Abidini Folly

        Mrs. Abidini makes me a little sick.
For those who may not know Mrs. Abidini, she is now taking up tearjerking time on national TV, complaining about the fact that her husband is in an Iranian jail and the United States government is doing nothing about it.
The facts are that Naghmeh Abidini is of Iranian extraction. Notice her first name. Somehow she became an American citizen as a child. She married Saeed Abidini, an Iranian Muslim, who converted to Christianity and also became an American citizen, presumably because he married an American citizen.
The Abidini's decided to do Christian missionary work in Iran.
Now, let's remember that contrary to the United States, with freedom of religion, Iran is a Muslim country operating under Muslim doctrine. Part of the doctrine is to preserve Islam and extend it as much as possible through his threats of death to nonbelievers who do not agree to be converted to Islam. You may not like that approach, and it certainly is different than that of the United States. However, it is not the responsibility of the American government to convert the world to Christianity, especially since the First Amendment to the Constitution says that the US government must not show partiality to any religion, even in the US.
The Abidini's were able to do considerable missionary work for Christianity in Iran, but the Iranian government soon discovered the threat to Islam and started to crack down. The Abidini's wisely left Iran and came back to the United States, where they are now both citizens.
Saeed Abidini stupidly went back to Iran, presumably to see his family. Remember that although he is an American citizen, he was a born Iranian and considered an Iranian citizen. The Iranian government picked him up and jailed him basically for proselytizing against the national religion of Islam.
I am partial to Christianity and have nothing against Christian missionary efforts. I also understand that many Christian missionaries work under hardship conditions, which they accept. However it seems to me that everyone should have a reasonable degree of prudence in whatever they do. When missionaries see a high probability that they will be placed in a foreign jail for their actions, it seems stupid to me that they would continue to subject themselves to that risk. Apparently the Abidini's decided to travel that razors edge, and unfortunately one of them fell off.
Is it now the responsibility of the American government to save a missionary from a stupid decision? I think not.
I also believe that I will not obtain a lot of support in this position, because in the last 50 or more years, American citizens have culturally become tied up with absolving themselves from personal responsibility and relying on the government to bail them out of any disastrous situation, no matter how stupid they were in the first place.