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  • Jesus in Turkey

    Christianity Today, IL
    January 2008, Vol. 52, No. 1

    Jesus in Turkey


    After 550 years of decline, a bloodied church is being reborn.
    Tony Carnes in Istanbul | posted 1/03/2008 08:41AM


    For the first time in 550 years, Christianity inside Turkey is
    growing in numbers and influence. But its recent growth comes at a
    high price: since February 2006, radicalized Muslims have killed five
    Christians - the kind of cold-blooded martyrdom not seen in decades.

    Modern-day Turkey's 73 million citizens, 98 percent of whom are
    Muslims, are experiencing social and political upheaval. The country
    is attempting to improve its economic and human-rights record in
    order to join the European Union. Turkey's relations with the United
    States are strained as an ally in the war in Iraq, and because of
    Congress's aborted effort to pass the Armenian genocide resolution.
    Also, Turkey's border disputes with Greece over land around the
    Aegean Sea, as well as violent skirmishes with Kurdish rebels on its
    southern border, keep this nation's formidable military on highest
    alert.

    This is the context in which a handful of Islamic radicals targeted
    Christians as "enemies of the state" because of their association
    with Western groups and their alleged support of Kurdish rebels. The
    five killed within the last two years were:

    - Andrea Santoro, a Catholic priest killed in February 2006. A
    16-year-old youth shot Santoro as he was praying in the Santa Maria
    Church in Trabzon, Turkey.

    - Hrant Dink, a Turkish-Armenian newspaper editor. In January 2007, a
    teenager gunned down Dink, who had been convicted of "insulting
    Turkishness" two years prior.

    - The three Malatya martyrs: Necati Aydin, a Turkish pastor; Tilmann
    Geske, a missions worker from Germany; and Ugur Yuksel, a new
    Christian convert from Islam. In April 2007, young radicals feigning
    curiosity about Christianity killed the three men by slitting their
    throats at a Christian publishing house in southeastern Turkey. Their
    survivors include five children, two widows, and a fiancée.

    In November, a Turkish court set a trial date for the five suspects
    involved in the Malatya killings for early January. Police are
    calling for life imprisonment and said all five suspects have
    confessed to the murders. The suspects accused the Christians of
    "forcing local girls into prostitution" and of praising the violence
    of rebel Kurds. (About 30,000 people have died since the 1980s in
    rebel-related violence.) Meanwhile, the Alliance of Protestant
    Churches in Turkey is calling Turkish congregations to pray and fast
    every Thursday for the next several weeks in preparation for the
    trial.

    Isa Karatas of the Alliance of Protestant Churches in Turkey told
    Compass Direct News, "It is clear from these statements of the
    suspects that there is some group of powerful influence behind them.
    These people want to portray Turkey's Protestants as enemies of the
    nation."

    "At the same time," he added, "because honor is such an important
    concept in our culture, they are trying to accuse us of having weak
    morals, so that they can find a justification for their murders."

    Few nations have as rich a Christian history as Turkey. This is where
    Paul founded some of the earliest churches, including the church at
    Ephesus. Seven churches in this region were addressed in the Book of
    Revelation. Those in the early monastic movement found the caves of
    Cappadocia a near-perfect place to live out lives of prayer.
    Constantinople, now the city of Istanbul, became the capital of the
    Roman Empire just as it was being Christianized, and the Ecumenical
    Patriarch of Constantinople has been the leader of worldwide
    Orthodoxy for centuries.

    But Christianity came under Islamic rule in Turkey in 1453 and
    steadily declined for centuries; the last 100 years have been the
    worst. In 1900, the Christian population was 22 percent. Now most
    experts estimate that there are fewer than 200,000 Christians
    nationwide, comprising less than 0.3 percent of the population.

    Protestant missions work began around 1820. There are now more than
    30 Protestant organizations operating nationwide. In 1999, the Izmit
    earthquake, which killed 17,000 and left 800,000 homeless, led
    Christian agencies to start new relief work, and they eventually
    began working alongside independent Christian fellowships. These
    fellowships, along with new growth in traditional Orthodox
    congregations, have created a 3 percent annual growth in the
    country's Christian population, about three times Turkey's overall
    population growth rate. Following the Malatya murders, Christianity
    Today traveled to Turkey, meeting church leaders from throughout the
    region.

    Tasting Forbidden Fruit

    In so many ways, the story of Turgay Ucal, a pastor of an independent
    church in Istanbul, embodies the promise and peril of Turkish
    Christianity. On a weekday afternoon, Ucal sat down with CT to
    describe his journey to faith in Jesus Christ.

    Ucal (pronounced u-CHAAL) grew up in Old Town, Istanbul. He told CT
    that as a high school student he took a leap of faith, almost
    literally, out of his comfort zone. In Turkish life, generations of
    families live together with unlocked doors and few secrets. One day,
    he strolled down a cobblestone street, past some decaying buildings.
    He walked back and forth to make sure no one he knew was around - and
    slipped into a Catholic church.

    At the time, Ucal was deeply curious about what had happened to Jesus
    when, as the Koran says, he left this earth still alive. "The Koran
    said Jesus didn't die," Ucal recalls, "and I asked, 'Why? What is in
    the Bible?' - I wondered."

    Turkey's religious landscape is not simple: sharply partisan
    politics, strident nationalism, and disputed history make it a
    complex scene. Secular nationalists who are Muslim in private
    practice fiercely oppose public religiosity. They see Christian
    converts as tools of Western powers that want to undermine Turkey's
    sovereignty.

    In the 1960s, the era in which Ucal grew up, Turks in Istanbul were
    exploring many forbidden fruits. Coca-Cola and Pepsi factories opened
    up. Turkish kids tasted hot dogs for the first time, despite the
    warning that hot dogs might contain donkey meat.
    Others, like Ucal, drew close to Christ.

    Thirty years later, the church started by new believers has achieved
    new maturity and public acceptance. The independent Turkish church
    now comprises almost 100 congregations and more than 100 house
    fellowships.

    Turkish Christians of Muslim backgrounds have anchored the leadership
    of the church around their own new identity - and by portraying Jesus
    Christ as a Turk. This helps resolve a crucial conflict in Turkish
    minds, that only Muslims can be truly "Turkish."
    Leaders have discovered that by the time a Turk of Muslim background
    enters a church, he or she is often ready to convert and is looking
    for reassurance. Ucal told CT that when he went to university to
    study Islamic literature, he even belonged to an Islamic youth group.
    But his ultimate purpose was to learn more about Jesus. "At the
    university, I saw the biblical background to what I was studying," he
    said. "The Bible became my fate."

    He said Christianity offered a new balance of freedom in a
    disciplined context, transcending the stringent legalism of his
    upbringing. As a young man, Ucal had tried to be a good Muslim. "My
    family was Muslim. I prostrated myself to Mecca five times a day. I
    participated in 'The Light' [Nurcu], a Muslim youth group. I had a
    very structured Muslim mind."

    Changed Identity

    New Christian believers find it very difficult to become openly
    active in Turkey's traditional churches - Armenian Orthodox, Catholic,
    Eastern Rite Catholic, and Greek Orthodox. The handful of
    Protestant-affiliated congregations operate in the open, but they
    mainly meet the needs of ethnic minority groups or Westerners living
    in Turkey.

    So new Christians coming from Muslim families are often isolated and
    ostracized. Ucal realized there was more to Christian living than an
    individualized faith. He wanted to create a Turkish church for
    Islamic-background Turks like himself.

    Shortly after becoming a believer, Ucal had not told anyone what had
    happened to him spiritually. But he quietly opened a court case to
    change his religious identity registration.

    His father, a military officer responsible for defending Istanbul's
    harbor, saw his son's name on the list of people changing their
    religious affiliation. Even today there is a common belief that the
    Greeks use Turkish converts to Christianity as spies. Ucal says,
    "Buddhism is okay, but not Christianity. There was a history."

    When Ucal's father saw his son's name included on the list, he went
    ballistic. He stormed home, screaming to his wife, "They are turning
    our son into a spy!"

    At first, Ucal's father became more Muslim in reaction to his son's
    faith. Later, he took a closer look. His son hadn't changed friends
    and seemed more at ease. What most people saw was that the young
    Christian hadn't changed his identity as a Turk. One individual told
    CT, "He still seemed to be a real Turk."

    Ucal kept living within the Turkish Muslim community. There was also
    a growing sense among his generation that they were reshaping Turkey
    into a nation that respected freedom and religious diversity. "We
    have created a new world for us - for me - in my own country," Ucal says.

    Engaging Islamic Society

    In 1986, Ucal finally started a church. His tiny congregation was
    allowed to worship for 60 minutes every 15 days inside the Swedish
    Consulate in Istanbul.

    But Turkish newspapers immediately made a big deal out of a
    Muslim-background pastor starting a Christian church for
    Muslim-background Turks. His parents hadn't become used to Ucal being
    a Christian and had no idea he was going to start a church. They were
    startled when they opened their morning newspaper. "Those years were
    terrible," Ucal recalls. His parents were frightened for their son.
    Campus Crusade staff members who were helping Ucal warned, "Turgay,
    you will die." Yet they stayed with him. Within a year, Ucal had 20
    Muslim-background Turks in his church, and stability was emerging.

    Ucal's congregation moved toward a charismatic, Vineyard-style form
    of Christianity. Meanwhile, Ucal served in the army for eight months
    and received training in ministry in the Philippines and South Korea.
    After that, Ucal decided to plant a different kind of church based on
    systematic theological teaching. While in South Korea, he had noticed
    the parallels between systematic theology and the disciplined Islamic
    lifestyle and mindset. He wondered if other Muslim-background Turks
    might respond to a more structured approach than the informal
    evangelicalism of which he was a part. Ucal found that his Muslim
    neighbors are attracted to systematic approaches to religious
    instruction, and are also easily touched emotionally. So Ucal began
    approaching them with an "emotional Calvinism."

    Ucal started arguing that Christianity was "authentically Turkish"
    and "socially natural." This became a huge breakthrough for
    believers. Today, Ucal's Istanbul Presbyterian Church is one of the
    largest churches nationally. And something else happened beyond
    Ucal's wildest imagination: His parents began visiting his church.

    Other like-minded leaders have begun new churches, but for different
    reasons. The Ankara Church, in Turkey's capital, has grown with an
    emphasis on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Four other churches (Izmit
    Protestant, Eskisehir Protestant; and in Istanbul, Altintepe Church
    and Besiktas Protestant) have grown through effective mentoring from
    a culturally savvy Spaniard, Carlos Madrigal.

    Anadolu Turk Protestant Church, located in the same neighborhood as
    Ucal's church, has greatly benefited from inquirers from a Bible
    Correspondence course that Operation Mobilization began 30 years ago.

    In the strife-torn eastern part of Turkey, pastor Ahmet Guvener has
    created a much-admired evangelistic strategy that has resulted in a
    multiethnic church of Turks and Kurds. Guvener has launched youth
    teams that stay within their Islamic social networks and form
    long-term relations with neighborhood families. The strategy reflects
    a theme of many of the successful evangelistic efforts: direct
    engagement with the cultural milieu of Muslim-majority society.

    Another common practice among these Christians is teaching morality
    in the public square. Pastor Kaan Koryurek of Besiktas Protestant
    makes a point of showing how the Bible inveighs against public
    corruption, a problem Turks are deeply motivated to fight. Koryurek
    says, "Today I preached on the fig tree that had no fruit. Jesus used
    it as a warning and then went to throw out the traders and
    moneychangers in the temple." After the service, several people
    shared how they were standing up against corruption in their
    workplaces.

    Not Honor, But Jesus

    According to the Istanbul-based church growth center Silas, the four
    most common channels of Turks coming to faith are: a personal
    relationship with a believer; taking the aforementioned Bible
    Correspondence course; a church visit; and the Internet. No matter
    the channel, new Turkish Christians are quick to make use of
    traditional beliefs, culture, and relational networks to extend the
    influence of their ministry and teaching.
    Ucal and his wife, Sibel, have adapted Sufi music, which is based on
    mystical Islamic traditions and popular among Muslims, to the lyrics
    of Christian hymns. Many people request cds of their music over the
    Internet, and some of them came to the church for the first time to
    hear the music.

    As many have noted, Muslims place much weight on dreams and visions.
    In 1989, after Sibel became a Christian, she wondered if there were
    any other young Turkish believers around. "I prayed for a Turkish
    believer husband and to serve God. People teased me: 'Where can you
    find a Turkish man who believes in God?'"

    Eventually, she found her way to Ucal's church. After a month of
    watching Sibel and a long lunch together one day, Ucal was smitten
    and ready to get married. Sibel says, "I was surprised, but I was
    ready to hear that. I saw it in my dream that God gave me." After
    eight months, they were married.

    Murat Akgul, an elder at Ucal's church, has been shaped by a vision
    his wife had. Akgul and his wife come from Turkish subcultures that
    celebrate warfare and fighting. He had trained for a military career
    until he became disillusioned by the army's harsh conditions.


    Then his wife became a Christian, which almost led to a divorce and
    triggered threats of an honor killing. Akgul recalls that in 1999,
    when his wife first believed, "It was very dangerous for us." He
    feared his wife's family would kill her. Her father had cut off the
    head of his brother in an honor murder and had spent 20 years in jail
    for it.

    Akgul couldn't bring himself to abandon his wife to an honor killing.
    Big and tough, he stayed to protect her. They also believe God
    visited their house to protect them.

    "One night my wife was at the stove in the kitchen and she wanted to
    die," says Akgul. The pressure, the fear, and the arguments with her
    husband built an overwhelming mountain before her. She leaned across
    the stove to pray, "If you are God, give me a sign."

    Akgul said, "At midnight, a star came from far away to our house. A
    great light exploded in front of the windows. She thought that this
    was a sign from God, and it gave her strength."

    For the next five years, Akgul stayed by his wife to protect her from
    murder, but the tensions were palpable. In the morning, Akgul said he
    could feel his skin tighten up as he prepared for the day. But he
    noticed a steady transformation in his wife's perspective. Instead of
    wanting to kill her enemies, she started to become more peaceful and
    gentle. "She was very deeply changed," Akgul says.

    Three years ago, Akgul was lying on his bed listening to a radio
    appeal for funds for a hospital. Then he heard a voice in the bedroom
    say, "Matthew 6. Matthew 6. Matthew 6." Startled, he got up and
    looked around. He went out to his wife in the kitchen and asked,
    "What is Matthew 6?" She opened her Bible and read aloud how alms
    should be given to God, not man. Strangely enough, that verse broke
    open Akgul's heart. "I realized that life is not about honor, but
    Jesus."

    During the same year, Ucal appeared on national television, debating
    a Muslim leader. The pastor didn't attack Islam but kindly,
    reasonably, and boldly answered the leader's charges. The Muslim
    leader was brusque and bullying. The media's coverage was sensational
    and favored Ucal. Other Muslims called for the leader to get off the
    air. Akgul watched these programs and realized that a "real Turk"
    >From a Muslim background could openly believe in Jesus. In time, he
    and his wife joined Ucal's church, where Akgul now serves in
    leadership.

    Love Without Fear

    Despite the progress, real danger persists for outspoken Christians.
    It is not from the conservative Muslims who control the government.
    Indeed, most Turkish pastors with whom CT talked favored the
    reelection of the conservative Muslim Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip
    Erdogan.

    Rather, the danger is primarily from strident ultranationalists and
    their youth movement, known as the Grey Wolves. Some experts say the
    Grey Wolves are terrorists responsible for hundreds of killings.

    Christian leaders told CT that the Malatya murders have left a deep
    impression about the cost of discipleship. These leaders vividly
    remember the moment they heard the news of the killings.

    Pastor Koryurek remembers that he was on the ferry from Asian
    Istanbul to European Istanbul. "Brother Ibrahim and I were talking
    when the cell phone rang. I saw tears start to form." The ferry's
    motor chugged in the background, and the wet wind seemed to stand
    still as Koryurek began to guess what happened. Ibrahim closed his
    cell phone and said, "Our brothers were killed." They couldn't move.

    Pastor Guvener in Diyarbakir lives not too far away from Malatya, the
    site of the killing. He and his church's leaders were meeting to
    discuss the day's business. They had just finished discussing fixing
    a clogged toilet when their cell phones went off. Hearing the news,
    several leaders flashed back to an incident three years ago when a
    deranged man, brandishing a knife, ran into their church.

    The pastors remembered how one of the Malatya martyrs, Necati Aydin,
    had recently portrayed Jesus in a passion play. Later, at the
    memorial service at Ucal's church in Istanbul, everyone wore a small
    picture of Aydin. The late pastor's son sang, "Jesus Loves the Little
    Children."

    Necati's smile keeps coming to mind. Guvener said, "You should
    remember that God has wiped away the tears." Ucal says Jesus is
    walking with the Turks. "We love without fear. Something protects
    this country. Turkey will keep its balance."
    Tony Carnes, a CT senior writer, is based in New York City.



    The BBC and the New York Times have sections with recent news and
    information about Turkey.


    http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008 /january/12.25.html
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