The American Spectator

Print Email

Text Size

Special Report

The city of Midland-once the mid-point between El Paso and Fort Worth on the Texas & Pacific Railroad-sits on the oil-rich plains of West Texas. The terrain, mostly sand and shrubbery, is flat and empty save for oil pumps, derricks, wind mills, and homes as horizontal as the ground.

Geologists describe the Midland region as a dead sea. Over millions of years the sea receded and became a desert. The vast oil deposits in Midland's Permian Basin-the second largest oil reservoir in America after Alaska's Prudhoe Bay-come from the fossils of sea animals and ancient marine life.

With few trees (Notrees, Texas, is not far from Midland) and no mountains to obstruct a view of it, the sky dominates the desert-and the mindset of Midlanders. They call Midland the "land of the high sky" and the "tall city." The town's motto is, "The sky is the limit."

The setting is important to understanding Midland's culture, say locals. The expansive land contributes to its expansive outlook. Surviving and succeeding in desolation worthy of a biblical city, they say, produces a culture of can-do Christianity. And there's good reason to believe them: From this remote town of less than a 100,000 people has risen a number of leaders. Famous former Midlanders include George and Laura Bush, retired four-star general Tommy Franks, and secretary of commerce Don Evans.

Less well known is that Midland-the city, not just its famous former residents-is exerting an influence in international politics. True to their sky-is-the-limit ambition, Midlanders are playing a behind-the-scenes role in the Sudanese peace talks, conducting diplomacy directly with the government of Sudan.

The New York Times reported in October that evangelical Christians "sway White House on Human Rights issues abroad." The Times gave Christians credit for spurring George Bush to intercede in Sudan's civil war that has killed and displaced millions. (Bush's 2001 appointment of former U.S. senator John Danforth as a special envoy to Sudan came after Christian groups called on the administration to make peace in the Sudan a priority.)

Not mentioned in the Times report was the influential advocacy of Christians in Bush's hometown. In March 2003, Midlanders city-wide-from Methodist to Baptist ministers, from the Mayor and city councilmen to oil company executives and housewives, from the Catholic bishop to Lutheran and Episcopalian pastors-sent a letter to the government of Sudan, calling for a just peace in the 20-year war between Christians and Muslims.

"Ministerial Alliance of Midland, Texas," read the letterhead. "Hometown of President Bush and First Lady Laura Bush." The letter's underlying message to Khartoum: work towards a just peace or Bush's hometown will put pressure on the U.S. government to enforce the Sudan Peace Act, legislation passed in 2002 which requires that the White House monitor negotiations between the Sudanese government and the rebels in the Sudan People's Liberation Army.

The Midlanders' letter got the attention of Khartoum. Khidir H. Ahmed, the Sudanese ambassador to the United States, told me that Sudan's Minister of Foreign Affairs Mustafa Osman Ismail encouraged him to talk with the Christians from the "village of George Bush" and invite them to visit Khartoum. "We have been talking since that time," says Ahmed.

The Midland Ministerial Alliance, whose members include personal friends of President and Laura Bush, became active on Sudanese issues after the city hosted the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church in 2001. The event, which focused on the persecution of Christians in Sudan, shocked the city into action, say Midlanders. (What also accounts for the city's interest in Sudanese peace is that several Midland churches have sister churches in Southern Sudan.)

Over the last two years Midland has become a stopping place for Sudanese exiles, who often note that West Texas looks like the Sudan. Basketball giant Manute Bol has visited Midland, as have a number of exiled Sudanese bishops. Twenty Sudanese exiles constructed a Sudanese village in Midland for a 2002 religious festival that attracted about 90,000 people.

Money and materials go from Midland to the Christians in Southern Sudan regularly. Midlanders financially support Radio Free Sudan, which broadcasts Christian radio in Southern Sudan. Children at a Christian school in Midland raised enough money to start two schools in Sudan, and continue to raise money to keep them going.

When the Sudan Peace Act was debated in Washington last year, Midlanders traveled to Washington to conduct a prayer vigil across the street from the State Department. When the act passed, the White House invited several members of the group to the Roosevelt Room in the White House for the signing.

Midlanders are significant enough participants in the Sudanese peace process that when the Sudanese foreign minister visited America in October, he placed a call to Dr. Jerry Hilton, the president of the Midland Ministerial Alliance and pastor of Bush's childhood Presbyterian church.

AN IMPROBABLE VENUE FOR GLOBAL diplomacy, Midland is now known to all the parties in the peace negotiations. Sources say the Midland Ministerial Alliance has channels to the Sudanese rebels, peace mediators in Kenya (the site of the peace negotiations), the State Department and the White House.

topics:
Education, Business, Religion, Military, Iraq, NATO, Alaska, Oil