IRAQI CHRISTIANS PRAY FOR THE SURGE
By Mark D. Tooley
FrontPage magazine.com, CA
e.asp?ID=29291
July 25 2007
It must have been a huge disappointment. An Iraqi bishop addressing
an anti-Israel ecumenical jamboree in Amman, Jordan declined to demand
an immediate U.S. evacuation from Iraq.
"Is it going to bring about peace or play into the hands of
terrorists?" asked Archbishop Avak Asadourian, the Primate of the
Armenian Apostolic Church (See of Etchmiadzin), who was responding to
a question about U.S. church groups that are demanding an expeditious
time-table for U.S. troops to quit Iraq.
Asadourian spoke at the "Churches Together for Peace and Justice in the
Middle East," organized by the Geneva-based World Council of Churches
(WCC). Speaking to 130 church officials from the WCC’s affiliates
around the world, the Armenian Archbishop of Baghdad was representing
the Council of Christian Church Leaders in the Iraqi capital.
The focus of the WCC gathering was to organize church opposition to the
Israeli "occupation." But the U.S. "occupation" of Iraq is of equal
if not greater interest to left-wing prelates, many of whom prefer
political protests to Christian ministry. Asadourian was probably
attending the WCC event with hopes of gaining sympathy for Iraqi
Christians. Good luck! WCC officials have never expressed tremendous
interest in human rights in Iraq. Instead, they mainly see church
leaders there as little more than potential props for denouncing the
U.S., just as prelates in the West Bank are convenient mouthpieces
for condemning Israeli policies.
Asadourian called the calls for a U.S. military withdrawal time-table a
"two-edged sword." He expressed hope that the U.S. military presence
would "eventually" end but showed even more interest in U.S.-led
security forces reducing the violence in Iraq. "The occupying powers
have to enforce the Geneva conventions and guarantee the security of
the country," the archbishop said. "If they were able to bring about
security, a lot of problems would be solved."
"Security is needed to make democracy viable," Asadourian said.
"Democracy is not only a concept, but also a way of life. Today in
Iraq, we need basic freedoms, like freedom from fear, freedom to
work, to travel in order to satisfy basic needs. One of the tragic
features of the current situation is the fact that they have stolen
the nights of Baghdad from us." The archbishop complained that the
U.S.-led invasion had been "bungled" but he declined to denounce it
sweepingly as an exercise in imperialism, as many WCC-related clerics
in the West have done.
When asked how churches outside Iraq could help Iraqi Christians,
Asadourian did not ask that they accelerate their antiwar protests.
Instead, he suggested that they "advocate effectively with their
governments, they should tell the occupying powers to fulfill their
promises of a better life for Iraq. Promises of a bright future
should now be substantiated. One key point in the story of the Good
Samaritan is that he not only extended help, but his help was complete
and effective."
Do not expect Asadourian’s audience of WCC Religious Left prelates
to take his pleas very seriously. For most of them, the only solution
for Iraq is a rapid route for the U.S. and British forces, come what
may. These clerics are interested in neither "security" nor democracy
for Iraqis. They primarily desire a strategic defeat for the U.S. and
its allies.
"I come from a wounded Iraq and a severely wounded Baghdad,"
Asadourian told the WCC meeting. "The situation in my country is
tragic. We were promised freedom, but what we need today is freedom
to have electricity, clean water, to satisfy the basic needs of life,
to live without fear of being abducted."
Who is preventing Asadourian’s flock and millions of other Iraqis from
having unhindered democracy, electricity, clean water, and protection
from kidnappers? Former Baathists, Islamic militias, and al-Qaeda
affiliated insurgents. But the WCC and the Religious Left prefers not
to criticize the actual agents of upheaval and destruction. Instead,
the religious leftists reserve all their fire for the occupying forces
that are attempting to create security and order out of chaos.
"Every day terrorist attacks are targeting people who could be the
cornerstone of a new Iraq: professionals, physicians, and engineers,"
Asadourian told a WCC interviewer. "And this is resulting in an
across-the-board brain drain, which is a shame since it takes decades
to train qualified people." Note that the archbishop persistently
referred to "terrorists" in Iraq, which the WCC and its allies never
do. How surprising that the WCC even published the interview with
Asadourian, and his harsh rhetoric against insurrectionists who simply
oppose the Western imperialists!
Asadourian referenced the recent murders of two Christian priests in
Iraq and noted that 27 members of his church have died, while another
23 have been kidnapped. The Christian population has dropped from
7-8 percent of Iraq to 3-4 percent. Some Christians are also moving
"north within the country," which is relatively safer, the archbishop
said. He recounted that his own church has declined from 600-700
worshipers to 100-150.
Some have left Baghdad, some fear going out, while others just lack
fuel for their cars.
"My message to my flock is: do not be afraid, but be careful.
Confront this dire situation with optimism, and pray and work for a
better future," Asadourian concluded. "My message to churches outside
Iraq, especially to those in the occupying countries, is: Help us to
make life better for the Iraqi people, to alleviate its suffering,
to keep their governments’ promises for a better future in all walks
of life, and ask for God’s help in this humanitarian endeavor."
For the WCC and the Religious Left, unable to set aside the archaic
prism of Liberation Theology, the war in Iraq is a simple morality play
involving Western colonizers versus oppressed Third World natives. But
actual Iraqis, especially vulnerable Christians, are fighting for
their lives and the life of their tender democracy.
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