A Good Samaritan story in Iraq

The Iraq war is an ugly chapter in American history. Not only did we lie about the threat posed by Iraq, powerful so-called Christians claimed it was the will of God. We had a president who told Muslims that God told him to invade Iraq and depose Saddam Hussein. We had prominent religious authorities blessing the Iraq war as just. And so we invaded a country that had no means to defend itself, wrecked the infrastructure, inflamed religious and ethnic divisions in its society, had its leaders executed, and even rewrote its laws to make its resources available to multinational corporations. Huzzah.

That is the backdrop for a retelling of the Good Samaritan story.

The Gospel of Rutba recounts the story of generosity by Muslims towards Christian peace activists who traveled to Iraq help those harmed by the conflict. The book was written by Greg Barrett, a journalist who decided to follow up on rumors he kept hearing about a real Good Samaritan story in Iraq. Muslims played the role of the Good Samaritans, taking Christians injured in a car accident to a doctor. And just for good measure, these beneficent Muslims happened to live in the town of Rutba, where our mighty coalition had just smart-bombed the local hospital into rubble.

Here is a first hand account by Jonathan Wilson-Hargrove, a member of the Christian Peacekeeper Team that was on the road to Rutba.

During the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, Leah and I traveled with the Christian Peacemaker Teams to Baghdad, believing that the way of Jesus called us to interrupt the unjust war our country was initiating. Three days after U.S. planes bombed the hospital in Rutba, our American friends’ car hit a piece of shrapnel on the highway outside of town and landed in a side ditch. Iraqis stopped by the roadside, took our bleeding friends into their car, and drove them to a doctor in Rutba. “Three days ago your country bombed our hospital,” he said, “but we will take care of you.” He sewed up their heads and saved their lives. When we asked the doctor what we owed him for his services, he only said, “Please, go tell the world what is happening in Rutba.”

Given how this war was sold by people calling themselves Christians, isn't interesting that there were signs that there was nothing Christian about this war. The Good Samaritans of Rutba provide one such sign.