A troubling question: Has Southern Baptist mission work among Palestinians been a bad investment?

by

Jimmy Coleman

Troub, short for Troublemaker, is the well-earned nickname of a fellow I got to know some years back. You say UP and HOT, he says DOWN and COLD. Probably comes from his stormy days while studying at one of our fine Southern Baptist seminaries until he got sidetracked as a backsliding Christian. Who can say if he will ever return to the straight and narrow but whatever the case will be, we keep in touch, even though at times he can test the patience of Job. Just the other day, for instance, he throws a verbal stick through the spokes of my bicycle while I was taking a leisurely ride.

"JRon, here's a curve ball I'll throw in your direction," Troublemaker said. "How many Palestinian 'lost souls' have Southern Baptists managed to get saved since modern day Israel located itself on Palestinian land? Before you answer, and the reason I ask, I think I can make a good case to show that for Southern Baptists it has been a bad investment."

"I have no idea. Besides, saving just one soul makes it a good investment," I said. He no doubt was playing me as a cat does with a ball of string, savoring the moment before pouncing. "Why do you ask?"

"Just curious," he said, offering no further elucidation.

"OK, I'll bite, I continued. "Sounds like a trick question. What's this got to do with the price of eggs in China or how saving Palestinian souls is a bad investment for Southern Baptist?"

"Ah, since you can't rightly say how many souls were saved, if you don't mind I'll hazard a guess. I've known a few missionaries in my time and most agree people converting from one religion to another is almost unheard of, Christian to Muslim, Muslim to Christian or a Jew to Muslim or Christian. Don't matter, it's a rarity from a numbers point of view; far and few between."

"Troub, you've piqued my curiosity. Reel me in," I said.

"Southern Baptist sent over 25,000 Missionaries to every corner of the world for one hundred and fifty years," he replied. "As you know, on October 7th of last year, biblically speaking--All Hell Broke Lose when Hamas ragheads attacked Israel. Not counting the soldiers from either side, around six hundred Israeli civilians were killed when they were caught up in the middle of several firefights between Hamas and IDF."

He held up a lone finger to insure I did not interrupt his monologue. What primrose path he was leading me down was anybody's guess. "JRon, let's just say, for sake of argument, Southern Baptist helped bring 5,000 lost Palestinian souls to Jesus over all those years….What the Sam Hill, I feel charitable, let's double that number to 10,000 souls were saved from everlasting Hell and Damnation."

"Troub, hold on just a sec. So far you're aren't making a whole lot of sense. What in tarnation is your point, if you got one?"

"Patience my man, patience. Remember what it says in Romans 8:25," he said, a man who hadn't been inside a church since the cow jumped over the moon. 'If we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with patience.'"

"Yeah, OK, we can quote scripture all day and all night, finish up with the Book of Revelation, if you like. Next, you'll be reciting John 13:7, when Jesus said, "You don't understand now what I'm doing, but it will be clear enough to you later."

"Exactly, I'm glad we agree," Troublemaker said, "and no more scripture'fying. We're now at the crux of the matter. Southern Baptist are of two main camps, one that emphasizes the New Covenant 'good news' of the gospel, which take in most of the missionaries. The other camp includes a goodly number of Southern Baptist I know," and he knew several, "whose religiosity druthers are primarily centered around an Old Testament, Old Covenant orientation, if you will."

"Troub, have you forgotten the Old Testament is also the word of God?" I interjected, like the obvious needed saying.

"Yes of course it is, both covenants come from God," he said. "I think it was DeLashmutt who said the moon or the Old Covenant has a certain glory before the sun rises, but once the sun or the New Covenant comes up the moon just fades away into the background because of the surpassing glory of the sun."

"JRon, their flavor of Christianity overflows with 'Thou shalt/shalt nots,' their cup filled to the brim with condemnation, judgment, vengeance, a touch of Amalek Justice and Israel-can-do-no-wrong kind of stuff. As to the Second Coming they chomp at the bits to do their part to expedite Armageddon's End of Days scenario, even to the point of trying to force God's Hand to get off his duff to help bring it about."

Troublemaker took a couple extra puffs on his cigarette, making sure he had my undivided.

"JRon, so far the best estimate of dead Palestinians in GAZA approaches 186,000 souls, triple that counting the wounded, most of them women and children, a quarter under seven-years-old, and if we wait till they finish them off in Rafah that number may soon double or quadruple. These same Christian Zionists, without objection, insist on their government supporting what Israel is currently doing, whether you call it just a walk in the park or genocide, either way it ends up the same."

His hand shook as he tried to light another cigarette, half a cig still burning in the ashtray.

"Whoa, nellybelle," I said, jumping in with both feet. "Israel has the right to defend itself. It is horrible so many Palestinians have died but they started it. If need be the Israelis will finish it."

"Hachi Machi JRon," Troublemaker blurted out, stopping me in mid-sentence. "I think we both can agree, Israel like every other nation has the right to defend itself. I believe that also applies to any people, including Jews holding out against the Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto, French Resistance, enslaved blacks opposing slave-owners or Palestinians uprising in defiance against seventy-five years of ongoing oppression. The right of self-defense, however, does not give anyone and that includes Israel, a moral, legal or sacred right to mass slaughter unarmed civilians, many no more than babes wrapped in swaddling clothes when deprived of their life. Just the other day the Israel Air Force dropped American-supplied white phosphorus bombs on tents filled with women and children, burning them alive, at fifteen hundred degrees Fahrenheit it was high enough to melt steel. Hamas lives in tunnels 250 feet under ground, not in tents, so why drop flaming phosphorus on women and children?"

"JRon, I know I'm hogging the talk time. Please forgive seventy times seven but I need to finish a thought that needs finishing before we get back to deciding whether or not it's been a good investment for Southern Baptist," Troublemaker said, with a look of sincere contrition.

"In the eyes of the Prince of Peace, what unpardonable sins have Palestinian civilians, especially the children, committed against anyone that would justify their eradication? Even if one finds themselves sympathetic towards Israel, devoid of any such feelings for the suffering of the Palestinians, I ask you as straightforward as it can be asked, how great must be one's appetite for blood and revenge, of the need for the vengeful slaughter of so many? Would a half million or a million slaughtered, mutilated dead and starving Palestinians living atop bombed-out rubble quench that Amalek thirst?"

Troublemaker raised an interesting point I was remiss in ever giving any thought to. "For what it's worth, Jesus was a Palestinian Jew and the uncle to his four brothers and two sister's kids and the great … great uncle Jesus to the thousands of descendents that followed down through the centuries. Many Palestinians, including Palestinian Jews, became Christians in the 1st and later centuries and after Islam came on the scene in the seventh century AD, Muslims. Can't help wondering how many now suffering and dying Christians and Muslims in GAZA share Jesus lineage, his DNA. Just a thought.

"Pray-not there be some among us who find themselves in agreement with Tim Walberg, a Baptist minister and a member of congress, who says 'we shouldn't spend a dime on humanitarian aid for the Palestinians. Instead, we should get it over quick with those in GAZA, like we did in Nagasaki and Hiroshima'.

"On top of that, South Carolina's Senator Lindsey Graham, a Southern Baptist who admits attending church at least thrice yearly, perhaps twice that during campaign season, also calls for the nuking of GAZA. While the good Senator may not be a strong advocate for the welfare of the body or soul of the Palestinians, he knows a good investment when he sees it. Buried under the sand and seldom talked about or how it may influence the conflict in Palestine are the untapped GAZA Marine and Meged oil and natural gas fields, located offshore and under the West Bank, with an estimated value of $524 billion. Palestine lands, like Ukraine, with its vast mineral resources that Lindsey colorfully described as 'A Gold Mine', are just waiting to be exploited by the U.S. and Israel. Thoughts worth pondering…"

Troublemaker was on a roll. It would have been rude for me to interrupt. "Why pray-tell do you suppose work among Palestinians has for Southern Baptist been a bad investment? I put it to you this way, JRon. If Southern Baptist working the fields by the sweat of their brow, for a century and a half managed to save the lost souls of 10,000 Palestinians, the investment in their flesh and blood and eternal souls, not to mention dollars and cents, doesn't appear to be all that good of a pay-out. It's not because the missionaries don't have love in their hearts for these people. They do, but they are in conflict with those of the Christian Zionists flavor among Southern Baptist, those who provide their undying, unquestioning support of Zionist Israel while they refuse to call for a ceasefire of the ongoing slaughter.

"Instead, they contributed to sending tens of thousands of dead and, from the Baptist perspective, unsaved Muslims to their eternal damnation, in just seven short months. I don't need to remind you, once these poor souls are blown to Kingdom Come it becomes impossible for them to get saved. Southern Baptist are running a deficit in souls saved vs souls lost, prematurely so.

"It appears Palestinians, as it is, now have to take their chances with Allah and hope for the best! Southern Baptist missionaries march to a different tune than their more Zionist's brethren, historically whose eschatological motivated zeal they sought to temper. Unfortunately, the missionary followers of the Lottie Moon tradition are 'outgunned', pardon the French. Perhaps they should consider turning over their uphill efforts to 'Winning Souls' to the Methodists.

"The Methodist religious hierarchy expresses less righteous indignation in invoking the 'Christian War tradition' as the SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission did in their 'Evangelical Statement in Support of Israel'. This impressive list of Seminary Presidents, former presidents of the Southern Baptist Convention, pastors of mega churches and hundreds more exhort Israel to bear the sword against its foes," Troublemaker said, finishing up with his near monologue, perhaps providing some much-needed food-for-thought!

I will add a thought or two of my own to conclude this Open Letter to Southern Baptist. Lindsey Graham, Tim Walberg and many others of like mind are not alone in viewing the investment in Palestinian souls as a bad investment. Some might say the good Senator would prefer seeing all that wasted money flushed down the drain better spent on a pig farm or other pork-barrel projects in his native SC or condominium developments overlooking the beautiful Mediterranean Sea in GAZA for the settler community or better yet donated to his campaign…

Who has a crystal ball? Not I, but the current trend for Southern Baptist missionaries in the Middle East and its witness for Christ are on a slippery slope. Who, especially among the Muslim countries, would be inclined to welcome those who supported the Ethnic Cleansing of a People, be it from an act of commission, by their active support or by an act of omission, by their silence?

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Jimmy Coleman’s first appearance on our fair planet took place at some point during the last millennium. The earlier years of his sojourn among his fellow mortals were expended during the tumultuous times of separate water fountains, segregated schools and the KKK. It was also an exciting era where many of his generation did battle to help improve the situation as it was. A series of short stories and poems reflecting the give and take of bygone days are a major aim of Mr. Coleman’s writing herein and elsewhere. The first short story, “Mr. SOB” can be found at https://www.seattlestar.net/2022/05/mr-sob/ The poem, “the birds sing…Jesus loves us….life is good…” can be found at https://www.seattlestar.net/2022/02/the-birds-sing-jesus-loves-us-life-is-good/