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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Evangelical Churches in Iraq Growing Stronger |
| 2005-07-14 |
| From Compass Direct ... In the northeast, Iraqi Kurdistan offers a haven for Christian activity as the two rival Kurdish governments grow in their toleration of Muslims becoming Christians. In the south, the evangelical church is growing rapidly. In Baghdad, a total of 15 evangelical congregations have started since the removal of Saddam Husseinâs regime in April 2003. Officially, only two evangelical churches -- both Presbyterian and led by Egyptian nationals -- existed in the capital during Husseinâs rule. Now there are Baptists, Methodists and Christian and Missionary Alliance congregations, all led by local Iraqi pastors. .... Most of the members of the new churches come from the Presbyterian Church, and some come from historic Christian denominations such as the Chaldean Catholic or Syrian Orthodox, which have been in Iraq for centuries. âMuslims too want peace,â Thomas said. âMany of them are frightened. When the hostages are killed, often a Quranic verse is used to justify it. So many Muslims are scared of their own God. When we preach that God is love, it is so liberating to them.â Southern Iraq is deemed too dangerous for foreign Christian workers, so most have pulled back to the more stable Iraqi Kurdistan. .... Kurdish refugees are flooding back. There is little street crime, and authorities have severely curtailed the activities of Islamic extremists. .... According to Yousif Matty, a leading pastor of the Kurdish Evangelical Church, a denomination in the north comprising Kurdish and Arabic Christians, âThe last 10 years have been a golden time here, and it is set to continue with Talabani becoming president. He has been very strong on emphasizing the rule of law. Also, the Kurds have suffered at the hands of Islamists and have no love for them.â Mattyâs churches have a few hundred members, from both Muslim and Christian backgrounds. He runs four bookshops, two schools and other projects, and he received a $500,000 plot of land from the government to build his church. The government has also welcomed other Christian NGOs. The other evangelical denomination in the north is the Kurdish Language Evangelical Church, which is exclusively Kurdish-speaking and made up primarily of Kurds. .... The influence of the Kurds, who represent 25 percent of the Iraqi population, is important to the future of the country. President Talabani has less power than the Shiite prime minister, but some Christian leaders believe that the best bulwark against a strongly Islamic constitution may be the influence of the Kurds. Though Sunni Muslims, the Kurdish people are one of the least observant groups in the Middle East. They are expected to oppose the Arabs, whom they feel have humiliated them for decades. Nestorian Bishop Issac of Dohuk predicted the Kurds would keep the constitution from becoming too Islamic. âSharia is really Arabic, and the Kurds will resist all attempts to Arabize the culture of Iraq,â Bishop Issac said. âIf we go the sharia route, it will be like in Iran where our [Nestorian] church is less than 10 percent of the strength it was before [Ayatollah Ruhollah] Khomeini took power.â Another point of light for the Iraqi church is that many of the 40,000 or so Christians who fled after a spate of bombings last August have returned to the country. Yet the numbers of those still in refugee camps in Jordan and Syria remain significant -- perhaps 10,000, though precise figures are not available. According to Bishop Issac, âItâs not the end of the world that so many Christians have fled, because it has spread the Iraqi church over the world, and the new communities established in America and Australia are providing many resources we would not have received if we had all remained in the land.â .... Middle class Christians are also continuing to emigrate in alarming numbers, as those in key professions such as medicine are targets for kidnapping and extortion. Some newer evangelical churches have been decimated by this exodus. The Iraqi churches also face internal challenges. Some priests from the historic churches have bullied the new evangelicals. In Baghdad, a priest from the Chaldean Catholics told those who had left his church to attend Baptist services, âWe will not bury your relatives who attend our churches.â Some leaders of the older church denominations have slandered evangelical congregations as âpart of a Jewish conspiracy to control Iraq.â Also, although the evangelicals are skilled in evangelism, the church is young and immature. Warns Matty, âOur outreach activity is so much stronger than the discipling function of the church. We have radio outreach, schools, bookshops, but the church itself is not concentrating in deepening its life, nor are the leaders getting trained enough.â Some church leaders see the splitting of the evangelical churches into so many new (and often foreign-backed) denominations as an indication of disunity. And not all missionary aid is well spent; some pastors have used foreign support to buy expensive cars and upgrade their lifestyle, leading to envy among other pastors. Yet for all these challenges, the mood among 70 evangelical pastors meeting in April was guardedly optimistic. A pastor of one of the three Baptist congregations in Baghdad, who did not wish to be named, forecast three trends. âOne, the evangelical church will grow stronger, but many of its numbers will leave. However thatâs not so bad. They will probably come back with more teaching and maturity and it will benefit the church in the long term. Two, the historic churches will get even more negative. I see them as the major persecutor of the evangelicals in the future. It is as it always was. I am translating a book called The Trial of Blood which calculates that the institutional churches killed 50 million Christians from 315 to 1570. Three, the Islamic extremists will moderate, though it may take a generation.â .... |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |