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A Letter from a Lebanese Maronite to American Christians
“If one part suffers, every part suffers with it.” — 1 Corinthians 12:26
I spent two months in Lebanon this summer and it changed how I see faith, war, and survival. What follows is a letter from my friend Mayssam Daaboul, a Christian professor at the University of Science and Technology in Beirut.
American and Western Christians are told to fear the Middle East — that it is full of monsters, suicide bombers, and desert dwellers. But no one reminds them: this is the Land of Christ and the believers who have stayed closest to his tradition.
Or is it meant for you to forget?
I believe so.
They’ve turned the birthplace of our Savior into a graveyard in your mind. They’ve told you that we are different, dangerous, not worth praying for. That we don’t even exist!
But I write to you from Lebanon, from the land of Maron, St. Charbel, and the monks of the Kadisha Valley — from the land of incense and blood — to say: we are still here. We are still praying. We have not forgotten you, even as you forget us.
