Middle East Work Group

INTERFAITH RELATIONS  - William G. Gepford, American-Arab Relations
“The Christian Exodus”

My first awareness of a Christian exodus from the Holy Land was in 1953 while teaching in one of our Presbyterian mission schools in Sidon, Lebanon. The faculty was international and interfaith, including Americans like me, and gained a reputation for being able to prepare students for matriculation at the best colleges in Lebanon, Europe and America.

My classes in Science, Math and Bible included students from around the Middle East, sons of ambassadors and businessmen, and prominent families from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon. Most of them were Muslim. Other than the few Christians from Lebanon, the other Christians came from the Palestinian refugee camp some ten miles from the school (created by the Israeli/Palestinian conflict in 1948).

Life in the refugee camp was crowded, a home being simply a 20×25 foot cinder block space where all activities of a normal family were conducted, including a place for a student from my classes to study. It was not unusual for a family of 6-7 to be crammed into this space.

What made me rethink these experiences was the recent article in the National Geographic magazine, entitled The Christian Exodus from the Holy Land, June, 2009 issue. The author, Don Belt, concentrated on the Christian exodus, because that has now become a major concern of anyone serious about peace in that region: What role can a rejuvenated Christian community play in a peaceful Middle East, assuming there will still be a viable indigenous Christian presence after the ink has dried on any peace agreement?

Christians have been in the Middle East (the origin of most of the world’s religions) for some 2,000 years but now are threatened with total extinction. As a new peace process begins, it is of the utmost urgency that the problem of why Christians are being made to feel that they have to leave, be discussed by all participants. Arab Christians, who preceded Islam by some 700 years, are uniquely qualified to teach the skills necessary to get along creatively with people of other faiths.

In our time, scholars and religious leaders have come to see the value of each person’s experiences, especially those of other faiths, and while we in this country see important interfaith activities taking place, we must not forget that it all started in the Middle East many centuries ago.

If for some reason the Middle East should become emptied of Christians, it will be a great loss for everyone, a travesty of justice. We need each other if for no other reason than that justice is the foundation of faith, not only for Judaism and Christianity, but equally in Islam. “Further, it is foundational for every religion because just relationships between people are the fruit of one’s faith in God” (Ateek, 2008).

Christians read Isaiah 9 as a prophecy of one (Jesus) whose “authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace…He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onward and forever more” (emphasis added).