Missionaries in Baghdad

"God and the President have given us an opportunity to bring Jesus to the Middle East!" rejoices one of the more than 30 American missionaries, who have set up shop in Baghdad since last May. Their hunt for souls is supported by scores of visiting colleagues and voluntary helpers. There is great enthusiasm about the new bonanza. "Iraq will become a center for spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ to Iran, Libya, throughout the Middle East", foresees Kyle Fisk, executive administrator of the American National Association of Evangelicals, which has 4.5 million members in the USA.

Since last summer, nine US based Evangelical churches have established their Baghdad branches, among them the National Biblical Christian Federation Church (NBFC), the Southern Baptist Convention, the Association of Baptists for World Evangelization and the Voice of the Martyrs. Donations from the USA are flowing generously. During a few months, most of the outfits have already collected Dollar amounts of six digits.

So far, the Iraqis do not respond with the same enthusiasm to the attempts to save their souls. Most of the hastily printed one million bibles in Arabic are still waiting for takers. The NBFC, one of the biggest among the new churches of Baghdad, counts on Sundays up to 400 visitors. But many of them are coming for profane reasons. Old ladies want to collect the food packets they have been promised, others need medicine or hope for assistance in getting a job. They have been told that Jesus would solve a lot of problems.

Food packets are distributed in abundance. "Handing out food is a perfect time to talk about Jesus to non-believers", explains one of the pastors. So far the NBFC has distributed 60000 aid boxes. Tons of food and medical supply keep arriving from the USA. The gospel, however, does not seem to spread in the same pace.

The Christian brigade is not very welcome in Iraq. The media speak about "Christian conspiracy" and "crusade" and foresee communal hatred and violence. "Iraqis already see the American occupation as religious war", said Shiite Muslim leader Shaik Fatih Kashif Ghitaa, who met with Sunni clerics to discuss the issue of a common fatwa against missionaries.

The "golden window of opportunity" that the God & the President Inc. have opened for the evangelization of the Middle East may shut with a bang as soon as the US military machine pulls out of the country. But before that, it is bringing Bush many cheers during hard election times, which are translating into funds, active campaign support and most likely into millions of evangelical votes.

USA: One billion tax Dollars for religious charities

According to a recent White House Report, the Bush administration has distributed more than 1.1 billion Dollars in competitive grants to religious charity organizations in the fiscal year 2003. The amount may be far higher, officials say, as the list is not yet complete. So far, five agencies have been asked to review 140 grant-giving programs.

The Department for Health & Human Services accounted for 2003 the amount of 568 million Dollars, given to 680 faith based groups. Compared to 2002, this was an increase of 19% in the amount and of 41% in the number of benefited organizations. The first timers among the supported organizations increased even by 50%, reaching 129.

The other agencies so far included in the report were the Justice Department, the Labor Department, the Education Department and the Department for Housing and Urban Development.

The grants were given on the base of an Executive Order, as the Bills for the proposed legislation have been stalled in Congress. President Bush's decision to shift a major part of state funded social work to faith based organizations was one of his first political acts after assuming office. It is a stark violation of the secular Constitution of the USA. Many of the funded groups are not only faith-based organizations doing social work in a professional manner, but performing charity work as part of religious activity.

Chile: Legalizing divorce - defying the Church

Finally, Chile has legalized divorce. The Congress approved the controversial divorce bill, passed in January, which had been effectively blocked for nine years by the Catholic Church.

"This is a moment of pure joy!" said Justice Minister Louis Bates, celebrating the triumph of democracy and liberty. The majority of Chileans shares these feelings and welcomes the new law with optimism, many with a sigh of relief. "Chile is rapidly opening up, people want to be happy and fight for this right", said legislator Maria Antoineta Saa of the Party for Democracy, who had introduced the bill back in 1993. Chile had been one of the last countries in the world, where divorce is legally forbidden.

The legalization of divorce has been achieved against the strong resistance of a powerful minority of Catholic hard-liners, fighting tooth and nail against liberalization. They tried to kill the law by creating moral pressure on Parliament members. In an aggressive television advertising campaign, Catholic legislators were threatened with excommunication for supporting the bill.

Over many decades, successive centrist and leftist governments tried to liberalize the family law of 1884 and failed due to massive resistance of the Catholic Church. 18 divorce bills had been introduced earlier, but all of them died.

Uganda: New massacres of the Lord's Resistance Army

Leaders of the Acholi, Lango and Tese tribes in Northern Uganda are rising an alarm, after new massacres by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) during February in Lira and in the refugee camps of Abia and Barlayo have killed more than 300 people. As the central government has failed to send enough troops to protect them from attacks of the LRA, they demand, it should declare the region as disaster zone and ask for international help to fight the rebels.

About the LRA

The LRA is an exceptionally cruel rebel army, dismembering and burning alive civilians in Northern Uganda. It is lead by the Christian fundamentalist Joseph Kony of the Acholi tribe. Kony wants to cleanse his tribe and their neighbors from all "sinners" and make them the leaders of Uganda. He aims at national rule based on the Ten Commandments. Emerging in 1986, the LRA has killed an estimated 120000 people and displaced some two millions. More than one fifth of Uganda is terrorized. In the Northern regions, life has become impossible and the economy has broken down.

Most of the about 3000 soldiers of Kony's terror army are children, who have been kidnapped and traumatized into absolute obedience to him. During the 17 years of its existence, the LRA has kidnapped about 25000 children. Many desperate abductees manage to flee the camps, but they are often later caught and killed. Others escape and find shelter in rehabilitation camps. They are the only source of inside information about the terror army. There has not been any independent observer and Kony did not entertain any contact to the outside world since many years.

Those who escaped report regularly about the army's horrible initiation rites. Within the first hours after abducting a new group of children from a village, the leaders use to select one child for death. They order the rest to beat the victim to death, threatening them that this fate was awaiting anybody who tried to escape or did not obey. Many children are brutally tortured and mutilated, many are forced to go to their village and torture and kill old friends or even their parents. Most of them are permanently in a condition of deep psychological shock.

The children are made to fear and to worship Kony as a god like figure with holy spirit and supernatural powers, who knows all their secret thoughts and can punish them anywhere and anytime. Joseph Kony, son of a Catholic catechist and a former altar boy himself, is believed to be in his early 40s. Besides elements of archaic Christian belief, he uses tribal spirit belief to secure his power position. Witnesses believe they have seen a white dove circling around his head or stars emerging above him as signs of his divinity. Recently he is said to have integrated Islamic elements into his multifaceted image.