Turkey Puts on Christian Show to Impress EU

"Turkey salivates to get into the European Union. It wants that recognition that it will do practically anything to prove to the rest of the world that Turkey is a totally secularized country and has no biases at all, particularly against other religions than Islam.

However, the Christians in Turkey are particularly suspicious of the latest showcase move on the part of Turk officialdom. What is going on when an actual Christian congregation gets permission to build a church and call it a "church"? How long will the church be recognized as a legitimate "church"? Will the Christians who gather there be done in in some way gross in due time, particularly after the showcase publicity subsides? And what if other congregations of Christians sought government approval for meeting in an actual building known legally as a "church"?

"Therefore, when "’Let’s praise the Lord with our voices’" rises to the church ceiling in the Diyarbakir Evangelical Church, how long will such worship enthusiasm be permitted to last? According to The Washington Times’ Nicholas Birch, the gathering is made up of "mostly Muslim converts" to Christianity. There are about 40 in attendance that particular Lord’s day.

It’s an enthusiastic group of Christians who have their musical instruments in hand and their hearts lifted toward heaven. They have their Bibles in close range for study and praise. They have their witness clear and open. But how is it that Turkey, not really a secularized nation but a strong hold-out for Islam, actually says to the media that this evangelical meeting place is going to continue."

"Now Turk officials have passed laws on the books that say that there cannot be religious discrimination. Of course, that is to impress the EU. In actuality, it is quite a different scope.

In fact, the new law even states that Christian missionaries may work in the open. Again, time will tell how practical this law will be when missionaries actually seek to spread the gospel message.

"’Nobody can claim that religious ceremonies are obstructed in Turkey,’ Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has boasted.

"But the reality for Turkish converts to Christianity remains more ambiguous, and many of their problems stem from the vaunted secularism that has defined modern Turkey since it was founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk."
Turkey Puts on Christian Show to Impress EU