Ted Turner Attacks Christianity At U.N. "Peace Summit"

NEW YORK, NY (MCNS) -- Presenting the keynote address Monday before 1,000 international delegates attending the World Peace Summit in the U.N. General Assembly Hall, American media mogul Ted Turner denounced his childhood Christian faith.Turner, whose Better World Fund underwrote much of the meeting's expenses, told how he had been "very religious" as a little boy. "I was going to be a man of the cloth. I was going to be a missionary." "But the thing that disturbed me is that my religious Christian sect was very intolerant ... because it taught we were the only ones going to heaven. It just confused the devil out of me because I said heaven is going to be a might empty place with nobody else there." Turner praised "indigenous" religious faiths and then listed all the things humans have in common - "culture, language, love of birds, butterflies, wives and flowers." In his spiritual search, Turner said, he finally realized that there was one God and multiple ways he manifests himself and that it makes little difference which one is chosen.

"Now I believe there may be one God who manifests himself in different ways to different people ... And I can't believe God wants us to blow ourselves to kingdom come. He wants us to love each other and live in peace," said Turner. Among a small group of conservative Christians monitoring the event, Darren Logan, foreign policy analyst for the Washington- based Family Research Council, called Turner's speech "the most blasphemous thing I have ever heard in my life." Logan said Turner advanced the notion of "reductionism," which suggests that all religions are essentially the same.

"Turner believes true tolerance means doing away with the uniqueness of all faiths and marginalizing all faiths that profess an exclusive component, like Christianity and Islam," said Logan. Contrasted with the enthusiastic reception for Turner's left- leaning remarks, the delegates gave an icy reception to the Patriarch of Ethiopia, who urged protection for unborn children. The same reaction greeted the assistant secretary general of the Muslim World Congress when he urged delegates to recognize only marriage between "a man and a woman" and denounced all "abnormal sexual activities."

Minutes later a Buddhist "master" received a standing ovation when he condemned all attempts at religious conversion, something at the heart of Islam and Christianity. The summit is taking place under a cloud for excluding the Dalai Lama under pressure from the government of China; and evangelical Christians have pointed out that only one representative from their ranks, the Rev. Billy Graham's daughter, has appeared at the podium.

THE UNITED Nations Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders, with representatives from more than seventy religious groups, convened between August 28 and the 31st, 2000 in New York. Ted Turner was the primary founder and honorary chairman of this meeting which was supposed to "foster religious tolerance and interfaith cooperation". He was also the primary antagonist who used the opportunity to attack the Christian religion. He referred to the Christian faith as "very intolerant". He painted Christians as hateful and Christianity as the "bad religion" of the world. Turner has, in earlier days, referred to Christianity as "a religion for losers" and Christians as "bozos". He claims that he once "believed" and thought he was called to be a missionary, but eventually rejected Christianity telling the audience that the, "Christian sect was very intolerant...Christians thought they were the only ones going to heaven...and I said heaven is going to be a mighty empty place with nobody else there."

Turner is THE most influential person in modern non-network television media.