Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

MARK LEVIN - "CAN YOU HEAR THE SCREAMS OF THE PEOPLE OF AFGHANISTAN TONIGHT?"

From Breitbart:

Wednesday on FNC’s “Hannity,” nationally syndicated radio host Mark Levin, author of “American Marxism,” ripped the Biden administration for its handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal.

Levin called out U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and said the withdrawal was a “humiliation” for the country.

Transcript as follows:

LEVIN: First, I want to talk to General Milley.

"General Milley, I have this hanging on my office hall. You know who this is? This is George S. Patton. You are no George S. Patton, General Milley. How many Anne Franks are there tonight in Afghanistan? How many Anne Franks are hiding in cellars all across that country today?

I want to talk about the people left behind, not the 124,000 who’ve been evacuated to safety. I want to talk about the millions who now have had genocide unleashed upon them and before Joe Biden became president the United States were living mostly in peace and mostly in safety in what was a neutralized Afghanistan with a minimal American military footprint.

I want to read something. I never do this. I went back to Dwight Eisenhower’s book, “Crusade in Europe”, when he went to the death camps. He said:

TIM KELLER ON BIBLE INTERPRETATION: "OLD TESTAMENT LAW AND THE CHARGE OF INCONSISTENCY"

Tim Keller pastors  Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City and is the well-received author of many books, including The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism,  The Meaning of Marriage, and Counterfeit Gods, among others.  He frequently speaks at Veritas Forums on university campuses and has twice been invited to speak at  Google headquarters in California (here and here).   His sermons are available here.

In this "Redeemer Report" for June,  Keller addresses an issue that Christians confront time and time again: namely, ignorance about the structure of the Bible as universally understood by Christians.  Here is what Keller has to say about Bible interpretation:  (HT: Justin Taylor)

I find it frustrating when I read or hear columnists, pundits, or journalists dismiss Christians as inconsistent because “they pick and choose which of the rules in the Bible to obey.” What I hear most often is “Christians ignore lots of Old Testament texts—about not eating raw meat or pork or shellfish, not executing people for breaking the Sabbath, not wearing garments woven with two kinds of material and so on. Then they condemn homosexuality. Aren’t you just picking and choosing what they want to believe from the Bible?”

 

It is not that I expect everyone to have the capability of understanding that the whole Bible is about Jesus and God’s plan to redeem his people, but I vainly hope that one day someone will access their common sense (or at least talk to an informed theological advisor) before leveling the charge of inconsistency.

 

First of all, let’s be clear that it’s not only the Old Testament that has proscriptions about homosexuality. The New Testament has plenty to say about it, as well. Even Jesus says, in his discussion of divorce in Matthew 19:3-12 that the original design of God was for one man and one woman to be united as one flesh, and failing that, (v. 12) persons should abstain from marriage and from sex. 

 

However, let’s get back to considering the larger issue of inconsistency regarding things mentioned in the OT that are no longer practiced by the New Testament people of God. Most Christians don’t know what to say when confronted about this. Here’s a short course on the relationship of the Old Testament to the New Testament:

QUICK TAKES (May be amplified if I can find the time)

-- Turkish propaganda film against Israel - sure to inflame the Turkish population.  I find vicious propaganda such as this utterly ugly.  Without a love of truth the world becomes hell.  Click here  (HT: Drudge)  

-- Afghan convert to Christianity charged with crimes punishable by death.  Another example of Islam's intolerance of any other religion.  UGH!!  Yesterday churches around the world recognized "The International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church."  How needful!  Click here.  (HT: Atlas Shrugs)

      Update:  Mindy Belz, writing for World magazine, reports:

Sayed Mossa handed a letter to a Westerner who came to visit him several times in jail in Afghanistan. He also asked the visitor not to come back, fearing that any misstep could lead to his death.

The letter, a copy of which WORLD received in late October, begins with a plea "to the international church of the world and to the President Brother [Barack] Obama and to the heads of ISAF force in Afghanistan." It describes his imprisonment since late May "due to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, saviour of the world." It also describes daily beatings and torture: "They did sexual things with me, beat me by wood, by hands, by legs, mocked me ("he's Jesus Christ"), [spit] on me. No body let me for sleep night and day." He also has received death threats. . .

TONY BLANKLEY - THE AFGHANISTAN WAR IS A FARCE

I pondered whether I wanted to post this or not since I know brave men have fought and died in this war, and I personally know of men, both Brits and Americans, still over there.  I hope Blankley is wrong.  But if he is right, the sooner we face up to it the better.  On other matters Blankley has written about, he has proven a man of sober judgment.  Here is his article.

EMERGENT CHURCH: IS TRUTH REALLY PLURAL?

Albert Mohler offers a major review and critique of John R. Franke's Manifold Witness: The Plurality of Truth,  (HT: Between Two Worlds).

In recent years, John R. Franke, a professor at Biblical Theological Seminary in Hatfield, Pennsylvania, has been among the foremost proponents of the embrace of a postmodern worldview. A major figure in the emergent church, Franke has been a significant critic of modern evangelicalism. In his new book, Manifold Witness: The Plurality of Truth, Franke offers an argument that pushes the postmodern envelope and offers what amounts to a completely new way of understanding truth. Truth, Franke argues, is inherently plural.

Franke's new book is part of the "Living Theology" series published by Abingdon Press in cooperation with Emergent Village. The book deserves close attention, for it presents a vision of truth we are sure to confront in years to come.   [more . . .]

RALPH PETERS - "THE RULES MURDURING OUR TROOPS"

I am exercised over what follows because I have independent knowledge that our men are dying for exactly the reasons Peters states.  Realism is in short supply when you dwell in la-la land.  Peters writes: (HT: Corner)

When enemy action kills our troops, it's unfortunate. When our own moral fecklessness murders those in uniform, it's unforgivable.

In Afghanistan, our leaders are complicit in the death of each soldier, Marine or Navy corpsman who falls because politically correct rules of engagement shield our enemies.

Mission-focused, but morally oblivious, Gen. Stan McChrystal conformed to the Obama Way of War by imposing rules of engagement that could have been concocted by Code Pink:

* Unless our troops in combat are absolutely certain that no civilians are present, they're denied artillery or air support.

* If any civilians appear where we meet the Taliban, our troops are to "break contact" -- to retreat.  Keep reading...

WHAT KIND OF COUNTRY IS AFGHANISTAN? Michael Yon sets the record straight.

From Kathryn Jean Lopez at the Corner [my emphases]:

Michael Yon, who recently spent time in Afghanistan (not for the first time) responds from Jerusalem:

Take all that, and be prepared to work for a century in Afghanistan. Afghanistan will not be a stable country ten years from now. Truly, be prepared for a century of commitment. Most comparisons to Iraq are false or completely inappropriate. Iraq is a relatively advanced country. To compare Iraq to Afghanistan is to compare the United States to Mexico. Vietnam is incredibly more advanced than Afghanistan. One of the poorest countries on earth, Nepal, is by comparison to Afghanistan an advanced country. We cannot allow ourselves to be deluded by the monumental task ahead in Afghanistan. Putting a man on the moon was simple by comparison.

TALIBAN ASSASINATE CHRISTIAN RELIEF WORKER, WORLD YAWNS

 Michelle Malkin covers the story well, writing:

 Evil reigns in Afghanistan.

Apathy reigns everywhere else.

It reminds me of how the world shrugged at the South Korean Christian hostage ordeal.

Ho-hum:

A BRITISH aid worker gunned down in Kabul yesterday was murdered because she was a Christian, the Taleban claim.

Gayle Williams, 34, was shot at close range by two men on a motorbike, in a residential district of the Afghan capital popular with missionaries.

Eyewitnesses said she collapsed in a pool of blood, after the men fired six shots from a pistol, hitting her in the chest and legs.

Christopher Hitchens - "Stop Pitting Iraq Against Afghanistan"

Clear thinking found here.

AFGHAN STUDENT SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR DOWNLOADING PAPER AGAINST ISLAM

AP story here.

Veterans Day Recognition: Congressional Medal of Honor Winner, Navy Lt. Michael Murphy

Chuck Colson rightfully focuses on Lt. Michael Murphy, a war hero if there ever was one, in his article, "A Debt That Cannot Be Repaid."  Murphy's story is told by fellow soldier Marcus Luttrell in the book Lone Surviror.

Colson offers resources for further reading:

“President Bush Presents Medal of Honor to Lieutenant Michael P. Murphy, U.S. Navy,” White House Office of the Press Secretary, 22 October 2007.

John Gibson, “Why Didn’t Some News Organizations Cover Medal of Honor Ceremony?” FOX News, 25 October 2007.

“Medal of Honor Awarded to ‘Antithesis of a Warrior’,” CNN, 22 October 2007.

Take a Minute to Say Thanks

James S. Robbins posts:

Want to show your appreciation to service member overseas? Stop by the "Let's Say Thanks" website, sponsored by Xerox. You can send a card with a pre-printed message or one of your own — it takes only a minute and it is free! You will brighten the day of someone overseas, and that's something you can feel great about too.

How the Korean Hostages Were Treated by the Taliban

I blogged extensively and almost daily concerning the Korean hostages held captive for so long by the Taliban in Afghanistan.  See, for example, here and here.

A few weeks after their release I should have posted a report of how they were treated by their Taliban captors.  The BBC issued such a report:

S Koreans told 'convert or die'

A group of South Koreans held hostage by Taleban militants in Afghanistan have said they were beaten and ordered at gunpoint to convert to Islam. 

At a news conference in Seoul, the former captives also said they were made to work "like slaves" during their six-week ordeal.

Twenty-one members of the group were freed last month following an agreement between South Korea and the captors.

Two of the hostages - all Christian aid workers - had already been killed.

Beaten and kicked

The former hostages said they feared for their lives at times when their captors turned violent.

"We were beaten with a tree branch or kicked around. Some kidnappers threatened us with death at

Continuing Coverage of the Afghan Taliban's Holding 19 Korean Hostages

Update 8/31/07 - I have put news of the Korean hostages at the top of my blog for many weeks now.  I am so glad they have all been released and will soon be reunited with their families and loved ones.  According to news reports the former hostages left Kabul today, Friday, on a chartered UN plane to fly back to Korea.

What the long-term fallout of the ordeal will be remains to be seen.  News reports suggest a large sum of money changed hands to secure the hostages release, though that remains to be confirmed.  The release came at the cost of stopping all Korean humanitarian involvement in Afghanistan, a result the KoreaWorld Missions Association criticized.

"Korean churches cannot help expressing deep concerns over the agreement reached between the government and the Taliban to halt missionary activities in Afghanistan," the organistaion [sic] said in a statement.

More:

German politicians also criticised South Korea's handling of the crisis.

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said Berlin would stand firm in its refusal to negotiate over a German engineer captured by the Taliban more than six weeks ago.

A Taliban spokesman said kidnappings by the Taliban would likely continue.

Afghanistan Taliban Threatens to Execute 23 South Korean Aid Workers (With Updates)

Note: I am keeping this story at the top of my blog to follow breaking developments.  Scroll down for updates.  Posts on other subjects follow this story.   Update:   A new post  with updates began August 8th.  Click here.

7/24/07
When have I last seen a picture of brighter, happier, more fulfilled-looking young people than those pictured here?  The problem: the lives of these Christian young people may be snuffed out in a matter of hours.  They are all hostages of the AfghanTaliban.

Michelle Malkin has a full report.

Malkin notes that "As of 8:30am, there is nothing on the front page of the Human Rights Watch website about the plight of the South Korean Christian volunteers." 

Update 7/25/07 -Michelle Malkin updates here.   As of 10:30 AM, one young man [42 year-old Pastor Bae Hyung-kyu, pictured left) has been shot, and eight have reportedly been freed.  [Later reports have questioned that.}   Korean Evangelical Churches Under Cyber-Attack.

Update 7/27/07 - As of 8:00 AM The fate of the 22 hostage (4 men, 18 women) remains unclear.  The TimesOnLine reports: 

The misery of the hostages was brought to the world’s attention last night when one of the captives, identified by her relatives in Seoul as Yim Hyun-Joo, a 32-year-old nurse, made an emotional appeal for their release.

“Please help us,” she said, weeping, on the American television channel CBS. “We are in a very difficult time. . . all of us are sick and in very bad condition.”

Bae Hyung Kyu, who was leading the mission to provide medical care to poverty stricken Afghans, was the founder of the Saemmul Presbyterian Church. Known as “Mr Smile” by his parishioners, Mr Bae was shot ten times in the head and chest on his 42nd birthday on Wednesday.

Churches across South Korea were filled with thousands of mourners praying for Mr Bae and the remaining 22 missionaries yesterday.

Update 7/28/07 -  Michelle Malkin updates here.  Negotiations continue.  Korea has sent a presidential envoy to Afghanistan.  Memorial services were held in Korea for slain pastor Bae Hyung-kyu who leaves behind a wife and 9-year-old daughter.  Click through for details.

Update 7/30/07 - 1:30 PM  A second-male hostage has reportedly been killed.  The Korean government is trying to confirm the murder.  Michelle Malkin says the world yawns.   Agreed.  Where is the worldwide outrage??  Is it because the hostages are Korean that the West yawns?

Update 2:45pm.   Michelle Malkin updates:   From Yonhap reports, “The Taliban, claiming Monday to have executed another male South Korean hostage, threatened it will continue to kill more of them and more frequently.

Should negotiations fail, the  Taliban will reportedly start to kill female hostages after the men.  Here is a photo of Shim Sung-min, 29, the second hostage reportedly killed.  The weapon used was reportedly an AK-47.

Update 7/31/07 - Eugene E. Cho, born in Korea, now living in the U.S. , is blogging the story and includes additional photos.  Of the second murder victim, Sung Min, he writes:  "He used to work for an IT company but resigned two months ago to prepare for his Masters’ education [agriculture].  One of his passions was volunteering with the disabled community and other aspects of social work."  -   djchuang.com notes that Korean papers Chosun Ilbo and The Hankyoreh have English editions with up-to-date news.

Update 8/1/07  10:00 AM  -CNN (video) via Reuters reports a rescue operation is now underway.  10:15 AM - Reuters withdraws the Afghan rescue report.

Michelle Malkin offers an outstanding column today titled: "The Martyrs No One Cares About." 
Here are the pictures of the remaining S. Korean hostages (reproduced from Michelle Malkin's blog).  Click any picture and all will appear much larger.

11:00 PM - Douglas Groothuis writes: As Bernard Lewis has pointed out, in Christianity, a martyr is one who is killed on account of one's profession of faith and one's refusal to recant under pressure. In Islam (represented by the Taliban) a martyr is typically one who dies in a jihad. The difference reveals a titanic split in the two worldviews.

Pastor Hyung-kyu was in Afghanistan to serve Christ by serving others. What he did, he did in the name of the God of the Bible. For that, he was executed. He joins the legion of martyrs, those who did not love their lives unto death, but who will receive the crown of life from the King of Kings.

The International Herald Tribune reports "So. Korea, U.S. rule out military operation to free the hostages."

(Updates continue on the next page.)

DEATH TO APOSTATES IN ISLAM

Robert Spencer reports on the renewed call for the head of Abdul Rahman, the Afghan convert to Christianity.   His article has the details, including an imporant discussion of the status of apostates in Islam.    Below are a few excerpts:

An Afghan citizen named Abdul Rahman, you may recall, made international news last spring, when his conversion from Islam to Christianity led to his arrest, with the intention of putting him on trial for apostasy. At that time he was spirited away to safety in Italy. Now jihadists in Afghanistan are demanding his return to Afghanistan in exchange for a kidnapped Italian journalist, Gabriele Torsello. “We want this issue resolved before the end of Ramadan,” his captors demanded, but no resolution seemed imminent as the holy month drew to a close.

It is safe to say that if Italian authorities agreed to turn over Abdul Rahman to the kidnappers, the convert would almost certainly be killed for his crime of apostasy from Islam . . .

A CLASSIC TRAVEL BOOK ON AFGHANISTAN

John Derbyshire posts the following:

One of the best travel books of all time, a great favorite of mine, and I hope required reading for service personnel on their way to Afghanistan, is Eric Newby's A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush. Not the least remarkable thing about the book is that it was written by a chap whose day job was in fashion design.  Eric Newby died on Friday at the age of 86.

Amazon.com tells me it is ranked 16 out of 100 on National Geographic Adventure's list of top 100 adventure books of all time.

AFGHANISTAN CRISIS DEEPENS OVER DEATH PENALTY FOR CHRISTIAN CONVERT

What are we to make of the on-going crisis in Afghanistan over Abdul Rahman, the Muslim convert to Christianity?    Supreme Court Chief Justice Fazl Hadi Shinwari, once told our National Public Radio that it is his duty as a judge to “behead” those who do not conform to Islamic law.    Western nations are lodging their protests.  Here is a case where American foreign policy and Afghanistan's independence collide.  How will it be resolved?

Nina Shea, the director of Freedom House's Center for Religious Freedom, has this to say:   

But this is about more than Mr. Rahman.   This will be a persistent, recurring problem under Afghanistan’s sharia apostasy and blasphemy laws.  The administration also needs to do more to ensure the reform Afghanistan’s judiciary.    President Karzai must be encouraged to wrest it from the control of Islamists like Supreme Court Chief Justice Fazl Hadi Shinwari, who once told our National Public Radio that it is his duty as a judge to “behead” those who do not conform to Islamic law.   Americans continue to give billions of dollars, and sacrifice their lives to support the Afghan government.   It not only serves compelling humanitarian interests to use this leverage now, but it would be a betrayal of America’s deepest national values not to.

She is urging the U.S. to initiate pressure on the Afghan government.   But the government is receiving equally strong pressure from influential Muslim leaders to resist such pressure.    I see this as a genuine crisis in American foreign policy.  It is not only Afghanistan about which this issue revolves, but Iraq as well.  "Democracy" as a panacea, as a "cure-all" for what ails the Middle East, is apparently stumbling over the rock of Islamic theology and ethics.

The BBC reports "Mood Hardens Against Afghan Convert."   The report includes such quotes as the following:

The Prophet Muhammad has said several times that those who convert from Islam should be killed if they refuse to come back," says Ansarullah Mawlafizada, the trial judge.

"Islam is a religion of peace, tolerance, kindness and integrity.  That is why we have told him if he regrets what he did, then we will forgive him," he told the BBC News website.   [Hmmm...  peace, tolerance, kindness -- but only for those who convert!!  Death to all others!   That's a unique definition of  'peace, tolerance, kindness"!!]

"We will not let anyone interfere with our religious practices," declared cleric Inayatullah at Kabul's Pulakasthy mosque, one of the city's largest.

"What Rahman has done is wrong and he must be punished."

"What is wrong with Islam that he should want to convert?" asks an agitated Abdul Zahid Payman.

"The courts should punish him and he should be put to death."

"Who is America to tell us what to do? If Karzai listens to them there will be jihad (holy war)."

The BBC commentator explains:

Afghanistan's constitution, written in 2004, enshrines the country as an Islamic state under which no law can contravene Islam.

But it also protects personal freedom and respects international human rights conventions.

It is a deliberately ambiguous document which tries to paper over the cracks and contradictions of Afghanistan," says one Afghan law professor privately.

But now the contradictions have risen to the surface.    [Yes, exactly.  See my post for March 23, 2006)

AFGHANISTAN AND FREEDOM OF RELIGION

It's obvious that the Afghanistan government will try to wiggle out of their public relations nightmare by declaring the Christian convert from Islam, Abdul Rahman,  mentally incompetent to stand trial.  That will prove nothing.   The lack of religious freedom remains, and the penalty also remains (death).  Professor John S. Ford of the UCLA School of medicine inveighs against using psychiatry as a tool of social engineering.    (HT: Michelle Malkin)

The fact is that the lack of religious freedom in the "new" Afghanistan was an issue the United States didn't want to address explicitly during the writing of the constitution.   Those who pointed out the problematic future of that approach, like Andrew C. McCarthy  and Paul Marshall, were pooh-poohed.   Now we're living with the short-sightedness (dare we say incompetence?) of our U.S. government.    A kind of benign political correctness and naivete concerning the power and potency of religion (including, and especially Islam) bedevils the State department and other areas of "enlightened opinion."   This current crisis could have been avoided.

Andrew McCArthy concludes his essay:

You reap what you sow. What is happening in Afghanistan (and in Iraq) is precisely what we bought on to when we actively participated in the drafting of constitutions which — in a manner antithetical to the development of true democracy — ignored the imperative to insulate the civil authority from the religious authority, installed Islam as the state religion, made sharia a dominant force in law, and expressly required that judges be trained in Islamic jurisprudence.  To have done all those things makes outrage at today’s natural consequences ring hollow.

We can pull our heads up from the sand now and say, “No, no, no! We’re nice people. We didn’t mean it that way. That’s too uncivilized to contemplate.”   But the inescapable truth is: the United States made a calculated decision that it wasn’t worth our while to fight over Islamic law (indeed, we encouraged it as part of the political solution).   People who objected (like moi) were told that we just didn’t grasp the cultural dynamic at work. I beg to differ — we understood it only too well.

AFGHAN CHRISTIAN FACES DEATH FOR CONVERSION

I have lifted the post below from Andy McCarthy at the Corner of National Review Online.    This is truly serious.  Maybe now the world (and our State Department??) will wake up to the fact that the "peaceful religion of Islam" mandates the death penalty for a Muslim who converts to Christianity.   What will the Afghanistan court system do with this case?    The consequential big question:  has the United States failed to provide "freedom of religion" for countries it has supposedly liberated?    If so, then we must question how real and genuine is the new-found freedom.   I predict the issue of Islam's mandating the death penalty for converts leaving Islam will prove a defining issue for Islam and the world's attitude towards it in the years ahead.   It should also raise a few belated questions among unthinking "multiculturalists" as well.

        IN THE NEW AFGHANISTAN:  DEATH FOR APOSTASY [Andy McCarthy]

Back in mid-August, I was the spoil-sport raining on the Corner parade over the new Iraqi constitution. With key assistance from the U.S. State Department, that constitution installed Islam as the official state religion and made sharia a primary source of law. It also contained some human rights provisions, which is what its enthusiasts said we should be focusing on rather than all that nettlesome religio-cultural stuff.

At the time, I was reminded that we had birthed the same kind of constitution in Afghanistan, and that this was purportedly working out very well. Specifically, the Afghan constitution states that “no law can be contrary to the beliefs and provisions of the sacred religion of Islam.” But not to worry. The State Department maintained that it also contained strong human rights provisions and was thus becoming a framework for the emergence of a peaceful and vibrant democracy.

Today comes this, from Fox News, via the Associated Press:

Afghan Man Faces Death for Allegedly Converting to Christianity

KABUL, Afghanistan — An Afghan man who allegedly converted from Islam to Christianity is being prosecuted in a Kabul court and could be sentenced to death, a judge said Sunday.

The defendant, Abdul Rahman, was arrested last month after his family went to the police and accused him of becoming a Christian, Judge Ansarullah Mawlavezada told the Associated Press in an interview. Such a conversion would violate the country's Islamic laws.

Rahman, who is believed to be 41, was charged with rejecting Islam when his trial started last week, the judge said.

During the hearing, the defendant allegedly confessed that he converted from Islam to Christianity 16 years ago when he was 25 and working as a medical aid worker for Afghan refugees in neighboring Pakistan, Mawlavezada said.

Afghanistan's constitution is based on Shariah law, which states that any Muslim who rejects their religion should be sentenced to death.

After over four years of American guidance, assistance and sacrifice, here is how the Afghan judge explained the situation: "'We are not against any particular religion in the world. But in Afghanistan, this sort of thing is against the law,' the judge said. 'It is an attack on Islam. ... The prosecutor is asking for the death penalty.'"  (Italics mine.)

For his part, the Afghan prosecutor, too, explained that he had been eminently reasonable: "The prosecutor, Abdul Wasi, said the case was the first of its kind in Afghanistan. He said that he had offered to drop the charges if Rahman changed his religion back to Islam, but the defendant refused."

Now I ask you, does it get any more moderate than that?