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  • 2017-09-04 (xsd:date)
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  • Did Louis Farrakhan Renounce Islam and Convert to Christianity? (en)
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  • In August 2017, various online sources reported that Louis Farrakhan, the 84-year-old leader of the Chicago-based religious group Nation of Islam, had posted a video on his Facebook page in which he declared Jesus as his redeemer, seemingly contradicting his own Muslim teachings. For example, the Christian Post stated: Similarly, Dan Calabrese of Canada Free Press wrote: And, according to Black Christian News: The video clip is authentic, released via Farrakhan's multiple social media accounts. However, the interpretation of his words as a sign of a deep change in his belief system — specifically, as a turning away from or renunciation of Islam and a conversion, tentative or complete, to Christianity — is erroneous and disproven by other statements he has made before and since. Regarding the excerpt itself, the clip represents a minute and a half of a speech that lasted an hour and 41 minutes. Farrakhan said a great many things during the 30 July 2017 talk, which was delivered from the pulpit of the Union Temple Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. on the occasion of the 40th pastoral anniversary of his friend, the Rev. Willie Wilson: Going deeper, Farrakhan's writings and speeches indicate he believes that the Messiah prophesied in the Torah, the Qur'an, and the Bible — the figure to whom he refers as my redeemer — is, in fact, former Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad, who died in 1975, but whom Farrakhan believes is still physically alive: Confusion also surrounds Farrakhan's statement that I know I gotta pay a price for what I’ve been teaching all these years. Some have taken it to mean Farrakhan was admitting he will have to repent to God for uttering false teachings (i.e., Islam), but that interpretation ignores the opening of his statement, which begins: I say to the devil, I know I gotta pay a price for what I've been teaching all these years. In context, Farrakhan was speaking of the price he will have to pay for a lifetime of standing up against the false religion (corrupted Christianity) invented by Satan and preached by white people to deceive blacks into accepting subjugation and slavery. Farrakhan is saying he knows the devil will extract payment, but there's a limit to what he can take: In short, it's a grave mistake to take Louis Farrakhan's pronouncements about Jesus Christ as having the same meaning ordinary Christians (or even Muslims) would give them. It's an even greater mistake to suppose that Farrakhan renounced Islam. Here's a tweet he composed barely a month after delivering the above address: We reached out to the Nation of Islam for comment on this rumor, but have not yet received a reply. (en)
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