In the war-ravaged Middle East, Leonard Rodgers is among the Christians working for peace. He recently founded Venture Middle East, a counseling organization that aids churches in proclaiming the gospel of Christ.
Rodgers has served in the Middle East for 23 years, pioneering ministries for Youth for Christ and World Vision. Earlier this year, Joyce Gemayel, wife of Lebanese President Amin Gemayel, appointed Rodgers to serve with her on the committee that handles emergency relief efforts in Lebanon. CHRISTIANITY TODAY interviewed Rodgers during his recent visit to the United States.
How safe are noncombatants in Lebanon?
The horrible thing about the war is the number of people injured by stray bullets. I don’t recommend Lebanon for tourists, but the safest place in the world is in the center of God’s will. You have to be careful in Lebanon. You have to know how to handle yourself; you have to know the turf. Even then you can be blown up by a car bomb.
We hear a lot about fighting between Christians and Muslims. Is that really the case?
We make a serious mistake in saying Christians did this or Muslims did that. It’s a kind of media shorthand. There are various militia groups—27 at last count—and we really should use their names. It’s true that most militias identify with a religion. But a growing number of citizens in Lebanon, both Muslim and Christian, resent being identified with a militia group. Most are fed up with violence.
What steps can be taken to bring peace?
The strong feeling of everyone who wants peace in Lebanon is that all foreign powers should leave. This includes Syrians, Iranians, Israelis, and Libyans, everyone who has troops there. Left to themselves, the Lebanese have proven they can maintain a coalition government.
WORLD SCENE
WORLDWIDE
Evangelizing Jews
The Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism has issued a statement repudiating anti-Semitism and affirming the importance of evangelizing Jewish people. The consultation, sponsored by a subgroup of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization and held in England, was attended by nearly 160 persons from 17 countries.
“We grieve over the discrimination and suffering which have been inflicted upon the Jewish people in the name of Jesus the Messiah,” the statement reads. “These deeds constituted a denial of God’s love for his people and a misrepresentation of the person and work of Jesus. We denounce all forms of anti-Semitism as contrary to the gospel and to the content of the New Testament.
“We must protest, however, when past history is used to silence the church in her witness to the Jewish people. To withhold the gospel from the Jewish people would be an act of gross discrimination. We believe that it is time to renew our obligation to share with the Jewish people, both in word and deed, the good news of reconciliation in Jesus the Messiah.”
Rabbi A. James Rudin, director of interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committee, denounced the gathering and its declaration. “Such theological positions have been amply repudiated by Protestant and Catholic theologians,” Rudin said. “There are many evangelical Christians who do not single out Jews as such. That is not the sole understanding of the Christian Great Commission.”
However, Billy Melvin, executive director of the National Association of Evangelicals, said the declaration on Jewish evangelism represents “the vast majority of those within the evangelical community.” While evangelical Christians welcome dialogue with the Jewish community, he said, they “cannot be expected to compromise or deny beliefs central to their faith for the sake of dialogue. This is something that the Jewish community needs to understand. It cannot be dialogue on their terms.”
TURKEY
Search Cut Short
Former astronaut James Irwin was forced to cut short his most recent search for Noah’s Ark when Turkish officials prevented his team from exploring an area on the northern face of Mount Ararat, near the Soviet frontier.
Irwin, who walked on the moon in 1971, was on his sixth exploration in search of the ark. After he retired from the U.S. Air Force Irwin founded the High Flight Foundation, an evangelistic organization. He said he will wait at least until next year to resume his search for the ark.
Before officials cut short his latest exploration, Irwin and seven team members were held under house arrest in Erzurum, Turkey. Local police cited allegations that he was engaged in espionage while searching for Noah’s Ark.
Irwin denied the allegations, and said he and his team were detained on charges of making an illegal flight and taking illegal pictures. Irwin and two Dutch television technicians had flown over Mount Ararat and filmed the area. The television crew was working on a documentary of the expedition.
Officials said they might have photographed military areas along Turkey’s border with the Soviet Union. Irwin and his team were released after Turkey’s chief of police confirmed that he had been given permission to fly over the region and to film it.
WORLDWIDE
Family Planning Funds
The U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) has withheld $25 million designated for the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) because of its involvement in China’s family-planning program. Critics of China’s population-control program say it includes forced abortions, but the Chinese government has denied the charge.
“… We think there is not an adequate change in the family-planning program in China, and we conclude that the UNFPA is too involved in that program,” said a senior AID official. Last year, AID announced a partial cutoff of funds to UNFPA for the same reason. The AID official said financial assistance could be resumed next year if circumstances change. In the last eight years, the United States has provided an average of 27 percent of the UNFPA’s annual budget, which dispenses aid to 134 nations.
This year’s cutoff of funds came after months of lobbying by prolife activists. “We think most Americans can think of better things to do with their tax dollars than fund a U.N.-supported program of compulsory abortion,” said Douglas Johnson of the National Right to Life Committee.
Critics of AID’s decision said it was based on political reasons. “It says … that we are willing to dismantle our family-planning programs abroad to keep happy a small, but noisy, anti-family-planning constituency at home,” said Sharon Camp of the Population Crisis Committee.
ISRAEL
Mormon Campus Approved
An Israeli government committee has recommended that Mormons be allowed to complete construction of a 6.5-acre campus of Brigham Young University in Jersusalem. But the committee also said university officials and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) should provide a written guarantee that the campus will not be used as a center for missionary activity.
Jewish religious leaders in Israel have opposed construction of the campus, saying it would advance Mormon efforts to proselytize Jews. The government committee said an antimissionary clause should be added to an agreement signed by Brigham Young University and the Israel Land Authority. The clause would prohibit Mormons from proselytizing in Israel. It would hold open the possibility that the Jerusalem campus could be closed if the terms of the agreement were violated. The committee also suggested that the Israeli government form a body to monitor whether the university adheres to a pledge not to do missionary work in Israel. The institution already has given such a pledge to Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek.
At press time, Brigham Young University officials had not responded to the committee’s recommendations.
Should the Palestinians leave Lebanon?
