Plans Under Way for Christianizing the Enemy

NewHouse News Service ^ | 3/26/03 | Mark O'Keefe

[goldstategop]

Christians don't commit jihad and haven't produced Saddam Husseins.

[Lee Heggy]

Terrible idea. Sending in the Evangelical shock troops will be seen as an affront. The oldest Christian sects in the world are in Iraq already let them do any converting if it's possible.

[bert]

The Good will be undone by this misguided opportunism.

[MayflowerMadam]

This has to be done. Otherwise, the kids we're saving there now will be killing our kids in 20 years. Bottom line: Their religion teaches that we're the infidels and we must be destroyed. Gotta change.

[Pete]

The Good will be undone by this misguided opportunism.

See #19 above.

Like many things, theory doesn't resemble what actually happens on the ground.

[plain talk]

Interesting how we have to be so apologetic about Christians even being allowed to go freely into an arab country, help people and speak the gospel. One goal should be freedom of religion. It should be a foundational principle of the new Iraqi government we help establish.

[bert]

I don't condemn the group and have worked with them on disaster assignments. I understand there are many christians in Iraq.

By forcefully flaunting there new found abilities, they will bring about bad feelings. There are plenty of places to go besides Iraq.

[George W. Bush]

Alert: Baptists massing for invasion.

Bush, an evangelical Christian himself, has close ties to both Franklin Graham, who gave a prayer at his inauguration, and Southern Baptists, who are among his most loyal political supporters.

This ought to ruffle all the right feathers.

[Pete]

By forcefully flaunting there new found abilities, they will bring about bad feelings. There are plenty of places to go besides Iraq

I guess I don't understand what you mean by "forcefully flaunting their new found abilities".

[Rockitz]

...freedom of religion... should be a foundational principle of the new Iraqi government

Amen!

[Illbay]

No. Teach your truth, and let people figure things out for themselves, without insulting them, their traditions and their history.

[Illbay]

It's good they want to help. I suggest they do so without insulting people, as unfortunately these people are wont to do.

[Illbay]

Sounds like your friends are doing an exemplary job. Give them my compliments.

[Jorge]

The Good will be undone by this misguided opportunism.

Exactly.
Already Islamic clerics are stirring up large protests against the American presense, and demanding an Islamic state with no American influence.

Can you imagine their response if Rev Graham who is well known for calling Islam an "evil religion" shows up with his troops trying to convert them?

Not only will Graham stir up hostility and get kicked out, but he will instigate much greater resentment against the Americans than we see now, and possibly squander the chances setting up a stable democratic govt.

This is an example of good intentions but a lack of wisdom and extremely poor timing.

[HumanaeVitae]

The Judeo-Christian Revelation, broadly defined, is based on the doctrine of man created Imago Dei, in the image of God, and thus holds all life as sacred; human life as an end in and of itself, not a means to another end. Base a society on that and you destroy terrorism, or even the thought of terrorism.

Having said that, jumping in here feet-first to evangelize Iraq may create a "stampede" of other denominations and would inflame an already delicate situation. I agree that no transformation of the ME is possible without pushing back Islam, but this probably isn't the best time to go pushing the envelope.

[WaterDragon]

I read there is a small Armenian population in Iraq, so there's Christianity there already. It certainly will not hurt matters for there to be more. Iraq is already so pluralistic, ethnically and even religiously, that an infusion of Christians doing nothing more than just being there and helping is a great idea.

Especially since it will probably send C.A.I.R. through the roof!

[Servant of the Nine]

Christians don't commit jihad and haven't produced Saddam Husseins.

Christians havbe spent the last 2,000 years killing anyone who disagrees with them in the smallest matters of dogma. The fact that it has been Intramural, so to speak rather than VArsity Jihad does not lessen the fact of what they do.

SO9

[fishtank]

Do you believe in religious freedom and in freedom of speech?

[GirlShortstop]

Can you imagine their response if Rev Graham who is well known for calling Islam an "evil religion" shows up with his troops trying to convert them?

I can appreciate your apprehension, however, how many Iraqis do you believe ever saw Rev Graham's comments?  Do we know that Saddam (or his son) approved broadcast of these comments?

I sense in many comments a strong inclination to respond to this newsstory in a "glass half empty" approach.  Spreading The Word, The Truth of Jesus Christ is *never* darkness, nor wrong.

[Pete]

Can you imagine their response if Rev Graham who is well known for calling Islam an "evil religion" shows up with his troops trying to convert them?

You are misinformed. This simply is not how missionaries do their job. I referenced missionaries I know personally in my post #19 above. In the first four weeks they were in Africa, the husband had a chance to share the Gospel with one person. Now, some of you might say he wasn't doing his job. But that's the point! He was. Conversion is not some over-riding obsession where missionaries run around trying to convert as many people as they can trying to make some quota. Such a view is based on pop-culture theory and has no basis in fact.