Christian aid shows pulpit's shifting power

Christian aid shows pulpit's shifting power

Brian Murphy, Associated Press/Ladong, Aceh

The Americans in matching T-shirts were hugged as heroes when
they arrived one afternoon with clean water and medical care.

But how the help got there was something the tsunami survivors
could scarcely comprehend: the forces of faith, fund-raising and
globe-trotting volunteerism that have opened a stream of private
Christian aid to one of the most religiously conservative corners
of Muslim Indonesia.

The initiatives - from the volunteers in a Ladong palm grove
to an aid-laden Boeing 747 from the Samaritan's Purse run by the
son of evangelist Billy Graham - show the power of congregations
to tap private donors when a tragedy captures the world's
attention.

It also highlights the rising aspirations among a new style of
Christian relief leagues mostly linked to evangelists and
activists in the United States.

For decades, most U.S. faith-based relief agencies have
followed a pact: access to government funds in exchange for
promises not to seek converts or upset local customs. Even groups
that don't take U.S. financial help are on board. Nearly all
agree to a code of conduct that separates aid from religious
outreach.

The tsunami disaster, however, has given a high-profile stage
for other Christian groups outside the established framework.

It's still very rare for any church group to openly combine
overseas assistance with missionary work - especially in the
Muslim world. But it remains highly sensitive. Some Islamic
leaders in Indonesia have warned of a sharp response to any
Christian visitor accused of proselytizing.

"We don't go around waving Bibles," said Ron Day, part of the
13-member team setting up water filtration and other provisions
at a small refugee camp in Ladong, about 20 kilometers east of
Banda Aceh, the hub of international relief efforts. "I know that
is sometimes the perception. But it's wrong. As Christians, we
are called to help others, but we don't insist that others
believe what we do."

Day's group, Strategic World Impact, has become a rising force
among the Christian aid brigades. SWI - run by veteran Christian
rights campaigner, Kevin Turner - offers war zone and disaster
area training near its Bartlesville, Oklahoma headquarters. When
a crisis hits, it sends out the call to its alumni in
congregations around the country. Since the late 1990s, the teams
have operated from Bosnia to Myanmar.

One of SWI's mission statements is "the evangelization of the
world."

This is where it could get complicated in northwestern
Indonesia, a region of deep religious significance as the first
part of the archipelago to come in contact with Islamic traders
nearly 1,000 years ago.

The country's most influential group of Muslim clerics has
warned they would "not remain quiet" if Christian groups step
beyond offering aid. It's a threat taken seriously in a country
where thousands have died in Christian-Muslim violence in recent
years.