Missionary Work Is Early Casualty of War in Gulf

The war in the Persian Gulf threatens the future of Christian missionary work in the region for years to come, according to U.S. religious leaders who work in their denomination’s foreign mission units.

“Things are not going to be the same,” said Erich Bridges, news editor for the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Missionary work will be harmed “for a half a century anyway,” said William H. Hopper, associate director of the Global Missions Ministry Unit of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), which has its headquarters here.

A number of missionaries and church workers have already fled areas of possible bombing or conflict. Others, fearing a backlash by Muslims angry at the U.S.-led attacks on an Islamic nation, have pulled out of countries neighboring Iraq, according to mission personnel.

“Even if the war ends tomorrow,” Bridges said, “the reaction of many Muslims toward Americans/Christians is all mixed up and their perspective is going to be bitter, probably for years to come.”

Missionary work in the Middle East was difficult at best before the war, said the Rev. William Hancock, a Baptist pastor and chairman of the Foreign Mission Board.

Foreigners are suspect in Islamic nations and open proselytizing is generally banned, he said. Evangelization is often done indirectly, by providing needed medical, agricultural and educational assistance.

Middle East residents often hold missionaries responsible for the actions of their Western governments, said Mary Sue Robinson, Africa-area executive of the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries in New York.

“There have been so many wars fought against them . . . in the name of Christianity. They have a long collective memory that goes back to the Crusades,” she said.

Church workers have been scared by the violence by angry Muslims in Algeria and Bangladesh.

The day after allied bombing of Baghdad and other Iraqi targets began, a mob attacked a Protestant church in Algiers, said Robinson. The intruders broke a number of windows but were stopped by police before they could batter down the door. Two Methodist missionaries living there were unharmed, she said.

A Kentucky missionary couple had their home in Dhaka, Bangladesh, surrounded by a mob a few days after war broke out. Sentiment against the United States “very definitely” makes life more difficult, said Jim McKinley. He and his wife, Betty, who have been working in Bangladesh for 33 years, “limit their activities” for fear of running into “pro-Saddam” marches if they leave their residence, he said.

“We ultimately say to the missionaries, ‘Use your best judgment and stay as long as you think it’s appropriate,’ ” said Don Kammerdiener, chief vice president of the Baptist Foreign Mission Board.

Almost 50 Southern Baptist workers left their posts in Muslim and other Middle Eastern countries before the war started, he said.

Baptist missionaries Marsha and David Smith left Israel for Larnaca, Cyprus, where a number of Baptist missionary families have taken refuge. The Smiths were not personally threatened, and struggled with the decision to leave--”maybe the hardest in our ministry,” Marsha Smith said.

They finally opted to flee Tel Aviv with their two small children because of danger from terrorism or possible Iraqi attacks on Israel. They had worked for eight years with Messianic Jews--Hebrew Christians who acknowledge Jesus as the Jewish Messiah--and want to return when hostilities cease. They may not be welcome.

Members of their congregation said “that we were abandoning them at a time when they needed us and a time when we needed to show them support,” said Marsha Smith. “They were quite disappointed.”

Despite the problems raised by the conflict, some missionaries think the war is necessary. “I really believe that this man (Saddam Hussein) was going to have to be dealt with anyway, sooner or later,” David Smith said.