New York, NY, September 28, 1999 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today was "offended and outraged" by a letter from the Rev. Paige Patterson, President of the Southern Baptist Convention, seeking to further validate the church’s recent prayer appeal to convert Jews despite a chorus of criticism.

"We are offended by your attempt to taint our High Holidays with prayer urging our community to convert," Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, said in response to Rev. Patterson’s letter. "It was an act of theological arrogance that was followed by your arrogant response."

Mr. Foxman said Rev. Patterson and other Southern Baptist leaders have responded to the controversy by engaging in "theological confrontations" and arguments that essentially seek to avoid the issue of the prayer guide that has upset and offended so many in the Jewish religious and secular worlds.

"It is not in my spirit or the policy of the Anti-Defamation League to get into theological confrontations as was done in the Middle Ages," Mr. Foxman said. "We talk to other people of faith as equals, respecting the commitment of the other person of God and trying to avoid any prejudice that might hurt the relationship between Christians and Jews.

"Any prayer that invites us to abandon our faith is an attack on our integrity and commitment."

After publicly stating outrage over the prayer appeal earlier this month, the League made efforts to reach out to Southern Baptist leaders, calling on the church to put an end to the campaign in light of its offensive nature and the proximity of the High Holidays, the most sacred time in Jewish observance.

The letter from Rev. Patterson to ADL outlined evangelical Christian arguments for proselytization efforts among Jews. According to Foxman, "The letter expressed no remorse for the prayer appeal and contemptuously invited us to return the gesture and pray for them. Well, we say `No thanks.’ We will not engage in this kind of base spiritual narrowness, as the Southern Baptist leaders have done."

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.