Updated 5 p.m. Monday with comments from community members.

A minister of a Richardson church that included Judaism and Islamism among "dangerous isms" on a flier distributed in area neighborhoods is standing behind the message and the events it advertised.

Pulpit minister Shelton Gibbs III said Greenville Avenue Church of Christ could have better handled the wording of the advertisement, which included the faiths with pessimism, materialism and alcoholism.

He said the church's leadership met Sunday night to discuss the social media backlash that followed the church's distribution of the fliers on the doors of homes in the area.

@dallasnews got this on my door today, telling me that being Jewish is dangerous and in the same category as alcoholism. No place for this in public display, let alone my home door. Thoughts? @iamgacc — Danny Litwak (@LitwakDanny) June 2, 2018

Gibbs said the church will go ahead with the series, despite objections to categorizing the other religions, along with atheism and liberalism, as dangerous.

"We're not here to criticize or be antagonistic toward people and to beat them down," he said. "There's no threat. The people in the community should not feel a threat."

But Alia Salem, a Muslim and president and co-founder of the nonprofit Facing Abuse in Community Environments, said portraying members of her religion as "dangerous" causes harm.

"It makes our communities less safe and frankly doesn’t help us go anywhere," she said. "It just makes people scared and anxious about the world around them when people who are normal are painted as dangerous."

No one's asking the church to dilute its faith, but there are more productive ways to discuss differences among religions, Salem said.

"You can do that without besmirching their names or without painting a nefarious light on them," she said.

Joel Schwitzer, regional director of the American Jewish Committee Dallas, said he thinks the church had no ill intent. But it's the effect that counts, he said.

"To put another religion in the same class as alcoholism or materialism, pessimism — certainly, while the intent may not have been to be provocative or antagonistic as the minister stated ... that was the impact," Schwitzer said.

He said he invited Gibbs to meet with representatives of Dallas' Muslim-Jewish Advisory Council, hoping for an opportunity to discuss why the the faiths were included on the church's list. Salem said she hoped to set up a similar meeting.

"We don't want to meet with him to shake a finger and say, 'Bad, bad, bad.' We want to listen," he said. "We can't change the fact that these fliers have been distributed and that damage has already been done, but maybe we can have an impact on what's actually taught."

The church plans to conduct the summer series on 10 Wednesdays, starting June 13. Islamism will be covered June 27.

Judaism is scheduled for discussion Aug. 22, according to the flier, which included a Star of David alongside icons that appear to symbolize pessimism, materialism and alcoholism.

@iamgacc you should be ashamed of yourself. Stop spreading hate and bigotry. If you want to advance a political agenda, pay taxes. @IRSnews will soon receive a request for investigation. #fakechurch @cityofrichardson #notohate pic.twitter.com/fqsceCV8IT — Dobrina M Ustun 🏳️‍🌈 (@ustunlaw) June 3, 2018

Gibbs said that though “dangerous” probably wasn’t the best word to use, the other faiths run counter to his church’s belief that God wants all people to follow Jesus Christ.

He said the series will aim to explain God’s message for each of the “isms."

“What is his message to those who espouse Islam? What is his message to those who are caught up in materialism? Those who are pessimistic?” Gibbs said.

When asked why the list didn’t include other “isms,” such as racism or sexism, Gibbs said there are only so many Wednesdays in a summer.

In the future, he said, the church will work on its phrasing.

"We’re living in an age where every word means something, and you have to be very careful about the words that you use," Gibbs said. "And I think going forward, I’m sure we’ll be able to phrase it where people are drawn in, and not that we have somehow marginalized them and caused them to fear. That’s not Jesus."

The predominantly African-American church was formed as Hamilton Park Church of Christ in 1959 and occupied several different sites before it moved in 1990 to its home on Greenville Avenue, near Centennial Boulevard, and changed its name to reflect the new location.

The church, formed with 20 members, has grown under Gibbs' decades of leadership and provides three Sunday services. The church has made community outreach one of its main focuses.