Posted on 05/10/2004 12:49:02 PM PDT by MegaSilver
Scholars say American missionaries viewed as invaders by many Muslims
The Iraq that the Rev. George Gatgounis left last fall no longer exists.
Insurgents have killed and kidnapped several missionaries since his visit, and the intensity of the fighting has increased markedly. Returning, as the Hanahan lawyer had planned to do this month, might have cost him his life.
"Right now, going back does not appear to be wise," Gatgounis said.
He, like many who had arranged visits with religious groups, changed his plans. Now, Christian missionaries and relief workers already there struggle to leave a country they came to help, a country where many Iraqis view American Christians as religious invaders.
Their presence in Iraq has not only sparked safety concerns, but also a religious debate at home and abroad. In America, some Christian denominations see Iraq as a chance to, as it says in Matthew, "make disciples of all nations." Other church leaders and scholars view the influx of Christian missionaries as problematic both from religious and political perspectives.
To Muslims in the Middle East, the religious component of U.S. occupation often serves as proof that this war is a crusade, like the ones Christian Europeans waged during the Dark Ages.
Gatgounis is a lawyer, a practicing Baptist, and a self-described missionary. Last August, he traveled to Iraq to provide legal assistance to the Knoxville-based World-Wide New Testament Baptist Mission, which is trying to help establish churches for Protestants already living in Iraq. During his time there, Gatgounis helped them get a contract on a building to hold services. The congregation previously worshipped in an apartment.
Most Christians who are natives of Iraq are Chaldean, a rite of Catholicism that has existed for centuries. Currently, they make up about 3 percent of the 25 million Iraqis.
The Christians whom Gatgounis assisted maintain an interdenominational congregation because most of the Protestants there have little sense of the differences among various Protestant faiths. Since the church building opened, the congregation's size has increased from 10 members last fall to 100 members, Gatgounis said.
"Our presence there was not so much to hold street meetings or proselytize," he said. "We're not imposing Western values. We're assisting the Iraqis in worshiping freely without intimidation."
The money that aid groups provide is significant in a country where a haircut can cost as little as 50 cents. A new van, a minister's salary of $300 a month, and a $1,500-a-month church building are all sizable investments.
Some think work like this could leave some Muslims with a negative impression of Christianity.
Dr. M. Thomas Thangaraj is a professor of theology at Emory University who believes that religious "membership drives" can hurt both the object and subject of conversion if the missionary's intentions are not pure. An Indian by birth who was raised as a Christian, Thangaraj saw firsthand how religion could be discredited merely by being associated with outside invaders.
"Americans are occupying that country politically, economically, and militarily," he said. "To do religious conversion at this point, it looks like religious occupation. What else would it look like?"
Mahmoud Ayoub, a professor of Islamic studies and comparative religion at Temple University, is happy to see that Christian missionaries are leaving Iraq, but he said humanitarian aid from religious groups without the strings of conversion attached would be acceptable.
"Missionary work of any kind is counterproductive," he said. "Whenever missionaries go, they go with a negative attitude to the religion they're dealing with."
At the Al-Jami Al-Rasheed Mosque in North Charleston, few thought that missionary work had no value, whether it be Christian or otherwise. Some, though, questioned techniques used.
Muhammed Fraser-Abdurahim, 24, said it depends on the approach. "It's good to have various religions in a free society," he said. "It's important for people to decide, but it shouldn't be (that) there on one hand is the Bible and on the other hand is some food, and you can't get the one without the other. That creates a problem."
Groups like the Evangelical Lutheran Church's Global Mission have recognized this and have tailored their efforts to avoid falling into the trap. Christoph Schneider-Yattara, an associate director with the Global Mission, said that instead of proselytizing, members work with other denominations to deliver aid.
"We acknowledge other churches in various parts of the world," he said. "It's strictly relief."
To Keith Mincey, relief and Christian teaching are inseparable. Mincey, a member of the Piedmont Baptist Association in Easley, traveled last March to provide food and medicine to Iraqis.
He did not want to use the word conversion, but said that for Christians and Muslims, that has been a goal since the Crusades.
"I don't want to use the converting word," he said. "We're hoping they will be open to other things."
OK, so I react the same way to Hare Krishnas, Jehova's Witnesses and any other swine arrogant enough to try to tell me how to relate to God.
So9
Ah hah! There's your problem. This fine gentleman doesn't understand that "worshipping freely without intimidation" is a Western value, and is opposed to the values commonly held in Moslem-majority nations.
What an ass....
What an ass....
They are rude, the basic ingredient of most evil.
If I could get away with it, why wouldn't I murder them?
It would be an act of kindness to the rest of the human race to eliminate the deliberately rude and pushy.
So9
Stop being such an ignorant fool.
There may be some difference in method, but proselytizing and holy war arise from the same bumptious rudeness and arrogance.
So9
Sure, sure, anything you say.... It's great to know that handing out a Jack Chick tract is right up there with cutting off someone's head....
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