To help celebrate Easter, the Mormon Church airdropped over 600,000 Bibles over war-torn Syria in both the ISIS and Kurdish-controlled areas.
“We want peace in the Middle East,” said Mormon Church social media director Sam Woodfield. “And what better way to accomplish this than through religion and the heart and soul of our Savior, Jesus Christ.”
Each Bible included a color picture of Salt Lake City, Utah and proverbs written on the back with its mission statement and general Church information.
The Church spent over $85 million dollars on ‘Operation Bible Drop.’ This cost included the Bibles, transportation, parachutes for each package, and permits to use the airspace. Each of the 6,000 packages included 100 Bibles with hopes that they would be distributed in villages and cities across Syria.
“We have a great foothold in Africa and the Middle East is our next stage of expansion,” said Woodfield. “In a time of war and despair, it’s the best time to suck people into religion. We have a saying; ‘The more desperate, the more vulnerable people become for hope.’ Their God failed them, so there isn’t a better time to promote our true and only powerful God.”
The hit TV show South Park creators wrote a satirical musical play on Broadway about the Mormons sending missionaries to Africa since 1971 to convert the natives. With the ongoing war zone in Syria, it was deemed too dangerous to send people but felt the ‘Bible Drop’ was a worthwhile cause to help spread the religion.
Feel the Burn
Humanitarian organizations are dumbfounded by the dropping of 600,000 Bibles over Syria, a country in the midst of a decade-long civil war where one side is called the Islamic State (ISIS).
Some have suggested that the money could have been better used to feed and clothe a million refugees for a year. Instead, they got books in a language that a majority of the population can’t read.
“Complete waste of money and is insulting,” said the director of the non-profit humanitarian organization, World Peace Now, Tim Seager. “The conversion rate on their plan is going to be zero percent. The whole thing is puzzling. The locals told us they were puzzled too, but said the books are good to burn at night for warmth, so that’s one positive thing to come from this. They were just very expensive fire pit logs.”
There were also reports of people getting injured after stacks of Bibles fell on people’s heads. The drop also caused stampedes when civilians thought a bombing air raid was beginning. When the dust had settled, 12 people died and thousands were injured in the ‘Bible Drop’ campaign.
This was the least deadly religious campaign of the weekend.
