THE REAL THREAT TO LONEY'S LIFESTYLE
Wed 29 Mar 2006
Editorial/Opinion
CHARLES* *ADLER*, SUN MEDIA


"I need to get reacquainted with my partner Dan." - Jim
Loney, freed Christian Peacemaker Teams member, March 27.

The Christian Peacemaker Teams members have been called misguided
and naive. But it's clear from here that Jim Loney is only
selectively naive. He could not afford to talk about his partner
while in captivity and he did not. Homosexuality in Saddam Hussein's
Iraq was punishable by death. Amnesty International says the current
status of gay and lesbian rights is unclear. But here are few things
that are crystal clear.

1) Jim Loney only feels free to speak his mind about his sexual
orientation in a country with a government that protects gay rights.

2) Christian Peacemaker Teams claims to have gone into Iraq to
prevent the coalition forces from carrying out their mission.

3) Had the Peacemakers succeeded in keeping Saddam Hussein in
power, a homosexual in Iraq would have zero hope of having an openly
gay life. We know from Loney's statement made here in Canada that
even he knows that the threat to gays wasn't coming from western
imperialism.

While Al-Jazeera and other Arab media broadcast for several months
the ideology of the Christian Peacemaker Teams, and CPT was only too
happy to share with them their anti-American and anti-British views,
they did not discuss Jim Loney's sexual orientation with those media
organizations. Some members of the Canadian media knew and kept it
out of their stories, respecting the reality of anti-gay hatred in
countries that have not known democracy.

Doug Pritchard, a co-director of Christian Peacemakers, said, "Jim
was already in a vulnerable position. We didn't want his family
exposed to any more danger." Alas, the Christian Peacemakers through
their peace stunts and propaganda tacitly consented to putting many
others in danger.

Throughout the four months of captivity, the CPT had assured all
groups in the Arab world that Jim Loney and his mates were allies of
those who fight the left wing's axis of evil, the United States, the
United Kingdom and Israel.

On Sept. 12, 2001, the day after the attacks on the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon, the Peacemakers wrote, "We rigorously seek
the underlying truth behind the violence at the World Trade Center
and the Pentagon."

The underlying truth in the minds of this organization can never be
the objective truth, which is available to those who refuse to be
hoodwinked by the Peacemakers.

The underlying truth behind Sept. 11 is available to anyone who
wants to read the rantings of Osama bin Laden.

Al-Qaida has a world vision that does not include Christians or
Jews or homosexuals.

The underlying truth according to the CPT is that the United States
and its allies, Great Britain and Israel, are oppressing the
children of Palestine and other parts of the Muslim world.

It was also on the day after Sept. 11, 2001, that CPT shared the
following on its website: "Our most realistic hope for safety comes
from working to make sure that everyone in the world community is
treated fairly and being just as willing to give our lives in
pursuit of loving the enemy as the terrorists were willing to give
their lives to kill the enemy."

The enemy? Which one of the more than 3,000 victims (many of them
Canadian) of Sept. 11 are Christian Peacemakers calling the enemy?

Dear Mr. Loney, I hope you and your partner live a happy and
prosperous life. But I hope you understand that many of us on the
"enemies list" will never see you as a partner of freedom, or peace,
or Christ.