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In ‘historic’ move, Trump envoy hosts interfaith meeting
Jason Greenblatt, the US administration’s Special Envoy for International Negotiations, on Thursday met with senior Jewish, Christian and Muslim religious leaders in Jerusalem, reportedly calling the meeting “the most important” of his visit. Greenblatt — a close confidant of US President Donald Trump — hosted the Council of Religious Institutions in the Holy Land at the US Consulate-General in Jerusalem just before he met for a second time this week with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to one participant, Greenblatt said the 90-minute encounter, attended by both Israeli chief rabbis and the chief justice of the Palestinian Authority’s Sharia court, was the most important meeting of his weeklong tour through the region. “The leaders agreed that the search for peace must be governed by respect for life and human dignity for all people; to work together for peace, reconciliation, and a just solution; and to reject all incitement to violence,” said a statement released by the US Embassy in Tel Aviv.
What happens when persecuted Christians fight back?
Right now, geopolitical analysts and anti-terrorism experts may not see anti-Christian persecution around the world as a real security risk, in part because Christians tend not to fight back. Africa, and Nigeria in particular, illustrates that you can't count on such forbearance enduring forever. In recent months, hundreds of lives have been lost in southern Kaduna State in central Nigeria as a result of violence pitting nomadic ranchers against local farmers. As it happens, the vast majority of those ranchers are Muslim and the farmers Christian, so inevitably the situation has a clear religious dimension. Nigeria is the world’s largest mixed Muslim/Christian country, with a population of around 190 million almost evenly divided between Muslims and Christians. As an imam in Abuja, the national capital, once told me, it’s like the Vatican and Saudi Arabia rolled into one.
Christian influence
As a Christian how much influence do you have? Do your friends and family consider your opinions? Are you able, with the help of the Holy Spirit, able to change people’s views and therefore, alter the rest of their lives? Do Christians as a whole have any influence on society? If we do is it positive or negative? From colonial days through the 19th century America had respect for the Bible and the people who claimed to follow it. When a minister spoke, inside or outside of the pulpit, their words were considered truth and respected. Even the town drunk would sit up and listen when a preacher started quoting from the Good Book. Today, the portrayal of Christians in society is often like we are idiots; disconnected from reality. This is a far cry from the respect giving in a bygone era. Preaching on a street corner, common back in the day is unheard of now and if done would be accompanied by possible jail time or at least a penalty to pay.
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