Not That There's Anything Wrong With That....

Here's an interesting report from James Taranto on one of the "Christian" peaceniks that was recently released in Iraq:

It turns out that Jim Loney, a Canadian who was one of the three Christian Peacemaker Teams hostages freed last week by coalition troops in Iraq, is gay and has a relationship with a "fellow Christian activist" named Dan Hunt. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but how come we didn't find this out until after he was sprung? Because, according to Toronto's Globe and Mail, his CPT colleagues feared that "his Iraqi kidnappers would harm him if they knew he was involved in a long-standing relationship with another man."

As Canadian columnist Charles Adler notes, this undermines any claim that the CPT folks are naive idealists:

It's clear from here that Jim Loney is only selectively naive. He could not afford to talk about his partner while in captivity and didn't.

Homosexuality in Saddam Hussein's Iraq was punishable by death. Amnesty International says the current status of gay and lesbian rights is unclear. But here are few things that are crystal clear.

1) Jim Loney only feels free to speak his mind about his sexual orientation in a country with a government that protects gay rights.

2) Christian Peacemakers claim to have gone to Iraq to prevent the coalition forces from carrying out their mission.

3) Had the the Peacemakers succeeded in keeping Saddam Hussein in power, a homosexual in Iraq would have zero hope for having an openly gay life. We know from Loney's statement made here in Canada that even he knows that the threat to gays wasn't coming from Western Imperialism.

Loney would no doubt say he was following the biblical admonition to love your enemies. But would it kill him to show a little consideration to his friends?

The Peacemakers religion is a form of Christianity that I don't recognize.