Among the Christian individuals or communities that function in Syria, not many command such universal respect or demonstrate such universal compassion. On the contrary, the response of organised Christianity to events in Syria has been every bit as confused and ideologically driven as the response of most other observers.
Generally, the local Catholic and Orthodox churches remain reluctant to condemn Bashar al-Assad, whom they regard as their protector against the furies of Islamism. That in turn influences the hierarchs and adherents of those churches in other places. Meanwhile, some luminaries of America's religious right (though not of the isolationist far-right) saw their country's missile attack as a noble act by Donald Trump: a sign of his virtuousness compared with the wicked sloppiness of his predecessor. As they present things, the individual most responsible for Syria's suffering was Barack Obama.
Read Full Article »