'Witness for Jesus' in Afghanistan

Illegal in Afghanistan, are the Bibles a blessing or a curse for people in this strict Islamic nation?

(KABUL Al Jazeera ) - U.S. soldiers have been encouraged to spread the message of their Christian faith among Afghanistan's predominantly Muslim population, video footage obtained by Al Jazeera appears to show.

Military chaplains stationed in the US air base at Bagram were also filmed with bibles printed in the country's main Pashto and Dari languages.

In one recorded sermon, Lieutenant-Colonel Gary Hensley, the chief of the US military chaplains in Afghanistan, is seen telling soldiers that as followers of Jesus Christ, they all have a responsibility "to be witnesses for him".

"The special forces guys - they hunt men basically. We do the same things as Christians, we hunt people for Jesus. We do, we hunt them down," he says.

"Get the hound of heaven after them, so we get them into the kingdom. That's what we do, that's our business."

The footage, shot about a year ago by Brian Hughes, a documentary maker and former member of the US military who spent several days in Bagram, was obtained by Al Jazeera's James Bays, who has covered Afghanistan extensively.

Bays also obtained from Hughes a Pashto-language copy of one of the books he picked up during a Bible study lesson he recorded at Bagram.

In other footage captured at Bagram, Sergeant Jon Watt, a soldier who is set to become a military chaplain, is seen giving thanks for the work that his church in the US did in getting Bibles printed and sent to Afghanistan.

"I also want to praise God because my church collected some money to get Bibles for Afghanistan. They came and sent the money out," he is heard saying during a Bible study class.

It is not clear that the Bibles were distributed to Afghans, but Hughes said that none of the people he recorded in a series of sermons and Bible study classes appeared to able to speak Pashto or Dari.

"They weren't talking about learning how to speak Dari or Pashto, by reading the Bible and using that as the tool for language lessons," Hughes said.

"The only reason they would have these documents there was to distribute them to the Afghan people. And I knew it was wrong, and I knew that filming it … documenting it would be important."

Pentagon officials have so far not responded to a copy of the footage provided to them, but the distribution of Bibles in a place as politically sensitive as Afghanistan is bound to cause deep concern in Washington, our correspondent says.

It is not clear if the presence of the Bibles and exhortations for soldiers to be "witnesses" for Jesus continues, but they were filmed a year ago despite regulations by the US military's Central Command that expressly forbid "proselytising of any religion, faith or practice".

But in another piece of footage taken by Hughes, the chaplains appear to have found a way around the regulation known as General Order Number One.

"Do we know what it means to proselytise?" Captain Emmit Furner, a military chaplain, says to the gathering.

In his address to a Bible study group at Bagram, Afghanistan, Watt is recorded as saying: "I bought a carpet and then I gave the guy a Bible after I conducted my business.

"The Bible wasn't to be 'hey, I'll give you this and I'll give you a better deal because that would be wrong', [but] the expressions that I got from the people in Iraq [were] just phenomenal, they were hungry for the word."

The footage has surfaced as Barack Obama, the US president, prepares to host Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's president, at a summit focusing on how to tackle al-Qaeda and Taliban bases dotted along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan's president, will also take part in the talks in Washington, scheduled for May 5 and 6.

Salem-News.com Top Stories

2025: Hope for the Best, Prepare for the Worst

Two Wars with No Way Out

No One Owns the Future

The Ugly Origins of Trump's America First Policy

A One-State Solution Could Transform the World

Comments Leave a comment on this story.

All comments and messages are approved by people and self promotional links or unacceptable comments are denied.

bruckoii May 8, 2009 2:55 pm (Pacific time)

So what can serious Christian soldiers "do" under General Order #1 to faithfully follow Jesus’ great commission? That's answered on the oprev.org web site in the "Dos and Don'ts for Deployment" page at http://www.oprev.org/Dos-Donts.htm . General Order #1 directs Christians not to try to “proselytize” or convert anybody. It's God that does the converting. General Order #1 just supports good theology. Acts 2:8 says that Jesus’ followers will "be" witnesses to the ends of the earth, not that they will "do" witnessing. Paul says some are called to be evangelists, not everyone. The job of every Christian soldier is to "be" a testimony, not to "do" evangelism. This does not violate General Order #1. Mt. 28:19-20 literally says, "as you are going" (participle) "disciple" (main verb) "the ethno-linguistic groups" (direct object). The command is not to disciple individuals on a one-on-one basis like individualistic Americans tend to think about it. The command is to disciple whole ethno-linguistic groups. "Baptizing" and "teaching" (more modifying participles) are functions of the church not individuals. It's a command to grow churches not conduct one-on-one evangelism. Growing churches in new places involves multi-discipline integration of many different gifts and callings. Soldiers, through stability operations and a good testimony, help the church to grow in new areas. General Order #1 prevents soldiers from distributing Bibles in local languages, but it does not prevent people who are not soldiers (i.e. returning Afghan refugees) from trying to establish an environment of pluralism where Bibles aren't burned.

Vic May 7, 2009 6:59 am (Pacific time)

Yeah..."walk the walk"..invade, kill thousands of innocents, bomb weddings (six last year, I believe) kill hundredsif not thousands of children..then preach the love of Jesus to the traumatized survivors. What a crock...maybe these zealots ought to get Bibles in English so they can read that part where says "Thou shall not kill" and "whoever hurts one of these children, it is better for him if a millstone were tied around his neck and he was thrown into the sea" What flaming hypocrites!! They know nothing of the ible or the teachings of Jesus, or they would realize that you cannot be an invading soldier/killer and a Christian at the same time...there is NO way, despite the hypocritical rants of the blindly self-righteous. In WW2, when the Nazi soldiers took a drink from their canteens, inscribed on the inside of the cap were the words (in German) "God is on our side"..just as apropriate for them as us....utterly ridiculous. Be a soldier/crusader or be a Christian, but only the most uninformed and naive would think that you can be both.

jimmy May 6, 2009 9:41 pm (Pacific time)

I usually try to keep to a single post, but I am compelled to respond that my comment was just pointing out that we are *supposed* to be a secular state without any bias towards one religion over the other. This is clearly not the case if members of our armed forces are sperading the word of God, Allah, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster while getting a paycheck from taxes on our income!

Scott May 6, 2009 6:50 pm (Pacific time)

The Captain doing the majority of speaking and leading the discussion was trying to drive home a main point which wasn't the distro of The Bible, IMHO. It seemed to me that he was firmly reminding the others that proselytizing (active direct conversion efforts) was against the rules. He said at least a couple times in assorted words "be careful with this!" as he pointed downwards (I assumed at a stack of Bibles). The main point, at least the main point I heard, was "walk the talk" of Christianity, and as the old song goes "they'll know you're Christian by your love".

Anonymous May 6, 2009 1:00 pm (Pacific time)

Jimmy, what are you implying? By "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." are you saying do they SHOULD or SHOLUD NOT be allowed profess their faith? From the rest of your comment, I sense you're totally opposed to it...But if so, arent' you pressing for prohibiting the free exercising of religion?? ...bite back!

jimmy May 6, 2009 11:10 am (Pacific time)

I am so disgusted that OUR tax dollars are funding these zealots. This whole thing it really turning into the 10th Crusades. It is time to stop this travesty right now. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...", oh wait that was in the OLD republic's silly bill of rights that Bush and Cheney used to wipe their collective asses with.

[Return to Top]

'Witness for Jesus' in Afghanistan

Quick Links

DINING

MUST SEE SALEM

AUCTIONS - APPRAISALS

CONSTRUCTION SERVICES

ONLINE SHOPPING

Advertise with Salem-News