Kids’ Doc in Jos

I really didn’t know how to pray, so I just sat and folded my hands. Then I said, “Jesus, Mohammed is a father to me, but You are also an uncle to me. Sometimes my uncle cares more about me than my father. So Jesus, I want You to come and save me from this feeling of being lost …”

Iran: Desperate for God. Voice of the Martyrs, 2006. 152 pages. Available from http://www.vombooks.com, $8.00.

We just got this book in the mail today from our friends Joanne and Dale Anstine. Joanne was like an encouraging mom to us the years we lived in Iran. I’ve got other books on my list to read and this one didn’t look like real fun reading, but after reading a few pages I quickly got into it and had to finish it.

The book is a collection of the stories of eight Iranians, told in their own words. Most are young, in their twenties or thirties. All were raised as Muslims but have found Christ in one way or another. Hamed, from a Communist background, was a voracious reader and a skeptic, studying all kinds of religions and movements looking for truth. Padina was from a devout family and spent seven years in a strict house of religious devotion for women. Yasmin first heard about Jesus from a doctor from whom the family was seeking help for the father’s heroin addiction.

The stories are personal and each is different, but a few themes emerge. One is that all cite a wearniness and disillusionment toward the state religion on the part of many or even the majority of Iranians. Another is the way that the Shi’ite devotion to immans and prophets formed a bridge. The individuals started, in a sense, by incorporating Jesus into their list of intermediaries, without having to face a all-or-nothing choice. The same factor apparently made it easier for families and friends to accept the convert-to-be as not rejecting Islam but finding a particular “saint” valuable to their faith. That stage, of course, was only transitional for these individuals, and all came to full identify themselves as Christians (all, I believe, were baptized).

Persecution appears in each of these stories but is by no means the theme. Blogger Brian Ragle, in his blog entry, “Is Iran Really ‘Desperate for God’,” points out that the book is put out by Voice of the Martyrs and seems to feel it is just a marketing ploy: “it was clear to me that this book was simply another in a long line of propaganda pieces from similar organizations who make their money by telling us of a problem and then selling us the solution.” On the contrary, these stories are told by people who have no ax to grind. Their stories are personal, not political. Persecution is always there, usually in the background, but the authors seem to go out of their way to emphasize the flexibility and open-mindedness of most of their fellows. This is not another Tortured for Christ.

Cheryl Walker Campbell(left), Mike, and
Barb in Tehran, 1973

Barb and I lived in Iran for a few years, working with Operation Mobilization and involved mainly in distributing Bibles and Christian books. This was before the revolution, and things have of course changed, but the stories ring true to what we remember. Most of the people we met were Muslims, but they were interested in reading about Jesus and many bought Bibles. On the whole they were warm and open-minded, not the picture you see nowadays.

For Christians, this book is an excellent, if incomplete, window into the way God is working in this country which, on its face, is so hostile to Christianity. It also gives hope that there is still a solid mass of Iranians who are more interested in being good neighbors, and sometimes seeking Truth, than in hating their enemies. Blessed are the peacemakers.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 31st, 2006 at 11:38 pm and is filed under Books, Mike's jottings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.