SHIITE ISLAMIC THEOCRACY A REAL THREAT ?
SHIITE THEOCRACY A REAL THREAT IN IRAQ, MINISTRY LEADER WARNS
Politics Blinding Christians To What Really Matters
By Mark Ellis
Senior Correspondent, ASSIST News Service
LAKE
FOREST, CALIFORNIA (ANS) -- On his last
trip to post-war Iraq he was horrified by anarchy in the streets, as he and his
wife were forced to duck behind cars to avoid gunfire and witnessed burning and
looting at close range. With Baghdad slowly stabilizing, he harbors deep
concerns for the future of the Iraqi people and the myopia of American
Christians. (Pictured: 3
young Christian men who have started a Christian day care, and have a dream of
launching Iraq's first Christian radio station).
“There is a great possibility of Shiite theocracy being established eventually
in Iraq because they are the most well-organized,” says Norm Nelson, president
of Touchstone Ministries and director of Compassion Radio, along with his wife,
Cher. “The Shiites renamed Hussein City ‘Sadr City,’ and there was nobody
to challenge that change,” he says. “The clerics are in total control in
several cities adjudicating legal matters, with virtue police enforcing
shari’a law.”
While
Nelson credits the speedy and decisive military victory by U.S. forces, he sides
with critics who suggest too few troops were committed to win the peace.
“There is the potential for another Beirut in Baghdad,” Nelson says.
“I’ve ducked behind cars to avoid gunfire in Baghdad, and seen looting and
hold-ups at gunpoint,” he says. “All of this could have been avoided with
massive forces.” (Pictured: Norm
Nelson at Baghdad checkpoint with member of Army 3rd Armored Cavalry Division).
“We don’t have a very good record at following through,” he laments,
drawing comparisons to Afghanistan. “Not a single road has been established or
made viable across Afghanistan,” according to Nelson, since the end of U.S.
military engagement with the Taliban regime. “We haven’t walked away, but
we’re not getting the job done well,” he says. “In Afghanistan there is
very little progress and Christians don’t seem to care.”
With the 2004 election looming in the U.S., Nelson sees the wrong focus emerging
in the news media. “The coverage is being politicized into a battle between
Democrats and Republicans,” Nelson says. “People wonder how this will effect
the election, or if we’re safer now than before,” he observes. “All this
coverage is centered on us.”
“There are times I think we don’t care about Iraqis,” Nelson says. “As
Christians we have to be passionately concerned with the future of the Iraqi
people and their quality of life,” he says. “I’m waiting for the
Evangelical Christian community and for talk show hosts to talk about the Iraqi
people.”
Nelson maintains contact with a small but growing Christian church in Iraq.
“There is a quiet but profound movement toward Christ among the Muslims that
we need to support,” he says. “The cause of America should be secondary to
the cause of Christ, but it’s all blended now.”
“When high-profile Christians bash the Muslim religion there are consequences
for indigenous Christians,” Nelson says. “We need self-control and
discernment that while talking tough against Muslims might be popular, it puts
Christian lives at risk,” he says. “We need a baptism of Christ’s spirit
on our rhetoric and our agenda with regard to the Muslim world.”
There are important distinctions between the established Christian church, which
operated under Saddam Hussein, and a burgeoning underground church movement,
mainly fueled by younger Iraqis. “The established church had freedom of
worship under Hussein, but couldn’t spread the gospel,” Nelson says. “The
underground church is intensely ambitious and want a Christian radio station so
they can reach out and attract younger Iraqis,” he says.
“How can we strengthen their witness, when the majority in power will be
Muslims?” he asks.
While
Nelson says we must pray for unity among the believers in Iraq, there are urgent
practical needs that must be met for normalcy to return. “They need safety in
the streets, clean water, and electricity.” He believes most Christians are
not even focusing on these concerns, because the secular media politicizes their
world-view. Sadly, he concludes the political orientation of most Christians
“snuffs out the life of the gospel.”
(Pictured: A destroyed
shopping mall in front of the bombed-out Ministry of Information).
Nelson is raising money for food, clothing and other relief supplies, to be
distributed through the church. “It’s important that Iraqi Christians
distribute these supplies,” he says, because Shiite clerics are also
distributing relief supplies in efforts to win the hearts of the people.
“The military is reestablishing basic human services, but it’s a long way to
being anywhere close to where it should be.”
Monday, August 4, 2003