I was engrossed in the latest post by James White, of Alpha and Omega Ministries and elder at Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church, How to Lose a War. The focal point of his article was the sad and disgusting event that recently occurred in Afghanistan where pashto and dari translations of the Bible were confiscated and destroyed–yes, destroyed. The reason they were destroyed–not mailed back, not stashed away in a crate, not handed over to Afghani Christians, but destroyed–was “to ensure that troops did not breach regulations which forbid proselytizing.”
When this situation was announced, I and many, many others passed the news around on blogs and twitter. There were plenty of folks upset by this, but not as many as I had hoped would voice on opinion. I can understand the political sensitivities involved. I can grasp the underlying issues going on with respect to proselytizing in a Muslim nation, especially if that’s done by military personnel. And I will be quite honest and say the military has no business being there in the first place and there are multiple dilemmas to deal with when you consider a man or woman carrying a massive arsenal, driving up to someone’s house in a well armed Hum-V and then (even secretly) saying, “Hey. Let me tell you about Isa (Jesus), the Prince of Peace?” But the Muslims were not ones who destroyed the Bibles. That was done by the American military. They had many options in front of them and they chose to eradicate the Bibles, to negate the many resources poured into their creation. But, again, I can understand why they made the wrong choice: the military (and the government) cannot bring the Good News about Jesus. It’s not only not their job, but you cannot bring the Good News while carrying a sword. You can only carry the cross.
Back to the article from James White.
The tribes in Afghanistan have been warring for literally thousands of years. They will continue to until Christ returns. It is foolishness, beyond measure, to think that anyone can bring a political solution to such lands. The political divisions are merely the symptom of the deeper source of division, which is religious. Secularists in the West cannot wrap their minds around the union of religion and state that is part and parcel of Sharia. It defies their understanding.
. . . But as long as people keep looking to politics to bring peace, there will, of course, be no peace. Shame on anyone who was involved in the destruction of the Christian Scriptures. Where is the outcry?
I wholeheartedly agree that peace will not come via political solutions here. But, it’s not merely “Secularists in the West” who fail to grasp the situation in Afghanistan and even Iraq. The greater conservative, evangelical Christian community that was and still is in support of the War on Terror, who tend to prejudice Muslims as wanting to kill Christians, fail to see the damage being done to the message of Good News when the name of Christ is placed in support of the military activity ongoing.
But, back to the main point. I ask with Dr. White, “Where is the outcry?” Where are the voices of the Christian leaders in this country? Will they stay silent, caring more about whether or not the military offends certain Muslims (ahem, not all Muslims don’t want to hear about Isa being more than a prophet) and condone the destruction of those Bibles? Certainly, this is a complicated situation, with many threads involved, but there is no way we should even appear to support the actions taken by the military here. They were wrong.
And now to the last part of Dr. White’s article, which still has me thinking more so than the rest of his post.
There would be riots in major cities all across the world if this had happened to the Muslim Scriptures. But you see, folks know Christians won’t kill anyone over the desecration of their Scriptures. And so it goes on.
Indeed the Muslim community would be in utter outrage if even one page of the Quran was desecrated. What exactly Dr. White meant by “folks know Christians won’t kill anyone over the desecration of their Scriptures,” I am not sure of. I know he’s not talking about a violent outburst, taking revenge against those who burned the sacred Scriptures of Christianity. At least that is my assumption from certain comments he has made in the past. He is not a pacifist, but does believe you cannot move the Gospel along by the sword. But this is what I am thinking about. If a Muslim were to burn a copy of the New Testament, I would not be angry. I would not seek revenge. I would not seek to protest in the streets. If I was in the Orissa province in India and watched the Hindu extremists burn Bibles, I would forgive them and move forward. But in this case, where so called Christians did or at least allowed the destruction of the Bibles–in the eyes of the on-edge Muslim community, already flustered by the occupation by the US military force, Christians are coming in guns-a-blazin’ and trying to convert Muslims to their western religion–I am very angry. I know others are as well.
Forgive them? Of course. Seek revenge? Nope. Support them and say, “That’s okay. It had to be done?” No way. I believe any Christian in the military should denounce their position and role, and leave as a conscientious objector. If that had already occurred, at least to any significant extent, in all liklihood these Bibles would still be in circulation and would have been in safer hands. And the Bibles, in the hands of those who follow the commands of Christ, go into the Muslim areas and love on their neighbors (and enemies), bring charity and care to the people, are exactly what we need. The cross is the only way to win the war on terror.
What are your thoughts? Granted, this is a very complicated issue because of the very debatable ideas of Christians in the military, sending packs of Bibles to military personnel intended for the Arabic readers, and some others. But that doesn’t mean we cannot have meaningful discussions about it that help the community move forward.
