Posted 7:13 AM by Blah blah

Conservative Christians Eager to Convert Iraq to Christianity

Onward Christian soldiers (Salon.com):
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[O]ne group seems certain to gain an avenue into the country: Southern Baptist Convention ministers prominent in the galaxy of the religious right. Among them is Charles Stanley, the former two-time president of the Southern Baptist Convention, a close ally of former President George Bush and a fervent supporter of the current president's war on Iraq....

His most recent example of activism came in February when he delivered a sermon titled "A Nation At War," placing him among a minority of mostly Evangelical Christian leaders to endorse Bush's plans for an attack on Iraq.

"The government is ordained by God with the right to promote good and restrain evil," Stanley said in his sermon. "This includes wickedness that exists within the nation, as well as any wicked persons or countries that threaten foreign nations ... Therefore, a government has biblical grounds to go to war in the nation's defense or to liberate others in the world who are enslaved." And sampling from a scattershot of biblical passages to inform his argument, Stanley warned that those who oppose or disobey the U.S. government in its drive to war "will receive condemnation upon themselves."...

Even before victory has been formally declared, In Touch is just one phalanx in an army of Christian soldiers who see Muslim Iraq as an extraordinary new marketplace for their theology. Already, churches and ministries on the religious right are poised to send in missionaries and to amp up broadcasts to the region. Like advance troops before the invasion, some U.S. military officials in Iraq have already staked out the country as a natural place to spread the Christian Gospel.
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I was raised Baptist in New England. I went to a Southern Baptist church when I first moved to California, too. This blatant disregard for Arab and Muslim culture, as well as ignorance about Arab Christians, is shocking.

I'm so glad the founders of America emphasized the separation of church and state. The corrupt and suppressive Muslim nations we see now are evidence of how combining religion and national politics always ends up hurting people.

Reminds me of a story. When I worked one summer in S. California, I wanted to do some volunteer work with a group that was helping the hungry. This youth group at a nearby church was going out to this park where homeless people slept, to give out food. I introduced myself and joined the group, but only for the purpose of feeding the homeless. I emphasized that I was not a Christian anymore.

We got to the park and got the food out of the van. It wasn't anything like normal food from soup kitchens---mainly peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and meager stuff like that. The homeless people gathered around us with eager looks.

Just when I was ready to start doling out food, the church leader said "Wait! We need to speak the message first." He proceeded to spend at least HALF AN HOUR giving us a sermon and asking people to give up evil and come to Christianity. I could see the homeless people, fidgeting and starving, waiting for him to finish his infomercial for God. Only after this ritual would the youth group give out those measly peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

I never went back to that group again.