Trump Abandons the Kurds

[Revmitchell]

That's just as well-informed as someone who claims that "Americans are homosexuals." You are a fool to believe and repeat such a broad-brush condemnation There's a long history of "ethnic cleansing" against Kurds since World War I by Young Turks, then later by Iraq, ISIL/ISIS within the Syrian Civil War, and now Turkish forces this month.

I have some friends here locally who were recently serving as missionaries in Lebanon among Syrian refugees, and they know many Kurds -- in fact, their house church where they worshiped was primarily composed of Kurdish Christians. I spoke to them Wednesday and they were grieving the slaughter, since most of the Kurds they know were from the areas with the most fighting. The families and friends of the people they know, and even some of their fellow church members are likely caught up in the fighting.

You know, when someone has an anecdote for everything I tend to question that.

 

[Baptist Believer]

Kurds are terrorists.

I expected nothing better from you.

 

[Baptist Believer]

You know, when someone has an anecdote for everything I tend to question that.

When you are a Christian involved in a local church that supports and sends missionaries all over the world, you meet people and hear there stories.

Your difficulty believing others has nothing to do with what is true. I'm simply being a witness. You are accountable for your own actions.

 

[Reynolds]

I expected nothing better from you.

Better than you deserve.

 

[Wingman68]

When you are a Christian involved in a local church that supports and sends missionaries all over the world, you meet people and hear there stories.

Your difficulty believing others has nothing to do with what is true. I'm simply being a witness. You are accountable for your own actions.

As are you.

 

[Reynolds]

When you are a Christian involved in a local church that supports and sends missionaries all over the world, you meet people and hear there stories.

Your difficulty believing others has nothing to do with what is true. I'm simply being a witness. You are accountable for your own actions.

I am friends with a missionary in the area. His view is that pretty much every non Christian in the region is involved indirectly in terrorism.

 

[Use of Time]

I am friends with a missionary in the area. His view is that pretty much every non Christian in the region is involved indirectly in terrorism.

We’ve all got friends that say things

 

[Reynolds]

We’ve all got friends that say things

Yes we do. I have one in Syria and another in Germany ministering to the refugees. The refugees are truly pitiful.

 

[Baptist Believer]

As are you.

I never claimed any different. We all will have to answer to Jesus for what we have said and done, and what we have not said and done (for instance, see Matthew 25:31-46).

If one makes no effort to ease human need (food, water, care for strangers/migrants/refugees in the land, clothing, healthcare, and companionship and appropriate advocacy for those imprisoned), then there is something horribly wrong with one's discipleship to Jesus. Either it is not real, or that person has been profoundly deceived. If one deals in falsehoods (see Ephesians 4:25) or does not know how to discern the truth from lies (see 1 John 4:1-6), then that person is not connected to God (John 8:44). If one is unwilling to diversify their sources of information and investigate all important facts, they they are like those who turn away from the truth and embrace myths (aka, conspiracy theories) which is condemned by Paul (see 2 Timothy 4:3-4).

That's really the whole reason why I stick around this place. Somebody has to care enough about some of the more colorful people around here to point them back to reality -- because Jesus inhabits reality, not some religious fantasy land where truth does not matter.

I'm sure some will decide to interpret my words as an insult, but they are an expression of my calling to witness to believers and unbelievers. Jesus doesn't write people off, but people often harden themselves against Jesus to their own destruction.

 

[Baptist Believer]

I am friends with a missionary in the area. His view is that pretty much every non Christian in the region is involved indirectly in terrorism.

That seems quite far-fetched. Are you interpreting his words, or is that an exact quote? Moreover, is "involved indirectly in terrorism" an important choice of words -- it seems to be a careful statement? All Syrian refugees are "involved indirectly with terrorism" since they are fleeing it.

My mother and her family are/were 'indirectly involved" with Nazism, since they were persecuted by Nazi Germany, imprisoned by the Nazi government, and then endured the fall of the Nazi Reich.

My father was "indirectly involved" with the hostile Japanese Empire since he served in the Pacific Theater during World War II.

I am "indirectly involved" with the Trump Administration since Donald J. Trump is President and that affects me directly... especially last week when he flew into Fort Worth very close to my office and they shut all the roads down and I couldn't go anywhere for nearly an hour.

So your friend is entitled to his opinion, but if you are reporting his testimony accurately, then I simply have to take this unknown friend interpreted through you under advisement. It runs contrary to what I have been told by two friends I am currently in close contact with, as well as a friend who ran a water well ministry that served the Syrian refugees. He is now deceased, but he was quite frustrated with a lot of the rhetoric from Republican candidates during the 2016 election, even though he was a hard-core Republican, because he knew that a lot of the memes on Facebook and the rhetoric from folks like Donald Trump and Ted Cruz was false based on first-hand knowledge. We now know that the anti-Syrian memes were largely Russian disinformation.