Jonah 3:2-3 –.Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord…

Pardon the long quote, but on August 6th, conservative commentator Anne Coulter wrote:
“I wonder how the Ebola doctor feels now that his humanitarian trip has cost a Christian charity much more than any services he rendered.
What was the point?
Whatever good Dr. Kent Brantly did in Liberia has now been overwhelmed by the more than $2 million already paid by the Christian charities Samaritan’s Purse and SIM USA just to fly him and his nurse home in separate Gulfstream jets, specially equipped with medical tents, and to care for them at one of America’s premier hospitals. (This trip may be the first real-world demonstration of the economics of Obamacare.)
There’s little danger of an Ebola plague breaking loose from the treatment of these two Americans at the Emory University Hospital. But why do we have to deal with this at all?
Why did Dr. Brantly have to go to Africa? The very first “risk factor” listed by the Mayo Clinic for Ebola — an incurable disease with a 90 percent fatality rate — is: “Travel to Africa.”
Can’t anyone serve Christ in America anymore? No — because we’re doing just fine. America, the most powerful, influential nation on Earth, is merely in a pitched battle for its soul.”
Now I usually prefer conservative commentary, but this one really saddened me. It’s been tugging away at me. I’ve been trying to stay away from the topic, because the wonderful Dr. Al. Mohler has already weighed in on it — but it keeps coming back to me.
There are several reasons why I think Miss Coulter is wrong, and that American isolationism ought not to cross over from the political sphere to the religious sphere.
Before I get to my reasons for disagreeing, let me say that there is a point on which I completely agree with her. America is in a pitched battle for her soul. But that might be a good place to start the explanation of why I think it’s wrong to abandon Christian service overseas. The apostles could probably have filled their lives with the Galilee mission. But that wasn’t the instruction they got. Remember? “… ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” (Acts 1:8). American evangelism can’t be limited to “Jacksonville, Georgia and the whole Southern United States”!
But it’s more than a matter of just following the scriptural instructions. I don’t believe Dr. Brantly went to Liberia on a whim. He didn’t go to Liberia for fun. It wasn’t an “ego trip”. He went because the Father sent him. Remember the song? “Five for the five that came back alive” — missionaries. We serve where we are sent … in America, or Africa.
Don’t mistake me. There is a choice. Dr. Brantly didn’t have to go. He could have made Jonah’s choice, and run in another direction. But we all know what happened to Jonah. The terrible thing that happened to Jonah was not that he ended up in the belly of a whale. The terrible think happened before he was swallowed by the whale. His prayer in chapter 2 makes it plain that the whale was to him a token of his deliverance. Before that moment, he had touched a base of isolation and despair. That is the risk that anyone who runs from God’s will is faced with.
So, Miss Coulter, Dr. Brantly arose, and went unto Liberia, according to the word of the Lord. I say he could do nothing else.