PULLING OUT OF IRAQ

Your missionary to Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, Rob Schenck, reporting:

All the talk here on the Hill is about the upcoming Iraq report to Congress by General David Petraeus. Although it’s yet to be made public, our inside contacts tell us the U.S. commander will likely address a rare joint session of Congress on or around September 11. Our friend and colleague, Rev. Pat Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition, had presciently secured a permit for a prayer vigil at the U.S. Capitol on the evening of September 10. I’m not sure it makes Pat a prophet, but the timing could prove divinely strategic! I’ll be with Pat that night to lead in prayer and read scripture. Our focus will be the small number of Christians who remain in Iraq.

When Pat was in Baghdad just a couple of weeks ago, he met with leaders of the Christian community there. He asked them what will happen if American troops pull out of Iraq. They answered without hesitation, “We will be exterminated.”

Extermination is a powerful word in my lexicon. As you may know, I was born into a Jewish home. My father raised my brother and me and our two sisters with a thorough education in the Holocaust. “Extermination” was a key word in everything we learned about that terrible time in human history. As a child I was told some distant family members were “exterminated” by the Nazis. I was shown photos of emaciated bodies stacked like cord wood in mass graves; and skulls emerging from the ovens in the “extermination camps.”

God forbid we should ignore the specter of another atrocity. Following Viet Nam, millions of innocents were “exterminated” in the Killing Fields. (If you haven’t seen the film Killing Fields, you need to. While you’re steeling yourself, why not see Hotel Rwanda, too?) Hollywood and liberals are all abuzz about Muslims in Darfur (and rightfully so), but they apparently care nothing about Christians in Iraq!

Rev. Mahoney said after talking to these precious believers—a community that goes back nearly 2000 years in Christian history—he had no doubt a horrendous slaughter will occur should America pull out of Iraq prematurely.

No matter where they stand on the war, Congressional leaders need to know if they force the President’s hand for their own political advantage, the streets of Baghdad will be littered with the decapitated bodies of our fellow Christians.

For this reason we’ve launched a petition drive aimed at Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The petition demands they consider the safety and security of Iraqi Christians as they contemplate their political strategies.

Please take time to sign the petition and pass it along to everyone you know who will care about the Christians of Iraq—your family, friends, fellow church members.

WE MUST FILE THESE PETITIONS IN ADVANCE OF GENERAL PETRAEUS’S ADDRESS TO CONGRESS. THE SOONER YOU SIGN, THE BETTER!

Sorry to start your week off with such dire news, but I can’t sugarcoat it. We’re talking about thousands of innocent men, women and children who are sitting ducks. Without the protection of American troops now and a well-trained, seasoned Iraqi military in the future, these poor souls will be the first to die.

YOU CAN PROTECT IRAQI CHRISTIANS FROM A WHOLESALE SLAUGHTER BY DEMANDING THAT NANCY PELOSI AND HARRY REID BACK OFF AND LET THE ARMED FORCES DO THEIR LIFE-SAVING WORK.

Please act now.

Be back later . . .