Conversion code effort builds steam

GENEVA — Evangelical groups have joined efforts spearheaded by Roman Catholic, Orthodox and mainstream Protestant churches to create a common code of conduct for religious conversions that would preserve the right of Christians to spread their religion while avoiding conflict among different faiths.

The World Council of Churches, which joined the Vatican last year in launching talks on a code, said Wednesday that the process was formally joined by the World Evangelical Alliance at a meeting earlier this month in France.

The code aims to ease tensions with Muslims, Hindus and other religious groups that fear losing adherents and resort to punishments as extreme as imprisonment and even death for converts from their faith and foreign missionaries.

The Taliban kidnapping of 23 South Korean Christians in Afghanistan last month underscored tensions. Two of the 23 have been killed. The accusations against the South Koreans include wanting to meet with former converts from Islam. But their church has denied they were trying to spread Christianity. The hard-line Islamic militants freed two women on Monday.

WCC said the code of conduct should serve as an "advocacy tool in discussions with governments considering anti-conversion laws (and) help to advance the cause of religious freedom." The rules should also address concerns in other religions about Christians seeking converts, and inspire those faiths to "consider their own codes of conduct," it added.

The council noted, however, that "none of the partners involved intend — nor have the means — to impose the code of conduct on their constituencies, but they all trust that it will be able to 'impact hearts and minds' and allow for 'moral and peer pressure."'

Evangelization also has caused concern among the branches of Christianity because of the vigor with which Pentecostal and evangelical congregations have led the drive for conversions around the world, outstripping the growth of older churches. Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Brazil in May was partly a response to the exodus of millions of Catholics to Protestant evangelical churches.

Juan Michel, a spokesman for the Geneva-based WCC, said the support from the evangelical alliance was a big boost for efforts to agree on guidelines by 2010.

Major evangelical groups were absent last year from a meeting of the Vatican and the WCC near Rome, where the idea for the code was initiated. But at the five-day meeting that ended Aug. 12 in Toulouse, Geoff Tunnicliffe, head of the evangelical alliance of 233 conservative Protestant church groups and ministries in 121 nations, gave his "full approval" to the process, the WCC said.