Money raising in American churches for Sudan missions has grown exponentially, perhaps to a billion dollars a year or more. The claims of Sudanese slave rescues may be the most corrupt and disgraceful mission fundraising scam ever.
We Hold These Truths has found traditional missionaries and organizations operating all over Sudan, quietly going about the Lords work with a sense of purpose and dedication. But these are the exception and not the rule; many part-time mission volunteers are used as a legitimizing front for mail-order missionaries. Those we have met honestly believe the bizarre and fanciful stories they pass along and seem unaware that they are providing cover for huge outright fundraising frauds.
The fundraising efforts are usually built around claims of buying freedom for slaves. There is little or no financial accountability, and independent audits are not practical. Mail-order missionary groups are usually tax exempt, and U.S. government agencies seem to take little interest in their practice of scrubbing contributions through offshore bank accounts before spending the money. Nor do they show any concern about the truth or falsity of the claims. As a result, the phony slave trade game is an international con-man-of-the-cloths delight.
Sham fund raising for Sudan began with the Celebrity Christians and Mail-order Missionary. However it has now spread to large and recognized Christian missions and well-known media church organizations, which have now also become heavily involved in fund raising for Sudan. A reliable source told We Hold These Truths that one nationally-known mission is reaping the most lucrative fund raising bonanza in its 25-year history since entering the Sudan fund-raising feeding frenzy.
Sham fund raising in Sudan is based upon one or more outright lies, which most Mail-order Missionaries promote. Legitimate missions, on the other hand, rarely assert any of the following.
1. The Black Slave Trade Lie – Americans are understandably sympathetic to the plight of slaves. Who would not give a $100.00, or even $1000.00, to free a slave from bondage? In Sudan the price quoted is about equal to a goat. Evidence is overwhelming that there are no slaves and that the slave market is a sham.
2. The Forced Islamization Lie – Many American Christians have been conditioned to fear Islam. A favorite tale is that the Islamic government of Sudan forces Christians to convert to Islam, and those who resist are killed (“martyred”). But there is no evidence of forced Islamization or of any “Christian crucifixions.” And in southern Sudan where this is asserted, there are few Christians in the first place. This is not to say prejudice and favoritism does not exist in Sudan.
3. The Myth of Two Million Deaths – Donations are wrung out of American church members horrified by sometimes amazing tales of slaughter. The usual claim is that two million “Christians and Animists” have been killed in the war in Sudan. Some imaginative Mail-order Missionaries elevate this number to three million or more. But there is little or no forensic evidence of mass killings in Sudan. There are no verifiable first-hand witnesses to mass killings of thousands, no mass graves, no record of bombardments or sieges of major population areas, and not a single death march has been documented. The number of supposed dead may have simply been dreamed up on computers by biased writers who never say how these millions have died.
4. The scam of Church and School Bombings – Hardly a church in North America has escaped being treated to gut-wrenching tales of church bombings by the government of Sudan. Like most big lies, this one contains a grain of truth. A war has been going on in southern Sudan for 15 years, and it is not without casualties. Innocent people have died from acts committed by both armies; the misdeeds of both sides have been documented. Sudanese churches are usually African-style thatched-roof mud structures with, we are told, mud pews and pulpit; some native churches have no doubt been damaged and destroyed. But it is a fair guess that the tales of church bombings told in U.S. fundraising presentations are 90% exaggeration–most of the ones weve heard are repetitions of a few bomb hits.
The question every contributor should ask himself is: If We Hold These Truths assessment of the Sudan fund-raising fraud is true, then how can dozens of Mail-order Missionaries, as well as long established television evangelists, have the gall to carry out such a shameful scam without fear of detection and exposure. How dare they?
The answer is that the Mail-order Missionaries are carrying out the established policy of our government–the Clinton administration and apparently the new Bush administration as well. Scam fund-raising operates under the protection and with the blessing of the most powerful propaganda organization in the world, the U.S. State Department. It was President Clinton who established a standard of lying and cheating in order to destroy the government of Sudan. Americas Christian groups can safely lie to their supporters because their government is telling the same lies.
In future reports we will detail how the longstanding clear, but unofficial, policy of the U.S. Government was the destruction of the Government of Sudan. This policy became official when the sanctions were placed on Sudan in late 1998 on the strength of Mr. Clintons Executive Order and by the missile attack on the El Shefa Pharmaceutical plant in Khartoum in December 1999.
Readers will recall that the Clinton Administrations explanation for the missile raid on a private factory in Sudan was the false claim that “nerve gas” was being manufactured in what was later proven to be an aspirin and the like factory. Prior to official sanctions, our government was involved in giving “covert aid” to the revolutionaries who were seeking to occupy part of southern Sudan, where Sudans oil fields are being developed. The role of the Mail-order Missionaries was to discredit the Government of Sudan so no one would object to what was happening. Over 300 Congressmen have now joined in a resolution seeking that Sudan be sanctioned even more harshly. They, too, have made the same false claims mentioned above.
We will also expose the real reasons why our successive administrations want to destroy Sudan. And we will examine similar sanctions that have been placed on other independent countries in past decades, resulting in their overthrow in Nicaragua, Rhodesia, Haiti and The Republic of South Africa.
Readers are encouraged to study our past reports on Sudan located at Missionaries Mercenaries, Missiles and Money, and to visit our Book, Tapes and Video page
