If free Christianity falls in Lebanon—and Lebanon is the last sanctuary of Christianity in the East—it will disappear not only across the Middle East, but also in Asia and Africa. (p. 4)
If free Christianity falls in Lebanon—and Lebanon is the last sanctuary of Christianity in the East—it will disappear not only across the Middle East, but also in Asia and Africa. (p. 4)
Source: Charles Malek’s Letter to the Maronites 3
In our day and age, it is an extremely perilous situation that in the entire Middle East Christianity is only truly free in Lebanon—free not through illusions and undue assumptions, but free in exactly the same way as it is…
In our day and age, it is an extremely perilous situation that in the entire Middle East Christianity is only truly free in Lebanon—free not through illusions and undue assumptions, but free in exactly the same way as it is in Europe and in America. (p. 4)
Source: Charles Malek’s Letter to the Maronites 2
A free Lebanon is of priceless value in the general existential-humanistic design of the Middle East, and the Maronites are entrusted with this value, perhaps even more than others are. (3)
A free Lebanon is of priceless value in the general existential-humanistic design of the Middle East, and the Maronites are entrusted with this value, perhaps even more than others are. (3)
Source: Charles Malek’s Letter to the Maronites 1
When therefore a well-meaning Lebanese or foreigner comes along and says to me, ‘Forget about your religion which is the deepest you know, and adopt with me a new deepest based on economics or politics or philosophy,’ I tell him:…
When therefore a well-meaning Lebanese or foreigner comes along and says to me, ‘Forget about your religion which is the deepest you know, and adopt with me a new deepest based on economics or politics or philosophy,’ I tell him: ‘I have the highest respect for these things and we desperately need them in Lebanon and the Near East, but do you realize what you are asking me? Can I be ashamed, need I be ashamed and embarrassed, about the deepest I know when this deepest matured in these lands and when this is its status throughout the world? When people in Pakistan and India and Africa turn to Mecca in their prayers, and when people in Paris and Rome and London and Berlin and New York turn to Bethlehem and Nazareth and Jerusalem in their deepest adoration and love, are you seriously asking me to be different from all these men—me, me, who come myself from Lebanon and the Near East? No, my friend, I have the greatest possible honor of sticking to my deepest, and of adjusting every other deepest to the deepest I know.’
Source: Free Christianity in the Near East and the West 9
The Orthodox are keenly conscious of their existential status as a Christian minority group in a vast Muslim sea, although in Lebanon this sense, so far as Lebanon thinks only of itself, namely, so far as Lebanon is independent from…
The Orthodox are keenly conscious of their existential status as a Christian minority group in a vast Muslim sea, although in Lebanon this sense, so far as Lebanon thinks only of itself, namely, so far as Lebanon is independent from the rest of the Middle East, is considerably mitigated by the knowledge that they belong to a total body politic which is itself a community of minorities, some of which indeed are themselves Muslim.
Source: Free Christianity in the Near East and the West 7
The conception of history as unitary and purposeful first dawned in the Middle East. And today the greatest service that history can perform in the Middle East, both as the making of history and the writing of history, is to…
The conception of history as unitary and purposeful first dawned in the Middle East. And today the greatest service that history can perform in the Middle East, both as the making of history and the writing of history, is to help in restoring wholeness and integrity to its future and unity and continuity to its past.
Source: Free Christianity in the Near East and the West 5
Our aim is that Lebanon enjoy the clear distinction of being the only country in the Middle East in which the problem of minorities has received its complete resolution.
Our aim is that Lebanon enjoy the clear distinction of being the only country in the Middle East in which the problem of minorities has received its complete resolution.
Source: Free Christianity in the Near East and the West 2
The Christian society in Lebanon occupies a special position owing to the fact that it has been free and has enjoyed a continuous history down the centuries. For this reason, the Lebanon we want to build up is anxious that…
The Christian society in Lebanon occupies a special position owing to the fact that it has been free and has enjoyed a continuous history down the centuries. For this reason, the Lebanon we want to build up is anxious that the Christians in it remain in fact free, secure and masters of themselves and of their own values and destiny…
Source: Free Christianity in the Near East and the West 1