Samaritan’s Purse, ready to proselytize in Iraq

There is a commonly-found belief in the Middle East that the U.S. is invading Iraq as part of a broader crusade against Islam. Many Muslims in these countries perceive Bush as a fundamentalist Christian, closely allied with many American religious “leaders” who have condemned Islam, and fear that the U.S. will follow Ann Coulter’s advice for the U.S. approach to the Arab world and “invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.”

Whether you consider these fears reasonable and justified or not, the U.S. government must be sensitive to these concerns during and after the war if we hope to avoid the label of “occupiers” and “crusaders.”

The worst thing the United States can do to reinforce these suspicions is send fundamentalist Christian aid organizations into Iraq that have a history of anti-Islamic hatred and a track record of trying to convert non-Christians in other countries.

Oh wait, that’s exactly what we’re considering.

Franklin Graham, Billy Graham’s son, is well-known as a friend of the president’s. The most high-profile event of Graham’s life was offering the benediction at Bush’s inauguration in 2001, a speech, I might add, which strayed from the traditional ecumenical prayer featured at most inaugurations to feature explicitly Christian prayers offered in “Jesus’ name.”

More importantly, Graham runs an international evangelical relief outfit called Samaritan’s Purse and he’s anxious to send relief workers from his group into Iraq to “help.”

According to a report in the Washington Post last week, Graham’s group is already in the Middle East with supplies, awaiting the green light to go into Iraq to offer relief to suffering families.

To be sure, the Iraqi people will be needing some assistance. Food, medicine, bottled water and clothing will be valuable commodities to citizens who were suffering before fighting broke out, and whose pain was intensified by war. Yet, the government would be making a terrible mistake by partnering with Franklin Graham and Samaritan’s Purse.

There are two fundamental problems that should disqualify the group from participating in the relief process in post-war Iraq. First, Graham is unabashedly prejudiced against Muslims; and second, conversion is the primary focus of the group’s international work.

Graham’s bigotry towards Islam is no secret. He made headlines around the world two months after the attacks of 9/11 by calling Islam “a very evil and wicked religion” in an interview with NBC.

But Samaritan’s Purse’s drive to convert Muslims to Christianity is, under these circumstances, of even greater concern. Iraq’s population is 98 percent Muslim. The fear is this evangelical organization will find a suffering people and see a mission field.

Ken Isaacs, the international director of Graham’s Samaritan’s Purse, thinks critics are overreacting. He told the Washington Post last week that no one should worry about the group trying to convert everyone.

“Compassion and service is a vital expression of Christianity,” Isaacs said. “We don’t have an evangelism strategy. We don’t have a strategy to share our faith…. We don’t have Bibles waiting in the wings, or Christian literature waiting in the wings.”

There are words to describe this nonsense, but they’re probably inappropriate for a family publication like The Carpetbagger Report.

Consider, for example, what Isaacs said in a separate interview the next day, when he was more forthcoming about Samaritan’s Purse’s goals. “We do not deny the name of Christ,” Isaacs said. “We believe in sharing him in deed and in word. We’ll be who we are.”

Now, you might be thinking I’m making unfair assumptions. Sure, Samaritan’s Purse may be an evangelical group led by a man who disdains Muslims, but why assume that the group is more concerning about saving souls and than providing relief to suffering people?

Because the group has put religion before relief before.

In the winter of 2001, two powerful earthquakes devastated Guadalupe, El Salvador. Hundreds were killed and thousands more remained homeless. Among the relief agencies to fly in was Samaritan’s Purse, armed with a $200,000 federal grant from the Agency for International Development, which then-Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) helped secure for the group.

Samaritan’s Purse was charged with a fairly straightforward task: Help residents of several rural villages build temporary plastic and metal homes from kits provided by the U.S. government.

Unfortunately, Samaritan’s Purse spent nearly as much time foisting faith as it did hoisting houses. Members of the relief group distributed fundamentalist tracts to earthquake victims, encouraged villagers to accept Jesus as their personal savior and held 30-minute prayer meetings before showing residents how to construct the temporary houses.

The Agency for International Development has guidelines that explain that relief agencies are not permitted to “promote religion at the public expense by using U.S. government funds or U.S. government-financed goods or services to promote sectarian purposes.” But Samaritan’s Purse responded to these concerns by explaining that it cannot sever its religious mission from relief work.

“We are first a Christian organization and second an aid organization,” said Dr. Paul Chiles, Samaritan’s Purse’s director in El Salvador. “We can’t really separate the two. We really believe Jesus Christ told us to do relief work.” [emphasis added]

Following the controversy in El Salvador, the Agency for International Development launched an investigation and decided not to pursue punitive action against Graham’s group, instead concluding that Samaritan’s Purse needed to change its tactics to ensure a separation between the proselytizing and the care for the needy.

The U.S. government shouldn’t let a group like this anywhere near Iraq. Its leadership has already demonstrated a disdain for the faith traditions of Iraq’s people, and more importantly, its employees have shown that converting those who think differently than they do is their top priority. By all means, make every effort to offer relief and resources to the people of Iraq, just leave Samaritan’s Purse’s out of it.