By Royce P. Bell
In the following article, brother Ferrell Jenkins of Tampa, Florida is quoted extensively. His background as a Bible teacher and classically trained archaeologist, as well as his standing as a faithful Christian makes the following to be of special importance. It provides a most interesting perspective on the Iraq war.
By SHARON TUBBS, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg (FL) Times
published April 10, 2003
Ferrell Jenkins removes a piece of clay tablet from the glass case in his Temple Terrace living room. It is thousands of years old, he says, from ancient ruins in what is now Iraq.
He's happy to show the artifact, but he handles his small treasure carefully, much the way he talks about a war in a country that historians call "the cradle of civilization."
Yes, he is praying for those involved in the war and their families.
But for him, there's another facet to the war that most Americans have not considered.
"All of our information about the early part of the Bible is in this part of the world," says Jenkins, a minister at the Church of Christ in Carrollwood and a retired biblical studies teacher at Florida College in Temple Terrace. Iraq "is the first 12 chapters of Genesis."
Around the globe, archaeologists and religious scholars like him are on edge about potential damage to Iraq's historical and spiritual relics.
They cringe at the thought of bombs and shell fire near the ruins of Ur, where many believe that Abraham, the forefather of Christianity, Judaism and Islam, was born; and Babylon, home of the ancient King Nebuchadnezzar, who destroyed the ancient Jewish temple; and Nineveh, capitol of the Assyrian empire thousands of years ago.
"There's just plenty of opportunity to blow up all kinds of history," said James Strange, distinguished professor of religious studies at the University of South Florida in Tampa. It is history that belongs to mankind, he says.
For historians such as Jenkins and Strange, what happens after the war is just as crucial as what happens during it.
The Persian Gulf War a dozen years ago offers a glimpse of what could go wrong. Before the war ended in 1991, Iraq had a massive antiquities department, with staffing and security at museums and excavation sites.
Today, the department is a skeleton of what it was. The poor economy forced archaeologists to move to other countries for work. Staffing and security grew minimal, and looters easily stole artifacts, dividing them into smaller pieces to maximize profits. Pieces and chunks of once large and complete artifacts are now bought and sold on the open market with ease.
Jenkins suspects that's what happened with the piece of the clay tablet he was holding. It is scripted with the wedgelike writing the Babylonians used. He got it from a legitimate antiquities dealer on a trip to England a few years ago.
Royce P. Bell
I know brother Jenkins. I appreciate his concerns for the preservation of historical artifacts that, once lost, can never be replaced. They are an important part of the Biblical heritage that is, to a great extent, centered in the territory now known as Iraq.
It is not particularly worthwhile to examine the question of whether Christians should be people of peace, for that is a self-evident reality, if we serve the Lord. But, does that mean that conflicts of the nature of this war are immoral, from our perspective? It is far too easy to answer, on the one hand, "Yes, it is immoral" and equally too easy to answer, on the other hand, "No, it is not." To some degree, all war is immoral, but some war is inevitable. We must still be people of peace who are driven by righteous motives.
Neither is it praiseworthy to blindly climb on the patriotic bandwagon. Yet, we are greatly concerned for the safety of our own sons and daughters who have been called upon to wage this war against tyranny and terror. It has been wonderful to hear most of our public prayers include expressions of goodwill for our valiant warriors, as well as for the Iraqi people and even for their now-defunct leaders. Our prayers are always peace may reign in this world and that those who suffer may be relieved.
Americans are kind and good-hearted people, but as this war shows, there is a limit to the patience of our generosity. Whether this war will result in a full appeasement of the hostile spirit that brought terror to our great cities and into our living rooms is yet to be determined. But, if history is of any value, we know that when this war is finished, Americans will rally their resources for the rebuilding of the war-torn nation.
Will lives be lost? Most certainly. Far too many have already died; too much blood shed, too many irreparably harmed.
Will artifacts be damaged or destroyed? Probably. Even now, damage is being inflicted in areas that the passing of centuries has been unable to accomplish. But, surely we can see that the human toll, in loss of life and injury, if far greater than any loss to physical things, however precious they may be.
Will peace return? We trust that it will. But, in the meantime, our children and fellow-Americans are in harm’s way, as are those who deem themselves our enemies, and we need to be praying for them.
Apparently, another regime of terror has followed its predecessors into destruction, but this world will never forget the damage that was done by it. This world will never be the same, for we struggled to the shedding of blood to liberate a people who may never truly understand the nature of our sacrifice.
It is not enough to worry about artifacts. It is not even enough to worry about lives that are in danger. It is important to remember that it is souls that really matter, and if we who belong to Christ ever let that slip from our minds and the motives that drive us, we do so to the discredit of the Holy Name we wear.