Between Two Worlds

Over at CT's Weblog, Ted Olsen writes about South Koreans who are criticizing the tactics of missionaries currently held hostage by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Many hold little sympathy for the captives, because they ignored warnings not to visit the troubled nation. Debates about the particularly zealous actions of South Koreans are not new. The former president of the Christian Council of Korea, Park Jong-soon, told Yonhap News Service, "Korean missionaries have strong emotional fervor, but they are weak in strategy. Missionary work is about humbling ourselves, listening to what locals say, what other missionaries there say. . . . We cannot be combative delivering God's words." Combative or not, these missionaries deserve our prayers.