They come in over 50 different languages and you can get them for free.
Posted on 05/29/2008 11:11:57 AM PDT by XR7
FALLUJAH, Iraq — At the western entrance to the Iraqi city of Fallujah on Tuesday, Muamar Anad handed his residence badge to the U.S. Marines guarding the city. They checked to be sure he was a city resident, and when they were done, Anad said, a Marine slipped a coin out of his pocket and put it in his hand.
Out of fear, he accepted it, Anad said. When he was inside the city, the college student said, he looked at one side of the coin. "Where will you spend eternity?" it asked.
He flipped it over, and on the other side it read, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16."
"They are trying to convert us to Christianity," said Anad, a Sunni Muslim like most residents of this city in Anbar province. At home, he told his story, and his relatives echoed their disapproval: They'd been given the coins, too, he said...
"Iraq is investigating a report that U.S. military personnel in Fallujah handed-out material that is religious and evangelical in nature," said Rear Adm. Patrick Driscoll, a U.S. military spokesman, in a statement e-mailed to McClatchy Newspapers. "Local commanders are investigating since the military prohibits proselytizing any religion, faith or practices."
Residents said some Marines at the western entrance to their city have been passing out the coins for two days in what they call a "humiliating" attempt to convert them to Christianity.
In the markets, people crowded around men with the coins, passing them to each other and asking in surprise: "Have you seen this?"
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
Horrors!
The head of the Sunni endowment in Fallujah, the organization that oversees Sunni places of worship and other religious establishments, demanded the Marines stop...
How dare our Marines try to spread the good news that God is full of grace and that their sins can be forgioven and they do not have to engage in jihad to gain His favor!
Remember what St. Peter told the authorities?
The Authorities: "We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name!" he said. "Yet you have filled [Falujah] with your teaching..."Instead of imprinted coins, maybe the wisest thing would be to give the Iraqis food, some US dollars and a Bible printed in Arabic.
Peter and the other apostles replied: "We must obey God rather than men!"
* -- Acts 5:28-29 (NIV) paraphrased
Although I’m sympathietic to the Marines here, this really is a pretty stupid thing to be doing in Fallujah or anywhere else in Iraq while we’re trying to snuff out the insurgency and Mahdi Army threats.
If your religion is so flimsy that you can get offended by someone handing you a coin with an inscription on it, you need a better religion.
Christians don't behead muslims when they say no.
At this stage of the war, having just recently gained much cooperation from the Iraqi population, I don’t think this is a good idea! Right now, I don’t think alienating anyone is a useful, or wise, idea. Later? Yeah. But now, incidents like this will be turned against us as propaganda.
No pictures of the coins? Godless heathens.
ping.
Not a good idea. They are employees of the U.S. government and preaching the gospel is not part of their job description.
Soldiers with guns are not the ideal type to be preaching the gospel, no matter what their intentions. Better they should just be—literally—good Christian soldiers and pray that they are doing their part in spreading the gospel that way.
sarc/
Jamal Naji and Leila Fadel? I call “you know what”
My memory of scripture is a bit hazy I'm ashamed to say but doesn't it say someplace that Jesus said: They who acknowledge me in front of men so too will I acknowledge them before my Father in Heaven and those who deny me before me shall be denied Heaven? Something like that? I'd hate to be those "army officials" or Secretary of Defense or President responsible for that policy, come the Judgment!
You expressed my sentiment exactly - pretty weak religion if you think someone will convert (to the truth) over a verse on a coin.
Why, just the other day, I was just on the verge of converting to Islam because someone posted a verse from the Koran. /sarc
They come in over 50 different languages and you can get them for free.
Not a good idea. They are employees of the U.S. government and preaching the gospel is not part of their job description.
Agreed. That's not what we sent them over there to do.
The job they and their fellows are being asked to is hard enough without them antagonizing the very locals we need to win over.
Where?
But they like the coins that read “IN GOD WE TRUST”.
Finally, some news out of Iraq. I thought the Democrat Media had forgotten all about it.
Me too ... of course the verse was on my toilet paper with an image of Mad-Piggly-Wiggly-Mo.
” . . . the military prohibits proselytizing any religion, faith or practices.”
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Is that a rule for that theater of operations, or a general military rule?
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