The Stealth Crusade

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News: Inside one Southernuniversity, Christianmissionaries are beingtrained to go undercover inthe Muslim world and winconverts for Jesus.

Their stated goal: to wipeout Islam.

www.answering-christianity.com

June 1, 2002

PDF by: www.esnips.com/user/jam200

The Stealth Crusade

Barry Yeoman

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The Stealth Crusade

Barry Yeoman

At 8 o'clock on a warm Monday morning in January, 20 students file into Rick Love'sclassroom at Columbia International University in South Carolina. Eyes glassy from writingpapers all weekend, they clutch Styrofoam cups of Folgers as they settle into their seats. Infront, an overhead projector hums; it is hooked up to the instructor's laptop, ready for amorning full of PowerPoint presentations.Outside, CIU's piney campus is quiet. Most of the student body has not yet returned fromChristmas break. But these students, all evangelical Christians, have arrived two weeksearly for an intensive course on how to win converts in Islamic countries. They're learningfrom the master: Love is the international director of Frontiers, the largest Christian groupin the world that focuses exclusively on proselytizing to Muslims. With 800 missionaries in50 countries, Frontiers' reach extends from the South Pacific to North Africa, with everymajor Islamic region in between.Love is 49, a black-leather-jacket-wearing whirlwind of a man with a salt-and-pepper beardand a quick sense of humor. He's a chronic multitasker, routinely praying aloud whiledrinking coffee and simultaneously reviewing his lecture notes. Little known outside themissionary world, he's an icon within it-an evangelistic entrepreneur who wins admirerswith what he calls his "middle linebacker" personality. His seminars are usually closed tothe media and the public.This morning's lesson is about going undercover. Many of Love's students are missionariesthemselves, temporarily home from assignments in places ranging from Kazakhstan toKenya. They know firsthand that evangelism is illegal in many Islamic nations, and theyface expulsion if their true intentions become known. Love's lesson for today is how tomask one's identity while secretly working to convert Muslims. Evangelists, he explains,should always have a ready, nonreligious explanation for their presence in hostile areas.

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Love fixes his gaze on a studious, spiky-haired missionary dressed in Patagonia clothing. "If people ask you, 'Why are you here?'" he asks, "what do you say?" The young man, on leavefrom Southeast Asia, squirms in his chair. His jaw opens but nothing comes out. "Bingo!"Love says with a smile. "You bite your fingernails, and people go, 'Of course he's not hidinganything.'" Love notes that before he went to western Indonesia to proselytize amongSundanese Muslims, he went back to school and earned his credentials to become anEnglish instructor. That way, he says, he had an excuse to be in the country. "I could looksomeone in the eye and say, 'I am an English teacher,'" he explains. "'I have a degree andI'm here to teach.'"That, he says, is the model for winning converts in the Islamic world: Find another pretextto be in the country. Build friendships with the locals. Once you've developed trust, then it'stime to try to gain new believers. But don't reveal your true purpose too early. "How didJesus explain why he was there?" Love asks the class. "Indirectly," volunteers a veteranmissionary. "He'd say, 'Why do you think I'm here?'""Did Jesus ever lie?" In unison, the class says, "No.""But did Jesus raise his hand and say, 'I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, andnothing but the truth?'" Again, 20 voices call out, "No!"There are lots of ways to camouflage yourself, Love tells the students. In Indonesia,evangelists ran a quilt-making business to provide cover for Western missionaries, allowingthem to employ-and proselytize-scores of Muslims.The students nod thoughtfully; they agree that Muslims must be reached by whatevermeans possible. Their zeal is helping to fuel the biggest evangelical foray into the Muslimworld since missionary pioneer Samuel Zwemer declared Islam a "dying religion" in 1916and predicted that "when the crescent wanes, the Cross will prove dominant." Over thepast decade, evangelical leaders say, the number of missionaries trying to convert Muslimshas jumped fourfold, from several hundred in the early 1990s to more than 3,000 today.

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