Al-Jazeerah, USA
August 12, 2004
Aug 12 2004
How Reverends Enable Church Bombers in Iraq
By Charles E. Carlson
Al-Jazeerah.info
On Sunday, August 1st, five Christian churches in Iraq were bombed,
killing eleven worshipers and wounding and terrifying many more. They
were traditional churches–Armenian, Chaldean, Coptic, and Catholic-
some had been there for hundreds of years. We believe no Iraqi could
benefit from this act, especially not Muslim Iraqis. We will probably
never learn who did it, and we will hear accusations condemning Islam
for years to come. This writer does not think the facts justify this,
or that it is healthy for us to accept it.
Some benefit from bombing churches and they are the best suspects.
One group is positively implicated in the acts. By its own words it
convicts itself, regardless of who set the explosives or who made the
plan. Its proponents call themselves `Christian-Zionists’ or
`Judeo-Christians.’ You will find these accomplices behind the
pulpits of many American churches on Sunday. This writer has in past
papers named them Enablers of war.
The obvious material beneficiaries of the church bombings include the
so-called Neo-Cons, whom we prefer to call Warmakers, and who arrange
carnage to maintain political power through continued wars. Blood
seems of no concern to them; deaths are only statistics. Companies
like Halliburton and others feed on serial wars and would no doubt
enjoy permanent contracts to police Iraqis and operate their oil
fields. Israel gains the most from the destruction of the Arab states
because it is a source of resources from the Euphrates to the Nile.
But, regardless of who planted the explosives at the five churches,
we know who facilitated the act. It was `Christian-Zionist enablers
of war, as we will see.
We are being told little about the five churches that were hit; as
best as we can tell, they were attacked by booby traps and timed
explosive devices. Obviously they were well organized, with modern
munitions and security; the perpetrators got away clean, safe, and
unharmed and remain unidentified a week later. This was a
professional job. If five coordinated teams of criminals robbed five
banks at the same time with all getting away without leaving behind
even one clue as to who they were or why they did it, they would be
professionals. The laws of probability dictate that events like this
do not happen without evidence. Criminals leave behind clues that are
found, that is, unless someone on the inside ignores the clues, or
does not look very hard. Someone tells when this many people are
involved.
On August 5th a different kind of bombing occurred. It was low tech
and required little planning and no sophisticated equipment
whatsoever. A lone Iraqi driver steered his automobile-powered human
bomb into a police station where Iraqi policemen and their US
military bosses would be killed. Five or more died tragically,
including the bomber. One might call him a sacrifice bomber, and his
purpose can be clearly understood from his acts. He saw the occupiers
and those who cooperated with them as the enemies of Iraqi’s
desperate and prolonged struggle for independence. This is a crime
and a human tragedy, but he is no less heroic than any other martyr
honored by any people in history. Not so with the church bombers,
whose targets, unlike the well-guarded and armed police stations, are
undefended. No one sacrificed his life to do it; it was premeditated,
cowardly murder.
Christians and Moslems manage to get along in the Mid-East. This
writer observed them in Gaza. Baptists go to church next to the
Mosque, and when they are not in church, members seem to work
together as best as they can. Churches are not a historic enemy to
Islam in Iraq. Coptic, Catholic, and Orthodox churches often date
back to Roman times, still standing with Christian cemeteries around
them, undefiled through the ages of Islamic domination. Christians in
Iraq say they do not hate Muslims, but many Evangelicals in America
practice hatred of Islam that is now manifested in destruction and
death. Jesus’ words object.
The Southern Baptist Convention has had no explanation for this
peaceful co-existence with Islam; its publications play it down or
ignore it. The evangelicals’ views of the Mideast demand both racial
and religious hatred. The Baptist Mission Board even ignores its own
church in Gaza, housed in a dome roofed ancient mosque. This writer
documented the story of its members in a previous article.
Evangelicals tell us Islam detests Baptists and would kill them on
sight. Christians in the land of Islam live their lives out
otherwise, and any serious observation supports their version.
In Gaza the wall in front of the Baptist church has the same
anti-Israeli graffiti as does the wall in front of the Mosque nearby.
Their members suffer Israeli occupation side by side. If they do not
love each other, they certainly coexist in peace. We Hold These
Truths receives reports from Christians and Muslims from Damascus to
Ammon. There is an uneasy peace made worse by anti-Islamic statements
spewed forth from evangelical Enabler churches and celebrities in
America.
How would Islam benefit from bombing churches? If Christians stay
home from church or emigrate out of fear, how does this make Iraq
more independent? It does not.
It is sad that Iraqis would bomb other Iraqis who are hungry and
desperate for work and who hate the occupation, but who take
Army-funded jobs at a police station. But this can be understood in
war, the Iraqis do not want a compromised, 56-year occupation as the
Palestinians have.
Who benefits?
We don’t know who planted the bombs but we do know that American
evangelical celebrities facilitated and enabled the act. Without the
Enablers constant condemnation of Islam, there would have been no
reason for the propaganda bombing of five churches, because there
would be no market for the propaganda that is being distributed
through the evangelicals in the USA.
We have read all the accounts of the bombings. As expected, they are
being blamed on an unknown Islamic group. Consider what is likely:
* If an Islamic militant group bombed the churches and wanted to
terrorize Christians, they would have taken credit for it the first
hour, as they have with kidnappings, and they would have promised
more bombings, or asked for something. No one did.
* The `group’ that belatedly did claim the blame for the bombings was
anonymous and unknown and did not have a formal name or spokesman. It
offered no plausible reason for this significant act. It could have
been created on a cell phone after the bombing or in an office in
London, and it probably was. The US-appointed Iraqi `government’ did
not point this out, nor did our press.
* Most Muslims who we know fear God, they do not hate Him, and would
be correctly afraid to bomb a church–afraid of God, not of men. And
Muslims, unlike the Israelis, believe Jesus was on very good terms
with the one God, whom they call Allah. They do not challenge Allah;
they fear Him as righteous.
* If secularists did the bombing, there would be Muslims who would
know about It, and would tell. It was too big a scheme to keep it
quiet this long.
* The churches in Iraq are traditional, not evangelical; they do not
hold to the neo-evangelical interpretations that hold Israel to be a
God image that must be worshiped. They do not share the `chosen
people’ theology that enables the war on Islam.
* Islam is not anti-Christian, as we Christians are told. The Qur’an
says much about Jesus and Mary, and is more than respectful. One
passage, (S.5.78-84) seems to be all about trust and coexistence with
followers of Christ. Verse 82 reads:
Strongest among men in enmity to the Believer wilt thou find the Jews
and Pagans; Nearest among them in love to the Believers wilt thou
find those who say `we are Christians’ because amongst there are men
devoted to learning. And men who have renounced the world and they
are not arrogant.
Clearly this was not written about evangelical-Zionist (Enablers)
who, to the contrary, openly call for genocide against Islam, even
its total liquidation, and some are boldly arrogant about it.
Many untrue yarns are spun on the Internet depicting a hate filled
Qur’an. We Hold These Truths has investigated several and found that
most are not there, or seem to be intentionally distorted. Our paper
called Internet Tales about Islam details some of these. We find some
statements we have been given by evangelical Enablers to be outright
untrue on their face. Even the most popular story among evangelicals
about the prize of `72 virgins’ for martyrs in Paradise (like the car
bomber) may be a hoax. As best this writer can tell, it is not in the
Qur’an; we are still waiting for someone to show us otherwise.
One of the worst we have heard, Dr. Robert Morey, who calls himself a
`Christian’ and who has written several books about Islam, openly
preaches for the incineration of Mecca, Medina and The Dome of the
Rock.
Leading Muslim clerics have condemned the bombing as cowardly and
unbecoming of Islam, but christian-Zionists take denial as a sign of
guilt. And prominent Christian leaders in Iraq have not suggested
Muslims were responsible, and have spoken out in solidarity with
them.
Who Could Have Done It?
The State of Israel and what is currently being called the US
`Neo-Con’ establishment, which really controls Israel and holds
absolute control over the present Bush administration and past
Clinton administration as well, are the beneficiaries of wars.
Israelis would not think twice of bombing churches because they have
already done it. They have also attacked mosques and killed Muslim
leaders in front of at least one mosque. Israelis have even been
known to damage their own synagogues to get sympathy. The State of
Israel shelled two or more Christian churches in Palestine. Israel’s
agents are known to be operating in Iraq and are probably more likely
to have bombed the churches than the CIA or Halliburton’s paid
mercenaries. They are used to this kind of assassination, and they
know how to keep quiet. If this is true, you can bet the incident
will just die down and disappear from the press.
The tale of the church bombings will never disappear from the
preaching of the evangelical-Zionist, who will blame the Arabs
everywhere, with or without proof.
Who Is Responsible?
Though we will probably never know for certain who bombed the five
churches, we can be sure the blood is on the hands of the Enabler
reverends, evangelical celebrities, and on their willing followers.
The deaths of every one of the eleven church-going Christians is
their responsibility because without them there would be no reason
for the bombing. Whoever did it simply obliged these evangelical
Enablers by creating more grist for Israeli promoted
Christian-Zionist hate mills. Hate enabled the war and the
occupation; hate keeps the occupation going. Only love will end it.
An Israeli `BUS19′, in which 11 Israeli civilians died, was imported
to the US from Israel in May. `Eleven’ happens to be the same number
of civilian Iraqis killed in the five Church bombings. A team or
speakers associated with The Unity Coalition for Israel is touring
evangelical Enabler churches with the bus, giving the misleading
message that Palestinians are murderers, and Islam is a religion of
violence. Our account of this is called Israeli Hate-Bus Tours
America.
The five damaged churches are the Iraqi equivalent of BUS19, another
trophy to be displayed at churches in America. Without the insatiable
desire of christian-Zionist celebrities for more `proof of Arab
violence’ there would have been no church bombings in Iraq because no
other purpose was served. This writer is no longer alone among
Followers of Christ in blaming evangelical Enablers for war.
As reported in the `New York Times,’ in a speech on March 9, 2003,
former President James Earl Carter criticized his own Southern
Baptist Convention for supporting the `unilateral attack on Iraq.’
Carter did not dignify the attack by calling it a war. He went on to
implicate Israel in the occupation of Iraq, saying,
`a few Southern Baptist leaders (favor war) who were greatly
influenced by their commitment to Israel based on eschatological, or
final days theology.’
Mr. Carter also stated some of the most profound and truthful words
ever heard at a Democratic convention in an interview after his
speech where he stated: `The State of Israel is at the center of the
problems in the Middle East.’
Christian pastor and writer Tony Campolo, speaking to United
Methodist leaders in Birmingham, Alabama, on June 3, 2004, warned
that too many Christians have become `evangelical Zionists’ who favor
ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the Middle East. This
surprisingly candid statement was covered in the Birmingham News
quoting Campolo:
“Some evangelicals have gotten caught up in the theology that before
Christ can return, the Holy Land must belong to the Jews,” and,
“They’re really advocating ethnic cleansing. There’s no justification
for that in Scripture.”
We note: Ethnic cleansing means systematic murder! The Birmingham
News further quoted Campolo:
“Christian leaders such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, as well
as Tim Lahaye and Jerry Jenkins, authors of the best-selling `Left
Behind’ end-times prophecy novels, have spread the `evangelical
Zionist’ theme. `They’re a very powerful group,’… The evangelical
community has gotten so pro-Israel that they’ve forgotten how to love
Palestinians.”
The Presbyterian Church in America’s leaders recently condemned The
Wall being built around the Palestinians, and voted by a wide margin
to divest itself of all Israeli assets from its multi-billion dollar
retirement fund. This is the first major church denomination to do
so.
Evangelical leaders must be challenged publicly by their own members.
To accomplish this Project Strait Gate was started 18 months ago, and
over 35 major evangelical churches, as well as conventions, have been
picketed for peace during their worship hours.
Five ladies and two men led a Strait Gate Project demonstration at
two churches last weekend in Southern California, with signs reading
`NO MORE WARS FOR ISRAEL and BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS. One event
was a 2004 Israel and Bible Prophesy Conference at the giant Calvary
Chapel in Chino, California. Several participants reported they were
pleasantly surprised with the response, not so much from the churches
as from the passersby. Many responded positively to the message of
the demonstration.
Strait Gate Ministries urges Followers of Christ to have their names
removed from membership rolls at any churches that fail to oppose the
continued war and occupation in the Mideast. We suggest you tell the
Reverend you might return once the Church regains Christ’s admonition
to love one’s brothers as yourselves. Until then, you might better
serve the Lord by supporting an Armenian or Coptic Church in Iraq.
We Hold These Truths/Strait Gate Ministries plans to distribute this
letter to about 100,000 Presbyterian Pastors and laymen leaders as an
encouragement to them. We wish to expand this number by tenfold to
other reverends in other denominations.
The challenge is overwhelming, the time short and the burden is
heavy.