Religious News Service

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Press release about Brooks Hays being honored by the National Conference of Christians and Jews at the premiere of a film based on his career entitled Return to Little Rock RELIGIOUS NEWS SERVICE -6- THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1980 BROOKS HAYS HONORED BY NCCJ AT PREMIERE OF FILM ON LIFE By Religious News Service (10-30-80) NEW YORK (RNS) — Former Arkansas Congressman Brooks Hays was honored here at the premiere of a film on his public career by the National Conference of Christians and Jews. In a related development, Mr. Hays, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, released a statement disassociating himself from current SBC president Bailey Smith's well-publicized remark that "God almighty does not hear the prayer of a Jew." To believe that God hears only the prayers of Christians invoking the name of Christ, Mr. Hays declared, "would be to shut out from God's love and care the largest part of the world's population, and to abrogate to ourselves alone his mercy and favor, something Jesus never intended." Mr. Hays' statement, citing Jesus' endorsement of the Jewish Publican's prayer in the Temple and the fact that Jesus' model prayer “made no mention of himself,” goes on to state that "there is no basis for claiming that Jesus' name must be mentioned like an open sesame to God's attention." The statement concludes by declaring that because the purpose of prayer "is worship and the desire to learn the divine will, the way to God should be, and is,...

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Brooks Hays Materials

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University of Arkansas