This is the inaugural column of a new commentary for SAT-7 USA called “Good News from the Middle East.”
Good News is a play on words. First, Good News signals we’ll endeavor to bring you positive feedback, edifying stories, God’s blessings in the face of adversity, accounts of actual progress of any kind in the Middle East. Second, Good News is about the Gospel, the biblical redemption narrative through which Jesus offers forgiveness and hope to all who respond to his name.
While good news from the Middle East is virtually absent in American media, “Good News” presenting a God of unconditional love is virtually unknown to the ears of more than 500 million people living in the 22 countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). That’s a disturbing fact, because it perpetuates hopelessness both here and there.
American Christians tend to look at MENA through filters: 1) cultural differences greater than the average person recognizes, 2) politics involving two wars, 3) residual anger relating to 9/11, 4) frustration with seemingly intractable problems, 5) fear rooted in physical or cultural or religious threats, real and apparent, to our well-being and way of life, 6) inclination to trust and support Israelis while withholding the same for Palestinians, and 7) difficult as it is to admit, bias, prejudice, and sometimes racist perspectives.
When I say “filters” I’m not blaming. I understand our anxiety. Nor am I implying our concerns are baseless, only that they can blur our vision for what God is doing and what he may ask of us. MENA people are either sinners saved by grace or sinners in need of grace, just like us.
So as believers who acknowledge God’s sovereignty we ought to celebrate good news while communicating Good News. In this historical moment, SAT-7 is the best way to do this. It’s an uncensored purveyor of Good News, and that’s good news for us all, because Jesus can change the future of MENA one heart at a time.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2010
Originally posted at www.sat7usa.org January 19, 2010.
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