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Posted on 01/15/2003 12:12:12 PM PST by grantswank
IRAQ AND THE LIBERAL NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHURCHES VISIT
J. Grant Swank, Jr., POB l984, Windham ME 04062
Pastor, New Hope Church, Windham ME
They were there for only four days — four days to do research on an entire country’s spiritual, political and psychological state? Four days?
One can hardly get off and on a plane with meals and rest in between in four days? Maybe visit a zoo or take in a sunset; but stay only four days in a country and then leave it as experts in the field? Such hubris. And that’s only for starters. There’s more that causes one to wonder.
For instance:
Why didn’t they ask the Iraqi leaders why it is that Iraqi citizens have been tortured by having their tongues dug out of their mouths because such citizens opposed the Hussein regime?
Why didn’t the US churchmen inquire as to why women have their heads cut off in the open streets, many accused of being prostitutes when there is meager documentation for same?
Why didn’t the religious leaders who just visited Iraq dig into hard, cold facts of Christians being persecuted for their faith?
Thirteen churchmen referred to themselves in their January media statement as spokespersons and "experts visiting Iraq under the auspices of the National Council of Churches (USA). Ours is a religious and not a political delegation. We came to see the faces of the Iraqi people so that the American people can see the faces of children laughing and singing and also hurting and suffering."
So it is that these religious persons made plain that their purpose for visiting Iraq was philosophically religious and not political. Yet they do reach political conclusions and even go so far as to advise politically US Congressmen and the US President as to what politically should be done regarding a possible war.
In their public statement, they highlight the worried brows of boys and girls — the poor, the cold, the forlorn. But the religious leaders do not go further. They do not expose atrocities against those children’s parents, the latter falsely accused. They do not reveal Hussein’s luxurious comforts in comparison to little food for peasants. They point out what one would expect from theologically liberal religious leaders — heartbreak due to undernourishment and poverty — but display at the same time their own awesome (and embarrassing) naivete. Is it purposeful?
Why oh why did not these US church representatives come away from their visit with scathing scolding leveled against Saddam, directing righteous anger against his human slaughter houses, speaking out plainly about their own heartbreak for a country held captive by a fiendish bloodthirsty autocrat? Why why why?
Because theologically liberal churchmen have always taken the stance predictable, that is, viewing the obvious poor situations of a spiritually fallen planet while ignoring outright, staring-you-in-the-face evil. Why? Because to theologically liberal persons there is not that much sensitivity to outright evil — sin — unrighteousness — disobedience to the godly expectations — old-fashioned immorality.
Why?
Because theologically liberal churchpersons — clergy and laity alike — live by situation ethics rather than eternal absolutes. They craft their morals by political correctness. They live by their own splicing of the Word of God — taking out what is not convenient and keeping what is comfortable. They accommodate to what is palatable to their own self-carved desires and political liberalism while purposefully neglecting the real, traditional, biblical standard.
Why then would not Americans expect a theologically liberal delegation to return home to combat further a politically and theologically conservative US President?
Of course that would be their stance. They are not going to return to America supporting a President with whom they have disagreed on theological basics. They are in the "other camp" than the President. They are not of his league and never will be.
Therefore, with a visit to Iraq, they put darts in their quiver by which to attack one more time the man in the White House with whom they disagree, just as they have done all along in more subtle venues. But now this war vs. no-war circumstance allows them a marketplace for airing their theological and political liberalism. Now they can come out of their political closet to appear as the peacemakers of the world, the tenderhearted religious leaders of the nation, the dove set-loosers, thus thinking they picture Bush and Company to be heartless and uncouth at best while unspiritual and religiously insensitive at worst.
In a telecast, one of their spokesmen said to a reporter, "Why are we rushing to war when we as a nation should be rushing to dialogue?"
What? Give us all a break on that one.
More dialogue? More discussion? More attempts to be reasonable with a ruler who has kidnapped his own innocent men, women and children, who has jailed Iraqis on the whim of police recreation for an evening, who has taught his own son how to build his own private torture chamber, who has used the adultery law to persecute countless innocent women, and on and on the madness can be catalogued.
So it is posited that with this Hussein the truly spiritual persons of America are to yearn for one more attempt at balanced, reasonable dialogue?
Not on your life, National Council of Churches (USA) leadership.
It is a shame that once again religious leaders appear so empty in the head. That is often the image society has of pastors and priests. But why do such spokesmen then live out such a deadbeat stereotype, particularly in such a strategic time as this?
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