By Fred Jackson and Jody Brown
December 31, 2002

(AgapePress) - While Southern Baptists mourn the loss of three of their missionaries in yesterday's terrorist attack in Yemen, a key player in the denomination is denouncing the way the national media covers these stories.

The three Southern Baptists who were gunned down by an Islamic terrorist on Monday are just the latest Christians to be targeted by those who hate Christianity and are out to destroy its testimony. In fact, one pro-family leader cites several recent examples of such attacks on Christians, asks why American leaders continue to describe Islam as a "religion of peace" -- then concludes it must be easier to be "politically correct" than it is to tell the truth. [See Commentary by Don Wildmon]

But pastor and well-known Baptist commentator Jerry Falwell is wondering why the national media are ignoring these Islamic attacks on Christians.

He tells Baptist Press that America in general, and Jews and Christians in particular, have more to fear from radical Islam than from Nazism or communism in the past. In just one example, Falwell says more than two million Christians in Sudan have been slaughtered by Islamic terrorist in recent years -- yet the media have not given the story the coverage it deserves.

Falwell says: "If a massacre were being conducted against people of color, God forbid, or groups like gays and lesbians, there would be an understandable outcry that would demand change."

"It is a tragedy," he says, "that Christian lives do not seem to have the same value to the national media."

Outreach Will Continue
Meanwhile, a Southern Baptist official says the denomination will continue its work in Muslim nations despite yesterday's shootings of American missionaries at a Baptist hospital in Yemen. Jerry Rankin, who heads the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board, says the gunman -- a Yemeni believed to be a Muslim extremist -- hid a rifle inside his coat, and cradled the weapon as if it were a baby.

Shot in the head and killed were 60-year-old William Koehn of Texas, 53-year-old Kathleen Gariety of Wisconsin, and 57-year-old Dr. Martha Myers of Alabama. They had served a combined 62 years in Yemen. A fourth missionary, 49-year-old Donald Caswell of Texas, suffered a severe stomach wound.

A Yemeni woman said the attack "contradicts Islam" and is "a crime unacceptable in any religion." And she said the slain missionaries "treated and saved" more children than she could count.

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