Double Speak

During the announcements prior to our worship service, I asked the congregation for prayer concerns. One of our members simply said, "We need to pray for the families of the martyrs." The announcement caught me a bit off guard. I assumed that I knew what the man was referring to but Martyr is a big word in the Christian tradition. I hadn't heard it used to describe anything recently so I asked the gentleman to elaborate. He continued, "the ten people who were killed in Afghanistan, they were Christians and it is my understanding that they died because they were accused of proclaiming Jesus."

I had heard about the massacre. I am sure that most of the people in the congregation had as well. But this was the first time that I had heard anything about them being Christian or even that they were there as part of Christian Mission. Of course, part of that was probably me. Perhaps, I hadn't read the story closely enough. But still, I thought it curious. How did I miss that? The media--typically reveling in any news of bloodshed and horror, making the most out of every tasty crumb of pain and suffering--how could I not have heard somewhere that these people died because they were part of a Christian mission effort?

I got up this morning to read more about the incident. The story was already gone from the start page for Google News. The words Afghanistan and Aid appeared on CNN's Homepage but not Christian. I finally found a link that took me to The Washington Post. According to the article there, ten people were slaughtered while working with an organization called Internal Assistance Mission. In fact, it turns out that this is an openly Christian mission effort that has been operating in a deeply conservative Muslim country for forty-four years. Whether they were preaching (unlikely), rendering medical aid or simply offering a cup of water, it would seem that these ten people were doing so in Jesus name. They died for their faith. This would make them Christian Martyrs.

"We are heartbroken by the loss of these heroic, generous people," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in a statement. "We condemn in the strongest possible terms this senseless act. We also condemn the Taliban's transparent attempt to justify the unjustifiable by making false accusations about their activities in Afghanistan." From http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/08/AR2010080801338.html

Not a word about why these people were there... Hillary Clinton is a lifelong Methodist. I have always respected her work ethic and I like her. However, today I'd like to call her cell and tell her that she ought to be ashamed. Failing to honor these people for who they were is a sad commentary on our government and its paranoia and priorities.

While I do not expect the media or the government to use words like "martyr," I would imagine that they would care enough to get the story right. Which they most certainly did at some point. The media and the government knew what had happened. But in the interest of keeping somebody somewhere happy, they made a point of avoiding the references to Christianity--at least as much as they could. The Secretary of State certainly knew that these people died because they were Christian Missionaries. She purposely chose not to mention this in the briefing, probably because she believed that it might be potentially inflammatory.

I understand the paranoia but I suspect that it is both unfounded and finally self-defeating. Many people believe there is an anti-Christian spirit afoot in our country. This kind of thing only serves to fuel the suspicion.

It goes without saying, but let's go ahead and say it anyway...Imagine the outcry had this been a story about Muslim Missionaries slaughtered by Christians...

What is perhaps most important here is taking a moment to honor the good and peaceful work that these people were doing. I haven't heard anyone saying that the Internal Assistance Mission was really a front for the CIA. So I think it is safe to assume that it was not. So what these people were doing was apparently what they've been doing for the past forty-four years. Namely, they were serving others in the name of Jesus Christ, offering hope and peace in the Lord's name. Someone found this threatening enough to take their lives.

Lord have mercy.
Christ have mercy.
Lord have mercy.