Mission accomplished: Ridding Iraq of Christianity

I was always baffled by the overwhelming support evangelical Christians gave to our government's invasion of Iraq in 2003. Just over a decade later, Christianity appears to be dying out in that country:

The vicar of the only Anglican church in Iraq has warned the end for Christians in the country appears "very near" as he appealed for help after a deadline set by Islamic militants to convert or be killed expired.

Canon Andrew White, dubbed "the bishop of Baghdad" for his work at St George's church in the capital, spoke after the ultimatum handed to Christians in the northern city of Mosul by the Islamic State of Iraq Levant (Isis) to convert, pay a tax or be put to death passed last week.

For those Christians who did not comply with the decree by 19 July, Isis warned that "there is nothing to give them but the sword.” Many have since fled their homes and Rev. Andrew-White told BBC Radio 4 Today desperate Christians were trapped in the desert or on the streets with nowhere to go.

"Things are so desperate, our people are disappearing," he said. "We have had people massacred, their heads chopped off.

"Are we seeing the end of Christianity? We are committed come what may, we will keep going to the end, but it looks as though the end could be very near."

The "war on terror" has been a dismal failure. In the name of "fighting for our freedom," our nation's armed forces have seen to it that the Middle East is a safe haven for radical Islam. Given that history, why do Christians continue to sign up for military service?

Killing Takes Its Toll on America's Soldiers

Many Christians look upon members of our military with admiration. After all, they are making the ultimate sacrifice to protect our freedoms here at home. Those freedoms are too numerous to list, but a few spring immediately to mind: our freedom to be sexually harassed at the airport, our freedom to have half of our income confiscated by the government, and our freedom to have our guns taken from us.

Fox News reports that all this killing in the name of protecting freedom is taking its toll:

With American troops at war for more than a decade, an unprecedented number of studies are looking into war zone psychology.

And clinicians suspect that some troops are suffering from an emotional problem they call "moral injuries" — wounds from having done something, or failed to stop something, that violates their moral code.

A moral injury tortures the conscience. Its symptoms include deep shame, guilt and rage.

Do you think it's possible that these moral injuries are due to the fact that some soldiers have come to realize that what they have done is wrong? Killing in an unjust war is nothing more than murdering on behalf of the state, and it saddens me that more Christians aren't speaking up about it. Instead, we praise our soldiers for what they do, and we continue to elect political leaders who promise even more killing.

To make matters worse, we have now made it official policy to send women off to kill and die for the state. Such is the result of our love of war.

The Bible speaks of government using violence to repel evil, reminding us that a just ruler "is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer" (Romans 13:4). But what happens when that ruler governs unjustly? What are we Christians to do when men, women, and children who never posed a threat to us are targeted for destruction? Whatever we do or say, I cannot imagine that joining in as instruments of that destruction is an option.

How much more death and destruction will we tolerate? I hope and pray we will repent and learn to trust in the Prince of Peace.

(via The Militant Pacifist)

Onward Christian Soldiers?

While I'm on vacation, please enjoy some old posts from the Contemporary Calvinist.

Onward Christian Soldiers?
(originally posted 05/06/2009)

Consider this report from Reuters:

Bibles in Afghan languages sent to a U.S. soldier at a base in Afghanistan were confiscated and destroyed to ensure that troops did not breach regulations which forbid proselytising, a military spokeswoman said.

The U.S. military has denied its soldiers tried to convert Afghans to Christianity, after Qatar-based Al Jazeera television showed soldiers at a bible class on a base with a stack of bibles translated into the local Pashto and Dari languages.

U.S. Central Command's General Order Number 1 forbids troops on active duty -- including all those based in Iraq and Afghanistan -- from trying to convert people to another religion.

"I can now confirm that the Bibles shown on Al Jazeera's clip were, in fact, collected by the chaplains and later destroyed. They were never distributed," spokeswoman Major Jennifer Willis said at Bagram air base, north of Kabul.

My initial reaction was one of shock. The chaplains were the ones responsible for confiscating these Bibles? How could they do something like that in good conscience?

Despite the official denial of the military, it's obvious the Bibles were intended to be distributed among the local population. Regardless, some may argue that the chaplains should have ignored the order. As the Apostle Peter said, "We must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29).

But as I reflected further on this incident I found it increasingly difficult to sympathize with those involved. While we are called to evangelize other nations, I'm not sure it's the place of an active duty member of the U.S. military to assume that responsibility, even if all that is entailed is simply handing out Bibles.

I have two concerns. First of all, evangelizing isn't in any soldier's job description. Just as we don't expect to see anyone else in secular employment evangelizing on "company time," we shouldn't expect it from our soldiers.

Secondly, the U.S. invaded Afghanistan on a military mission. Killing people and destroying property was the very nature of that mission, and I don't think the spreading of the gospel should ever be associated with the use of military force.

The war we are called to fight is a spiritual one (Ephesians 6:12-13), and the weapon we have been given is the "sword of the spirit" (Ephesians 6:17). Going out into the world to "make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19) should be done with the willingness to give our own lives for the sake of the gospel (Matthew 16:25, John 12:24-25), not in the process of taking the lives of others. The military, after all, is a tool of the state, not a ministry arm of the church.

More on this story:

Not a Single Christian Church Left in Afghanistan

Thanks to our meddling, there are no more churches in Afghanistan. CNSNews reports:

There is not a single, public Christian church left in Afghanistan, according to the U.S. State Department.

This reflects the state of religious freedom in that country ten years after the United States first invaded it and overthrew its Islamist Taliban regime.

In the intervening decade, U.S. taxpayers have spent $440 billion to support Afghanistan's new government and more than 1,700 U.S. military personnel have died serving in that country.

The last public Christian church in Afghanistan was razed in March 2010, according to the State Department's latest International Religious Freedom Report. The report, which was released last month and covers the period of July 1, 2010 through December 31, 2010, also states that “there were no Christian schools in the country.”

“There is no longer a public Christian church; the courts have not upheld the church's claim to its 99-year lease, and the landowner destroyed the building in March [2010],” reads the State Department report on religious freedom. “[Private] chapels and churches for the international community of various faiths are located on several military bases, PRTs [Provincial Reconstruction Teams], and at the Italian embassy. Some citizens who converted to Christianity as refugees have returned.”

In recent times, freedom of religion has declined in Afghanistan, according to the State Department.

This just adds to my confusion as to why so many American Christians supported (and continue to support) our government's wars in the Middle East.

(via Libertarian Christians)

Christian Warmongering at Its Worst

When you fail to draw a distinction between the city of man and the city of God, you end up sounding like this:

If America is really serious about combating worldwide Islamic terrorism and the increasing reports of Christian genocide among the 44 Muslim nations, then let us take up the battle cry of Ann Coulter and the Muslim author who converted to Christianity and train our military not only to kill and destroy our enemies but to convert them to Christianity. ...

... My one revision of Coulter is not that we should invade their countries: We must invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. PC (perversity correctness) means keeping Christianity, America and the West on the road to dhimmitude.

Six million Muslims convert to Christianity per year. Thank God Christian missionaries are still devoted to Christ's mandate: Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Would to God that our military would join Christ's battle cry and honor this verse of the Marines' Hymn:

First to fight for right and freedom [of religion]
And to keep our honor clean;
We are proud to claim the title
Of United States Marine.

Semper Fi!

Would to God that American Christians would return to the belief that the kingdom of God is advanced by the power of the Gospel, not by the power of the gun.