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Brilliant Expose Of The Bush Admin's Fundamentalist Subtext |
Current rating: 0 |
by James Heflin
(No verified email address) |
18 Apr 2003
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The only thing the author misses is the tie-in to similar antics on the part of every ascendant fascist of the past 100 years, including Hitler |
Go here:
http://valleyadvocate.com/gbase/News/content.html?oid=oid:8819 |
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Bush’s Iraq: When The Evangelists Go Marching In |
by Doug Saunders
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
18 Apr 2003
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"Muslim groups say they believe the presence of Evangelists is a sign that President George W. Bush is trying to impose his own Evangelical Christianity on Muslims .."
Washington is trying to portray its battle as one of liberation, not conquest, but Iraq is about to be invaded by thousands of U.S. Evangelical Missionaries who say they are bent on a "spiritual warfare" campaign to convert the country's Muslims to Christianity.
Among the largest aid groups preparing to provide humanitarian assistance to Iraqis ravaged by the war are a number of Christian Charities based in the southern United States that make no secret of their desire to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ and win over Muslim souls.
The largest of these is the Southern Baptist Convention, an ardent supporter of the war as an opportunity to bring Christianity to the Middle East. It says it has 25,000 trained Evangelists ready to enter Iraq.
"That would [mean] a heart change would go on in that part of the world." Mark Liederbach of the South-eastern Baptist Theological Seminary explained in a recent speech to the SBC. "That's what we need to be praying for. That's how a Christian wages spiritual warfare."
Such words have caused deep alarm among military and diplomatic authorities. Although Christian aid organisations have worked comfortably alongside secular groups in other conflicts, Muslims around the world are already suspicious of U.S. motives in Iraq, and the worry is that Missionaries could reinforce the widespread popular belief that the war is really a "clash of civilizations" between Christians and Muslims.
Muslim groups say they believe the presence of Evangelists is a sign that President George W. Bush is trying to impose his own Evangelical Christianity on Muslims. It does not help that Mr. Bush became a born-again Christian in the 1980s with the assistance of Billy Graham, the founder of the SBC.
"This is creating a real serious problem of perception: Here we have an army invading Iraq, followed by a bunch of people who want to convert everyone to Christianity," said Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on Islamic-American Relations. "How's that going to look in the Muslim World? And how's it going to look that this guy says Muslims are evil and he's the guy who works with the President?"
Mr. Hooper was referring to Mr. Graham's son, Franklin, who runs the SBC. The younger Mr. Graham, who delivered the invocation at Mr. Bush's Inauguration in 2001, has repeatedly gone on the record describing Islam as "wicked."
Mr. Graham has recently been more tolerant of Islam, but he has made it clear that the conversion of Muslims to Christianity is a goal for his volunteers.
"I believe as we work, God will always give us opportunities to tell others about His Son," he told the religious newsletter BeliefNet last week. "We are there to reach out to love them and to save them, and as a Christian, I do this in the name of Jesus Christ."
In response to criticism, many Christian aid groups, including Mr. Graham's, have toned down the religious messages in their work.
"We want to spread the message of Jesus Christ through outwork, by reaching out to people with humanitarian aid," said Sam Porter, Disaster-Relief Director for the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, the largest of the SBC's aid groups. "We are not there to preach; we are on a predominantly humanitarian mission and we want to work as Good Samaritans — we do our work with the love of Jesus Christ in our hearts."
In one major project, Baptist families have been asked to put together "gift of love" food boxes designed to provide a month's worth of basic nourishment to a family of five. "Please do not place any additional items/literature inside the box," the families are told. Mr. Porter, who runs the program, explained that this is to prevent them from being seen as missionary packages.
However, on the outside of each box will be a label bearing an Arabic translation of John 1:17: "For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."
While many Evangelical aid workers are motivated by humanitarian desires, their mission statement makes it clear that they are required to attempt conversions: "It is the duty of every child of God to seek constantly to win the lost to Christ by verbal witness under girded by a Christian lifestyle, and by other methods in harmony with the gospel of Christ."
Globe and Mail, 9 April 2003 |
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Muslims At Pentagon Incensed Over Invitation To Evangelist |
by Sue Pleming
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
18 Apr 2003
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WASHINGTON -- Muslims at the Pentagon are incensed by what they say is an insensitive invitation to the Rev. Franklin Graham, who has called Islam an ''evil religion,'' to preach on Good Friday at the Defense Department.
In letters to the Pentagon chaplain's office, Muslim office workers complained strongly about Graham's plans to lead prayers Friday, one of the most holy days in the Christian calendar.
The Muslim employees urged officials to find a ''more inclusive and honorable'' religious leader to replace Graham, son of the Rev. Billy Graham and head of a Minneapolis-based evangelistic association in his father's name.
An Army spokesman at the Pentagon, Lieutenant Colonel Ryan Yantis, said yesterday that Graham was invited several months ago to deliver the homily at the Good Friday service and that the chaplain's office would not rescind the invitation.
''We are in a balancing act between accommodating the interests and requests of many faiths, and we will do our utmost to keep that balance in mind in providing religious support to workers in the Pentagon,'' said Yantis.
Yantis said he was aware of a small group of Muslims working at the Pentagon who met the deputy chaplain last Friday to complain about comments made in the past by Graham.
''They asked that the Pentagon chaplain's office be mindful and take into consideration these sorts of things for future events, and the deputy said he would certainly keep this in mind,'' said Yantis, who added a broad range of religious leaders had been guests at the Pentagon.
Criticism by Muslims at the Pentagon is embarrassing for the Bush administration, which has gone to great lengths to try to convince Arab nations the US invasion of Iraq was aimed at toppling Saddam Hussein and not at the Islamic faith.
Graham angered Muslims after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks when he called Islam a ''very evil and wicked religion.''
He has also ignited controversy over plans for his relief organization, Samaritan's Purse, to go into Iraq to deliver aid, a move the Arab community says is aimed at trying to convert followers of Islam rather than helping Iraqis in need.
A spokesman for Graham confirmed yesterday he would attend Friday's service, where prayers were likely to focus on US military action in Iraq -- a largely Muslim country.
''As far as Friday is concerned, the Rev. Graham will be attending prayers at the Pentagon,'' said spokesman Jeremy Blume, adding Graham was in board meetings yesterday and was unlikely to comment personally on the issue.
Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, said inviting Graham to the Pentagon prayer service ''sends entirely the wrong message to the Muslim and Arab world that the Pentagon will host someone who has such Islamophobic views.''
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