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 www.answering-christianity.comJune 22, 2003 PDF by: www.esnips.com/user/Jam2000
Missionaries Under Cover
 
David Van Biema
 
 
 
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Missionaries Under Cover
David Van Biema
Growing numbers of Evangelicals are trying to spread Christianity in Muslim lands. But is this what theworld needs now?What sort of methods they are using….read the article below.She wasn't a Muslim, but she would do for now. Last March, at just about the time American troopswere massing outside Baghdad, she shuffled, dressed in a dark burqa, into a cramped schoolroom inthe New York City borough of Queens. The class she was addressing was organized by the U.S. Centerfor World Mission and packed with eager evangelical Christian students wanting to learn how to bemissionaries in a foreign country. The black-clad "Shafira" was gamely trying to explain her faith."It is not in the heart of all the Muslims to have violence," she said in broken English, alludingimmediately to Sept. 11. "So sorry that people having dying. I'm wanting peace for my children. I'mthinking you wanting peace. It's the same." She listed Islam's five pillars of faith and reminded heraudience that holy war is not among them. "We have a lot in common," she said, but she did wonderabout the Trinity: "God Father plus God Mary equals God Son?"A student, thrilled at the opportunity to explain, jumped in. After listening patiently, Shafira peeledback her garments and admitted that "I am not a true Muslim." Hardly. In fact, she was a longtimeChristian missionary in Muslim lands. She had been hired to explain at several of 150 annual"Perspectives" classes how such evangelism should be done. She gave her real name. (Throughout thisarticle, for the safety of missionaries working in potentially hostile environments or returning to them,pseudonyms are used. They will be indicated on first usage by quotation marks. Many locations willalso be omitted.)Over the next three hours, "Barbara," minus her burqa, dispensed lists of comparisons between Jesusand Muhammad ("Jesus arose from the dead and is alive. Muhammad is dead.") and of dos and don'tsof ministering to Muslims. (Do listen to their story. Don't argue about Israel.) She projected astatement by U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft on a screen: "Islam is a religion in which Godrequires you to send your son to die for him. Christianity is a faith in which God sends his son to die foryou." After his comment was publicized in late 2001, Ashcroft said it referred to terrorists and not tomainstream Muslims, but the point seemed lost on her. "Islam is the terrorist," Barbara asserted."Muslims are the victim." The class ended in prayer. "We mourn the loss of life" in Iraq, someone said.Added Barbara: "We pray that the weapon of mass destruction, Islam, be torn down. Lord, we declarethat your blood is enough to forgive every single Muslim. It is enough."For 21 months now, Americans have been engaged in a crash course on Islam, its geography and itsfollowers. It is not a subject we were previously interested in, but 9/11 left no choice, and the U.S.military in two countries continues its on-the-job training in sheiks and ayatullahs, Sunni customs andShi'ite factionalism. Yet there is one group that has been thinking—passionately—about Muslims formore than a decade. Its army is weaponless, its soldiers often unpaid, its boot camps places like the
 
 
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Queens classroom. It has no actual connection with the U.S. government(except possibly to unintentionally muddy America's image). But in thepast few months, its advance forces have been entering the still-smoldering battlefield of Iraq, as intent on molding its people's future asthe conventional American troops already in place.Not for a century has the idea of evangelizing Islam awakened suchfervor in conservative Christians. Touched by Muslims' material and(supposed) spiritual needs, convinced that they are one of the great"unreached megapeoples" who must hear the Gospel before Christ'seventual return, Evangelicals have been rushing to what has become thelatest hot missions field. Figures from the Center for the Study of GlobalChristianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton,Massachusetts, suggest that the number of missionaries to Islamiccountries nearly doubled between 1982 and 2001—from more than15,000 to somewhere in excess of 27,000.Approximately 1 out of every 2 is American, and 1 out of every 3 isEvangelical. Says George Braswell Jr., a missions professor at theSoutheastern Baptist Theological Seminary: "We're having more nowthan probably ever before go out to people like Muslims." Sept. 11appears only to have fueled the impulse.Yet this boom has coincided with mounting restrictions on missionaryefforts by the regimes of Islamic-majority countries and with swellinganti-Western militancy. The resulting tensions have sometimes eruptedtragically: the past two years have seen the arrest and imprisonment of two American missionaries in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan and theapparently religiously motivated murders of four more in Yemen andLebanon. The botched bombing last month of a Dutch-Germanmissionary family in Tripoli, Lebanon, suggests the danger is notabating. Says Stan Guthrie, author of the book Missions in the ThirdMillennium: "People are beginning to count the costs. If you're in thewrong place at the wrong time, you could be killed. Missionaries havealways considered the possibility, but now it's a lot more real."Such fears, plus the recent entry of evangelical missionaries intoAfghanistan and Iraq on the heels of American troops, have raised otherquestions. The new arrivals mean well: in addition to the ChristianGospel, which they consider their most precious gift, they havechanneled millions of dollars in aid and put in countless hours of charitable work. But some fieldworkers for more liberal Christianorganizations claim that some of the more aggressive evangelical tacticscan put all religious charities at risk, as when the Taliban, angered bymissionary activities two years ago, shut down every Christian aid groupin Kabul. Muslim critics accuse missionaries of lying about their
 
Missionaries use atechnique called
tent-making
in which they found an adventure-traveletc business and makefriends. They talk sportsand taxes and children withtheir neighbors, wentcamping with them andgathered with them on
 Muslim
 
 feast days
. They don't hide their faith, butthey don't press it on others,so when a friend's friend who has taken a Christiancorrespondence courseapproaches them on behalf of his family, they shareChrist on his terms. "They pursued us," they insist. Thetwo clans grow close andeventually several of theMuslims lose their faith and become Christians.They also take jobs-
 
They take day jobs—often in aidand development or otherareas in which the hostcountry lacks expertise—and preache unofficially.The possibilities areendless—evangelical websites feature referencesto mechanical engineeringin "a large Arab city,"computer sales in "anIslamic country" and business teaching inKyrgyzstan—andmissionary-recruitmentseminars can sound like job bazaars. At a smallTennessee Bible church, amission facilitator assuredhis listeners that "if you're anative speaker and can fogup a mirror,
 you canteach" English abroad.
 
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