Is the Iraq war about Allah and a Christian God

My daughter asked me, "Dad, Is God a Republican or democrat?" Honestly, I did not have an answer for her until I heard the Rev Arnold Conrad of Grave Evangelical Free Church with a Christendom oriented prayer offered at a McCain rally in Davenport, Iowa. The Rev. Conrad was convinced that God’s “reputation is involved in all that happens between now and November, because there are millions of people around this world praying to their god -- whether it is Hindu, Buddha, Allah -- that his [McCain] opponent wins, for a variety of reasons.”

The Rev. Conrad went ahead to explain his reason for praying for McCain “because they're going to think that their god is bigger than you if that happens. So I pray that you will step forward and honor your own name with all that happens between now and Election Day.”

After listening to this prayer, I made sense to my daughter’s question who loves Obama. If God is a Democrat, Obama should win but if Republican then he loses. I know my daughter is not a pastor and her question definitely made sense for 10 year old girl. But Rev. Conrad’s prayer does not make sense. How can a pastor attribute Senator McCain’s lose to non-Christians praying to their gods?

The Reverend Conrad should have known better that Hindu and Buddha are not "gods." In fact, out of three gods to which millions are praying, he only got one right, Allah, the name for God among Muslims. It is not by coincidence that he got Allah right since the Christian Right is preoccupied with Islam.

Without saying it aloud, Rev. Conrad places the 2008 elections in a contest of Religions where McCain is aided by Christianity while Obama is represented by a non-Western religion in this case Islam. While this is another way of saying Obama is not a Christian but Muslim, it also indicative of how the Religious Right views Christianity. To them, only those who share American Christian Right views have the right to be called Christians.

Since we know that Barack Obama is a Christian, the population of Christians in the world comes into play. Not long ago, during the 2008 Christian Right Values Voters Summit, the Bishop Minns reminded the conference about the number of Christians in the global South as outnumbering those of the global North. In other words, we have more Christians in Islamic lands than all Christians in America combined. In addition, we have more Christians in Africa than Europe and America combined. Is the Christian God in those areas different from the one worshiped in by the Religious Right?

Without dismissing the Reverend Conrad prayer, it is important to understand the mindset or theological lenses through which he and his counterparts interpret events. To them, everything is about power contests (my god is bigger than yours). Threatening as it might sound, this mindset controls conservative understanding of the Iraq war and other Middle East conflicts. To them, these issues are power contests between Allah and God.

It is saddening that the concept of "power contest" between gods can be invoked in 2008. Historically, ancient people waged wars in the name of their "gods," believing that it was God's will to defend his territory. In fact, Biblical wars were controlled by this understanding. The belief that “winning wars” translated into "one god prevailing over the other" controlled much of Christendom waged crusades. Unfortunately, the Christian Right wants to bring this thinking into today’s world. One example of this kind of thinking is found in Gov. Palin understanding of Iraq was as God's plan. The consequences of of this reasoning is the Christian Right and other cultural conservatives including President Bush's insistence on winning the Iraq war. Withdrawing from Iraq will mean "Allah is stronger than their God."

What conservatives ignore is that humans have "free will" to makes choices which is the greatest gift of democracy. When are we going to learn that God is for everybody?