Iraq, then and now: I told you so

So President Bush did a great and good thing for Iraq and the world, in ridding them of the bloody, terrorist-sponsoring Saddam Hussein. America liberated Iraq, they held votes, they had the reins of freedom dropped in their hands thanks to foreign liberators.

America poured billions of dollars and gallons of blood and thousands of lives into this process.

Do you remember I voiced one warning, one misgiving? It was more than five and a half years ago that I voiced my chief worry about Iraq. My chief worry was centered on President Bush's theology, particularly his anthropology and his hamartiology. The President, who attended a liberal/Methodist church, spoke often of the yearning of the human heart for freedom. Folks were good; Iraqis were good. They just needed to be freed from bad people. Then everything would be fine.

At that time I said that this was Biblically unrealistic. I said that Iraq was not analogous to America. I said that, without a Biblical framework of sin and God and man, a free society could not be born. I said that their one hope would be if Christians were free to preach the true gospel of Christ; then maybe Iraq had a hopeful future. Tales of Christian soldiers having to hide their faith were not reassuring, but we prayed and hoped.

Fast-forward to today. What do we see? Five and a half years of growing freedom for Iraqi Christians and for missionaries?

No: instead we read that "Ongoing violence against Christians in Iraq has produced an accelerated exodus of believers..." More and more Christians are leaving Iraq in fear for their lives and freedom; not fewer.

So, barring a reversal, barring an American leadership with any chance of pressing for liberties for Christian Iraqis and missionaries, color me increasingly un-optimistic.

Meanwhile, someone send President Bush a copy of WTG, for a little remedial anthropology, hamartiology, and soteriology.

Muslim principal fires Christian coach after Muslim student converts — off-campus

Gerald Marszalek is a state and national Hall of Fame wrestling coach at Fordson High School. Or he was for thirty-five years — until Muslim principal Imad Fadlallah let him go.

First, a Christian pastor who volunteered as an assistant coach was fired after a Muslim student converted to faith in Jesus Christ during a private, off-campus wrestling camp. (The pastor claims that he never preached while serving as a coach.) The student was baptized.

It is of interest to note that the convert reportedly "was not a student at Fordson high school at the time as this took place in the summer before his freshman year."

Nonetheless, the complaint that has been filed alleges that

[s]ubsequently, in full view of students and faculty, Defendant Fadlallah approached the young Fordson student who had chosen to be baptized a Christian at Hancock's summer wrestling camp, punched the student, and advised the student that he had "disgraced his family" by converting to Christianity from Islam.

Marszalek was ordered to keep the pastor (Trey Hancock) off-campus, as if he were some sort of child molestor or otherwise imminent threat. But Hancock had a son who was a star wrestler, so he eventually did come on campus. Whereafter Marszalek was let go.

Principal Fadlallah is a Muslim, as are many within that community. Can a threat be detected in this note Fadlallah sent Pastor Hancock in letting him go?

"I would like to keep this matter under strict confidentiality. If this issue is leaked to the community, I cannot stop the adverse reaction that it will cause."

The coach has filed suit. Here's a striking note: in spite of the allegation of obvious rights violations, the ACLU was not interested in the case.

The lawsuit alleges that Marszalek, a Hall of Famer who had achieved over 450 wins and was made "Sportsman of the Year" by the All-American Athletic Association, was let go simply because he was a Christian, and because Principal Fadlallah has been systematically eradicating Christianity from the school.

WorldNetDaily reports that Marszalek "is suing both the principal and the school in the U.S. District Court of Eastern Michigan, seeking back pay, injunctive and declaratory relief, damages, and to be reinstated as coach of the wrestling team."

Further:

"We are getting a glimpse of what happens when Muslims who refuse to accept American values and principles gain political power in an American community," said Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, which is representing Marsazalek. "Failure to renew coach Marszalek's contract had nothing to do with wrestling and everything to do with religion."

The Religion of Peace. Coming to power near you.

Persecution of Christians by Muslims, communists: good topic for congregational and personal prayer

I have heard this as a background buzz of varying modulations. But when the liberal Huffington Post runs a piece titled Saving the Islamic World's Christians, it catches my eye. Particularly with this as an opener:

Here's a good question. Why do the majority of American Christians remain so oblivious to the increasingly bitter fate of their fellow Christians in the Islamic world?

Painfully good question.

Chesnoff details some of the barbaric brutalities to which Christians have been and are subjected in Islamic countries. The only bright spot is that Christian communities grow in Israel — which makes sense, since Jews are the other major target of Islamic extremists.

Another eye-opener is this article by Muslim journalist Khaled Abu Toameh, shamefacedly admitting that Christians are under particular Muslim persecution in the city of our Lord's birth, Bethlehem.

Now turning our eyes to North Korea, sadly, the name Ri Hyon Ok must be added to the roll of martyrs for their faith. This 33 year old woman was publicly executed under a number of probably false accusations, which masked the real reason: she distributed Bibles in this Communist society. "North Korea appears to have judged that Christian forces could pose a threat to its regime."

Totalitarian governments, as a rule, have seen Christians as a threat.

Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth (Hebrews 11:36-38)

Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. (Hebrews 13:3)