Resident Scholars of the A.P.I.
If The Shoe Were On The Other Foot.....
Your head hurts. You stumble to your feet and try to see through the dense cloud of smoke and dust that envelops you. What happened? Where is everybody? Nothing makes sense. Your questions swirl away in the chaos and are replaced by a surge of overwhelming panic.
Pain travels up and down your leg as you continue to claw and climb your way through the dim maze of debris. You manage to pull yourself out into the light. Once there, you flow along with a passing group of survivors and aimlessly meander the unrecognizable landscape.
Someone takes your hand and guides you to a sheltered area. A gentle voice urges you to sit down. You do so and lean against a piece of what used to be a wall. When you began to tremble from a combination of confusion, relief, and shock, an arm slides around your shoulder and holds you tightly. Warmed by the comfort of human contact you began to breathe easier as you focus on the voice of your rescuer.
"Everything is going to be okay", soothes the voice, "here, drink this". You gratefully sip from a cup of hot liquid and feel your thoughts clearing with each swallow. "What about my family", you ask, knowing that there is no answer at this moment. "Everything is going to be fine", soothes the voice , "I am here with you, I have been sent to save you". "Thank you for helping me", you reply while thinking, "who sent you and why?"
Your concerned companion leaves your side for a short time and returns with a medic who treats the gash on your forehead and cleans and bandages the puncture wound on your leg. You look around and notice many other victims near by. Some of them are dead.
A rush of panic rises from deep inside of you. You gasp and gulp at the air. Your savior hastens to your side and croons softly in your ear, "Let us pray, together....Allah loves you". While holding one of your hands your benefactor pushes a book into your other one. "A gift for you from good people who care", the voice explains, "it is the Koran and it contains the word of Allah (God). Allah wants the best for you. You will no longer be an infidel and you will not be barred from Heaven. We have had it translated into English so that you can read it. Now, you can save your soul".
The voice begins what seems to be a prayer in a language not your own as the hand that holds yours tightens its grip...........
............Think About It..........
.......Kitchen Window Woman.........
Pain travels up and down your leg as you continue to claw and climb your way through the dim maze of debris. You manage to pull yourself out into the light. Once there, you flow along with a passing group of survivors and aimlessly meander the unrecognizable landscape.
Someone takes your hand and guides you to a sheltered area. A gentle voice urges you to sit down. You do so and lean against a piece of what used to be a wall. When you began to tremble from a combination of confusion, relief, and shock, an arm slides around your shoulder and holds you tightly. Warmed by the comfort of human contact you began to breathe easier as you focus on the voice of your rescuer.
"Everything is going to be okay", soothes the voice, "here, drink this". You gratefully sip from a cup of hot liquid and feel your thoughts clearing with each swallow. "What about my family", you ask, knowing that there is no answer at this moment. "Everything is going to be fine", soothes the voice , "I am here with you, I have been sent to save you". "Thank you for helping me", you reply while thinking, "who sent you and why?"
Your concerned companion leaves your side for a short time and returns with a medic who treats the gash on your forehead and cleans and bandages the puncture wound on your leg. You look around and notice many other victims near by. Some of them are dead.
A rush of panic rises from deep inside of you. You gasp and gulp at the air. Your savior hastens to your side and croons softly in your ear, "Let us pray, together....Allah loves you". While holding one of your hands your benefactor pushes a book into your other one. "A gift for you from good people who care", the voice explains, "it is the Koran and it contains the word of Allah (God). Allah wants the best for you. You will no longer be an infidel and you will not be barred from Heaven. We have had it translated into English so that you can read it. Now, you can save your soul".
The voice begins what seems to be a prayer in a language not your own as the hand that holds yours tightens its grip...........
............Think About It..........
.......Kitchen Window Woman.........
posted by Kitchen Window Woman at 12:38 PM
7 Comments:
OKLIBERAL...
Thanks, for daring to comment.
What I intended here was to offer the experience of what it feels like to be targeted by an evangelist. I am appalled at many of Franklin Grahams practices and those of Coral Gable Ministries in Florida. I was trying to put the shoe on the other foot....as if a Christian or any other American were to be approached in the way that evangelical Christians and missionaries approach others all over the world...especially after a disaster. It happened here after the 2003 fires, it is happening in the wake of the Gulf coast hurricanes and happened immediately after the invasion of Iraq...(the accusations about Americans being crusaders are true).
Church people have been trying to convert me since I was 5...that's 50 years! I am tired of it.
I wanted to point out the almost seductive process and the total lack of respect for the beliefs of others...also, the moral arrogance and superiority that drives people to such behavior.
I want to make people see proselytizing of any kind for what it is...a selfish and controling act.
I thought that by using Islam which is heavily discriminated against by Jews and Christians alike, that it might drive the point home. Muslums also proselytize a great deal. I very deeply believe in religious tolerance and that all cultures and religions should be respected. If all proselytizing were stopped we would have a more peaceful world.
I guess I didn't do a very good job or people are really afraid of other beliefs or see their beliefs as being the only correct ones. I just wrote it as an experience to be experienced. This piece was running around in my head for a long time. I thought the title would give a clue as to my intention... you know, a "what if this happened to you?" kind of thing. I guess I missed there. I do not belong to any of the above mentioned faiths.
Anyway, take care and once again, Thanks.
OKLIBERAL...
I changed the title after I wrote to you....KWW
If people want to know why an organization like Hamas is so popular in the Palestinian territories, this story provides the answer. In a time where the Israelis constantly press and the PA is too corrupt to even deliver the most basic of services, Hamas gets those services delivered. As a result, their popularity is much higher than that of the Palestinian Authority in Gaza and the West Bank.
And it wasn't a lack of cojones that kept me away-it was a lack of blog. Had to redo the damn thing after a WP "feature" ate my old one :(
JOLLYROGER...
Yep, Hamas uses an evangelical approach. Poverty and disaster are the doors through which these groups pass. Just as scary is what American evangelicals are doing in South America...it is shameful.
I was wondering where you were. What happened to your blog? What is a "WP" feature and how di it eat your blog?....I am still learning....
Briefly, this is what killed my WP (WordPress) blog:
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/15170
There are different "fixes" for different people, but a measurable number of people are never fixed at all.
I worked on it for the better part of a day, tried everything I read that said it would fix the problem, gave up and moved the blog.
>What I intended here was to offer the experience of what it feels like to be targeted by an evangelist.
Ah, then I "got" it after all. I thought that was what you were aiming for.
My first reaction was, "No, thanks. Crisis or no, I don't want this person's religion. Islam, Christian, Jew, whatever. No thanks."
Of course, missing in this example, is the smugness typical of the Evangelical Christian. (Heh.) I'm always astounded that anyone would listen to a message so filled with hubris and so far from Christ's teachings.
JOLLYROGER...
I have trouble with the fonts and colors and some other things on Blogger so I have stopped using them entirely. I was considering moving but don't know enough. I am planning to celebrate when "The Chronicles" reaches its one year mark by having putting a new face on the blog skin. I have been looking at the packages of various web designers. Hhhhmmmm... maybe something with a sink and a pile of books mixed in with a pile of dirty dishes......and of course the kitchen window....I am playing with several ideas.
PAT...
I was going to go into some of the practices of Franklin Graham at the end of it but then felt that it needed to stand on its own. It is a type of predatory proselytising that is used primarily by evangelical Christians and Muslims....to move in for the "kill" when people have been victimized by poverty, war, or natural disaster and are at their most vulnerable. Why not help fellow human beings with no ulterior motive behind the action because that is what members of the family of man do for one another? When religion enters the picture it is no longer "help" inspired by empathy and compassion...the action becomes part of a personal/institutional power trip. Yep, omnipotent smugness.
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