Jack Van Impe, a popular End Times
broadcaster, has ended his decades-long run on Trinity Broadcasting
Network after a dispute over naming ministers that he accuses of mixing
Christian and Muslim beliefs.
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Earlier this month, Van Impe named California
megachurch founders Rick Warren and Robert H. Schuller as proponents of
"Chrislam," which he defined as "a uniting of Christianity with Islam."
TBN pulled the episode before a repeat broadcast could air.
Michigan-based
Jack Van Impe Ministries said its board of directors decided
unanimously Thursday (June 17) to no longer work with TBN.
"We
would not be able to minister effectively if we had to look over our
shoulder wondering if a program was going to be censored because of
mentioning a name," said Ken Vancil, executive director of the ministry,
in a statement.
TBN president and founder Paul Crouch expressed disappointment with the ministry's decision.
"Although
I understand, and actually agree with, your position that you 'will not
allow anyone to tell me what I can and cannot preach,' I trust you
understand that TBN takes the same position with its broadcast air time
as well," Crouch wrote in a letter to Van Impe.
Van
Impe's program cited Warren's speech to an Islamic conference in
Washington in 2009 and Schuller's keynote address at an interfaith
conference called "A Common Word" in 2008.
Van
Impe and his co-host wife, Rexella, also claimed Warren said churches
can attract new believers by taking crosses down from inside and outside
their buildings.
In a June 8 tweet, Warren
said just the opposite: "If you remove the cross from the church, it's
no longer the church. Just a social club."
SOURCE: Religion News Service
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