As I said, ISIS is a monstrosity. There's no ambiguity there. That said, be careful. There's a flurry of information out there right now and a lot of it is propaganda. There are many people who are trying to stir up the US public to demand for a heavier military intervention.
I think it's a mistake for the US to intervene. It will make the situation worse but at the end of the day, please understand the sense in which I mean this, I don't care if the US intervenes.
But the Church should never call on a military to defend it. It would be a grievous mistake for Christians in this land or any other to call on the United States as a "Christian Nation" or "The Defender of Freedom" to come in and bomb and kill in order to protect Christians.
There's bad historical precedent and this type of activity has and will continue to lead to massive backlash.
In the meantime, beware....
There are numerous emails in circulation and blog posts that are claiming to be from missionaries on the front line. I've received several of them.
Again, ISIS is terrible but it must be said... these emails are less than accurate and in some cases outright deception. If the same email is being sent out using different missionary names as the author... then something is rotten.
The people circulating them mean well. The people who composed them are liars with some kind of twisted agenda. They are either outsiders trying to stir up Christians or they are very deceived Christians who believe it's okay to lie in order to serve the greater good... which they believe the greater good is more war.
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/prayer/seanmalone.asp
I'm leaving the comments open in case anyone has any additional information.
*edited 13 October.... changed typo 'inaccurate' to accurate and added a line
I've been poking around and it's interesting that Mike R., Sean Malone and several others sent the exact same email. Obviously it's one email that keeps being recirculated but with different names attached to it. Thus, someone is lying. There may indeed have been an original email but not all of these people sent the exact same one. The name of the sender keeps changing and apparently in the emails photos are attached etc...
ReplyDeleteWhile it may be true, it's strange to me that Christians feel justified in lying and manipulating because THEY WANT IT TO BE TRUE.
http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/factchecker-is-isis-beheading-children-in-iraq
ReplyDeleteThis link is sober and helpful. TGC isn't usually an organization that I give a lot of time to, but this article was impressive. It's rare to find that kind of wisdom and sobriety these days especially from an organization that has members tied to the Christian Right.