July 15, 2021

Finding Joy in a Miserable Land: Reflections on Living Morning to Morning in Lebanon

By Loulwa El Maalouf It was a wonderful sunny day. I woke up, had my morning coffee, got dressed, and filled my car with gas on the way to work. Later in the evening I enjoyed shopping at the nearby mall and got some food items from the supermarket. This […]
July 8, 2021

Prayer in a Time of Dispossession

by Rabih Hasbany Astray in my homeland, estranged, I cry. My voice isn’t heard by those passing by, Echoing hungry, blighted country folk Who’ve come to live on their worries and sighs.   As I thought about this week’s blog post, I wondered which current event I should address. There […]
July 1, 2021

Natural Resources, A Curse or a Blessings? The Egyptian-Ethiopian Nile River Dispute

By Emad Botros During a recent visit to Egypt, I found that the debate over the building of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) was intense. Ethiopia’s hydroelectric power plant on the historic Nile River threatens the water availability for populations downstream in Sudan and Egypt. As I listened to […]
June 24, 2021

Summer Repost: The Commodification of Mission in the Muslim World

by Mike Kuhn This is a revised version of a post that was published by IMES in 2016 A commodity—something that is bought and sold. Mission—the loving and joyful response of Christ’s followers to disciple the nations, holding forth Jesus’ life and teaching among all the peoples of the world. […]
June 17, 2021

Will the Covid-19 Vaccine Give You the Mark of the Beast?

by Nabil Habibi At the time of writing of this blog post, over 2 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been given out. Even as mass vaccinations have been progressively proving their effectiveness, we continue to hear certain vaccine fears broadcast on different media outlets. While some fears can be […]
June 10, 2021

Love Your Neighbor, Be Political!: A Reflection From Lebanon About Faith in Politics

by Martin Accad and Caleb Hutcherson In an interview with Time magazine in 1963, Karl Barth recalled advising young theologians 40 years previous “to take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible.” It seems he often used variations of this figure of […]
June 3, 2021

Palestine, Evangelicalism, and the Problem of Power

by Caleb Hutcherson As I write this, a ceasefire has been negotiated between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. Again. During those 11 days, more than 230 people in Palestine, including 66 children, have been killed. Along with at least 12 people in Israel, including 2 children. One report dropped […]
May 27, 2021

What’s in a Name?: A Case for Using ‘Isa in Arabic Translations of the Bible

By Martin Accad “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” (Romeo and Juliet, Act 2 Scene 2) As Juliet agonizes over her love for Romeo, forbidden to her merely because he bears the Montague name, the family which is […]