian state.
“We assured her that large numbers of people in the evangelical community … support a two-state solution and that we were committed to trying to raise the visibility of those people in support of such a solution,” said Ron Sider, president of Evangelicals for Social Action
and one of the meeting attendees.
David Neff, editor in chief of Christianity Today magazine and another attendee, said three out of the six evangelicals who met with Rice were megachurch leaders, indicating that the types of ministries concerned about the Middle East is expanding.
“In a sense, this echoes the way (megachurch pastor and author) Rick Warren stepped forward on the AIDS issue,” he said.
Other participants were Pastor Bob Roberts of NorthWood Church in Keller, Texas; Pastor John Jenkins of First Baptist Church of Glenarden in Landover, Md.; the Rev. Joel Hunter of Northland Church in Longwood, Fla.; and Chris Seiple, president of the Institute for Global
Engagement.
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