Author: Jim Remsen
Publication: www.philly.com
Date: January 9, 2005
URL: http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/nation/10598841.htm
They see disaster relief as an opportunity
to create converts. Other evangelical groups disagree.
As Western humanitarian organizations
unleash an armada of relief supplies and workers into Asia's crisis zone,
some evangelical Christian groups aim to bring the Gospel to the victims,
as well.
Religious groups promise to be a
major presence in the massive relief and reconstruction effort. InterAction,
the largest alliance of U.S.-based nongovernment organizations, reports
that of its 55 member agencies providing tsunami aid, 22 are faith-based.
Most of the religious players, including
the Red Cross, the American Jewish World Service, and Lutheran World Relief,
have rules against proselytizing.
At the same time, though, evangelical
groups active in Asia, including the Southern Baptists' International Mission
Board, Gospel for Asia, and the Christian and Missionary Alliance, say
the Bible always impels them to create converts to the faith.
"This [disaster] is one of the greatest
opportunities God has given us to share his love with people," said K.P.
Yohannan, president of the Texas-based Gospel for Asia. In an interview,
Yohannan said his 14,500 "native missionaries" in India, Sri Lanka, and
the Andaman Islands are giving survivors Bibles and booklets about "how
to find hope in this time through the word of God."
In Krabi, Thailand, a Southern Baptist
church had been "praying for a way to make inroads" with a particular ethnic
group of fisherman, according to Southern Baptist relief coordinator Pat
Julian. Then came the tsunami, "a phenomenal opportunity" to provide ministry
and care, Julian told the Baptist Press news service.
In Andhra Pradesh, India, a plan
is developing to build "Christian communities" to replace destroyed seashore
villages. In a dispatch that the evangelical group Focus on the Family
posted on its Family.org Web site, James Rebbavarapu of India Christian
Ministries said a team of U.S. engineers had agreed to help design villages
of up to 400 homes each, "with a church building in the center of them."
Not all evangelicals agree with
these tactics.
"It's not appropriate in a crisis
like this to take advantage of people who are hurting and suffering," said
the Rev. Franklin Graham, head of Samaritan's Purse and son of evangelist
Billy Graham.
Samaritan's Purse is rushing $4
million in sanitation, food, medical and housing supplies to its teams
in Sri Lanka and Indonesia. But Graham, in a phone interview from his North
Carolina headquarters, said there were no plans to hand out Christian literature
with the relief.
"Maybe another day, if they ask
why I come, I'd say I'm a Christian and I believe the Bible tells me to
do this," Graham said. "But now isn't the time. We have to save lives."
As Graham knows, laws and customs
in non-Christian lands also can inhibit proselytizing. Plans by Samaritan's
Purse and other evangelical groups to join postwar reconstruction efforts
in Iraq in 2003 raised concerns that they would violate Muslim bans on
proselytizing and undercut U.S. efforts to improve ties with the Islamic
world.
Yohannan said Sri Lankan officials
are "extremely angry" with Christian missionary work and want to outlaw
proselytizing. Some states in southern India have anti-conversion laws
that bar "fraudulent manipulation," he said, adding: "I cannot tell you
there is a hell awaiting you because it can be interpreted as a fear tactic."
But one of the states, Tamil Nadu, recently repealed its law, and others
don't enforce theirs, Yohannan said.
Indonesia, a major arena of relief
work, does not ban evangelizing, said Riaz Saehu, spokesman for the Indonesian
Embassy in Washington.
Though the country has a Muslim
majority, Saehu said, it accords official status to Catholicism, Protestantism,
Hinduism and Buddhism, and "people can do whatever to try to influence
others."
Grassroots resistance may be a greater
impediment to evangelists. Saehu said residents of the hard-hit Aceh province
are strict Muslims who "couldn't accept [missionary] activities regardless
of the law." Yohannon said Hindu and Muslim extremists have burned Bibles
and beaten pastors from his churches in the past.
"It's a very sensitive issue," Saehu
said.
The U.S. government has said it
hopes American tsunami aid improves its image abroad, particularly with
Muslims. At the same time, it has not tried to impede evangelical efforts,
nor has it received complaints about them, State Department spokesman Edgar
Vasquez said.
"We can't control them," Vasquez
said. "They are free to do what they're going to do."
Meanwhile, other religious relief
groups eschew evangelizing. Many are signatories of a Red Cross-Red Crescent
code of conduct that requires, among other things, that aid "not be used
to further a particular political or religious standpoint."
Church World Service, the humanitarian
arm of the National Council of Churches, is among the signatories.
"We carry out our work as a calling
as Christians, but it's not carried out based on any form of proselytization,"
said Rick Augsberger, director of the agency's emergency-response program.
Faith issues might be shared informally, he said, "but not as an objective."
