December 25, 2013

Homage to the Mothers of Syria

By Martin Accad Every Christmas is a time of laughter and tears, of life and death, of singing and mourning, of beauty and ashes. For every person experiencing joy, there is one experiencing suffering. For every mother delighting in her newborn, there is another grieving the loss of hers. For […]
December 20, 2013

Are We Called to be Sheep?

By Sara Obeid* “I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.” – Alexander the Great Recently, I came to discover just how difficult it is to convince a Lebanese person (Muslim, Christian, or […]
December 12, 2013

Seeking a ‘Final Solution’ to the Palestinian Question: John Kerry, Nelson Mandela, and the Problem of Palestine

By Jesse S. Wheeler On 7 December 2013, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry eulogized South African President Nelson Mandela with the following words: “My friends, as everyone here knows, the world is mourning the loss of a great leader right now, Nelson Mandela. Mandela was a stranger to hate. […]
December 6, 2013

Celebrating Two Lives

By Arthur Brown Today has brought with it a mix of emotions for me. As the father of an African-Lebanese little boy who celebrates his first birthday today there is joy. Jonathan, who we are in the process of adopting, came into our lives eight months ago and has transformed […]
December 5, 2013

The Suffering of the Innocents: The Experience of Being a Syrian Refugee Child in Lebanon & Jordan

By Arthur Brown “The world must act to save a generation of traumatised, isolated and suffering Syrian children from catastrophe. If we do not move quickly, this generation of innocents will become lasting casualties of an appalling war.” So begins the recently published UNHCR report on the plight of Syrian […]
November 29, 2013

UNHCR Beirut and Persecuted Arab Converts Seeking Refugee Status

By Wissam al-Saliby* Last Sunday, I drove a woman and her children to my Church service. She had escaped to Lebanon from a North African country following persecution. She had come to faith in Jesus Christ and become a Christian, but her family could not accept this. On the way […]
November 21, 2013

On Being a Woman in the Arab World: Why Our Lebano-Chauvinism Is Not Helping Us

By Martin Accad “Mabrouk Lebanon! Congrats!” We ranked number 16 out of 22 Arab states on Thomson Reuters Foundation’s third annual poll indexing women’s rights in the Arab World. We can pat ourselves on the back for not being as bad as Egypt, ranking 22nd, thanks to the rise to […]
November 14, 2013

Christ-Centered Witness and the Proper Use of Power

By Jesse S. Wheeler In a world busy with the misuse of power, I am continually drawn to the example of Christ who, by consistently rejecting the dual temptations of imperial compromise and armed rebellion, models for us the narrow path of self-sacrificial, enemy-embracing love. This dual temptation is very […]