Posted on 05/05/2009 4:30:49 AM PDT by Bulldawg Fan
Iraq Government Wants U.S. Troops Out by June 30 [2009-05-04]. (This is the title of the story but as you can see has nothing to do with the actual article)
Arlington, VA -- The U.S. Military said that reports from Al Jazeera English that evangelical Christian soldiers in Afghanistan handed out Bibles to local Afghans and operated under instructions from their chaplain to "hunt people for Jesus" grossly misrepresent the truth and that in reality Bibles were confiscated, not handed out.
The Al Jazeera broadcast includes a video taken a year ago in which a small group of U.S. Soldiers at Bagram Air Base are seen discussing what to do with a pile of Bibles printed in the Pashtu and Dari languages. In the video the chaplain points out that it is against the rules to proselytize. "But you can give gifts," another soldier in the room said.
The Bibles were mailed to a Sgt. James Watt from his hometown church while he was stationed at Bagram.
There is no proof the Bibles were confiscated, "but there is of course no proof they were handed out either", said U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan, Col. Greg Julian.
Julian expressed frustration that stories like these and other controversial issues "may cause locals to lash out," possibly inciting more violence in the region.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
This is a difficult position to be in. Christianity calls for spreading the gospel to all the world but the military has said no, you cant do that. So you are torn between rendering unto Ceaser and obeying the teachings of Christ. In this case I believe you have to obey Ceaser just for the mere fact that the government has you be the short hairs if you are military. But this is yet another step to forcing Christians in the military to hide that fact and never mention the J word.
The way you live your life becomes the way you spread the Gospel in those situations. Christians have done it for generations in places like China, Russia, Africa.
There is nothing difficult about this. Any U.S. military personnel handing out Bibles in Afghanistan is seriously threatening our entire middle east strategy and placing our soldiers and citizens at risk.
They should be court-martialed plain and simple.
I agree! Christianity is spread better through people’s actions than through words. Only after you become a Christian do words really become the truth...
Apostlizing is not permitted in the military due to it’s diverse religion base and the concern that it could offend any host nations that it is visiting. It is restricted to all religions. Otherwise you could have every religion visiting whomever they wanted, preaching whatever their religion wanted.
Imagine the problems that could occur if you had a Christian, a Buddhist, a Muslim, a Wiccan and a Jew all in the same office trying to preach their religion and why the other religions are wrong. Not good.
I have no problem with this. In fact maybe we should be doing more of it. Didn’t someone say we should kill their leaders and convert them?
Watch for 24/7 coverage by the EneMedia (MSNBC/CBS/CNN/etc...). They love endangering our guys.
You may answer questions about Christianity without violating the order. First you have to cultivate curiosity in your beliefs. The best way to do that is to behave in a Christian manner.
Sounds good, but the problem is people seldom get to the words. They will live the Christian life, but never get around to telling people about Jesus. The Biblical example is conversion through the preaching and hearing of the Word. Getting the Word of God into their hands is also modeled in the Ethiopian Eunuch.
These soldiers probably counted their mission as not only helping the Afghan people through clearing out bad guys. That just creates a power struggle and the ‘mission’ would be in vain. They likely saw it as doing something to help a people in spiritual darkness as well. I’m not saying that this is the function of the military; but it is the function of a Christian and I certainly won’t condemn the risk they took.
Can’t we just kill them all and let the Mormon’s do baptisms for the dead?
You’d think that they were “terrorizing women and children”(Kerry) or committing “murder” (Murtha).
Why is it that when we suggest something religious to Muslims it is an afront but when it comes to accommodating their religious beliefs it is necessary?
because that is the Militant Islamic double standard. Just like any muslim who converts to Christianity is to be killed, yet anyone Christian who converts to Islam is “saved”.
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