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Christianity Today, April, 2008 |

'My Heart Is in Gaza'

A dwindling Christian population battles fear and economic hardship.

Jeremy Weber | posted 3/10/2008 08:46AM

Gaza Baptist Church used to draw hundreds of Palestinian worshipers to its two Sunday services. But on a recent Sunday in January, less than 10 people risked attending the only evangelical church in the ...

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Mary Perry

Posted: March 12, 2008 10:04 AM

Thank you, Ameer, for your thoughtful comments of March 10. I agree with you that much of the violence is not necessarily against true followers of Jesus Christ, but in reaction to what the word Christian has come to mean in the Muslim world. Instead of seeing a reflection of the values of Jesus, the world views Christian America as an arrogant, war mongering, immoral bully willing to kill the innocent for it's own selfish benefit. As a Christian, I would like to believe that this isn't true, but my husband and I know many Muslim and non-American friends who view the USA this way. We are thankful for the privilege of knowing them and hearing their viewpoint and pray they can see a true reflection of Jesus Christ in our flawed but honest lives.

Gordon

Posted: March 11, 2008 11:32 PM

Regarding Brother Andrew's ministry to members of Hamas, see his valuable book Light Force [ http://tinyurl.com/2ryafx ], which describes in some detail his outreach to its members over many years. The situation in Palestine is unfortunate and surely there's plenty of blame to go around, but in simple humanitarian terms, American Christians need to understand it would be hard for any group of people to remain in limbo for so many decades. When my wife and I visited Israel/Palestine in 1985, the refugee situation was already four decades old. It's hard to believe it's now been another 23 years since, and a whole other generation has grown up in these camps and jammed into Gaza. Violence is certainly not the answer, but I can't help feeling concern for the young people, in particular, who desperately need something to hope for.

Robert

Posted: March 11, 2008 1:36 AM

Perhaps CT would like to take another look at that lead article they published about a year ago featuring Brother Andrew telling us how brave he was going and preaching to Hamas, and rebuking all others for being so afraid. He told us that Hamas was actually very open to listening to the gospel. I found this to not only be perplexing, but naive, if not a total distortion of reality. I don't know how Brother Andrew got cozy with Hamas, but I suspect that he was probably bringing along with him some sort of aid package from his organization, and they gave a benign tolerance to his message. The Baptist church in Gaza, the only light of the gospel in that whole country, has been ministering authentically to all the people around them, but now only 10 believers can muster the courage to go to church on Sundays. Maybe they need an inspirational message from Brother Andrew.

Anna	Posted: March 10, 2008 11:30 PM

Islam is killing Christians and keeping them 2nd class citizens in Islamic countries and this is taught to Muslims in the Koran and Shiah Law. Israelies are not killing Christians or treating them as 2nd class citizens. They aren't even doing that to the Muslims living in Israel. It's time that Christians stopped babying Islam and started treating it like the sickening hating religion it is. Women aren't for just being controlled by men and producing more men. Men aren't supposed to be killing themselves to get 10 virgins as reward. U.S. support of Israel giving permission to Muslims to kill infidels is an excuse. War is for freeing people not to enslave them. The Muslims say Islam is from Abraham so why hate the Jews so much Just out populate this tiny population like Muslims have done in other countries they wanted to conquer. Let their women do their job. Israel is an excuse to divert Muslims from the truth, that Islam is a fake religion forced upon the conquered for power.

Ameer Raschid

Posted: March 10, 2008 5:04 PM

As a Muslim American, I condemn the violence against Christians as unIslamic and prompted by a misguided fanatical zeal that equates Chrisitanity with the US Christian fundamentalist support of Israel and a government that gives lip service to Christian principles If the Palestinian Muslims had acted according to Islam rather than Arab nationalism mistakenly promoted to counter Jewish nationalism, they would have had peace with justice and their own state decades ago.

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