Enlarge Dr. Al Cadenhead Jr. speaks with members of Masjid Ash-Shaheed Islamic Center.

Posted: February 15th, 2010 Greg Lacour

As Dr. Al Cadenhead Jr. and Imam Khalil Akbar got to know each other a few weeks ago, Cadenhead made a deal with him: I promise not to assume you have a bomb strapped to your belt if you promise not to assume I’m a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

It was a joke, of course. But it underscored a serious point. Christian denominations can be suspicious of each other; Christians and, say, Jews can be suspicious of each other. But nothing in this post-9/11 era compares to the suspicion — and sometimes hostility — between Christians and Muslims.

The Xchange Sermons series, in which leaders from different faiths swap pulpits, is designed to help congregations learn about each other. In this case, it helped the ministers learn about each other, too.

Cadenhead and Akbar met a few weeks ago, before Akbar’s Feb. 2 visit to Providence Baptist Church, where Cadenhead is the senior pastor. Akbar, the resident imam at Masjid Ash-Shaheed Islamic Center, and Cadenhead met for a soul-food lunch and learned they had more in common than either had expected. Both are 62. Both have been married to their wives for 40-plus years. Both are from Georgia.

Cadenhead, during his Feb. 14 visit to the masjid (the Arabic word for the more common, Anglicized term “mosque”), told about 60 congregants that he fully expected Akbar to be a turban-wearing foreigner. Instead, he found a friend.

“The older I get, the more I realize there are few friends I can really count on,” Cadenhead said, choking up a bit. “And even though we haven’t been friends long, I sense that about his character.”

There’s work to do, though. Cadenhead and Akbar agreed that the two institutions should continue the dialogue that the Xchange Sermons have started, maybe even participate in community projects together. Neither believes such a process would be seamless, though.

After services at Providence Baptist the morning of his visit, Cadenhead said, a congregant told him, “I’m going to pray for you, because you’re going into the lion’s den.”

“That’s what I’m trying to change,” Cadenhead said.

Akbar’s Qur’an reading drove the point home about Islam’s attitude toward Jews and Christians, whom Muslims refer to as “People of the Book.”

“If you heard it correctly, we are all people of Scripture,” Akbar said. “So instead of fussing and fighting and debating and arguing over matters that we’re never going to get resolved anyway, we should get together and race to see who can do the most good.”

To which Cadenhead replied, “Amen.”

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