May
27, 2003, 1:55 p.m.
Onward, Christian Missionaries
Evangelization
in Iraq.
he
program initiated by sundry evangelical Christian ministers to accost
Islam by teaching the tenets of the Christian faith to those who seek
to bring that faith to Muslims is very good stuff, overdue. There is,
of paramount concern to them, the commanding message felt by these Protestant
missionaries. One of them put it this way to a reporter from the New
York Times: "If I had the answer for cancer, what sort of a human
would I be not to share it?"
That is the theological
commandment and it is entirely honorable, especially when it tells of
men and women willing to spend their lives, and even to risk them, to
pass on the word of the Christian faith.
But it is also very
important in tactical perspectives.
Some commentators
have opined (frequently, in this space) that the war against the extremist
Muslims must be fought not only by Marines in Iraq, but also by proselytes.
The first approach is and will continue to be the effort to mobilize Koranic
teachings that would seem to deplore exercises in the extremism we are
now combating. When the Americans were taken hostage in Iran by the Ayatollah
in 1979, a few Koranic leaders were rounded up who were willing to deplore
what had been done as contrary to Muslim commandments. And that pursuit
of moderate voices in Islam continues today, as we hear and relate the
here-and-there voices of the Muslim leader who deploys such as suicide
bombers and agents of 9/11.
A special difficulty
is that the "moderate" Muslim voice arouses the antagonism of
the militant, which antagonism seeks satisfaction, from time to time,
in mayhem. The wrath of the militants is feared not only by non-militant
exegetes of the Koran, entire governments are intimidated. It is not safely
assumed that leaders in Egypt and Syria, let alone Iran, could survive
a genuine effort to isolate and discredit those of their own countrymen
who are calling for death to infidels and who cheer at any bulletin telling
of the success of a suicide bomber.
The Christian evangelical
approach meets the problem head on. One evangelist, from Beirut, advocates
assembling passages from the Koran that establish that Islam is "regressive,
fraudulent, and violent," to quote the Times report by Laurie
Goodstein. "Here in the Koran it says slay them, slay the infidels.
In the Bible there are no words from Jesus saying we should kill innocent
people." Some evangelical leaders have been direct in branding the
Islamic faith as badly disoriented. As ever, Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell,
Pat Robertson, and Jerry Vines are widely quoted, Mr. Graham having said
that Islam is "a very evil and wicked religion." We learn that
a dozen books are circulating, written by Christians or disillusioned
Muslims, who urge confrontational exchanges with Islam.
Now the modern temper
shrinks from anything confrontational, even between a father and his 12-year-old
son caught smoking. Nowhere, and quite properly so, was our venture in
Iraq dressed in crusaders' battle dress. Still, basic postulates of Western
civilization have to be defended as such, and their provenance is substantially
Christian. The commandments to neighborly love and the sanctity of human
beings are enjoined by the Christian gospel, and historical failures to
live by the Word have been acknowledged as ignoble Christian failures.
But there is no prospect of a Koranic Vatican II on the horizon, which
would deplore the excesses of today's Muslim militants or the persecution
of Salman Rushdie.
Wherefore, the Christian
face of the ongoing struggle simply has to show itself, and its strengths
are great. The doctrine of human love and responsibility for others should
not be thought of as intrinsically offensive to a Muslim, and sincerity
in preaching the doctrines of Christ has naturally to follow from advocacy
of the lessons of the New Testament. Our diplomats and our generals have
prescribed roles to play, but ahead of diplomacy and military action are
our philosophers, even as the preachments of Locke et al. preceded the
thought that galvanized our Declaration of Independence and the Bill of
Rights.
Diplomacy is fine
and is necessary but it sometimes demands politically correct professions
of equality of faith, at the expense of right reason. Ronald Reagan saw
through to this problem when he said that the Soviet Union was an evil
empire and that Communism would end up on the ash heap of history. Something
like that needs to be said about Muslims, to the extent that they are
identifiable as agents of terrorism.
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he
program initiated by sundry evangelical Christian ministers to accost
Islam by teaching the tenets of the Christian faith to those who seek
to bring that faith to Muslims is very good stuff, overdue. There is,
of paramount concern to them, the commanding message felt by these Protestant
missionaries. One of them put it this way to a reporter from the New
York Times: "If I had the answer for cancer, what sort of a human
would I be not to share it?"
