May 24, 2018

An Arab Evangelical Message to American Evangelicals رسالة إنجيلية عربية إلى الإنجيليين الأمريكيين

By Wissam al-Saliby In March of this year at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, I saw a man sitting next to me writing in Arabic the statement that he will be reading to the council. Adel was a Tunisian head of a non-profit. I said hello in […]
May 17, 2018

The Faces of Displacement: A Story Much Closer than We Realize وجوه النازحين: قصة أقرب ممّا يمكن أن نتخيّل

By Brent Hamoud We tend to put faces on unfortunate things.  It is not a good practice but we do it anyways. Famine has African faces, terrorism Muslim faces, the drug trade Latino faces, and on it goes. So it is with human displacement where the faces of Syrians, Palestinians […]
May 10, 2018

Fighting the Stigma of Mental Illness in the Middle East: A Reflection on the Middle Eastern Church’s Position on Mental Health محاربة وصمة العار للأمراض العقلية في الشرق الأوسط: تأمل في موقف الكنيسة الشرق أوسطية من الصحة العقلية

By Jade Kassis War has become a familiar phenomenon to us Middle Easterners, who have become acquainted with its violent chaos as well as with its sacrificial loss. War has changed us as a people. We have grown accustomed to feelings of unrest and a lack of control. One minute […]
February 8, 2018

When the Lights go Down in the City: A Reflection on the Season’s Passing عندما تخفت الأضواء في المدينة فهذا انعكاس لانصرام موسم في حياتها

By Chaden Hani It was an abiding sense of desperation, frustration and repression which led Lebanese journalist and professor of history Samir Kassir to speak in 2004 of the “Arab malaise.” For as long as I can remember we have barely had a moment of our history lacking in conflict […]
January 18, 2018

Calling for Prophetic Passion الدعوة إلى شغف نبوي

By Robert Hamd Today, the younger generations of Christians are asking the difficult questions, such as why injustice persists. They are passionate about a convergence of the words of scripture and real-life practice. For example, they read passages from Isaiah that challenge us to “learn to do good; seek justice, […]
November 30, 2017

The Sufferari: Rethinking Humanitarian Tourism السفاري إلى أرض المعاناة: إعادة النظر في السياحة الإنسانية

By Brent Hamoud Landscapes throughout the MENA region have been transformed by unfolding crises of forced migration. This is especially the case in Lebanon. An estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees reside within its borders adding layers of dimension to long-existing populations of displacement.[i] Many Syrian refugees reside in informal tented settlements. […]
November 23, 2017

Guns, Israel, Justice and the United Nations: How My Context Shapes My Writing الأسلحة، وإسرائيل، والعدالة، والأمم المتحدة: سياقي وأثره في كتابتي

By Wissam al-Saliby I am grateful for several recent conversations with American pastor friends, during which we spoke about writing from and on the Middle East, trans-Atlantic (mis)perceptions and political fault lines. One of these friends, who leans toward political conservativism, told me that when reading my posts on the […]
June 15, 2017

What the Poor Have Taught Me?

By Rupen Das* A 2009 study by Tomas Rees on the relationship between poverty and religiousness found that personal insecurity (due to stressful situations, such as poverty) was an important determinant of religiosity.[1] The poor tend to be more religious. I find the faith of the poor both intriguing and challenging. […]