Christian Crusaders in Iraq?
Robin Hayes, a Republican congressman from North Carolina, following in the footsteps of Ann Coulter, made news before Christmas for suggesting to a Rotary group that the solution to the mess in Iraq is Iraqi conversion to Christianity. Now that we have "control" of the nation, isn't it time to pacify them by bringing them to Christ.
Robert Parham in a piece on Ethics Daily (Friday, 12/29/2006) offers a differing solution. Why not have Americans, like the church going congressman, convert to Christ first.
I have no problem with the idea of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, but I do have a problem with the linkage of Christian faith and American foreign policy. Mr. Hayes needs to do some reading of missionary history to see how well that went!!! Colonialism and Christianity went hand in hand in the conquests of Africa, Asian, and South America. It was tried on the American frontier as a way of pacifying the Native American populace. Many died in the name of Jesus -- so I agree with Mr. Parham, that we Americans need conversion before we worry about converting the Iraqis. Mr. Hayes, who is apparently a member of a Presbyterian Church needs a bit of converting himself, along with Mr. Virgil Goode, Hayes' colleague from Virginia!
Robert Parham in a piece on Ethics Daily (Friday, 12/29/2006) offers a differing solution. Why not have Americans, like the church going congressman, convert to Christ first.
The problem with this view is American Christians themselves. In America everyone knows about the birth of Jesus Christ and the accompanying message of peace on Earth. That knowledge is escapable, especially at Christmas. But that knowledge hasn't changed the bloodlust of the Christian Right, who see America as the Christian nation that it is not and violence as a missionary strategy that it isn't.
The knowledge of Jesus Christ hasn't turned fundamentalists, evangelicals, Catholics, mainline Protestants and quasi-church attendees from their self-righteous commitment to holy war.
No, Christian conversion hasn't converted America's pro-crusade churchmen.
Why do some American Christians think that converting others to Christianity would do for non-Christians what it hasn't done for them?
I have no problem with the idea of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, but I do have a problem with the linkage of Christian faith and American foreign policy. Mr. Hayes needs to do some reading of missionary history to see how well that went!!! Colonialism and Christianity went hand in hand in the conquests of Africa, Asian, and South America. It was tried on the American frontier as a way of pacifying the Native American populace. Many died in the name of Jesus -- so I agree with Mr. Parham, that we Americans need conversion before we worry about converting the Iraqis. Mr. Hayes, who is apparently a member of a Presbyterian Church needs a bit of converting himself, along with Mr. Virgil Goode, Hayes' colleague from Virginia!
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