Why are Christian volunteers going to war zones anyway?

Haven't there been enough horrendous incidents involving missionaries, Christian activists, peace-at-any-price zealots in both Afghanistan and Iraq to dissuade others from plunging into the morass, ostensibly to do the Lord's work?

What are their motives? Is it a desire to be martyred? Is it the prospect of leading an exciting life that drives them into dangerous war zones?

In too many cases, NATO and other soldiers, risk their lives to rescue such people who choose to engage in reckless activities in the name of God. These people simply refuse to recognize the dangers of their humanitarian acts which places other at risk of their own lives when they try to rescue these religious zealots. This applies especially to women, foreign or not, who are the targets of the Taliban and other insurgent groups who use these missionaries as bargaining chips to acquire their own ends such as demanding the release of their fellow terrorists.

Both South Korea and the Americans have stated that they will not attempt to rescue the Korean missionaries. The reason is obvious. The Taliban has split the 21 suviving missionaries into small groups. Trying to save them all would be near impossible. Since both South Korea and the United States have a policy to never bow to the demands of terrorists, it appears that the South Korean missionaries are at the mercy of the Taliban. If the terrorists release the missionaries, it will be for only one reason. They want to look good in the eyes of the world. But so far, it appears that the leaders of the Taliban don't give a tinker's dam about what the world thinks of them.

Nevertheless, the Korean Christians held hostage by the Taliban in Afghanistan pose a huge dilemma for the South Korean government, the struggling Afghan government of Hamid Karzai, and the NATO troops, all who are trying to secure peace and reconstruction in that country. While one has sympathy for anyone in Taliban (or al-Qaida) hands, one also cannot escape the conclusion that it is largely the fault of captives that they are in such precarious and frightening situations they find themselves in.

In 2005, Canadian James Loney and four members of the Christian Peacemakers Team (CPT) in Iraq were kidnapped and held as hostages by a group calling itself the Swords Of Righteousness Brigade. Before these fools were rescued by British SAS troops and Canadian JTF2 specialists, an American member of the CPT, Tom Fox, was murdered.

The ingratitude of those rescued fools manifested itself when Loney refused to wear a poppy on Remembrance Day, and even refused to testify against his suspect captors later held by the Americans. A similar response came from Norman Kember, a British CPT member who was also rescued.

Prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, peace-types fools made a big hullabaloo about chaining themselves to supposed targets in Baghdad to deter air strikes. When they realized that their demands were not being met and the bombs began falling, did these so-called do-gooders stand fast as promised? No. They cut-and-ran.

The martyr complex exists among Christians as well as Muslim suicide bombers. Doubtless the Korean Christians exude sincerity, courage and probably forgiveness for their stupidity. But that's not the point. They shouldn't be there. The Taliban are not the Iroquois whom French Jesuits once felt faith-bound to rescue from paganism -- and suffered torture and death as a consequence. Those were different times and one would think that modern day missionaries would have learned this lesson by now.

In this current era, the Taliban and other insurgents use these so-called do-gooders as pawns so it follows that preaching the gospel to these terrorists is not only pointless, it places the rescuers at considerable risk. Worse yet, it makes it possible for terrorists to blackmail the countries whom these do-gooders come from.

Quite frankly, I think Christian missionaries should stay out of countries where the people live by the Koran. This kind of interference in other people’s religion is most inappropriate. They should be discouraged from dabbling in regions where their religious faith is not appreciated.

If volunteers from various religious groups wish to enter a country for the purpose of giving medical assistance etc, to the people in the countries they visit, then their motives are honourable. But they should wait until it is safe to do so. To do otherwise, is simply outright stupid and inconsiderate of the countries they come from who are subjected to blackmail by the terrorists.
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FOLLOWUP: Nineteen of the South Korean hostages were released. Two were previously murdered. Prior to the hostages going to Afghanistan, the South Korean government had issued warnings about Afghanistan and worked to revoke visas for its evangelical Christian groups trying to send hundreds to that country. Seoul now bans its citizens from traveling there. Many Koreans blamed the hostages and the church that sent them for the ill-advised mission to an obvious danger spot. A senior Taliban leader told Reuters last week that Seoul had paid $20 million for the hostages' release. He said that the money would be used to commit more acts of terrorism. The South Korean government denies paying any ransom. Further, that government also states that their removal of their 200 troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2007 was already planned before the incident and that their negotiations with the Taliban for the release of the nineteen hostages didn’t have any impact on their decision to remove their troops from Afghanistan. The Presbyterian Saemmul Community Church, to which the former hostages belong, denied that the group went to Afghanistan for missionary work. Notwithstanding the denials of the South Korean government and that particular church, none of this would have happened if the fools from that idiotic church had not gone to Afghanistan in the first place. One of the hostages correctly recognized the problems they caused the citizens of their country when she said upon her return to South Korea, ""When thinking about the trouble we have caused them, it is proper for us to bow deeply and ask for their forgiveness."