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 ...
It’s okay to mutilate and murder in the name of allah, but don’t dare mention the J-word. Muslims are lower than worms.
You can get the coins here:
http://www.multilingual-southasian.com/
So it's works that get salvation and not just faith? Interesting.
LOL..You really hit the nail on the head with that one.
We don’t even prosetylize freedom and democracy lest we offend our Democrat brethren. Heaven forbid we would prosetylize peace and forgiveness.
These people view Western “ideas” as a weakness. If the Marines had handed them the coins then cut their legs off, I’m sure they’d be more receptive to something as innocuous as John 3:16.
It's a general rule, I'd guess. Look at General Boykin, and the trouble he got in for statements of a religious nature.
With that said, if the story is accurate (and there's no evidence that it isn't), then what this Marine or Marines were doing was hardly conducive to cementing the peace in Anbar, where a lot of Iraqis are still ticked off about the Crusades. Prosylitizing to the Iraqis flies in the face of what the U.S. military is trying to do there NOW, and could very well reignite the insurgency.
If you don't believe me, then read about how to deal with insurgencies here:
U.S. ARMY/MARINE COUNTERINSURGENCY FIELD MANUAL, by Generals David Petraeus and James Amos.
My biggest issue with the policy: as a Christian, I’m supposed to take the Gospel to all the world. Doesn’t that mean this policy interferes with my First Amendment right to practice my religion?
Colonel, USAFR
I agree. Send them home to their families immediately.
All soldiers wanting to come home, take note...
I spent from 1973 to the very end of 1979 in the Air Force. I was involved with Christian activity both on and off of the bases. It included evangelizing. We were never stopped or admonished. I never heard of such a rule while I was in the Air Force. I was the NCOIC of a shop in a civil engineering squadron. I used to give the Gospel to all of our shop. We left Christian material in the office. Nobody ever complained and nobody from higher up in the squadron ever said a thing about it.
We often took heat from the “Equal Opportunity” office on the base. That was Homestead AFB, Florida, by the way. We had two women in the shop. They both lived off base, and both were having one of the men in the shop in for . . . .
It caused an incident between the two women one day in the shop. Somehow, someone suggested to E.O. that this must be a shop problem with women. We all had to show up for a meeting one evening where a captain asked, “What's wrong with our shop that we can't get along with the women?” As NCOIC I stood and told the captain that the incident was the result of a private matter between those two women. I requested both and the male airman be removed from my shop. BOY DID I GET IN HOT WATER OVER THAT SUGGESTION !!
But for evangelizing, I never heard a complaint from any quarter.
Good for the Marine who handed out this tract - he should obey God rather than man.
He is a soldier in Christ’s Army FIRST and an American soldier second.
Mark 16:15-20 And He (Jesus) said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.
Proselytizing is forbidden in most of the non-Christian Third World and Christian missionaries have to keep a very low profile. Putting the issue front and center in Iraq will make the job of missionaries there much more difficult.
As a practical matter, this sets back the hearts and minds campaign to get these people to trust us with their lives by breaking with the Mahdi and other militias and trusting us.
Thank you, Fox, for the coin web site.
Rather, Jesus demands the response in the example of Love He gave to all mankind:
John 14:15
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
Matthew 28:
18
Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
19
Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit,
20
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”
Soldiers, though doing the bidding of world, are still subject to the Judgment of the Everlasting. The old saying goes, “Loyalty goes up!” Loyalty may transfer sideways and down. But when contention battles for your heart's loyalty, God should usurp the whims of earthly kings. When death is a sniper's bullet or IED away, it's best to remember to Whom your eternal loyalty lay and consequential duties and opportunities for sharing love.
Jesus is not going to cut the heads off of Iraqis. Nor, does Jesus demand the death of Muslims and non-Christians. If a message states so, then that message is clearly “not of God”.
Its always worth noting when people feel “confronted” by such a passive gesture. Sounds like American athiests.
He could have just thrown the coin away.
Agreed 100%
Some of the folks on this thread don’t seem to realize that prosylitizing in Fallujah can very well result in the deaths of many more Marines, Soldiers, and Sailors.
James 2:17 - "In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead."
So its a dead faith that gets salvation? Interesting.
More power to them. They are doing the RIGHT thing contrary to what the evil press believes.
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