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Monday, October 18, 2010
BAGHDAD, IRAQ (ANS)
-- Canon Andrew White is known as “the Bishop of Baghdad.” I
first met him in 1999 when I made my initial trip to Iraq and visited St.
George’s Church on Haifa Street in a city that was suffering even then.
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Bishop Andrew “abouna” White |
Andrew, who grew up in Bexley, in the suburbs of
south-east London in Kent, England, has been serving St. George’s in the
midst of circumstances that, frankly, would drive most clergy out of
ministry altogether.
The church has repeatedly experienced damage from
bomb attacks in its neighborhood, a few of which have specifically
targeted St. George’s. Andrew has had to wear body armor and a helmet
while being transported to and from the church building in an armored
vehicle with armed guards during significant periods of his war-time
tenure at the church.
At one point, all eleven of St. George’s Iraqi
church staff were murdered, and only a handful of men were left as part of
the congregation because most of them had been driven out of Baghdad (and,
in some cases, out of Iraq) by threats made against them.
Andrew, himself, suffers from Multiple Sclerosis, a
condition that is apparent at times in his slightly slurred speech.
However, never has his speech contained words of hatred, or self-pity, or
expressions of a desire for revenge, or bitterness regarding the almost
unimaginable circumstances under which he serves. Everyone in the
community calls him “abouna,” Arabic for “father.” It is not just an
ecclesiastical title. It is a way of addressing him with the love that
people feel for him.
What has happened at St. George’s during a near
decade of war is that a congregation of 2,000 has gathered out of need and
a desire to serve others. Clinics providing various kinds of medical
assistance, outreaches providing food for those unable to obtain it for
themselves and their families in the violent city, educational programs
for children, trauma counseling, a host of other life-sustaining services
and, most of all, glorious worship of God are constant characteristics of
life in this parish.
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St.
George’s after first bombing |
At Compassion Radio, we love this church and its
pastor deeply. We have repeatedly provided financial aid and prayer
support for it. It’s very satisfying to give to a ministry that so clearly
reflects the heart and spirit of the living Christ and the good news that
He calls His disciples to live out.
But the costs of discipleship in Baghdad are
escalating seriously. In the past few days, the British Embassy in Baghdad
and Iraqi Intelligence have contacted Canon White and informed him that
they have uncovered specific plots to target St. George’s and destroy it.
The threats obviously include targeting Andrew as well.
Threats against St. George’s and against Andrew are,
of course, not new. But these threats are rooted, at least in part, in the
announcement by a Gainesville, Florida pastor some weeks ago that he
intended to burn copies of the Koran.
As Andrew puts it in a recent communiqué, “An army
Colonel came to see me to announce that this is still linked to the threat
of the Florida pastor to burn the Koran. The fact that it did not happen
means nothing to the extremists here.”
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Andrew and the children |
There is something that we Americans acknowledge
from time to time known as “the law of unintended consequences.” Clearly,
that law is operating right now in relation to St. George’s. Actually,
it’s been in operation in Baghdad and throughout Iraq for a long time. Its
horrific effects stem from words and actions thoughtlessly and ignorantly
expressed by people who ought to know better . . . people like the
Gainesville, Florida pastor who announced his Koran-burning plan.
Did that pastor harbor a desire to trigger an attack
on a courageous congregation in Baghdad? I doubt it. I’m not prepared to
call him a bad man. I don’t think he is. But he is an unwise man, a
foolish man. And his foolishness made public has produced dire unintended
consequences for vulnerable brothers and sisters half-way around the
globe. I must admit. That makes me angry and breaks my heart.
The Florida pastor is not alone in his foolishness.
There is an attitude growing in our country, the United States, infecting
even some evangelical Christians, that combines a dangerous mix of hubris
and aggressiveness which incites unwarranted violence against innocent
people. Though they’re reluctant to speak out publically, these victims
quietly wish that we would (to put it bluntly) stifle our rhetoric and
restrain our thoughtless behavior. They don’t need us to make their
already difficult lives even tougher.
Tough talk sells in America . . . at least with a
sizable segment of our population. Tough talk gets attention. It’s often
regarded as a sign of courage. It’s even considered patriotic. But,
however well the incendiary language may “play” to an American audience,
it can be lethal overseas. I recall a prominent American Christian leader
who used volatile language to describe Islam a few years ago. He was
praised here at home for “telling it like it is.” His domestic popularity
quotient soared. But I was in Afghanistan at the time, and his comments
sent at-risk Afghan believers into hiding. Their perplexed response to his
words was, “Doesn’t he realize that we’re going to pay a price for his
remark?”
I truly doubt that he did realize it. But being
clueless can bring the hammer down on those in already hazardous
situations.
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Norm
Nelson with his
Afghan bodyguard |
At this moment, thousands of Iraqi believers have
been driven from their homes in one of the cradles of Christianity and are
subsisting in places like Damascus and Amman. They are refugees because
political expediency in the wake of 9-11 trumped a careful consideration
of what a war of revenge would do to followers of Jesus in their ancient
churches along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. American military leaders
promised a campaign of “shock and awe!” Their words voiced an unwise sense
of American invincibility. Some might call it arrogance.
That’s how the Iraqi Christian refugees we
interviewed in Damascus heard it. The secular government maintained by the
brutal Saddam Hussein was far from ideal, but it at least allowed these
followers of Jesus to practice their faith securely in their homes and
freely in their places of worship. There were no churches targeted for
bombings back then.
Quiet conversions to Christ happened. I know. I
recorded conversion testimonies for Compassion Radio listeners to hear. I
remember a poster in the gift shop at St. Benham’s monastery near Mosul
that read, “Iraq for Christ.” I photographed it and praised God for the
evangelical spirit that was openly alive in that place. Bibles used to
sell briskly at the Baghdad Book Fair. Not anymore.
Today, there is a real possibility that Christianity
will be silenced and driven out of what is now officially called, since
the war “The Islamic Republic of Iraq.” That’s a hard possibility to
consider since Iraq is a place where there are physical remnants of a
church building dating back to the second century, and from which, in the
eighth century, the first Christian missionaries were sent to China.
Really, now . . . if advancing the gospel and
seriously honoring our Christian heritage matter to us, what kind of
“victory” have we achieved in Iraq at the cost of closed churches, a
muzzled witness and disenfranchised disciples now on the run in foreign
capitals? Not much, I would say.
I am not timid about suggesting that we American
evangelicals, who for the most part have supported policies that have
increased the risks faced by a now much-reduced Christian population in
Iraq and complicated the lives of those scattered outside their homeland,
owe something to these brothers and sisters in Iraq.
We might begin paying our debt to them by
acknowledging that they exist. That seems fundamental, but it is rare in
American churches. Then we might pray for them in some systematic way.
Interceding for them during the International Day of Prayer for the
Persecuted Church on November 14, 2010, would be a good time to start.
Then we might seek out information about the dispersion of Iraqi Christian
refugees, some of whom have relocated on our own doorsteps.
Compassion Radio has information about them, as do
other organizations such as Open Doors USA and Voice of the Martyrs. A
further step might be to provide some financial support for them. Again,
Compassion Radio can help answer inquiries.
But this is not a pitch for Compassion Radio. It is
a plea for an amplified awareness of the Body of Christ, and an active
acknowledgement that the Lord of the Church has organically joined us to
distant members in Iraq and other global locations. Just as we would speak
and act carefully and sensitively concerning anything that affects our own
precious children, siblings, spouses and other family members, so we
should carefully consider that our words and deeds that have consequences
for our spiritual family around the world.
What will happen to Andrew White and St. George’s
Church in Baghdad? I don’t know. We do know that, ultimately, the gates of
hell will not prevail against Christ’s church. In the meantime, our verbal
missiles and belligerent behavior can produce hellish consequences for
Iraqi believers. That’s something they do not need. I’m confident that
“abouna” White and his amazing congregation would agree.
Norm Nelson is President and host
of Compassion Radio, a unique faith-based, boots-on-the-ground
activist media ministry based in Lake Forest, California. The program
is heard daily across the United States, and in Latin America, Asia,
and the Middle East to involve listeners in responsible servant
outreach to the neediest people in the toughest places on earth.
Compassion Radio has mobilized its partners to launch and support
dozens of Compassion projects, including: restoring schools in
Afghanistan; providing shelter and care for abandoned infants in South
Africa; supporting “safe houses” for North Korean refugees; funding
blindness-curing eye clinics in Ghana; and delivering emergency food
and medical provisions in Iraq, Iran, Gaza, the West Bank, Sudan and
Sierra Leone.
He holds a B.A. from Westmont College, an M. Div. from San Francisco
The Seminary, a Th. M. from Princeton Theological Seminary, and is
completing doctoral studies in Religion, Diplomacy, and Conflict
Resolution at the Graduate Theological Foundation. He has done
graduate study at Oxford University and holds post-graduate
certificates in Human Rights and International Law from the
International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, and
from American University in Washington, D.C. He can be reached at
949.470.2890;
Norm@CompassionRadio.com, or through
www.CompassionRadio.com.
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