Montgomery, Alabama - Alabama Governor Robert Bentley said he was sorry on Wednesday for his inauguration day remarks about only Christians being his brothers and sisters, and said he would work over the next four years for people of all faiths and colours.
Bentley said he didn't mean to insult anyone with comments he made from the pulpit of a church once led by Martin Luther King Jr. He said he was speaking as an evangelical Christian to fellow Baptists.
“If anyone from other religions felt disenfranchised by the language, I want to say I am sorry. I am sorry if I offended anyone in any way,” Bentley said on Wednesday.
Bentley, who spoke at the church during a King holiday event after his official inaugural address, said no one should hate anyone else because of colour or religion.
Speaking with reporters after meeting with several members of Alabama's Jewish community and other faith leaders at his Capitol office, Bentley said he will be a governor for everyone, not just Christians.
The Republican is a former legislator and Southern Baptist deacon who emerged from the back of a crowded field to win the governor's office. He told the church crowd just moments into his new administration that those who haven't accepted Jesus as their saviour are not his brothers and sisters.
“Anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their saviour, I'm telling you, you're not my brother and you're not my sister, and I want to be your brother,” Bentley said.
Some in the crowd at the church said, “Amen”, but groups representing other faiths in Alabama called the remarks shocking.
The former director of the Center for the Study of the Law and the Church at Samford University, Chris Doss, said he believes Bentley stumbled briefly, partly because he is a Baptist deacon, speaking in a Baptist church.
“He was talking to his own flock,” Doss said. But he added Bentley will need to be careful that he doesn't repeat that mistake.
Bentley apologised for his remarks, but not for being a Christian.
“I will never deny being a born-again Christian. I do have core beliefs and I will die with those core beliefs,” Bentley said. “But I do not want to be harmful to others. And I will die if I have to defend someone else's right to worship as they choose.”
The pastor of the First Baptist Church of Montgomery, the Reverend Jay Wolf, said he thought Bentley's remark was misunderstood by the news media.
“He was trying to relay something that is fundamental to our faith, that people who believe in Jesus are related,” Wolf said. “He didn't mean that he's not part of the brotherhood of humanity.”
The president of the national Interfaith Alliance, the Reverend Welton Gaddy, said Bentley went too far.
“I thought that with his statement he created two classes of citizens in Alabama, those that were his brothers and sisters in Christ and everyone else. As an elected official, he has the responsibility to serve all the people and treat all the people equally,” he said.
The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish group that fights discrimination, said it sounded like Bentley was using the office of governor to advocate for Christian conversion.
“If he does so, he is dancing dangerously close to a violation of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which forbids government from promoting the establishment of any religion,” said ADL regional director Bill Nigut.
Retired University of Alabama political scientist William Stewart said the remarks were a mistake.
“I don't think the governor needs to get into things like who is going to be in the kingdom and who isn't going to be in the kingdom,” Stewart said.
But he believes Bentley will be able to rebound.
One of the Jewish leaders who met with Bentley Wednesday, Rabbi Jonathan Miller of Temple Emanu-El in Birmingham, called the new governor's remarks “a difficult misstep” at the beginning of his administration. But he said he was pleased with the governor's apology and said “I hope and pray we can come together in the next four years.” - Sapa-AP