January 30, 2020
by Mike Kuhn “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.” (Matthew 7:6). One interpretation of these strange words by Jesus understands “pigs” and “dogs” to vaguely reference Gentile (i.e. Roman) political authority. In the […]
January 2, 2020
by Wissam al-Saliby “If you lived in Lebanon at this moment, how do you imagine you would have spent the past 20 days?” my friend asked, in a comment on my Facebook status where I shared an opinion on Christian and Evangelical engagement with Lebanon’s uprising that began on 17 […]
November 11, 2019
During these Times of Revolution, the Church Needs to Offer an Alternative to the Dominant Model by Martin Accad News In the month of October 2019, the global media reported the arrival of new disturbances, protests, and violent government reprisals and deaths in Iraq. As of early November, the death […]
November 7, 2019
by Mike Kuhn Media outlets are noticing an unprecedented proliferation of uprisings around the globe—Hong Kong, Chile, Addis Ababa, Baghdad, and of course, our own beloved Beirut. While some debate the legitimacy of Christians’ participation in these demonstrations, there is a more fundamental issue that is at stake as we […]
June 6, 2019
Dear Reader, Today, we are concluding another season of the IMES Regional Brief, reaching the ninth brief of the current academic year. In reflecting on our topics over the past months, we must conclude that evil has rooted itself in our world. For this reason, the news will continuously […]
May 2, 2019
Dear Reader, In our brief for May 2019, we explore how the struggle of post-Saddam and post-ISIS Iraq continues to redefine a cohesive narrative of what its society and political system will look like in the coming decades. In such times of “grand narratives and ideologies,” we must beware […]
April 4, 2019
Dear Reader, In our brief for April 2019, we explore the recognition of the Golan Heights as Israeli territory through the lens of faithful apocalyptic Biblical interpretation and two central principles of Just Peacemaking theory as developed by late Christian ethicist Glen Stassen. We also analyze the relatively weak […]
March 7, 2019
Dear Reader, In our brief for March 2019, we look at the case of Shamima Begum, an “unrepentant” teenaged woman seeking to return to the UK after having joined up with the Islamic State. If Begum and others like her in Syria and Iraq need to pay for any […]