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Tuesday, July 1, 2008
On Being A Christian In Iraq
Christians and Christianity have been in Iraq since 35 C.E., when the Apostle Thomas went eastward to spread the Gospel. The church has thrived in peace with its Muslim neighbors for fourteen centuries.
Over the centuries Iraq's Muslims and Christians survived invasions by Mongols and Turks. They lived and thrived within a nation whose majority was Islam.
Under Saddam Hussein's regime, Christians were respected and treated as were any other Iraqi citizens. Tariq Aziz, Saddam's most valued adviser, was a Christian.
A million strong (albeit a minority) they enjoyed religious freedom - free to build churches, free to worship, free to speak Jesus' language (Aramaic).Most Iraqi Christians lived in a neighborhood called Dora, where Christians, Sunnis, and Shiites had lived together.
Now Iraq's Christians are fleeing their ancestral home to avoid being persecuted, hunted, kidnapped, and and murdered in the Shia vs Sunni civil war that rages on in Iraq. The frequent funerals are often conducted without the bodies of the deceased. Nearly all of the Christian churches have been abandoned or are destroyed. Most of the surviving members have fled to Jordan and Syria. Those who stay risk their lives and live in abject poverty. For many of those left behind, the only significant food is the weekly meal provided by the Church.
What changed everything was the American invasion, occupation, and destabilization.
Reverend Andrew Canon White is an Anglican chaplain and the Vicar of Baghdad. According to White, "The situation now is clearly worse than under Saddam."
"There’s no comparison between Iraq now and then," he told [CBS reporter Scott] Pelley. "Things are the most difficult they have ever been for Christians. Probably ever in history. They’ve never known it like now."
The U.S. military cannot help very much. Protecting the Christian churches would lead to the murder of more Christians. According to U.S. Army Colonel Gibbs, Islamic militants would view that as a Christians' collaboration with the U.S. forces.
Has "The Surge" helped? Possibly, but it's hard to tell, since Christians were fleeing before the surge, and have continued to flee during the surge.
This misery is testing the faith of Iraq's Christians.
"[This is ] happening because religion has gone wrong," [ Canon Andrew ] White told Pelley. "And when religion goes wrong, it kills others."
Pelley asked, "The Muslim religion has gone wrong, is that what you're saying?"
"It has. And in the past, Christianity has gone wrong," White says. "And what I say to people very clearly is that the history of Christianity is no better than the history of Islam."
"Some of your parishioners must ask you 'Why is God allowing this to happen to us?' " Pelley asked.
"To them I say, 'God is with you and he is with me and I am with you and I'm not going away,'" White replied.
Labels: christian, christian in Iraq, Christianity, civil war, persecution, saddam, shia, shiite, sunni, Tariq Aziz
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