Blindspots In The Religiously Conservative, American Christian Response To Afghanistan

 Rather than respond to the editorial view or opinion of a singular writer, I thought I would review a news story. And the Christian views of the surrender of Afghanistan to the Taliban was a great story to review because of their interpretations of those events. What some might find in this article is that the interpretations of many religiously conservative American Christians are either distorted by America-centrism or ignorance or by ignorance of Afghanistan's past. And the ignorance is quite specific, ignorance is over who started and when did America's intervention into Afghanistan begin.

The views of American Christians about Afghanistan exhibit America-centrism when they state that the war started in 2001 and has been going on for only 20 years. America-centric views are also indicated when only America's cost of fighting the war are mentioned. In reality, Afghanistan has been in a state of civil strife or war since 1978 when a Communist Coup overthrew a Soviet Union friendly government and continued at least some of the social reforms stated by the former government. Those social reforms included women's rights. And those opposing the new government were Mujahideen, many of whom would join the Taliban. The Mujahideen opposed those social reforms. In addition, President Carter started to provide covert aid to the Mujahideen starting in July of 1979, 6 months before the Soviet Union invaded the nation. Reagan upped the ante considerably. So understand that the US backed what would later become the Taliban with their restrictive views of the role of women in society against a Soviet friendly government that promoted women's rights.

The article focused on here is one written by Ryan Foley for The Christian Post (click here for the article). Instead of reviewing the article here, this blogpost is depending on you to read the article yourself. The article consists of 5 short webpages and is a small compilation of reactions to the events in Afghanistan by some Christian leaders. Count in the story how many times those Christian leaders only expressed concern for fellow Christians or were totally unaware of the fact that those we supported in Afghanistan when Afghanistan was ruled by a Russian supported government became those we fought in Afghanistan. And what is a constant here is that the group we supported when Afghanistan was ruled by a Soviet approved government and the Taliban were fighting, in part, to oppose women's rights and freedom in society.