'Vicar of Baghdad' Canon Andrew refuses to leave Iraq

In an article found at www.anglicannews.org  August 7, 2014, originally published at the Huffington Post, Yasmine Hafiz writes that despite threats by ISIS terrorists to kill Christians, Anglican Canon Andrew White, also known as the "Vicar of Baghdad' according to the article, refuses to leave Iraq.

Canon Andrew White

In another article at anglicannews.org, by ACNS staff, Canon White is quoted describing how he had baptized a boy several years ago who was found "cut in half" during an attack by Islamic State militants on the Christian town of Qaraqosh in Nineveh province.

"I'm almost in tears because I've just had somebody in my room whose little child was cut in half," White is quoted as saying in an interview with ACNS. "I baptised his child in my church in Baghdad. This little boy, they named him after me -- he was called Andrew."

The Islamic State group captured Qaraqosh overnight Wednesday/Thursday after the withdrawal of Kurdish forces. The boy's family, along with many other townspeople, have now fled to Irbil, the capital of Kurdistan Region, according to the article.

According to anglicannews.org, Anglican leaders from countries including Egypt, Wales, Brazil and South Africa have all expressed their dismay at the situation unfolding in Iraq. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, issued a statement on the latest events:
"What we are seeing in Iraq violates brutally people's right to freedom of religion and belief, as set out under Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.... The international community must document human rights abuses being committed in northern Iraq so that future prosecutions can take place... We must continue to cry to God for peace and justice and security throughout the world. Those suffering such appalling treatment in Iraq are especially in my prayers at this time."

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Is Jeremiah chapters 50 and 51 simply missing from anglican bibles?
In my narrow, simple-minded brain, if there were a prophecy that explicitly mentioned the "land of the Chaldeans" as being invaded by a coalition of forces from the remote parts of the earth, as being captured by those forces, who are described as "without mercy," and then that happens in the land of the Chaldeans, and then if the prophecy goes on to say the king, called an "arrogant one", will be punished with no one to support him, and then the dictator, who is arrogant even in the face of capital charges, is hanged and the witnesses dance around his body mocking him, and I was actually living in the "land" that was filled with "Chaldeans", and I myself considered myself "Chaldean," and all of those things happened just as the prophecy declared, I myself, in my simple-minded thinking, might just think that there was at least a remote possibility that the prophecy was talking to me.

And if the prophecy declared in no uncertain terms, "FLEE FROM THE LAND OF BABYLON so that you are not caught up in the coming destruction", I myself might just consider that it would be a good time to "FLEE FROM BABLYON."

But that's just me. The good vicar of Baghdad, who says he's not going anywhere, obviously has a better, more reliable source of understanding than the old, dusty Hebrew scriptures.

Here, though, is what the apostle James had to say about teachers: "Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment," (James 3:1).