ReligionLink

The U.S. government, the United Nations and many charities are planning millions of dollars in humanitarian aid for Iraq. Everyone agrees that it’s desperately needed, but fierce debate exists over what to give and how to give it. One major battle: Where does religion fit in? ReligionLink offers local story angles and regional interview sources.

Why it matters

Experts say that the U.S. government’s handling of religious humanitarian aid could have long-lasting effects on how the United States and Christians are viewed abroad, by Muslims in particular.

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Local story angles for reporters

• The U.S. government has put the Pentagon in charge of postwar humanitarian aid in Iraq instead of civilians. Many charities, religious and secular, have argued that the military, which takes sides in war, cannot be counted on to not take sides when offering aid to all Iraqis. Talk to charities in your area. Many get more money to help poor people from government grants than they do from congregations and other religious groups. What does government money allow them to do in your community? What strings are attached? What do they think about the Pentagon’s role in aid to Iraq?

• Two members of the charity Doctors Without Borders were kidnapped in Iraq during the war but later released. Many aid organizations fear for the safety of workers sent to Iraq. Several have complained that having the U.S. military in charge of humanitarian aid will increase the chance that workers’ lives will be endangered because they will not be seen as neutral. Are congregations or charities in your area sending mission or aid workers to Iraq? What safety training are they receiving? How are they supported locally? What do they say about the risks they face? Most areas have missionaries who have worked in other countries. What do they say about the challenges of working in postwar Iraq?

• Some evangelical Protestant groups have come under fire for their plans to give aid in Iraq with the hope of converting Muslims. Roman Catholics, mainline Protestants and many minority faiths choose instead to give aid without attempting to convert people to their beliefs. Why do some Christian groups say they are called to evangelize when helping the needy, while others do not? How do these two approaches play out in your community? Do recipients of help say it matters who is offering them food and services? Do they say they appreciate being offered spiritual sustenance along with food or shelter? Have they ever felt coerced to listen to or accept religious beliefs?

• Opinions about Islam have caused deepening divisions among faith groups since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. While some evangelical groups have deemed it “an evil religion,” others emphasize its common roots with Christianity and Judaism. A survey by the Ethics and Public Policy Center and Beliefnet found that 81 percent of evangelical leaders said it was “very important” Muslims abroad should be evangelized, and 52 percent said it was “very important” Muslims should be welcomed into the American community; 41 percent said it was “somewhat important.” What do clergy and residents in your area say about their views of Islam? How have they changed since Sept. 11, 2001?

• The Bush administration has set out new ways to involve faith-based organizations in government work. Some welcome these efforts because of religious groups’ track record in helping the needy, while others say they blur the line between separating church and state. Should the government sanction religious groups to provide aid in Iraq? Why or why not?

• The U.S. government has committed millions of dollars to help Iraqis with medical care, water, food and shelter. At the same time, severe budget crises in most U.S. states are forcing big cuts in health care and aid programs for the elderly and the poor. Talk to residents, charities and congregations in your area about how they balance local needs with international ones.

• Are Muslim congregations and charities in your area planning to send money and aid to Iraq? Given the high-profile efforts of some Christian charities, do the Muslim charities also say they believe that their efforts are welcomed by the U.S. government?

• Are Jewish charities in your area planning aid for Iraqis? Why do they say they want to help a country that once bombed Israel?

National sources

EVANGELICAL PROTESTANT

• The International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention plans to send several hundred Americans to Iraq to provide food and shelter and to evangelize. It is based in Richmond, Va. Contact board president Jerry Rankin at 804-219-1000.

• Samaritan’s Purse International Relief, the foundation of Franklin Graham, son of the Rev. Billy Graham, plans to send workers into Iraq at the conclusion of the war. A press release outlines plans. Contact headquarters in Boone, N.C., 828-262-1980.

• World Relief, the humanitarian arm of the National Association of Evangelicals, has established workers in a Jordan border camp for Iraqi refugees. Contact Galen Carey, 443-451-1962, gcarey@wr.org.

• The International Bible Society has just published a Scripture booklet especially for Iraqi refugees.

OTHER PROTESTANT

• Church World Service represents 36 Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican communions. The agency has shipped $3.8 million of aid, primarily medical supplies, to Iraq during the last 12 years. Rick Augsburger, who directs emergency programs from New York, has said CWS will not let its efforts be directed by the military. Contact 212-870-2061.

• World Vision has an on-line Iraq Press Kit that outlines the organization’s relief plans, though officials say they may change because they are dismayed that the U.S. military is coordinating efforts. World Vision was originally evangelical in nature but does not now evangelize its beneficiaries. Contact Sheryl Watkins, 253-815-2246 or 888-787-3056 (pager).

• Action by Churches Together International is an organization of 195 Orthodox and Protestant churches that works to provide relief and has plans for Iraq.

• Lutheran World Relief, which provides aid on behalf of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, is based in Baltimore. Contact Jonathan Frerichs, 410-230-2802, 410-230-2800.

• Healing Hands International is a nonprofit organization based in Nashville, Tenn., and Abilene, Texas, that works with Christian churches to collect, ship and distribute medications, medical supplies and equipment, agricultural aid, school supplies and other items that reduce human suffering. The group, affiliated with the Churches of Christ, plans to ship such supplies to Iraq. Contact 615-832-2000.

CATHOLIC

• Nazare Albuquerque is an expert on post-conflict emergency relief for Catholic Relief Services, which is sponsored by the U.S. Catholic Bishops and based in Baltimore. She has said she fears that aid workers will not be seen as neutral - and thus could be targets - if the U.S. military directs relief efforts. Contact 410-951-7350.

• The Rev. Drew Christiansen, associate editor of America magazine, is an adviser to U.S. bishops on international policy. He was director of the Office of International Justice and Peace for the United States Catholic Conference from 1991 to 1998. Contact 212-581-4640.

MUSLIM

• ICNA (Islamic Circle of North America) Relief is meeting with several religious charities, including Catholic Charities and the American Friends Service Committee, to coordinate relief efforts. Contact Chairman Tariq Rahman, 718-658-1199, 646-208-1817 (cell).

• Islamic Relief USA has established bases in Amman, Jordan, and Baghdad to monitor humanitarian aid needs. Contact 888-479-4968, 818-216-9723.

• Gulf Medical Relief Fund sends medical relief to Iraqis, Palestinians and refugees in Kosovo. The group plans to establish a clinic in Jordan, possibly in conjunction with a Jordanian hospital. Holly Al-Dahir runs the organization with her husband, Abdul Sattar Dahir. She says that since the U.S. government has investigated Global Relief, the Holy Land Foundation and other Islamic charities in the United States, many other Islamic philanthropies believe that they are not welcome in the humanitarian effort in Iraq. Contact Holly Al-Dahir or Abdul Sattar Dahir, 504-455-5611, gmrf@yahoo.com.

JEWISH

• American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee is collecting money to provide nonsectarian aid to the people of Iraq. Contact assistant executive vice president Amir Shaviv, 212-885-0850.

• American Jewish World Service is working to combine efforts with other humanitarian relief agencies to provide food and water in Iraq. Contact 1-800-889-7146.

• American Jewish Committee is in discussion with other American Jewish NGOs to decide what humanitarian aid they can provide in Iraq. Contact Ken Bendler, director of communications, 212-751-4000.

OTHER NATIONAL SOURCES

• Jonathan Bonk is executive director of the Overseas Ministries Studies Center and editor of the International Bulletin of Missionary Research. He can discuss the different approaches of religious groups and their origins in their history and faith. Contact 203-624-6672, bonk@omsc.org.

• Edith Blumhofer is a historian of evangelical Christianity in America and director of the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals at Wheaton College. Contact 630-752-5437, isae@wheaton.edu.

• Tom Farr of the U.S. State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom can talk about how the government views Americans’ missionary work abroad. Contact 202-647-0463.

• J. Dudley Woodberry is a professor of Islamic studies at Fuller Theological Seminary’s School of World Mission and author of an article, “Terrorism, Islam, and Mission: Reflections of a Guest in Muslim Lands.” He is an expert on Islam and Christian missions. He will be out of the country May 5-29 but will be reachable by email. Contact 626-584-5286, dudley@fuller.edu.

• The Rev. Scott Campbell is interim director of the Directory for International Congregations, a network of English-speaking congregations worldwide. Contact 617-354-0837, director@internationalcongregations.net.

• Oliver Ulich is with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Contact Phyllis Lee, 212-963-3759, 212-963-4832.

• Michael Cromartie is vice president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. He can discuss the ethics behind religious groups’ providing humanitarian aid in Iraq. He says that the media have misunderstood groups such as Samaritan’s Purse and their desire to provide aid in Iraq and that all religious groups have a First Amendment right to say what they want to in Iraq or elsewhere. Contact 202-682-1200, crom@eppc.org.

• Lawrence Uzzell is chairman of Keston USA, a funding organization that supports research activities monitoring threats to religious freedom in Communist and ex-Communist countries. He spent seven years in Moscow monitoring religious freedom and the activities of missionaries and can discuss different approaches to mission/humanitarian work and their reception by local residents. Contact 972-938-7919, lauzzell@aol.com.

 

Background

• Read an April 15, 2003, Time magazine interview with Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary about humanitarian aid and evangelism in Iraq.

• Read an April 13, 2003, Time magazine article about the controversy over Christian aid in Iraq.

• Read a 2003 Beliefnet story about why evangelicals are targeting Iraqis for conversion now and another story about Franklin Graham and Samaritan’s Purse’s plans for aid in Iraq.

• Read a Dec. 31, 2002, New York Times story about how Muslims’ anger abroad is affecting Christian missionaries.

• Read a Sept. 18, 2002, Christian Chronicle article that explores the effect of the then possible war with Iraq on American missions to the Middle East.

• A Feb. 20, 2003, article in the Christian Science Monitor looks at how Christian missionaries are adjusting to the growing violence against them in Muslim nations.

• A March 7, 2002, article from the United Methodist News Service looks at the dangers facing Methodist missionaries in the Middle East.

• A Jan. 2, 2003, Los Angeles Times article posted on the web site of The Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C., examines how the number of Christian missionaries in the Middle East is increasing despite the growing violence against them.

• Read an April 17, 2003, New York Times story posted on the Muslim Public Affairs Council’s web site that reports that Muslims say they are afraid to give to Muslim charities in an effort to help Iraqis because of the U.S. government’s scrutiny of them.

 

Regional sources

IN THE NORTHEAST

MASSACHUSETTS

• Dana Robert is a professor of world mission at Boston University in Massachusetts. She has written extensively about missionaries and has said that the division over missions’ true goals “runs like a fault line” through many denominations. She is concerned that media coverage of religious groups and people providing aid could place their work in jeopardy. Contact by email only, drobdan@bu.edu.

• The Rev. Christopher Duraisingh is a professor of applied theology at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass., who has written about missionaries and international relations. Contact 617-868-3450, ext.352, cduraisingh@episdivschool.edu.

CONNECTICUT

• Jane Idleman Smith is co-director of the Center for the Study of Islam and Christianity at Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Conn., and has written about Christian missionaries’ views of Islam. Contact 860-509-9532, jismith@hartsem.edu.

IN THE EAST

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

• Shaun A. Casey is an assistant professor of Christian ethics at Wesley Theological seminary in Washington, D.C., and has consulted with the United Methodist Church on humanitarian aid. Contact 202-885-8672, scasey@wesleysem.edu.

NEW YORK

• David H. Shepherd is the director of the northeast branch of the Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary in Albany, N.Y. He has made several missionary trips to Egypt, Jordan and Israel. Contact 518-355-4000.

PENNSYLVANIA

• Susan D. Rose is a professor of sociology at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa., and is the author of Exporting the American Gospel: Global Christian Fundamentalism (Routledge, 1996). Contact 717-245-1244, rose@dickinson.edu.

 

IN THE SOUTHEAST

FLORIDA

• Anna Peterson is an assistant professor of religion at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Fla. and can discuss evangelization. Contact 352-392-1625, alp@religion.ufl.edu.

GEORGIA

• Walter Brueggemann is a professor of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga., and can discuss the different approaches to aid and evangelism. Contact 404-687-4556, BrueggemannW@CTSnet.edu.

NORTH CAROLINA

• Yaakov S. Ariel is an assistant professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, N.C. He has written about Christian fundamentalists who evangelize in the Middle East, especially in Israel. Contact 919-962-2211, yariel@email.unc.edu.

• George W. Braswell Jr. is a professor of missions and world religions at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C. He teaches a course on current topics in international missions. Contact 919-761-2160, gbraswell@sebts.edu.

VIRGINIA

• Stanley H. Skreslet is an associate professor of Christian mission at Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond, Va., who has written widely about new trends in global missionary activity. Contact 804-355-0671, skreslet@union-psce.edu.

IN THE SOUTH

ALABAMA

• Stephen B. Wilson is a professor of theology who specializes in Christian ethics and teaches a course on Catholic social thought at Spring Hill College in Mobile, Ala. Contact 251-380-3030.

KENTUCKY

• Thom S. Rainer is a professor at the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. Contact 1-800-626-5525, trainer@sbts.edu.

TENNESSEE

• James A. Patterson is a professor in the School of Christian Studies at Union University in Jackson, Tenn., and can discuss the impact of the social gospel and the attempt of many Christian leaders to balance humanitarian and evangelistic concerns. His background is stronger on mainline Protestant and evangelical groups. Contact 731-661-5269.

• James Hudnut-Beumler is dean of the divinity school at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., and has said that the way Christians distribute aid in Iraq will have “long repercussions” for future Iraq-U.S. relations. Contact 615-322-2776, james.hudnut-beumler@vanderbilt.edu.

IN THE MIDWEST

ILLINOIS

• Fred Kniss, associate professor of sociology and director of Loyola University Chicago’s McNamara Center for the Social Study of Religion, did research on faith-based international aid organizations in the 1980s, including one group that worked in the Muslim regions of the Horn of Africa. His current research is on religion among immigrants to the United States. He is concerned about linking aid with evangelizing. Contact 773-508-3459, 773-307-2288 (cell), fkniss@wpo.it.luc.edu.

MINNESOTA

• Darrell Jodock, professor of religion at Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota, can discuss the delivery of humanitarian aid in context of the history of religion in American culture and Jewish-Christian-Muslim relations here and abroad. He also has background in history of Christian thought. He founded the Institute for Jewish-Christian Understanding. Contact 507-933-7472.

OHIO

• Norman E. Thomas, professor emeritus from World Christianity at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, has written about Christian missions abroad and the teaching of missions in North America seminaries. Contact 937-278-5817.

MICHIGAN

• Daniel H. Bays, a professor at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., can discuss Christian missionary work by Americans. His expertise is in missions to China and the writings of early Protestant missionaries there. Contact 616-957-6992, 616-957-6394 (department).

IN THE SOUTHWEST

ARIZONA

• Andrew E. Barnes is an associate professor of history at Arizona State University in Tempe and author of the 1995 article “Evangelization Where it is Not Wanted: Colonial Administrators and Missionaries in Northern Nigeria” in the Journal of Religion in Africa. He says there are historical parallels between the situation in Iraq and the situation in Nigeria in the 1930s. Contact 480-965-6291, andrew.barnes@asu.edu, aebaasu@imap2.asu.edu.

TEXAS

• Robert Pyne is a professor of systematic theology at Dallas Theological Seminary. He can address the balance between church and state and the perceived “Christian agenda” in Iraq. Contact through Giles Hudson at 972-267-1111, ext. 223, ghudson@alarryross.com.

• Titus Presler, dean and president of the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, has written about missions and popular culture. Contact 512-472-4133, tpresler@etss.edu.

• Jane Butterfield, director of mission personnel for the Episcopal Church, USA, trains and dispatches all Episcopal missionaries. Her office is on the campus of the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest in Austin. Contact 512-472-8228.

• Paul Johnson, a professor at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, has written about ecumenical cooperation in church outreach. Contact 806-742-2400, ext. 223.

UTAH

• Daniel C. Peterson, a professor in the department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages at Brigham Young University in Provo, has written about Islam and comparative religion and can speak about the LDS perspective on the Middle East. Contact 801-225-1096, daniel_peterson@byu.edu.

IN THE WEST/NORTHWEST

CALIFORNIA

• Dolores “Dede” A. Donovan, professor of law at the University of San Francisco School of Law, has seen firsthand the work of religious organizations in Cambodia, Ethiopia and Thailand, ranging from Catholic to evangelical Christian. What she offers, Donovan says, is opinion, not expertise in this area. Evangelizing, she cautions, is inappropriate when combined with the delivery of aid because it renders the aid a form of bribery in solicitation of religious conversions. The result is conversions based on expediency and ill will in host countries. Contact 415-422-6324, dede_donovan@hotmail.com.

• Jon Miller is director of research at the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. He can discuss the history of the international missions movement, gender issues in missions and issues of social change and resistance to authority in mission work. Contact 213-740-3546, jonmill@usc.edu.

• Wilbert R. Shenk, professor at the Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., is an expert on the missionary philosophy and history of the Mennonite church as well as American evangelicals and foreign missions. Contact 626-584-5390, 626-584-5400 (department), wshenk@fuller.edu.

• Benjamin Hubbard, professor of religious studies at California State University at Fullerton, says that although philanthropy from all quarters is desperately needed, aid groups should refrain from evangelizing in Iraq. He points out that the Muslim world already feels invaded by the United States’ pop culture and armed forces. Hubbard says Christians are better off giving aid without conditions or messages. Contact 949-646-9687, bhubbard@fullerton.edu.

OREGON

• Kambiz GhaneaBassiri, assistant professor of Religion and Humanities at Reed College in Portland, has expertise in modern Islamic intellectual and cultural history (particularly of the Middle East) and Islam in the United States. He can talk about how humanitarian efforts in Iraq will be seen by Muslims here and abroad. Contact 503-517-7435, kambiz.ghaneabassiri@reed.edu.

WASHINGTON

• The Rev. John Topel, professor of theology and religious studies at Seattle University, says Protestants have historically had difficulty with government, seeing it as an agency of the condemned kingdom of fallen humans. Catholics, he says, see government as a means of achieving God’s will on Earth. Topel says the Bush administration’s reliance on faith-based social services here and in Iraq is the result of a wedding of the GOP commitment to as little government as possible with the Protestant belief that the reign of God is accomplished by small Christian communities of faith. It is a vision with which he adamantly disagrees. In the last 30 years, he says, the United States has ranked dead last in the percentage of gross national product given as foreign aid. Contact 206-296-5316, topel@seattleu.edu.

• Brannon Wheeler is associate professor of Islamic studies and chairman of comparative religion at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he specializes in Islamic law and Quranic studies. He has been a visiting scholar at the College of Islamic Law and Islamic Studies, Kuwait University, the American Institute for Maghreb Studies in Tunisia, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the American Research Center in Egypt. He has recently made research trips in Turkey, Syria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Jordan, Kuwait, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco. Contact 206-543-6033 (Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization), wheelerb@u.washington.edu.