Criminalizing Christianity

An Afghan man faces trial and possible execution for converting to Christianity. Yes, this is “our,” liberated Afghanistan, where American soldiers are still battling Al Qaeda and a revived Taliban. Maybe Abdul Rahman, who converted to Christianity years ago and had been living in Germany, imagined that the U.S. presence made it safe for him to return to his homeland. If so, he was dead wrong. In Afghanistan, whose president recently entertained our born-again Bush, conversion to Christianity is a capital crime.

As far as I can make out, it is not, however, a crime to be a Christian in Afghanistan, so long as you don’t practice your religion openly. What gets you in trouble is conversion, which counts as apostasy, which is punishable under sharia law by death.

In this respect, Afghanistan may be more Christian-friendly than the U.S. is about to become. On Monday Congress will vote on the Sensenbrenner immigration bill, which will make it a crime to help undocumented immigrants. Any kindly soul who serves the undocumented in a soup kitchen, or who offers them help with housing or immigration law, could face a five-year prison sentence.

Now I am not a Christian. At least I don’t buy into the virgin birth, son-of-God, heaven-and-hell formulation. But I do try, in my fumbling, inadequate way, to follow the central teaching of Jesus: that we are required to reach out to and help the poor, the distressed, the marginalized and despised. So when, a few years ago, the New York subways featured posters instructing riders not to encourage beggary by handing out quarters, I defiantly gave a dollar to every disheveled vagrant who stumbled through the train. I’d already rendered unto Caesar my tax dollars, and I wasn’t going to let Caesar take my fundamental sense of decency too.

If the Sensenbrenner bill passes it will, in effect, become illegal to be a practicing Christian in America. No doubt it will still be legal to be a “believing” Christian, in the virgin-birth/son of God/heaven-and-hell kind of way. But it will be against the law to put the teachings of Jesus into practice.

The Catholic Church has announced that it will defy the new immigration law, if passed. That cheers me. So, in a way, does Abdul Rahman’s statement to the BBC: “I am a Christian. If they want to sentence me to death, I accept that.”

Calling all genuine Christians: The lions are waiting.

Comments

[Becky Hale]

Barbara...
Today I became acquainted with your website and blog.

Brought up in a strict Christian home (Southern Baptist at that), it always struck me that the teachings of Jesus that resonated with me were the ones that most pastors and politicans glossed over. These teachings would be in reference to service within your community to aid those in need and also to issues of tolerance.

Your blog rings true with what I have felt for many years. Thank you for posting...I think you may have found a new supporter in Texas.

[Peter Shaw]

It's typical rightwing economic "logic" the French government employs to say that making the destruction of jobs easier will create employment. The government here in Australia has taken the same line verbatim. Some other gems they have sprouted: recent legislation that makes it illegal to fire someone on the basis of race, sex, political beliefs etc. while at the same time making it legal to fire someone for no reason at all; and my personal favourite, the claim that abolishing minimum wage rates will among other things lead to an increase in wages.

[brynn]

In addition to religious intolerance, "US forces bringing freedom to the Middle East" are now aiding and abetting deadly homophobia in Iraq. A quote from Gay City News http://ehrenreich.blogs.com/barbaras_blog/2006/03/criminalizing_c.html#comments):

"Following a death-to-gays fatwa issued last October by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, death squads of the Badr Corps have been systematically targeting gay Iraqis for persecution and execution, gay Iraqis say. But when they ask for help and protection from U.S. occupying authorities in the Green Zone, the secure area officialdom has carved out within Baghdad, gays Iraqis are met with indifference and derision."

Before the 2003 invasion, I remember reading a gay blogger from Baghdad. I've lost his url, but I sincerely hope he and his family are alive and well.

And I hope I live to see the day that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Perle and others go on trial for war crimes.

[dearkitty]

More on this Christian in Bush's "new" Afghanistan: http://dearkitty.modblog.com/core.mod?show=blogview&blog_id=814897

[Laure Miller]

I don't want to be unsympathetic, but this guy KNEW what the Sharia law was. Also, he had converted 16 years ago. This attention he is now getting is nothing but a cheap trick to get our attention away from what metters here and now, it is being used as misdirection by Kinglet George's zany crew.

[Anne Hart]

Barbara, I'm the author of 68 paperback books, listed at http://www.newswriting.net. Interestingly, we were born only weeks apart in the same year, and graduated college within months of each other. Is there anything to astrology, or is it a mere coincidence that those born between August and November of 1941 with Jupiter in Gemini have almost all become prolific book authors and freelance journalists? I've been writing full-time freelance as my primary profession since 1963. Is it in the stars, or just the era both of us were growing up in? I write how-to books, personal history,novels, plays, ethnography, social history, life story writing, current issues,and about DNA. My graduate degree was in writing. AS a child I read avidly in physics and now in evolutionary genetics, am a Mensa member, and majored in English/creative writing. I'm also an avid reader of your books and thoroughly enjoy them....They make my day. I also have two grown children (and nine grandchildren). I liked your book titled, Nickel and Dimed the best so far and also enjoyed and related so much to Bait and Switch. Write on. Cheers and Joy.

Anne Hart
http://www.newswriting.net

[Monroe Elkin]

Barbara,
I'm trying to get in touch with Anne Hart for a high school class reunion. Do you know how to contact her? Could you contact her and give her my contact info or give me hers.
Thanks