Spiritual leaders' speeches timely amid Mideast strife
By Mary Kaye Ritz
Advertiser Religion and Ethics Writer
The worsening situation in the Middle East has many in despair, but Bill Baker instead chooses to see hope.
Advertiser library photo
The ordained Church of Christ minister, author and diplomat from Laguna Hills, Calif., one of about 34 Christian speakers and presenters in town for the Honolulu 2002 Conference, is talking tonight about the organization he founded, Christians and Muslims for Peace.
Bill Baker has hope for peace in the Middle East.
He backs the establishment of a Palestinian state, and urges the separation of church and state in Israel, where, he says, leaders are forced to give concessions to every group, including orthodox extremists who press for the total removal of Arabs.
But he adds that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, whom he has met, faces an even tougher battle in the arena of public opinion with this current spate of terrorism and suicide attacks.
"I'd hate to be Yasser," he said. " ... Let me tell you, Arafat is a moderate. Never thought I'd say that. It's the younger ones in the wings waiting to take over who would be dangerous, in my eyes. They are so hardened, growing up in refugee camps, focused on nothing but their hatred for Israelis.
"They live their life until their death fighting the Jews."
• An ecumenical conference of workshops, seminars, lectures and a final night Youth Jam for lay people and pastors, sponsored by Hawaiian Island Ministries • 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. today; 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Friday; and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday • Youth Jam is from 5 to 9 p.m., Saturday • Hawai'i Convention Center • $15-$225 • himonline.org or 988-9777
Many more lives may be lost in the Middle East before politics makes way for reason, Baker said.
'I Believe' Honolulu 2002 Conference
But it's hope that keeps him going.
"I like to dream that one day, the peace-loving sons of Abraham will find each other through the maze, and a new page will be written in the Middle East, one of peace, tolerance, brotherhood, respect," he said.
One of the largest such conferences in the state, Honolulu 2002 is expected to draw at least as many lay leaders and pastors as it did last year. In 2001, 3,600 people from 81 denominations and more than 425 churches from Hawai'i and the West Coast attended.
This year, Tony Campolo, a spiritual adviser to President Clinton is among the keynote speakers. The professor emeritus of sociology at Eastern College in Pennsylvania will discuss "Holding Together a World That is Falling Apart." Bill Hybels, pastor of Willow Creek Association, a 16,000-member "megachurch" near Chicago, will talk on "The Sounds of Leadership."
Baker's sessions will have an especially timely message, with heightening strife in Jerusalem.
By phone from his Nevada office, Baker talked about CAMP's beginnings in 1983.
He was invited to meet with Ahmad Kuftaro, the influential Islamic grand mufti of Syria, at his home in Damascus for a 10-hour discussion about the differences — and similarities — between Islam and Christianity.
"Frankly, I had not talked that much about it, though I knew the Quran," said Baker, who in his younger days studied at the Near East Institute of Archeology in Jerusalem and now, at age 62, is a regular on the news talk-show circuit. "I didn't realize how much common ground we had."
As he left the house, the mufti put hand on shoulder and said, "My friend, we are in the same camp."
He went home and scribbled that down on a notepad.
"If we could find enough common ground between the two of us, I believe it could be a platform for peace," said Baker, who was nominated in 1997 for the Nobel Prize by the then-prime minister of Azed Kashmir for his work in that volatile area. "That's how it started."
The organization now has seven international chapters.
