War for Souls

Last March, in anticipation of a quick U.S. victory, several U.S. Christian evangelical organizations set their sights on delivering bandages and Bibles to Iraq. More than eleven months later, concerned that the window of opportunity will soon be slammed shut, evangelical groups are still hustling about the country. Ironically, while these U.S.-based Christian missionaries are struggling to convert Muslims, the country's Christian community -- numbering less than one million out of a population of 23 - 25 million and made up of mostly Assyrian Catholics -- is under ongoing attack.

Most Iraqi Christians are Assyrian Catholics, known as Chaldeans. There are also followers of other Catholic rites, Orthodox believers, and smaller numbers of Protestants.

In the face of the increasing persecution of Iraqi Christians, conservative U.S. evangelicals have been silent, columnist Glen Chancy charged in September of last year. In a piece entitled "Christians in Iraq," Chancy wrote that evangelicals have not vigorously protested "the inability/unwillingness of U.S. forces to protect Iraqi Christians ... [and] their cause has not been championed by any of the televangelists." Evangelicals haven't made "Christian persecution in post-Saddam Iraq ... a centerpiece article in any of the Evangelical magazines," Chancy noted.

The London Telegraph reported in late December that "American Christian missionaries have declared a 'war for souls' in Iraq ... [and] are pouring into the country, which is 97 percent Muslim, bearing Arabic Bibles, videos and religious tracts designed to 'save' Muslims from their 'false' religion." Evangelical groups were organizing "in secrecy, and emphasizing their humanitarian aid work."

Leading the evangelical onslaught is the International Mission Board, the missionary arm of the Southern Baptists.

In a December appeal, John Brady, the IMB's head for the Middle East and North Africa, pointed out that "Southern Baptists have prayed for years that Iraq would somehow be opened to the gospel," but he expressed concern that the "open door" for Christians may soon be shut. "Southern Baptists must understand that there is a war for souls under way in Iraq," his bulletin added, listing Islamic leaders and "pseudo-Christian" groups also flooding Iraq as his chief rivals.

"In public," the London Telegraph report noted, "the largest groups put the emphasis on their delivery of food parcels and their medical work. However, their internal fund-raising materials emphasize mission work. One IMB bulletin reported aid workers handing out copies of the New Testament and praying with Muslim recipients. Another bulletin said Iraqis understood 'who was bringing the food ... it was the Christians from America.'"

On December 9, the IMB announced that it wanted to send more missionaries to Iraq but it lacked financial resources and volunteers to do so, the ASSIST News Service reported. "We've been asking and praying for years for God to open the doors into Iraq so we can do something. And now that it's happened we just have a handful of workers" said the IMB's Mike Creswell. "We're scraping for money to be able to really take advantage of the opportunity there."

Glen Chancy elaborated on his charges that US evangelicals were not interested in the plight of Iraqi Christians in a mid-January e-mail exchange with TomPaine.com: While "I am happy anytime anyone is willing to give food, blankets, and medicines to the victims of war ... I do have concerns about the presence of Evangelical's in Iraq," Chancy wrote.

"Evangelizing Muslims is difficult work, not the least because convincing a Muslim to change his religion can get missionaries killed. ... Historically Evangelical missionaries operating in situations such as Iraq have focused on a far safer mission field. That is -- converting Christians to Christianity. No one gets violent if a Roman Catholic Assyrian becomes a Protestant fundamentalist. If the current situation runs true to historical form (Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Egypt, etc), then the Evangelicals will end up making a fair number of converts among the indigenous Christians, and almost none among the Muslims."