Christians in Lebanon

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MontChevalier

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Hail, 😃

I’ve heard that there’s been a growing number of Christians in Lebanon. Is this correct?

If so, why? And what sort of denominations are they? Has anyone been helping them at all? I know about my fair share of things that go on in the Levant, but the one about Christians giving rise there has been most peculiar to me. Perhaps someone could help me out on this?

Thank you for your time,
-MontChevalier
 
Where did you hear it? There are Melkites, Maronites and Syriac Catholics in Lebanon. There would also be Orthodox an other Christian denominations as well.
 
I have a friend from Lebanon and she is a Maronite. I was surprised when she told me that her part of Lebanon is mostly Catholic.
 
Lebanon doesn’t have a large Maronite community; rather, the Maronite community has a large role in Lebanon’s history. The monk after whom the Syriac Maronite Church is named, St. Maroun, came from Syria to Lebanon and preached there and attracted converts from among the Lebanese, who established monasteries and communities on Mt. Lebanon, Qadisha Valley, and other places all over the country. In a very real way, Lebanon is what it is because of the inheritance of Maronite influence and spirituality, however marginalized it may be today (and it is true; the Maronites are a shadow of what they once were in Lebanon, while they form a “super majority” in the diaspora).

If you can stomach the politicking, there is a fairly informative video series by the Lebanese Broadcasting Company called “The Confessions of Lebanon”, which devoted several hours over 4 episodes to cover the 1600 year history of this particular unique church and faith. As such, it is very abbreviated, but you are unlikely to find a more concise retelling from actual Maronites in Lebanon, as opposed to others with their own interests (John E. Joseph, Kamal Salibi and others, I’m looking at you).

It is available on DVD from Amazon.com (I couldn’t find You Tube clips, though they’re probably out there)
 
Lebanon does in fact have a large Maronite community compared to the population, if it weren’t for them, Lebanon would be no different than the neighboring Middle Eastern countries who’s Christian presence is both fractional and noninfluential. They form a majority of Eastern/Oriental Christians (Catholics and Orthodox) in Lebanon as well as in the diaspora whose presence is estimated to be well over 12 million. Although the numbers in Lebanon are down due to mass immigration, the numbers are slowly growing.
 
MontChevalier said:
It’s surprising to me because:

-Muslims
-Civil War
-Hate for Zionists
-Bad weather
-Angry mobs
-Al Qaeda

And several other reasons. :eek:
Click to expand...
Little of that has anything to do with the original inhabitants of what is today Lebanon who are … dare I say it … Christian. Christians, (predominantly Maronites, Greek Orthodox, and Melkites, but with a strong representation of Armenians & Syriacs, plus Latins, Copts, and Chaldeans) have been there (and in what is today Syria and Iraq) long before the “other religion” invaded, and long before the “other religion” even existed.

And BTW, the weather in Lebanon is quite lovely. It’s a Mediterranean climate.
 
malphono said:
Little of that has anything to do with the original inhabitants of what is today Lebanon who are … dare I say it … Christian. Christians, (predominantly Maronites, Greek Orthodox, and Melkites, but with a strong representation of Armenians & Syriacs, plus Latins, Copts, and Chaldeans) have been there (and in what is today Syria and Iraq) long before the “other religion” invaded, and long before the “other religion” even existed.

And BTW, the weather in Lebanon is quite lovely. It’s a Mediterranean climate.
Click to expand...
I knew about that. But I just thought they’d have been wiped out or something.

Lol hey, that’s awesome, maybe I’ll go visit there some time soon. It’s like I never left home. 😃
 
MontChevalier said:
It’s surprising to me because:

-Muslims
-Civil War
-Hate for Zionists
-Bad weather
-Angry mobs
-Al Qaeda

And several other reasons. :eek:
Click to expand...
Let me just say that, in my experience, the Christians of Lebanon dislike the Zionists just as much as anyone else in the region. Zionism (as a political/religious philosophy) has nothing to do with Christianity, and is in fact quite antithetical to it.

Peace and God bless!
 
MontChevalier said:
Hail, 😃

I’ve heard that there’s been a growing number of Christians in Lebanon. Is this correct?

If so, why? And what sort of denominations are they? Has anyone been helping them at all? I know about my fair share of things that go on in the Levant, but the one about Christians giving rise there has been most peculiar to me. Perhaps someone could help me out on this?

Thank you for your time,
-MontChevalier
Click to expand...
Most definately increasing. See the statistics.
 
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