Fundamentalism in the land of Jesus

21 January 2015

For well over a decade, compassionate Christians have watched in horror as a string of Middle Eastern countries have collapsed into chaos and violence. What has been less noticed is that the chaos is being used to destroy the heart of Christianity in those lands where it had flourished for 1500 years.

What is being cut down is the trunk upon which the Churches in the West still rest. That it has gone largely unremarked says much about the lack of understanding of the religion’s history. Such amnesia poses a deep peril not just to the heritage of Christianity, but to capturing its true spirit.

Let us start with the land of Jesus, and in Jerusalem. Israel is now demanding to be recognised as a Jewish state; the corollary is that they have an interest in getting Christians out. There are regular attacks on Christian institutions. Christian properties in East Jerusalem are slowly being seized. Nuns and clergy are routinely abused in an effort to encourage them to leave. Being spat upon in the street is not a rare occurrence.

On the Palestinian side, the Islamic influence has been intensifying for decades, in part because Christian Palestinians have found it easier to leave. This has an equally marginalising effect. To be a Christian in the Holy Land is to be doubly an outsider, a resident alien in your own country. The same situation is vivid in crucial towns like Bethlehem and Nazareth. Many Christians have left.

The destruction of traditional Christian ranks is occurring across the Levant. The numbers of Iraqi Christians has been brutally reduced: down to about 250,000-400,000 from 1.2-1.5 million. ISIS represents a mortal threat to those who remain. In Syria, Christians are in extreme danger. The Christian communities of Syria constitute almost a tenth of the Syrian population. They have been systematically targeted. Churches have been desecrated; priests, monks, and nuns have been kidnapped and murdered. Again, the religious ethnic cleansing is intense and effective, pushed as much by Shia and Sunni, Assad’s Alawite Islamists as by the jihadists of all colours.

So why has there been so little concern about this destruction of the Christian heritage? It should be remembered that three of the five founding Sees of the Early Church, three of the ancient Christian Patriarchates, are situated in the region: Jerusalem, Antioch and Alexandria. Only Rome and Constantinople are outside the region, but even so, the situation

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Fundamentalism in the land of Jesus

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