As our local.religion.christian BBS group seems moribund, I'm posting here.

On one of the Sundays just before Easter I went to church.  The sermon was
based on a story in the Book of Joshua.  (The one about Joshua sending out
spies to the land he was planning to take)  What I particularly remember,
because of having heard part of a CBC radio documentary on Bosnia, was that
the Rahab (the woman who sheltered the spies) said that the people were
"melting in fear."  What with having heard that CBC radio documentary and
knowing that the Muslims in Bosnia were losing the war, I felt
uncomfortable.  After all, the Serbs are driving non-Christians out.  On
the other hand, ministers do say that the Bible is opposed to the values
held by our secular society.  Anyhow members of that church are involved in
out-of-country missionary work.  Also, the pastor has talked of spiritual
warfare and of bringing Christ to the nonreligious people of our area.

The next Sunday, the sermon was about Joshua 6 (where the Israelites
take Jericho and then proceed to massacre everybody there --- except
for Rahab, who had sheltered the spies).  With those reports about
Bosnia in my mind, I felt uncomfortable about the minister saying that
the massacre (the one in Joshua) was right.  But what really bothered
me was that, if I was going to try taking Christianity seriously, I
shouldn't be so troubled about the reports of "ethnic cleansing" in
Bosnia.  Certainly, my sympathies shouldn't be with the Moslims.
Considering that the Bosnian Muslims are descendants of Christians
who, under Turkish rule, converted to Islam could the Serbs be doing
God's work?