Two-and-a-half years ago Fr. Joseph Huneycutt traveled to Syria as part of an official delegation of Christian pastors and leaders to investigate the emerging political crisis and to assess the situation of Syria’s Christians. The September 2011 trip was sponsored by the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of North America, and a report of the delegation’s findings was issued here. Now in its third year, the Syria conflict has taken countless lives and has left much of the country destroyed. Reports seem to come in weekly detailing the struggles of Syria’s ancient Christian community. Reports of kidnapping, murder, rape, torture, and destruction of churches at the hands of rebel insurgents are now a common theme of the Syria crisis. Last December, Fr. Joseph’s parish, St. Joseph Orthodox church in Houston, hosted the “Hope, Humanity, Healing” benefit concert to spread awareness of the plight of Syria’s Christians and to raise funds for the relief of all suffering innocents of the conflict. Fr. Joseph agreed to speak with Levant Report this week:Read the rest here.
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What tools the Antiochian converts are! Even now they're apologists for Assad. I don't mind at all comparing this to people like Lindbergh who found the German chancellor to be such a *reasonable* man! Why all those things you hear about him are exaggerated. When Philip says jump, the jump, when he says travel, they travel. What losers.
ReplyDeleteYou have no bloody idea what you are talking about.
ReplyDeleteBashar is the devil you know. He is the Christian's last hope in Syria, and probably in Lebanon and Jordan as well. Nobody else gives a **** about them.
Bob,
ReplyDeleteI'd like to point you in the direction of an old article written by well known Baylor History professor Philip Jenkins: http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/syrias-christians-risk-eradication/
Jenkins writes:
"Quite apart from their political influence, Christians have done very well indeed in modern Syria. Although they try to avoid drawing too much attention, it is no secret that Aleppo (for instance) has a highly active Christian population. Christian numbers have even grown significantly since the 1990s, as Iraqis fled the growing chaos in that country. Officially, Christians today make up around 10 percent of Syria’s people, but that is a serious underestimate, as it omits so many refugees, not to mention thinly disguised crypto-believers. A plausible Christian figure is at least 15 percent, or three million people.
To describe the Ba’athist state’s tolerance is not, of course, to justify its brutality, or its involvement in state-sanctioned crime and international terrorism. But for all that, it has sustained a genuine refuge for religious minorities, of a kind that has been snuffed out elsewhere in the region."
The Antiochian delegation in 2011 acknowledged that their express purpose was to investigate the Christian situation. They asked questions of Assad that were critical of him - and this, to his face. Yet they also came to realize that there was much more to the story than the mainstream media's narrative.
Which Syria would you rather live in: Ba'athist Syria or Rebel controlled Syria (Nusra Front, ISIS, Islamic Front, etc...)?
At the end of the day, there are people that have been to Syria, and have first hand experience, and people that have not. It is impossible for those that have direct knowledge of Syrian society to fall into the standard propaganda.
You seem to be one of those dupes that's swallowed the simplistic black and white narrative about Assad peddled in unthinking mainstream media.