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.