A blog entry from Multiply--Thought it was important to say.

This was something I wanted to make known, in the light of the tragedy in the Indian Ocean. So I am adding it today, even though a day late.

Well, nothing much this day. The worst rains in almost 90 years in southern California have finally ended. Today was beautiful. It was sad to see those who lost loved ones in the mudslides north of Los Angeles. Obviously it is nothing at all compared to the megahorror of what happened the day after Christmas in the Indian Ocean basin. They need our prayers, and we can't forget them, regardless of whether it still is a news story. Not this one, this is too much, too horrible. Equal to a hundred 9/11s.

So in light of my desire to remember those who have suffered so much, I am stunned to read in the Sydney Morning Herald (www.smh.com.au) that the Indonesian government is telling all foreign aid workers and soldiers to leave Aceh province in Sumatra! Oh, please! Their government and infrastructure, poor and with a past legacy of corruption even in the best of times, is just simply at a virtual standstill. They get the biggest outpouring of compassion ever given to people in human history, our U.S. Marine helicopters (or Australians, UK, Japanese, South Koreans, too) are often the only ones who are able to get food, clean water, and medicine to the remotest areas, and now this is their gratitude! They think that in a month they can handle it themselves? This disaster? Why would they do this?

But President Yudhoyono of Indonesia just got elected because the majority of the people there (almost 80% Muslim, about 20% Christian) rejected the actions of the radical Islamofascist terrorists like Jemaah Islamiyah. And they are rapidly emerging into a pretty good democracy. While I am totally incensed with anger, I can understand what I think is the reason for what seems totally illogical: the fact that all those generous U.S. Marines and American Christian aid workers from the likes of Samaritan's Purse, World Vision, MercyCorps, Feed the Children, Save the Children, Christian Children's Fund, the American Red Cross and other similar organizations might just make America in particular, and Christianity in general look good in front of Muslims!!! And consider that, according to all the major human rights groups Aceh province has been the setting for some of the worst violent persecution of Christians in the world by Muslim extremists in recent years. It is the home of Jemaah Islamiyah, one of the most brutal terrorist branches of Al Qaida, it isn't surprising that they may prefer that their people starve or die of disease by the hundreds of thousands rather than have the dreaded infidels of Christianity, or especially the Great Satan--America, gain any credibility with them. It is simply nauseating!

I imagine that the government may even be trying to get these aid workers and Marines out before the terrorists start killing people in the name of God again, because the government can't assure their safety. They have already taken over one large refugee camp near Banda Aceh, the provincial capital (Widely reported around the world). Unbelievable! I don't blame the government so much, I think that they hate the idea of ordering out aid workers especially. Some of these many aid organizations have been in Indonesia for decades (World Vision for some 40 years), working among the poor. I have Muslim friends who would not approve of this state of affairs in Indonesia. Heck, I have made friends from Indonesia, Muslim as well as Christian, who are terrific people. They must be totally embarrassed, if they knew what I just read in the Sydney Morning Herald. It is as the prophet Isaiah said in the Bible, "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter." (Isaiah 5:20). It shows the bizarre nature of the Islamofascists: dramatic acts of kindness and compassion in the midst of one of the greatest natural disasters in human history is to be rewarded with the threat of kidnapping aid workers, suicide bombers, and death.

It is once again a cautionary tale about the price of mistaking zeal for God and His truth for good sense, or for simple decency. Fanaticism has no place in spirituality, and that applies to any faith, not just Islam. Christians may not launch crusades anymore, or fly planes into office towers, but we who have "called upon the Name of the Lord" have seen too many of our own brothers superimpose their biases and prejudices into people who differ from us. No one is ever successful in the marketplace of spiritual ideas---seeking to win over hearts and minds engaged in the search for truth, by meanness and bigotry. It shouldn't be necessary to tell people that the way to persuade people to accept spiritual truth you've discovered is through respect, tolerance, and friendship as you talk about such sensitive and private matters as God's existence and how He has revealed Himself, which I as a Christian, am convinced has been done in the person of Jesus of Nazereth. Unfortunately, it is necessary.

But there is something that can be done. You can write or e-mail the Indonesian embassy in your country--their websites are only a Google search away---and express your frustration over such an illogical and self-destructive decision. They will not stop the terrorists by chasing the compassion of the world away from their shores, they will embolden them. And pray for the people of Indonesia, both Muslim and Christian. Most of the people there want to live together in peace, and now they have to deal with the mass death and destruction of the earthquake and tsunami. To have precious food, medicine, clean water, water purification and reconstruction equipment possibly stolen by the terrorists is a macabre and desolating prospect (would not be the first time that has happened---Sudan, Rwanda, etc.). To be held hostage by the Islamofascists is simply not to be endured.

Well, I'll be around tomorrow. This was not very cheerful, but it is necessary. Pray for peace, pray for truth to win in the hearts of all God's children. Bye for now. God bless.

Regards,Floyd F.