Unity With the Persecuted

saAddressing the “In Defense of Christians” (IDC) summit on Wednesday morning, September 10, U.S. Representative Kerry Bentivolio (R-MI) declared that every “freedom-loving man, woman, and child must be engaged” in the fight to defend persecuted Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East.

Would that members of the media, particularly Christian and/or conservative journalists, had actually been engaged in this fight to defend religious minorities for a while! If they had been, they would be able to write more knowledgeably about the scourge of global jihad. They would have had experience with U.S. political leaders that have actually given more than lip service to the issue of religious persecution. And they would have known that Texas Senator Ted Cruz is regarded as a strong advocate for persecuted Christians, as well as for Israel, by those of us who actually spend our days and years working on behalf of the persecuted.

If that had been the case, IDC’s Wednesday evening gala with Cruz as keynote speaker might not have become such an issue. As it was, though, the messages given by other speakers in the remaining hours of the summit such as the terrific keynote on Thursday by Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy author Eric Metaxas, have been all but ignored by the media. They preferred to go after Cruz for what they perceived as his insensitivity to Middle Eastern Christians. Metaxas’ speech (sermon, really) was important in its own right, but was also important as a response to what took place the night before, over the gala dinner of braised short ribs of beef and Chilean sea bass.

Senator Cruz’s gala speech has now been dissected and autopsied (but not buried!) from Right and Left. It wouldhave been an inspirational charge for unity against all religious oppression from a political leader who has stood consistently with persecuted Christians – if he had been able to complete it. He began:

Good evening. Today we are gathered at a time of extraordinary challenge. Tonight we are all united in defense of Christians. Tonight we are all united in defense of Jews. Tonight we are all united in defense of people of good faith who are standing together against those who would persecute and murder those who dare to disagree with their religious teachings.

The murmurs around the room, which began with that introduction by the senator, grew louder when Cruz continued:

Religious bigotry is a cancer with many manifestations. ISIS, Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, and their state sponsors like Syria and Iran, are all engaged in a vicious genocidal campaign to destroy religious minorities in the Middle East.

Sometimes we are told not to lump these groups together, that we have to understand their so-called nuances and differences. But we shouldn’t try to parse different manifestations of evil that are on murderous rampage through the region. Hate is hate and murder is murder.

Instead of hearing Cruz’s remarks as a rallying cry to unity for those who are facing the same enemy, a small but very vocal group booed and heckled the statement for its support for Israel. Shouts of “Stop it!” and “No!” went up from the audience causing the senator to respond to their angry denials.

Although Cruz persisted for some minutes, putting aside his speech and speaking extemporaneously, he soon said that he could not stand with those “who could not stand with Israel.” “My heart weeps that the men and women here will not stand in solidarity with Jews and Christians alike who are persecuted by radicals who seek to murder them,” he said as he left the stage.

Senator Cruz had come to the IDC summit aware of certain facts of which many of the participants – even other members of Congress and some of the other speakers – were not aware. He knew, for instance, that in August a Syrian-American activist, Farid Ghadry, described the IDC summit as “a Hezbollah-backed stealth conference.”

Ghadry, a reform-minded Muslim, later retracted his post, but did not deny his assertion that “a Lebanese-Nigerian businessman and a Hezbollah ally named Gilbert Chagouri” was a “major backer and bankroller” of the summit.” Chagouri had a close relationship with the late brutal Nigerian Islamist dictator, Sani Abacha, as well. Ghadry revealed that most of the protest against Senator Cruz came from members of the Hizb al-Kawmi al-Souri, which he called, “a political party that is a staunch backer of Arab nationalism and the Assad regime.”

Many have written about this event with varyingdegrees of understanding. Those who have actually been working in counter-jihad, anti-Sharia, religious freedom arenas, of course, defended Senator Cruz. One of the best was Katie Gorka, who pointed out that to Cruz “even in as worthy a cause as defending Christians from extinction in the Middle East, we cannot compromise our fundamental commitment as Americans to the right of all people to live free from persecution and free from subjugation by totalitarian, supremacist ideologies, such as that espoused by Hezbollah.”

But Eric Metaxas, who offered the next day’s luncheon keynote address, did not just understand who the players were. He spoke about the critical spiritual implications of refusing to stand in solidarity with others who are persecuted. The best-selling author’s talk, “Unity with the Persecuted,” may not have been exactly what the audience was expecting, but it was what many needed to hear.

Before he began, Metaxas offered a prayer for both the persecuted Christians and other oppressed minorities of the Middle East and for The Rev. Dr. Canon Andrew White, the famous “Vicar of Baghdad.” White, who has lived in the community of St. George’s Anglican Church with Baghdad’s persecuted Christians, Jews, and Muslims, was to have been a speaker at the summit but had to withdraw because of illness. Even in his prayer, Metaxas was reminding the audience that not only should they be in unity with the persecuted, but that that persecuted should be in unity with each other – as they are in this beleaguered Baghdad community.

Metaxas then skillfully wove together the story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his stand against Nazis and in defense of Jews with the stand that the Church today must take against evil. He quoted Bonhoeffer, saying “silence in the face of evil is evil.” He explained that he had learned in his research for Bonhoeffer that many people that “claimed to be Christians” were silent because they were more “nationalistic” than they were Christian.

The author never mentioned the incident of the night before, but the truth was there for those who have ears to hear. Metaxas said gently but firmly that it was never appropriate to “conflate nationalism with Christian faith.” He made three points that show why Christian identity cannot be one with nationalism:

  1. The role of the Church is to be the conscience of the State. If it is one with the State – appeasing or compromising – it is abdicating being the Church.
  2. Satan is the one who divides the Church. After lightheartedly asking the audience, “you do believe in Satan, right?” Metaxas said, “We only see the true Church of Jesus Christ where there is unity.” He declared that the greatest enemy of Satan is unity in the Church.
  3. The Christian’s first allegiance is to Jesus of Nazareth (“Jesus the Jew,” he added), not to his or her nation.

Metaxas challenged especially American Christians to guard their remaining freedom and never take it for granted – both for their own sakes as well as for the sake of the impact that they could make for persecuted people around the world. He concluded with these words to the IDC crowd: “Speak up for your Christian faith. Speak up for your brothers and sisters. Repent of this silence. Rejoice to be in the Lamb’s Book of Life.” His talk was indeed about unity with the persecuted. But it was not about unity as a result of national identity or political solidarity – themes with which some, especially the shouters, in the IDC seemed more comfortable. It was about unity because the Church, one body around the world, is called to speak with one voice against evil, just as Senator Cruz had said the night before.

Faith J. H. McDonnell directs the Institute on Religion and Democracy’s Religious Liberty Program and Church Alliance for a New Sudan and is the author of Girl Soldier: A Story of Hope for Northern Uganda’s Children (Chosen Books, 2007).

  • AnneM040359

    God Bless Sen. Ted Cruz!

  • cree

    A new era of world wide religious persecution grows from irrational incitement.

    Faith commitment is synonymous with persevering courage against ignorance and hate; holding to the moral high ground, which includes, for some at least, weapons use when essential to fighting evil.

    Peace through strength actually means peace is not possible without strength, in this world.

  • http://www.stubbornthings.org NAHALKIDES

    It appears from this account the problem was a small group of anti-Semitic Muslims, but it may be the organization of the IDC itself was at fault. There is only one group persecuting Christians, Jews, and other minorities in the Middle East, and that is the Muslim majority. Perhaps this is the truth that could not be named at this particular conference. I feel sorry for Cruz, who stands head-and-shoulders above most other Republicans. Perhaps the answer is another conference, at which the Muslim identity of the perpetrators of this persecution is tackled head-on, is the answer.

    • faithmcdonnell

      There are other conferences — such as Coptic Solidarity and MECHRIC that have been around for many years.

  • Chadi Bou Habib

    Faith McDonnell, you are wrong. The parts of Cruz’s speech you are reproducing here were met with applauses, not with protests. People started reacting when he said “Christians have no greater ally than the Jewish state”. I am attaching the entire video of his speech, it runs from second 35 to minute 6 and shows the sequence of events. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xBG580olaj4 Eric Metaxas was excellent. He was totally focused on the plea of his audience, did not suggest that their cause is worthless unless subordinated to another one, nor did he suggest that they need to pass a test of political and religious compliance to deserve help.

    • faithmcdonnell

      I was sitting there. there were some murmurs and grumbling from the very beginning. And yes, Eric was excellent. No one is suggesting that the cause is worthless. I have been doing advocacy for that cause for 20 years. Nor does anyone think there needs to be a test of political or religious compliance — the people actually being persecuted in Iraq and Syria, etc. don’t have the luxury to think about those things.

      • Chadi Bou Habib

        Thank you for taking the time to reply. I was comparing Eric Metaxas behavior to that of Ted Cruz, not to yours. You are for sure doing a lot to advocate the cause of the persecuted. I am just saying that you should not defend what cannot be defended. Ted Cruz brought highly controversial and divisive political and territorial issues into the discussion and insisted on doing so, while this unique event was meant for something else. It was not about Israel, it was not about Palestine, it was about a forgotten cause, that of Middle-Eastern Christians who are being periodically slaughtered and exterminated since the first killings in Aleppo in 1850. Charlie Dent, a Republican Representative, who was also there, was outraged by the behavior of Cruz. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/09/11/gop-congressman-calls-cruz-remarks-to-christian-group-outrageous-and-incendiary/ David Benkof from the Jewish Journal thought what Cruz has done was unnecessary. http://www.jewishjournal.com/opinion/article/i_would_have_booed_ted_cruz_too Even Dennis Prager, who supports Cruz, thought that he should have structured his speech differently, and suggested a phrasing that is more sensitive to the audience. http://www.dennisprager.com/ted-cruzs-speech-arab-christians/ Anyway, it is time to put this incident behind and move forward. There is a lot of work for good people to do; the Jihadists are firmly holding to their evil task. Few days ago, they blew-up the Church of Armenian Martyrs in Deir-El-Zor in Eastern Syria. Our people in the Middle-East are now being denied even the right of resting in peace in their graves …

  • Simon Néhmé

    To Mr. Ted Cruz ,
    In complementary :

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aA8pN3UA5w

    Henry Morgenthau, Sr. : Jewish American Ambassador to the turkish empire,
    is the first – and the most active – who denounced high, privately
    and publicly the massacre of the Christians by the arabs,turkishs and
    Kurds, ( muslims wizirs and “christians” effendis ) and
    alerted his administration and the world : this empire was allied to
    the Arabs and Germany ( Teutons + Malteses “ Knights ”) .
    Nowadays, it continues the same way and again the same « chiefs »
    ‘s hordes accuse … Israêl !

    Simon Néhmé