Shlomo Eli,
It is sad what is happening in the Holyland. I would like to take on your points and provide some of the answers that I see that can be done.
1- Christians in the Holy Land will sooner or later decline in number till almost extinct, if the growth rate continues at the same negative acceleration rate.
This is the biggest problem. And there is a multi-prong approach that should be used in my opinion.
We should get more involved in politics. That is, we should use all the tools at our disposal to inform our elected leaders about the situation.
Those of us who live in the United States need to call, write, organize (especially our Churches) etc. so that our leaders understand that this is an important issue to us.
We need to tie together the issues of the Holyland. To often people see the Holyland as being only Israel and Palestine; but it includes Lebanon (the third most mentioned "country" in the Bible after Israel and Egypt), Egypt, Syria and Jordan. Turkey and Iraq also need to be tied in because of their importance to Apostolic Christianity.
We need to encourage the education of Muslim women. Statistics show that the more educated the women the less number of children she has, that is one of the major reasons the Christian birthrate is not the same as Muslims - EDUCATION!
And with education, employment. If we can keep good paying jobs in the region then Christians would not have to move.
Also, we need a full peace. Israel exists, the only way that it will disappear is by the ballot box, and until that day comes that reality must be respected. With peace, Israel needs to understand that the United States will protect it, but it must leave the lands that it occupied in '67.
2- Christians will become less native-Christians ("Arab" Byzantine Christinas who lived in this land for 2000 years) and more non-natives (Russian and Philippine...)
We shouild welcome any Christian migration to the Holyland. What we should be pushing for is the right for these folks to become citizens and/or more political rights.
3- and thus, native Christianity (Melkite Catholic, Orthodox, Maronite etc.) will become less and less common, and non-native Christianity will take its place (baptists and new-age-"christianity" and other)
That is why it is important that we in the West support our brothers and sisters in the Holyland. And that is not just those of us that have physical roots there, but those that have spiritual ones. One of the best ways to do so is through
Télé Lumière [
telelumiere.com]
For those that do not know about Télé Lumière, here is some general background.
Télé Lumière as its name indicates means the "TV of Light". It is the first and only Christian television in Lebanon and the Middle East and was founded in 1991 by a group of committed lay people:
Late Charles Helou (President of Lebanon)
Brother Nour
Jack Kallassi
Late George Frem (ex. MP and minister)
George Moawad
Rola and Sana Nassar
Dr. Antoine Saad
Christiane Debbaneh
Télé Lumière is a non-profit organization, its mission is ecumenical, it is not associated to any political party or movement, does not broadcast any political views and does not accept or promote any commercial endorsements. As a non profit broadcasting station, it has no lucrative purposes and survives only from various donations given by its supporters and friends.
The Church cooperated with this television station since the beginning when she found it one of the best means to promote the principles of justice, love, freedom and human rights; values called for by Christianity everywhere.
Télé Lumière is supervised by the Assembly of Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops in Lebanon and directed by a committee involving religious leaders from various denominations and a group of laity eager to support this distinguished project. The relationship between the Church and Télé Lumière is organized through a "cooperation protocol".
As for the Government, it considers Télé Lumière, through the Assembly of Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops in Lebanon, a Christian station, financially independent and having freedom of management and programming controlled only by the authority of the Church.
In June 2003, on Pentecost, Télé Lumière celebrated its 12th anniversary as well as the launching of its satellite station Noursat covering Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. One year later, on September8th, 2004, Noursat began its official broadcast in North and South America, Canada and Australia.
While many TV channels have become event-oriented, either focusing on terrorism, political turmoil and fanaticism, or are limited to amusement and scandals, the openness strategy of Télé Lumière and Noursat, promoting multi-cultural understanding and religious dialogue, have encouraged a large amount of Muslim viewers to watch and participate in the campaigns and programs strengthening peace, targeting coexistence and opposing immorality, violence and terrorism.
After all these years of broadcast, Télé Lumière and Noursat have become a daily bread and hope for the Christian minority in the Middle East and the diaspora as well as a source of peace for many viewers from different denominations. 4- The number of active believers is much less than of the numbers of those stated as Christians for statistical reasons.
That is true for all the groups in the area. Those of us who are active need to be proactive also. If we follow the steps above, along with other great ideas we can reverse this trend.
Fush BaShlomo,
Yuhannon
