01 July 2020

Brunson's Legacy: Ankara's Hostility to Foreign Protestants and Evangelicals


After Andrew Brunson was released in the fall of 2018 and repeatedly sat on the public stage with Trump and vocally supported his Anti-Erdogan geopolitical posturing – is anyone surprised that Erdogan looks askance at foreign evangelical leaders at work in his country?


Brunson made the case. He was not merely a missionary but a surreptitious and subversive agent of American imperialism. I'm not suggesting he held some kind of official position or was on the payroll but rather he demonstrated that he would have been willing to pass on information to US intelligence and (probably) would have been willing to undertake certain tasks at the behest of US authorities particularly those affiliated with the GOP. By sitting with Trump in the Oval Office – the president who had placed Turkey under threat and sanction, Brunson demonstrated that as a missionary he was in reality an agent of US imperialism.*
The US-backed (and likely orchestrated) coup attempt took place under the Obama administration in 2016 but it was supported by militarists within the American Establishment – an ideology that easily transcends the superficial political spectrum.
I'm sorry to say it but Erdogan is rightly worried about American Evangelicals in his country. This is not to say they're all involved or would be. I can say that confidently. However, some represent a threat and churches and their organisations prove a convenient way to funnel money into a country that can then be used for subversive means.
It's shameful but these deceived deceivers are destroying the testimony of the gospel as they preach a counterfeit kingdom that is very much a part of this world and wed to its empires – pity that it isn't the Kingdom of Christ.  
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*There are outrageous claims made in Turkish media regarding American and Western Evangelicals. I have first-hand knowledge of some of these as a very good friend of mine (an American who was formerly in Turkey) was actually mentioned in local newspaper posts as being a CIA agent and involved in training terrorists etc... – an absurd claim but not uncommon.
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