Channel the Outrage for Good

It’s difficult to write about events in Afghanistan because the situation is fluid.

I write this column on weekends and with things in Kabul changing on a daily basis, the news we all get is ever changing. But one thing that has not changed for me this week is the outrage I feel over the way America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan has been handled by the Biden administration.

Aside from the devastating impact the situation has had, and will continue to have for years, on American foreign policy, what really got me upset over the last week was the plight of Afghani people trying to leave their country.

We all saw images of a toddler being handed to a U.S. Marine over a barrier wall. What we didn’t see happened not far away where, according to a British Parachute Regiment officer quoted in British newspapers, Afghani women were desperately throwing their babies over razor wire to British paratroopers on the other side in hopes of getting the children out of the country. Some babies did not clear the razor wire. The officer is quoted as saying every one of the military men involved in that affair was weeping in their barracks that night.

What many Americans don’t realize is that the median age of Afghanistan’s population is 18.4 years old. Millions of that country’s population of 39 million have never lived under Taliban rule. They’ve lived their entire lives under the protection of America and her allies. Women have gone to school, graduated from college and made career plans, but now the Taliban is registering homes where girls and women age 15-24 and windows under 45 live so they can become “brides” to Taliban fighters.

As a pastor, I was horrified to learn the Taliban is also going door to door looking for Christians. Anyone found with a Bible app on their phone is immediately shot. Those found having converted from Islam to Christianity are burned alive. Pastors and church workers are marked for crucifixion. Churches that were thriving in 2020 have disbanded, their members literally fleeing to the mountains as I type this.

When we look at this situation and our government’s incompetent handling of it, there may be a tendency to feel helpless. I did until I heard of a private American civilian effort to conduct rescue missions and bring persecuted Christians out of Afghanistan.

The Nazarene Fund is a non-denominational, non-profit charity that was established when ISIS took over parts of Iraq and Syria. It conducted clandestine rescue missions to bring hundreds of ISIS sex slaves out of that region. Now The Nazarene Fund is chartering planes to rescue Christians in Afghanistan.

Such activity is expensive (estimated $4K-5K per evacuee) and talk show host Glenn Beck last week aired the urgent need on his radio program. In just 60 hours, his just audience and their friends raised $21 million for the rescue operation but more is needed. Prayer is also requested for the pilots, crews and operatives going on these missions. Our government has frowned on such private efforts, so The Nazarene Fund is working with other countries that helped rescue and resettle ISIS sex slaves to get this done.

I am not involved with The Nazarene Fund other than by being a donor. But I believe in this organization and its people. To learn more or make a donation, visit https://thenazarenefund.org/ and show persecuted Afghanis that they have NOT been abandoned by the American people.