Evangelicals in Iraq

The Washington Post reports on new Evangelical churches in Iraq that have sprouted up since the US invasion. While helped out by mostly American Evangelicals, their increasing numbers are due to conversions away from Catholic and Orthodox denominations. They are not converting Muslims, though the article implies they’re trying (though their evidence rests on statements made by the Catholic bishop who worries – perhaps with good reason – about Christian/Muslim relations).

Even so, Evangelicals number “perhaps a few thousand,” compared to the 800,000 or so Christians in Iraq. However, they’re prospering because its converts regard the traditional churches as moribund, perhaps due to years spent laboring under Saddam Hussein.

Or perhaps another explanation. While the article notes the use of videos, guitars, and happy hymns – everything you’d find in a metropolitan Dallas megachurch – the real focus for these people seems to be their personal relationship with Jesus. That’s likely what they’re finding in the Evangelical churches, and not in the other Christian ones.

The history of the last 2 centuries would look a lot different without these kinds of movements – think of the various Great Awakenings in the US. Think of the rise of Evangelicals and Pentechostals in Latin America, Asia, and Africa (as detailed in Philip Jenkins’s book, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity). Indeed, Olivier Roy argues in Globalized Islam that the “neo-fundamentalists” are in fact very modern, by, for example, speaking the language of the modern self. The word “I” shows up more than any other word in the last will and testament of Mohammed Atta, the lead 9/11 hijacker.

Iraqi Evangelicals represent an important aspect of modernity in Iraq. Whether their numbers will grow is open to question. Given the unlikelihood of Muslims converting to Christianity, I doubt they’ll have much direct impact on their community. However, their indirect impact will be more important. Will their individualized religious experience and expression rub on other Iraqi Christians and indeed on Muslims? Will Iraqi Catholics start looking and talking more like Protestants in their demand for greater lay authority, based on their equal sharing of the Holy Ghost? Will Shi’ite Muslims challenge the authority of their clerics (and not just back rogues like Moqtada al-Sadr).

These reflections are extremely speculative, but I think they suggest the kinds of questions Westerners need to consider when contemplating the future of Iraq and perhaps the rest of the Middle East. Only time will tell.