Lebanon is last hope for Christianity in the Middle East, Priest says

Does anyone know a legit group that donations can be sent to help these Christians? By legit I mean where the majority of the money goes to the people its intended to help.

A link would be appreciated.

Aside from the Catholic Church - to whom I donate to thru weekly collections and the Catholic Relief Services - and who has mixed feelings about the Islamic threat, there is the Barnabas Fund - www.barnabasfund.org - but I cannot attest personally to their honesty or effectiveness.

On a personal level, and on a level that I could control, I would like to sponser a documentary presentation at a local venue which would be here in West Point CA. I am sure that it would be favorably received. We need to wake up the Christian church membership to the threat that Islam is. Other than that, tonight I will donate another miserly 25 bucks to the good folks at JihadWatch. Wish I could do more. Oh - forgive me for my previous intemporate posts.

adobe:

I am sorry I don't know how to create a link, but here is the URL for Aid to the Church in Need, mentioned in the article:

http://www.kirche-in-not.org/index.html

I have lost touch with them the last few years but for many years before that I followed their work and was favorably impressed.

I just took a quick look around their website and could not find any specific projects located in Lebanon, but several current projects aid Christians under pressure in Moslem lands.

Thanks Kate. I took it on faith that they are a good outfit and donated some to them.

The Lebanese churches need to contact their American cousins and encourage pilgrims to visit the sites that were walked by St. Paul and other early figures from the founding days of the faith.

This will not only help bring awareness to the survival problem that these ancient sources of Christianity face, but the visitors will also increase their appreciation of the struggle for the soul that is being incarnated in the Middle East today.

Too few modern Christians realize that not everything from the beginnings of their faith centered in Israel/Judea, but stretched north into Lebanon, Syria and Turkey.

The latter two have governments which are a little too unstable to waste tourist dollars in, but if the bedrock of the Christian religion can be helped in Lebanon, there are many retirement age believers who should demonstrate their faith by showing solidarity with their brethren there.

Kate-

If by "link" you mean a one word way to hyperlink a URL, it can be done this way:

(If I do it all together, it'll 'disappear' so I have to break it apart.)

Begin

with a left aiming angle (V shape) followed by

a href= "http

and

://www.

then the rest of the address line, ending in

website" > The Link Word Here

and close with

Left aiming V angle shape and

/A>

Which works like:

Here

Hope this helps.

PB I am beginning to think you are right. To visit or to stay as a retiree. In a year I will be able to sell this place tax penality free. In the meantime, maybe I can visit Lebanon. Do they allow dogs in w/o a hassle ala France? I will research the travel stuff online.

You're welcome, JaimeZepeda. I've got to send ACN some money too.

And thanks for the instructions, profitsbeard. Actually I was only aiming for something, anything, people could click on, and I was surprised when what I copied and pasted turned into a link automatically when my post appeared. I'm going to save your instructions so I can make those neat titled links next time.

Kate-

As long as you do the http before the www you've made a working hyperlink.

For really long URL's the a href="http way saves a lot of space, and you can get witty/angry/cute/incisive with the link word if you like.

(There's also a site called "tiny.urls" that will take an address from the line on the page, if it is ridiculously extensive and shrink it.)

JaimeZ-

Tell them your pooch is a "service dog" (you need it to help you find your way around because of a bad back, etc.) if there is any customs b.s. about a four-footed friend being admitted. I've only encountered some of Europe's pet regulations, not Lebanon's, but I'm sure their online consulate can help.

Check it out Here .

'Lebanon is last hope for Christianity in the Middle East'.

What about the Copts of Egypt ? They number in the many millions. The Muslims claim 6% of 75 odd million, others 9%, the Copts themselves 12-15%.

I am not the only UK supporter of the Barnabas Fund on this site. I originally came to their work through one of their prayer sheets at my church.
I trust them.

What a sad tale. From a majority in lebanon 30 years ago to less than 30% today. Even though most overseas lebanese are christians the remainder at home have been either driven out or killed. I wonder how much time will pass before the christians of Europe will be in the same situation. I predict in 150 years christians will make up only 10% of europe.

I trust Dr Sookhdeo too!

Kate and Jamie,
I appreciate the links, besides donating to Jihadwatch I wanted to support grassroots organizations in the area.

Previously I donate to Maryknoll. However after reading their newsletter I was incredibly put-off by the personal views of the people involved in that organization. No longer will I donate to them or support them.

I think the straw that broke the camels back was when the editor of their newsletter compared President Bush to Caesar. Whether you like the President or not, I think that remark was highly innappropriate both from a priest and from a charity orginazation.

I am sure they do a good job in their mission of helping the poor, however I will not support liberal Catholic theology or the spread of it.

In my opinion, the plight of Middle Eastern Christians is desperate in part due to the apathy of Western Christians, many of whom are Christians in name only. Ironically, the moral void brought about through secularization is being filled in some instances in the West by Islam, which appeals to the individual's desire for security through enforcement of a rigid code, reinforced with its supremacist group identity. This of course is the essence of fascism: the fearful often choose certainty over freedom.

To revive Christianity in the Middle East, Christianity in the West must also be revived. Such a revival, of course, depends upon the volition of many individuals, each choosing to set life goals based primarily upon Christian values. Not at all easy in today's environment but absolutely essential. We sail between Scylla and Charybdis: materialism on one hand and fundamentalist fascism on the other.

To my knowledge, there are no web sites about the entire history of Middle Eastern Christians. Instead, there are web pages devoted to the history of individual communities like the Lebanese Christians and the Copts. Consequently, it would be nice if somebody created a web page about the entire history of Middle Eastern Christians.

It is a shame that Westerners still don't realize (and don't want to) that the Christians of Lebanon are part of the West. It is less about Christianity and religion than about Western values which are hold by these Christians.

Unfortunately, the West is supporting the present Lebanese government, a Sunni government and an annexe of Saudi Arabia run by Saad Hariri. One of the main aims of this government is weakening the Christians by all means. In fact, this government is continuing the policy of the previous government, that of Rafiq Hariri. The government of Rafiq Hariri, with the help of part of the Syrians, i.e. Abdel-Halim Khaddam, Hikmat Shihabi and Ghazi Kanaan, was able to destroy the Lebanese middle class, which was mainly composed of Christians. Now, the son of Rafiq Hariri is continuing the policy of his father.

Saudi Arabia is having its work done in Lebanon smoothly and nobody is noticing. Ten years from now, if this policy continues, half of the Christians would be outside Lebanon.

"But who cares: aren't they all Arabs, Easterners, Orientals!"

Lebanon is still a hope for Christianity? I thought that the Taif agreement put paid to any lingering hopes of that. Unlike in the 80's, Mohammedans have now grown to 60% of the population.

Besides, Islamochristians, like Emile Lahoud, tend to undermine that case. I know the Maronites are generally better, but they have been on the losing side. Syria's evacuation hasn't helped either, since Hizbullah is the only militia that's allowed to remain armed.

Lebanon is upset at both France and Romania as Romania fails to invite Lebanese official (Lahoud) to francophone summit, leading to row and friction inside of the Maronite community. Apparently, this is a very important story inside of Lebanon. France claims Lahoud is tied to terror, but says the decision not to invite him was Romania's alone.

see: http://www.daily-news.ro/article_detail.php?idarticle=27716

I imagine this will prove quite provacative here, but it seems to me that Arab tribalism often trumps religious and national identifications. I know that I'm supposed to feel some affinity for all those ME Arab Christians sheerly because I am a Westerner -- but I don't. In fact, although I certainly don't lump all ME Christians into this category, I view many ME Arab Christians to be a serious part of the entire problem of Islamic Jihad. In the West we have plenty of examples of such Christians, persons such as the infamous Jim Zogby, who frankly are very often much more closely allied with their Arab/Muslim brethren than they are with us in the West. They manifest the same hatred of Jews. They manifest the same contempt for America, and the same Arab bigotry and intolerance in America , they lecture us about the same complaints the Muslims always do -- that American policies must change in the ME if we are to see an end to Arab terrorism. I suggest this is one reason why Arab Christians have been abandoned by Western Christians -- if "abandoned" is even the correct term. Aside from the label "Christian", there's sometimes seems little to differentiate them from their violence addicted Arab brothers...

And while I deplore those leftest who hound this site and constantly wish to conflate Christianity with Islam's heinousness -- when it comes to Arab Christians -- this is not always a conflation -- Arab Christians have historically been extremely anti-Semitic. Arab Christians have often worked in deliberate conjunction with their Muslim Arab cohorts to victimize other ethnic groups across Arabdom. Arab Christians often seem unable to disentangle themselves from the larger Arab tribalistic hatreds that plague the Globe today. Is holding out a hand to such persons really wise? Is this the best way to fight Islamic Jihad? Or are we simply guaranteeing a case of rabies once our hand is extended thus?

I suppose their behavior will be ascribed to Stockholm syndrome or chronic dhimmitude - this may be correct -- But I think it's a fair question to ask: Is their behavior an indicaction that Arab Islamic terrorism has coopted them fully? Or is it a sign that Arab tribalism runs even deeper than religious affiliations or national affiliations do? And In the end, does it matter? Such persons have wittingly or unwittingly often become part of the larger Islamic Jihad, and are now promulgators of more Arab supremacism, more Arab tribalism, more spread of poisonous Arabic culture. Some of these Christian Arabs are just as guilty of spreading the filth and contagion as their Muslim brethren are.

We have the same problem in the West with the wigged out leftist Christian incarnations and political institutions -- those that are so virulently against the West waging war, but completely accepting or mum about Islamic war waged against the West... They share with the Muslims a sense that the West must be destroyed or over-run. Something appears to be amiss inside certain strains of Christianity -- and as much as I dislike the introduction of "What's wrong with Christendom" or "What's wrong with the West" in the discussion of anti-Jihad -- the extent to which these things aren't addressed by us is the extent to which Islam continues to successfully hold various daggers at our hearts and throats.

"To my knowledge, there are no web sites about the entire history of Middle Eastern Christians. Instead, there are web pages devoted to the history of individual communities like the Lebanese Christians and the Copts. Consequently, it would be nice if somebody created a web page about the entire history of Middle Eastern Christians"

Try this BBC website...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4499668.stm

They don't consider themselves Arab JSLA. Not that you would have bothered to notice.

Referring to the Lebanese as Arabs is an interesting subject. It is no different from others referring to the Copts and others as "Arabs." I also wanted to mention something I noticed Hugh do on one recent occasion, that is, referring to a region of Eastern European nations as "Slavs." This compartmentalization of the world into easy-to-remember distinct regions is overly simplistic and we are all (to varying degrees) guilty of it. Those who refer to Morocco as the Middle East -- or worse yet, to Iranians as Arabs, are even guiltier.

About "Africans"

Africa is the single most diverse continent on the planet. There are literally thousands of ethnic groups there. I have worked in both West and East Africa. The differences in the local peoples are extreme. Somalis, for example, are in essence, Yemenis (as are perhaps Ethiopians as well - there is disagreement about that). (There is evidence that Queen Sheba had strong links to Yemen.) Moreover, Ethiopians and Somalis are ethnic groups that are extraordinarily different from many other sub Saharan African groups, but few point that out. "Africa" is a vast continent, not a nation. Oh and yes, Somalis are racist against the Bantus whom they deride as African slaves. How is that for compartmentalization?

As for "Eastern Europe," it is far from being uniformally Slavic. "East Germans" are not. Finns are not. Turks are not. Estonians are not. Albanians are not. Romanians are not. Hungarians are not. Greeks are not. Lithuanians are not. Latvians are not.

Interestingly, traveling throughout China forced me to learn about many ethnic groups other than the dominant Han group in China. Even the notion of what it means to be "Chinese" is not what I thought it was.

In Latin America, I was astounded at the differences between Indian groups, which, as an outsider, I believed would have been miniscule.

Beware generalizations.

I agree with Kafir N to an extent in that Copts, Maronites, Assyrians don't consider themselves Arabs. However, I thought that JSLA's comments were on Arab Christians, such as those ethnic Arabs who happen to be Christian, such as Palestinian Arabs, Syrian Arabs...

I agree that Iranians are not Arabs, and those outside this site who try to condense the Islam problem to Iran are guilty of gross oversimplification: Islamic movements, such as the Wahabi, Salafist, Taliban, Deobandi et al are all unrelated to the Ayatollahs, but very much a real part of the Islamic threat the world over. However, a Shia ideology does drive them, and those who go to the other end and try to strip Islam completely out of the Iranian problem are not on target either. Therefore, not mentioning Iran as a part of the Islamic problem is an error of omission, but that doesn't justify calling them Arabs, when Arabs are semites, and Iranians are Aryans.

As for Morocco not being a part of the Middle-East, which countries exactly fall under the middle East? I used to be under the impression that it was all of West Asia, excluding Turkey, including Iran, sometimes including Afghanistan (and in some rare instances Pakistan), with Egypt added in. These days, it's taken to mean Israel - the US presense in Iraq is rarely described as a Middle Eastern event.

Bottom line - I agree with Kafir about generalizations, but on the issue of Islam, where what binds are the principles of Jihad, generalizations such as that are good to go by.

JSLA what a bunch of crap. The only reason some arab christians have turned against the west is because of the west's abandonment. The west actively supports islamic regimes. Human rights abuses are ignored and in many instances if the abuser is an american client state the abuser gets praise. This is still happening in countries like Turkey and Pakistan.
I am also tired of you claiming everyone is anti semetic. You know how people like the Nazi's got in power. While people like you were busy calling eveyone else nazi's the real nazi's were getting in power unoticed. Stop crying wolf and try to see who the real problem is.

"Lebanon is last hope for Christianity in the Middle East, Priest says,"

Well, not to belabor a point, but Israel's a pretty good place to be a Christian.

But there's still the problem of supremacist Islam, which is why Nazareth is now a majority Muslim city. I won't even mention Bethlehem. Oh. Sorry. I just did. But y'all get the point.

Great. I guess you intuited, Kafir Nonbeliever, that you were one of those tiresome posters I was referring to who relentlessly tries to conflate Christianity with Islam, so it's especially rich seeing you reach bottom and dig in even further today. Pissedoffcanadian -- your chronology of the rise of Hitler was very instructive -- thanks for the history lesson -- I never knew that's how the Nazis came into being.

Here is a site with information authored by the renowned Walid Phares, who takes great pains to distinguish between different constituencies in the ME. Even so, he fully acknowledges the label "Arab Christian" for many of the Christians in the ME, though not all. Specifically, he says, and I have no reason to doubt him:

Distribution of the Arab Christian Populations
Most of the Arab Christians who live in the Middle East are located in the following countries:

Lebanon (35-45 % of the population)

Palestine (5-10 %)

Jordan (6-12 %)

Syria (10 %)

Sudan (10 %)

Egypt (6-12 %)

Iraq (3 %).

http://www.arabicbible.com/christian/arab_christians_who_are_they.htm

I also think Jim Zogby and other self described "Arab Christians" would be shocked, SHOCKED, to learn that various persons at this site were so hysterical as to suggest that it's virtually impossible for an Arab to be a Christian, or whatever you're both trying to argue. It's hard to follow your posts. Anyway, he's a member of the Arab Anti-Discrimination Committe (as well as several other Arabist groups and causes)- The AADC features quite a few self described "Arab Christians", and is emblematic of the entrenched anti-Semitic, anti-American, bigoted, pro-Islamic, pro-Saudi, pro-"Palestinian" regime that seems to be a consistent trait among MANY Arabs, despite their religious or national affiliation.

JSLA your an idiot. If you look at the history of the middle east you will realize that the ARABS were confined to the arab peninsula until the coming of Islam. When Islam burst out of the arab peninsula it subdued very ancient cultures and imposed its religion and the arab language on these people. As Islam is an arab supremacist religion many people identified themselves with arabs if they were muslim. Almost all the christians even if they speak arabic don't identify with being arabic. Arab chrisitian is an american label. In fact 82% of "arab americans" are christian and most of them are pissed to be classified as arab as they do not feel they are. Most lebanese feel they are phoenicians, Iraqi christians assyrian, egyptian christians or copts feel they are the true descendants of the ancient egyptians. And they are all right. I do realize some Jordanian christians feel arab but they probably are as christian arabs were in the region before the coming of Islam. Some feel they are descendants of greeks as do some syrian and lebanese.

Eithere way the argument on this site is lets all stick together. Islam is attacking hindus, christians, budhitst, jews, etc. Yet you basically stated you feel no affiliation with other groups so screw them, but wait everyone stick out their necks for you.
The reason ME christians might be anti-western is because the west is anti christian.
Before the US inherited an empire from the Europeans christians made up a healthy percentage of the middle east. I even saw one stat that put Iraqi christians at 30% before the British, don't know how true though.
what happened when the US took over, well the US meant good and in the process invented Political Correctness. Also the US never understood history. Barbaric governments have been supported in the name of respecting local customs, and any progrom against christians has been tolerated. The US by inventing PCness equated the victim with the perpetrator. After the anti-greek progrom in Istanbul the eisenhower administration asked for calm from both sides. That is like equating the holocaust victims with hitler.
In short the last fifty years have been cruel to christians from Constantinople to Pakistan. The US unaware of the history of the region has been complicit by backing the wrong side.
The US is probably the greatest country ever in terms of how it treats its own people but ignorance has let it support evil world wide. Don't get me wrong the Europeans in the twenties were just as bad. But if you go back a hundred years ago the British would of never put up with this shit. the problem isn't arab christians. The problem is that the most powerful country on earth doenst want to use its power for good.

pissedoffcanadian

"JSLA your an idiot. If you look at the history of the middle east you will realize that the ARABS were confined to the arab peninsula until the coming of Islam. When Islam burst out of the arab peninsula it subdued very ancient cultures and imposed its religion and the arab language on these people."

Er, no. At the time of the Arab Muslim conquest of the 7th cent Christian Arab tribes were living in Syria, Palestine, present day Iraq and all over the Arabian Peninsula. There was even a Nestorian bishopric on the Persian Gulf near Bahrain. The Arabs even gave us a Roman Emperor, Philip the Arab (Marcus Lulius Philipp) who ruled in the mid third cent. At the pivotal battle of Yarmuk, fully one third of the Byzantine Christian army was made up of Syrian Arabs mostly Ghassanids.

Didn't say none were christian. And the nestorians are assyrian. I do agree they were in palestine and jordan. In small numbers further out.

Four possibilities suggest themselves.

1. Demented.
2. Stupid.
3. Drunk.
4. All of the above.

I think 4 fits the bill.