Persecuted Christians Have Much to Teach the Church

Most Western media coverage of Near Eastern Christians focuses on their persecution, and their plight deserves to be better known. But Christians in the Near East are more than an oppressed people. They belong to unique national communities rooted in a premodern, pre-Islamic landscape, suffused with the Semitic culture of the early church. As Western culture turns against itself, the endangered faithful might help us more than we can help them.