CNN, God's Warriors, Christians as Taliban

Following CNN’s Christiane Amanpour’ series on God’s Warriors this week, I sent her the e-mail below. The program was well worth watching. She describes how the members of the three major religions, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity are reacting to the perceived threats of encroaching secularism as well as from each other. She called the responders God’s Warriors. I hope a lot of people saw it, or will see it in the reruns. However, because it was a secular program, I was not surprised that all the weapons of warfare of all three groups were only understood through a secular lens. As a Christian, I was concerned that portraying only the secular approaches of Christianity, she made us appear as equivalent to the Taliban.

After the series, I sent Mrs. Amanpour the following e-mail.
That was a great piece of work! The young people of Islam were scary. There is one group of Christians however, that you missed who theoretically will be their match. If you had searched a little more, you would have discovered a substantial number of Christian God’s Warriors who approach the battle differently than those you interviewed. If you are planning to continue your study, I would point you to ministries such as Morningstar Ministries of the Rev. Rick Joyner. The Rev. Joyner has taken over Jim and Tammy Faye Baker’s PTL buildings and property. His young people go through an entirely different boot camp from what you described and they take it to the streets. You will also discover that he probably represents the real cutting edge of modern Christianity in the world. So, you may have totally missed the big story as far as Christianity is concerned.

This group of God’s Warriors believes that the cultural and religious war has to be fought not on this plane, but on another plane of reality. St. Paul in the book of Ephesians 6:12 puts it this way: “For ours is no struggle against enemies of flesh and blood but against all the various Powers of Evil that holds sway in the Darkness around us.” And again in 1 Cor. 10:4 “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds.” In other words, the battle against secularism as well as the battle against radical Islam is to be fought not against an earthly enemy but against the spiritual forces that are behind that enemy and that energizes it. This approach is much closer to New Testament Christianity than any you described.

Thanks again for your contribution.