Posted on 08/01/2007 2:10:05 AM PDT by Clive
What are Christian Korean women doing in Afghanistan anyway?
Haven't there been enough horrendous incidents involving missionaries, Christian activists, peace-at-any-price zealots in both Afghanistan and Iraq to dissuade others from plunging into the morass, ostensibly to do the Lord's work?
In too many cases, it's fallen to NATO or other soldiers, who risk their lives to rescue such people from their reckless courage, and refusal to recognize the dangers of their humanitarian selfishness. Especially women, foreign or not, who are Taliban targets.
Presuming most are still alive, the Korean Christians held hostage by the Taliban in Afghanistan pose a huge dilemma for the Korean government, the struggling Afghan government of Hamid Karzai, the NATO troops trying to secure peace and reconstruction in that country.
The only ones in the catbird seat are the Taliban of Mullah Mohammed Omar (how come he's still surviving?) and the al-Qaida of Osama bin Laden.
A series of deadlines have passed in the Korean hostage case, with the Taliban demanding captured prisoners be released before they'll free the hostages. Meanwhile, they, the Taliban, are killing the male Koreans one at a time to encourage Kabul's capitulation.
No word at this writing whether the 18 Korean women are still alive.
Of all governments involved, none know better than the South Koreans the folly of cooperating with, or succumbing to, terrorist demands. Since 1953, South Korea has survived, lived and thrived under perpetual threat from North Korea, the world's most merciless and perverted regime.
The Taliban also have German hostages, whom they seem to be killing one by one.
While one has sympathy for anyone in Taliban (or al-Qaida) hands, one also cannot escape the conclusion that it is largely the fault of captives that they are in such a precarious and frightening situation.
In 2005, Canadian James Loney and four members of the Christian Peacemakers Team (CPT) in Iraq were kidnapped and held as hostages by something calling itself the Swords Of Righteousness Brigade. Before being rescued by British SAS troops and Canadian JTF2 specialists, an American member of the CPT, Tom Fox, was murdered.
The gratitude of those rescued manifested itself in Loney refusing to wear a poppy on Remembrance Day, and refusing to testify against his suspect captors later held by the Americans. A similar response came from Norman Kember, a British CPT member who was rescued.
Prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, peace-types made a big hullabaloo about chaining themselves to supposed targets in Baghdad to deter air strikes -- but they cut-and-ran as soon as their demands were ignored and bombs fell.
The martyr complex exists among Christians as well as Muslim suicide bombers. Doubtless the Korean Christians exude sincerity, courage and probably forgiveness. But that's not the point. They shouldn't be there.
The Taliban are not Iroquois whom French Jesuits once felt faith-bound to rescue from paganism -- and suffered torture and death as a consequence. Those were different times, and one would think we, or the church, would have learned a lesson.
Apparently not. Christian groups should be discouraged from dabbling in regions where their religious faith is not appreciated, and where others are required to risk their lives to save them when inevitably they are kidnapped, to be used as political bargaining chips.
On the other hand, the fact that peaceful, decent people like the Korean Christians are captured and killed by such as the Taliban, is more evidence why Canadian and NATO troops are needed in that country -- not for the sake of hostages, but to help bring peace, security and a modicum of freedom to the Afghan people.
Don’t know if everybody has seen Tears of the Sun, but everybody should.
That being said, the writer does have a good point. The world is much different today that it was 500 or 2000 years ago. Governments behave much differently. In our day and age, it should be expected that a missionary's mere presence overseas ay result in men being sent in harm's way to protect or rescue you.
Pleading for your government to appease (read: stregthen) the enemy or to send men to die to save you is a far different cry that Paul appealing to Roman law as a Roman citizen. It's something modern-day missionaries need to acknowledge and prepare for.
Lay off
Can I assume you are opposed to the War on Terror because it involves violating your absolute moral of “thou shalt not kill”? A fair reading of this moral does not present any exceptions or defenses such as self defense. Whether you like it or not, if you support the War on Terror you are moral relativist.
Government should just butt out. Many will be martyred, but that is the way these things go.
&&&&&
An unfortunate side effect of these missionaries becoming hostages is that ANTI(military involvement by western powers in Afghanistan)WAR protests are occuring in South Korea. Why are there no protests against Islamic hostage-takers?
Our soldiers are very brave to battle these bloodthirsty savages with weapons on the field. So are the unarmed Korean missionaries who went in to battle on the deeper level of ideas.
Surely freedom for the rest of us must be bought at the price of some of us being willing to carry a gun and hunt down these fiends on the battlefield. But unless we are willing to occupy their nations forever we must also address the religious aspect of this struggle. Islam does not just happen by chance to produce more terrorists per capita than the world’s other major faiths, rather this is an artifact of the very nature of Islamic history, beliefs, and foundational documents.
Christian missionaries to Islamic countries are also soldiers in the war on terror.
Look in a mirror before calling someone a radical because he doesn’t agree with you.
Now you are just being silly.
If are you suggesting that acting to spread one’s religion is offensive, then you are in agreement with me. And if I offended radicals, then I am happy.
Christianity seeks to convince non-believers to convert.
Radical Islam seeks to kill non-believers.
Christianity seeks more believers while Islam wants less non-believers...the goals are quite different.
Well, I am glad we got that out of the way...
“Look in a mirror before calling someone a radical because he doesn’t agree with you.”
I didn’t call you a radical. I said your comments comparing Christians to murderers were offensive.
Your dispute in regards to "persecute" is not with me but with a dictionary. Some posters on this site are using Romney's religion to undermine his candidancy and thus would seem to meet the definition of persecution.
Disagreement is not persecution. Disagreeing with somebody over religious matters can certainly inform one's opinion regarding whether you would want to support that person as a candidate or want to support somebody else. There is no requirement that religion be divorced from politics.
Therefore if people disagree with Romney on matters of religion and therefore work against his candidacy, that is not persecution because it is not harassment or punishment.
However, if somebody harrasses or punishes Romney because they disagree with his religious beliefs, that might rise to the level of persecution. It is hard to see how posters on FR would be in a position to do that, however.
Do you regard people telling you the truth as a verbal attack?
What the missionaries were or were not expecting is irrelevent. Due to their lack of concern for their security they have placed our fighting men and women at risk and have diverted them from their original mission in Afghanistan. Thus the missionaries actions were indecent and selfish. Again, either ensure your own security or stay out. Our troops didn’t sign up for this nonsense.
EXACTLY.
We have a gulf of disagreement larger than the known universe on that point, half a spectacle.
Okay, I respect your right to be a "principled realist". Now, shut up and quit assaulting us with your beliefs. Keep your guiding philosophies to yourself.
Oh, I'm sorry, was that ill mannered? I pick up such bad habits from some of the posters here.
God Bless You Jemian. I have seen first hand the handiwork of “the religion of peace”
Missionaries, most especially women missionaries, should not be in what is, in effect, a combat zone. To do so is irresponsible and puts the lives of others and the military mission at risk.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.