Botrus Mansour, General Director of the Nazareth Baptist School, has written an incisive article for Christianity Today entitled,
Jesus, Christmas and the Arab Spring.
Arab Christians approach Christmas this year with feelings of intense fear just like the shepherds were as the angel appeared to them 2000 years ago.
Christmas intersects this year with the first anniversary of the Arab spring that swept the Arab world, bringing enormous change across North Africa and the Middle East.
Only one of the Arab countries, where regime changed occurred, has regained substantial stability and some measure of freedom after elections (Tunisia). Others are in the labor of the change (Egypt, Libya, and Yemen) and another is struggling with a bloody conflict with daily killings (Syria).
Are there any signs of joy that will cast out fear for Arab Christians living in the Middle East? In the short term, fear has the upper hand.
The term “Arab Christian” is viewed by some as an enigma. However, Arabs were represented in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:11). Arabs accepted the new faith from the beginning and Arab Christian tribes thrived in the Middle East from the earliest days of Christianity.
What about Christians today in the city of Jesus’ death and resurrection (Jerusalem), the land of his refuge as a baby (Egypt), the place of Paul’s conversion (Damascus), or the land from where the Israelites’ passed to the promised land (Jordan)?
Arab Christians have been living in the Middle East among Muslims and Jews as a struggling minority of second class citizens for generations.
The new Pew survey of global Christianity reveals what Arab Christians experience every day. North Africa and the Middle East, a region that was once majority Christian, now has 1 percent of the world’s 2.18 billion Christians. The survey counts 12.8 million Christians in total, 4 percent of the overall regional population.
The Arab Spring has not changed this basic fact of life for Christians here.
The struggle has led multitudes of Arab Christians to migrate from the troubled region to the four corners of the earth, bringing the cradle of Christianity to the brink of being emptied of Christians.
He concludes with this hope:
I believe a new culture of democracy and freedom will eventually arrive. But the questions remain: What will the cost to Arab Christians be? Will they have the strength to stand steadfast as living witnesses until the Arab countries exercise true democracy?
In the midst of the darkness, the angel asked the shepherds not to fear. After meeting the baby Jesus in the manger, the shepherds who had feared earlier rejoiced and glorified God.
Will Arab Christians do the same and by focusing on Jesus so their fear be transformed to joy?
They will, but hopefully not alone. At Christmas, the whole earth rejoices.
Read the rest of his article
here
