Obama’s policies in this regard are a continuation and expansion of his predecessor’s, in which the fate of Christians of the Middle East is acceptable collateral damage in a region-wide adventure in fantasy-based policy-making. Washington appears to allow them to be treated worse rather than risk being seen as showing partiality. That could lose “hearts and minds,” after all — though meanwhile, Christians are losing heartbeats and heads.
One cannot help but also suspect a bias against or condescending dismissal of Eastern Christianity (and anyone in communion with Rome, as well). It is not the Christianity of members of the Washington establishment, who may thus be prone to write it off as a “cultural” Christianity (i.e., unfamiliar to them) that has some pretty churches, but that they can’t imagine anyone observing.
Is it that they are not the “right” kind of Christians to be defended?
There may also be an assumption that Christians in the Middle East are less fervent in their beliefs than Muslims, partly because they have been forced to keep a low profile by Islamic supremacists, and partly as a projection of the a la carte Christianity of selective beliefs and observances in the West.
In any case, the decision has come down that Christians in the Middle East are expendable. Indeed, they are being sacrificed, as Washington looks the other way to worship itself as a messianic bearer of democracy. However, a democracy is only as good as the values that inform its participants, and therein lies the problem for human rights in the Middle East in the near future.
“Gingrich: Obama Caused “˜Anti-Christian Spring,– by Naureen Khan for the National Journal, October 29:
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — Taking a new tack in challenging President Obama’s foreign policy, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said Saturday that the “grotesque failure” of the president’s approach in the Middle East has resulted in an “anti-Christian spring.”
The former speaker of the House claimed that the number of Christians in Iraq fell from 1.2 million to 500,000 since the American invasion in 2003, and that Christianity is under assault elsewhere in the region.
“This is why the current strategy in the Middle East is such a total grotesque failure,” Gingrich told about 200 people gathered at the Chesterfield Inn. “People say, “˜Oh, isn’t this great, we”re having an Arab spring.” Well, I don’t know, I think we may in fact be having an anti-Christian spring. I think people should take this pretty soberly.”
Gingrich was referring to the recent domino-effect uprisings that are challenging longtime autocratic regimes in the Middle East, which has become known as the Arab spring. As president, Gingrich said, “I would actively try to defend religious liberty across the planet, including in Egypt and Iraq.”