A blogger informs us that the Mennnonite Central Committee and four other religious organizations are hosting Ahmadinejad for dinner on Sep. 25th, 2008. He calls this “Beyond comprehension…..” His blog’s commenters call these groups CINOs (Christians In Name Only) and “Christians” (in quotes). But wait just a moment. Who is really following the commands of Jesus?
Luke 6:35 (NIV):
But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.
Matthew 5:44-45 (NIV):
But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
Luke 5:30-32 (NIV):
But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and ’sinners’?” Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
We see that complaining about Jesus and his followers eating with sinners is not a new phenomenon.
As for the gentleman who said that eating with Ahmadinejad was “Beyond comprehension”, the Bible talks about that too, in 1 Corinthians 2:14 (NIV):
The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Now let me be crystal clear: I despise the horrible things that Ahmadinejad stands for. Let me also go on the record as saying that I oppose many of MCC’s militant* “peacemaking” activites. Furthermore, I very much doubt that MCC’s actions will have efficacy for peace on the national scale. I also don’t think MCC’s actions are shrewd political/diplomatic actions for the U.S. However, as Christians and followers of Jesus, it seems to me that in a broad sense they are following his commandments and example in this case. (However, this meeting needs to retain a spiritual focus; it cannot attempt to be a diplomatic meeting.)
That concludes a look at the big picture of simply eating with Ahmadinejad. Below I will do a more indepth look at some of the details of how MCC has carried that out and how they probably will carry it out.
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There was a similar meeting in 2007 that we can examine to figure out a bit of what the 2008 meeting will look like.
As Maureen Shea, an Episcopal who participated in the meeting said, “Meeting with people does not mean you agree with them. The more there is inflammatory language going back and forth, the more we feel there needs to be a way for our two countries to communicate.”
Christian Worldview Network writer Jan Markell says the following:
The NCC delegation included leaders from the Mennonite, Quaker, United Methodist, Baptist, Episcopal, and Catholic churches. I think they need to do a reality check. There are some outfits you don’t do business with and this is one rogue regime that leads the pack. We are not dealing with a man with a full deck. Ahmadinejad’s comments while on U.S. soil recently should have sent a message loud and clear to outfits like the NCC that holding hands with a man like this could lead to unbelievable consequences. Trusting his word could be fatal to nations, not just individuals. The entire Middle East could go up in flames. An oil crisis the likes of which no nation has yet seen could erupt, and Israel could be devastated by Iranian missiles at any time.
Jan is having a difficult time taking off her government hat and putting on her Christian hat. What she says is probably true on a political and diplomatic level. However, it is incredibly anti-Biblical and anti-Jesus on a spiritual level. Unless–and this a big unless because we’re dealing with MCC here–MCC does try to make it a government/political/diplomatic affair. In which case she is entirely justified in her remarks. Her concluding remarks show she understands this:
I suggest rather than doing a “Minnesota-nice” job on Ahmadinejad, the NCC reps share the gospel with him and tell him he needs a Savior, not a Mahdi.
Amen to that! If we follow Jesus’ example we will love and dine with evil people like Ahmadinejad, not to validate their actions, but to show them the way of Christ. If MCC keeps this as their central focus, they will not go wrong. However, if they detour into trying to be amateur diplomats, they will fail spectacularly. That’s not Jesus’ mandate.
USA Today quotes Ron Flaming, a Mennonite leader as telling Ahmadinejad, “Many people have interpreted your public rhetoric as a threat to destroy Israel, but that doesn’t mesh with your private comments. For the sake of understanding and peace, we urge you to publicly and clearly say so.” Sounds like good advice to me. That is something that I have learned hanging out with Palestinians all the time. The phrase “wipe Israel off the map” (explained in further detail here by a Mennonite who hangs out with Ahmadinejad) is a bit of an ambiguous phrase. Many Muslims take it to mean simply a one-state solution in Israel/Palestine (wiping Israel off the map literally, not killing all its inhabitants) while others take it to mean “kill all the Jews”. The former view is the idea that there should be a single democratic state that encompasses the area of Israel and the West Bank.
The fundamental flaw in MCC’s approach is seen in something James Beckwith, a Church of the Brethren representative to the 2007 meeting, said, “It seems to me that truth telling is a critical step in seeking justice and peace.” This is a fundamental tenet of MCC’s mission: to promote justice and peace.
It’s also quite clearly not what Jesus came to promote (Matthew 10:34). If He would have wanted to promote that, he would have come as the Jews expected Him: a conqueror driving out the occupier Romans (much as MCC styles itself doing in Israel; they see the Israelis in much the same light first century Jews saw the Romans). The peace Jesus came to promote was an inner peace of being right with God and having our sins forgiven through the blood of Jesus Christ. (More on this in a moment.) The Bible clearly shows that while we are to be peaceable and loving to everyone around us (a point conservative Christians in America often miss), we are not to try to force peace or justice for someone else. That’s God’s job:
Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Romans 12:17-21 (NIV)
It’s God who metes out justice. It’s not our responsibility as Christians to judge between Palestinians and Israelis and pronounce justice on side or the other. Living in Israel and Palestine, I have found that there are horrible wrongs on both sides. On a practical level, we see the truth (as laid out in Scriptures) of the impossibility of demanding or specifying justice.
Jesus’ mission here on earth was to bring peace, but not the kind of temporal peace MCC is apparently seeking:
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
John 14:27 (NIV)
I fear the peace MCC is trying to bring is the “peace…as the world gives”. Romans give further insight into what Jesus meant when He said “my peace”:
The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace;
Romans 8:6 (NIV)
If introducing Ahmadinejad to that “mind controlled by the Spirit” kind of peace is the goal of MCC meeting with him, I would be delighted. In conclusion, let’s return to the words of Jesus (which I used to show that meeting with Ahmadinejad is not a problem, but rather simply following the commands of Jesus) to see what Jesus’ purpose in eating with sinners was:
But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and ’sinners’?” Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Luke 5:30-32 (NIV)
* Two of my friends–one Lutheran and one Mennonite with MCC–and I were discussing this post tonight. The Lutheran rightly pointed out that militant was not a good word to use. I agree. The MCC’er pointed out that CPT (Christian Peacemaker Teams) and MCC are separate organizations, though they do work together. My comment about “militant peacemaking” was based upon my knowledge of CPT (confirmed by reading their Wikipedia entry). While CPT and MCC are apparently both organizations sponsored by MCUSA (Mennonite Church USA), I was under the mistaken impression that CPT was an organization under MCC. However, I do still disagree with MCC’s focus on pursuing “peace and justice”. I believe from reading the Bible that this is something that God has left to governments and to Himself, not to Christians. I believe that as Christians we should be “non-resistant” not “pacifist”. Non-resistance is the way we respond to others’ hostility or violence, while pacifism is trying to force peace on others (which I believe violates non-resistance).
However, my impressions of liberal Mennonitedom certainly could be wrong. In fact, I welcome input from my liberal Mennonite friends clarifying MCC’s purposes and actions. I sent an email to a friend who works for MCC asking him to give me some feedback on this post. I invite others to give me further feedback. Am I misunderstanding MCC’s goals and purposes?
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