Missionary Position

Time's recent cover story about Evangelicals and Islam provides an interesting recent history of the movement's strategy and tactics in proselytizing Muslims. Syncretism alert: One of the more intriguing details is the "Jesus mosques," where Christians recite the Islamic "no other god but God" platitude in order to "pass." Various sources complain that that's sneaky, but on the principle that you are what you eat, I wonder whose religious beliefs are really changing here.

This article doesn't mention my earlier observation that it's actually Catholics and Orthodox Christians in the "Islamic world" who are the Evangelicals' most frequent targets—and thus, I think, misses a nuance in the Catholic archbishop's controversial response when Bonnie Witherall was murdered in Lebanon. Speaking of which (and of course, the true reason for this post), a revised version of my article on Evangelicals and Arab Christians is running today in the Daily Star.

And for all you phony-baloney Joe Catholics who think I'm worse than Lyman Beecher because I like to take a swipe at the Pope: I don't see anybody else sticking up for the Chaldeans.