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“The gratitude of those rescued manifested itself in Loney refusing to wear a poppy on Remembrance Day, and refusing to testify against his suspect captors later held by the Americans. A similar response came from Norman Kember, a British CPT member who was rescued.”
Can’t speak to the CPT, but forget this guy. Christians who abdicate justice in the name of forgiveness miss the point.
attention seekers who inject themselfs in harms way deserve whatever they get
This is an article.
It is made of fail and blaming the victim.
Mr. Worthington, if you don't know what Christian missionaries are doing in Afghanistan, I don't believe I can explain it to you. But that won't stop me from trying.
They are there to give those who don't know the love and forgiveness of God and Jesus Christ a chance to learn of Him. God tells His people to share the Gospel with those in our immediate vicinity, those a little farther away and moving out to other regions and to continue doing so until everyone in the world has an opportunity to accept Him or reject Him.
It doesn't matter that it is too dangerous. I personally don't think the fear of death is a good reason for not doing something this important. To a Christian, death is not that big a deal. It is much more important to bring the Gospel to others. It is that simple.
“Apparently not. Christian groups should be discouraged from dabbling in regions where their religious faith is not appreciated, and where others are required to risk their lives to save them when inevitably they are kidnapped, to be used as political bargaining chips.”
In other words, we should keep our mouths shut and stay locked in our churches.
I admire the courage of these folks spreading God’s word to a very dangerous place.
The answer to that question is obvious. The question is, why are the rest of us not there?
In 2005, Canadian James Loney and four members of the Christian Peacemakers Team (CPT) in Iraq were kidnapped and held as hostages by something calling itself the Swords Of Righteousness Brigade. Before being rescued by British SAS troops and Canadian JTF2 specialists, an American member of the CPT, Tom Fox, was murdered.
This CPT case should not be compared to the Koreans currently held by the Taliban. The CPTs were willing stooges, who allowed themselves to be held in order to bring political pressure on the US and UK to end the war.
The martyr complex exists among Christians as well as Muslim suicide bombers. Doubtless the Korean Christians exude sincerity, courage and probably forgiveness. But that's not the point. They shouldn't be there.
The mistake is that anybody is bargaining for their release. It may be harsh, but being captured and martyred is part of the program, here.
The Taliban are not Iroquois whom French Jesuits once felt faith-bound to rescue from paganism -- and suffered torture and death as a consequence. Those were different times, and one would think we, or the church, would have learned a lesson.
The Taliban need conversion even more urgently than the Iroquois. They are being led down a path to their own destruction and the destruction of the World. The end of this struggle will not come when the Muslims are defeated militarily, but rather when their perverted religion is defeated spiritually. That is their weak point, and they are very keen on protecting it by killing anybody who attacks it.
Apparently not. Christian groups should be discouraged from dabbling in regions where their religious faith is not appreciated, and where others are required to risk their lives to save them when inevitably they are kidnapped, to be used as political bargaining chips.
If Christians are not to "dabble" in the business of converting the Muslims then we should just shutter the churches, declare Western civilization dead, hoist the Green Banner and get it over with. The fact that governments are making it their business to rescue kidnapped missionaries is the problem. It makes kidnapping missionaries a very profitable business, for one thing. Government should just butt out. Many will be martyred, but that is the way these things go.
Thats a good liberal solution to the problem, no females or christians are allowed in Afganistan, in the name of diversity and multigenderism.
Only allow females in all mens clubs or homosexuals in the boy scouts.
In a place of no moral values, there are no guidelines or structure worth saving. All rules are made to be broken by your liberal masters, they only exist to limit what you do, not them.
Chaos is their master.
Let the ROK take care of it.
From what I remember, ROK in Vietnam were feared with good reason.
The Taliban might have opened a box they didn’t intend.
“Christian groups should be discouraged from dabbling in regions where their religious faith is not appreciated, and where others are required to risk their lives to save them when inevitably they are kidnapped, to be used as political bargaining chips.”
This guy has no concept of Christianity. Having said that, these lunatic left Christians who run to protect every dictator on the planet, like Jimah Cahtah, like to blame the trouble they find on others, not themselves. When conservatives mix church and state, the lunatics yell, when they do it, they expect our soldiers to save their butts.
The South Korean church sends out more missionaries than the US does every year. In fact they even send them here. That doesn't speak well for the (collective) U.S. church's spiritual health.
The Taliban did the exact same thing the summere of 2001. I just hope this doesn’t fortell another terrorist attack. I just have this gut feeling something is bound to happen very soon.
Amen
Once again, the world sees Christians ready to die for their faith and their belief in a risen Jesus. One wonders how this will be perceived by the Muslim world.
The equivalent of “the rape victim was asking for it”
Christian groups and others are free to go to Afghanistan, and do. The Taliban are going to do what they do whether it be to Christians or other Muslims. And the U.S. Army is going to engage the Taliban whether or not they are holding hostages. Freedom must be defended and the practice of it should be encouraged. We did not purge these bastards just to let them dictate who may do what. Missionaries have traditionally put their lives on the line to bring the word to others. I can’t think of any place that needs it more than the middle east.
What would be the point of missionaries visiting a region where their faith is appreciated? This article takes a purely secular viewpoint, as if all Christians have to do in this life is make sure they stay safe. This article is simply wrong.
Hey, Worthy: Your daughter’s got a BIG mouth! I see now where she got it.
I am sure the Sun would insist that the rapist is always at fault. To suggest otherwise means the Sun is trying to excuse rape. Well, in this piece, isn’t the Sun trying to excuse kidnapping, brutality and murder? The real problem lies in the violent culture of the Islamists, and maybe that fact is just too inconvenient for the politically correct staff and editors of the Sun.