Witnessing to Iraq

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post has an interesting column today about the difficulty reporters had getting answers to questions from the White House last week. In two separate press conferences, deputy press secretary, Claire Buchan managed to dodge virtually every question put to her by the press corps - even on such apparently innocuous topics as whether or not the President's parents would be joining him for Easter or if any of the POWs would be attending the church service.

He also commented on the latest flap regarding the Bush administration's apparent lack of objection to plans from Christian groups to proseltyze to Muslims while provinding aid to them in Iraq.

Muslims were upset that Franklin Graham, who had condemned Islam as evil, preached at the Pentagon last week. Now comes word that the White House held a private briefing for 141 evangelical Christian leaders March 27 to discuss the Iraq war and other subjects.

Those invited included Jerry Falwell, who apologized last year for calling the prophet Muhammad a "terrorist," and broadcaster Marlin Maddoux, who has proclaimed an "irrefutable connection" between Islam and terror. Also invited were the president of the Southern Baptist Convention, which is sending food to Iraq labeled "grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ," and Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, who said Iraqis are "desperately in need of the gospel." Invited, too, was D. James Kennedy, whose ministry published an article calling Islam "one of the greatest challenges to Christianity."

A White House spokesman said Bush does not share these views and that similar briefings were held for groups such as veterans and think tanks.

Whether Bush "shares" these views or not, and whether he holds briefing for other groups or not, Bush's tacit approval of their actions - evident by his not trying to stop them - is only going to make matters worse. Muslims will - and to an extent already do - assume that they are acting on the behalf of America rather than being a church group operating independently of the American government. They know that Bush has the authority and the ability to tell them to stay home, or to avoid anything that could be construed as an attempt to convert Muslims to Christianity. They also know he hasn't and probably won't.

Not enough can be said about how disasterous this could be. Muslims are already angry at us for so many things and attempting to essentially witness their religious out of existance through the combination of proclaiming it to be evil and pushing the Christian faith instead only gives them that much more to be angry about.

Posted by thorswitch at April 22, 2003 02:02 PM | TrackBack