Christian Action Commission

Loose Lips Really Will Sink This Ship

By now there’s virtually no one in America who hasn’t heard about the tsunami that swept through south Asia on the day after Christmas in 2004. The bone-chilling images of terrified people trying in vain to outrun the massive wall of water are stomach-churning.

The United States was one of the first countries to respond to the humanitarian crisis and is providing an astronomical percentage of the manpower and treasure assisting the survivors.

Southern Baptists are there. They won’t be featured in the headlines or spotlighted on the nightly television news, but they are there. In areas where they had to keep their heads down even before the tsunami disaster, they are hard at work to coordinate the Southern Baptist response.
Teams of trained Southern Baptist disaster relief workers are gearing up for the long-term recovery effort, Mississippi Baptists included. They will be working closely with those Southern Baptist personnel on the scene to get into areas where no Christian has trod in generations. There are at least three ever-present dangers all of them face that should keep us on our knees in prayer around the clock:

• Many of the countries in the path of the tsunami are overwhelmingly Muslim, and more than a few have been locked in civil war for many years with Islamic extremists. All relief workers, and especially those from religious organizations, could be targeted by terrorists.


• Career Southern Baptist personnel in the tsunami countries risk exposure, expulsion, or worse if their profiles get too elevated during this crisis.


• Southern Baptist volunteers could be denied admittance to any of the countries affected by the tsunami. Many borders have already been closed to outsiders, and scrutiny of incoming relief workers continues to increase with each passing week.

We need to understand that Christians are not welcome in many of these countries. As a television commentator put it last week, “Some of these governments would rather see their children starve before they accept a crumb of bread from the wrong groups.” Those “wrong” groups include Christian- and Jewish-based organizations.

Many have heard of and understand the meaning of the saying, “Loose lips sink ships.” It was used extensively in World War II, and it means that information from people who talked about which troops were shipping out and where they were going could result in the enemy acquiring the information and thus being able to sink a shipload of soldiers before they reached a faraway battlefield.

Loose lips can also sink our Southern Baptist tsunami relief effort. At a time when Christians are at risk all over the world, we must be very careful in what we say or write about the relief effort. For example, neither The Baptist Record nor the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board web site will identify the countries or specific areas into which volunteers will be traveling when doing so could jeopardize their safety or the success of their mission.

Church and association newsletters, bulletins, websites — especially web sites — and other publications should be very cautious in this regard, too.

The Baptist Record will keep Mississippi Baptists informed of the relief effort, but with an elevated awareness of what’s at stake. It’s the least all of us can do to help guard the safety and security of the many determined and dedicated workers and volunteers.