A Spiritual Summit at the Homeland-Message

Professor Michel Abs

The Secretary General of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC)

The attacks that have shaken Lebanon over the past few months, continuing a long series of assaults that have devastated the country over years, and even decades, have disrupted many of the balances upon which societies generally are built.

Political, economic, psychological, and demographic balances have all been disturbed, along with other fragile equilibria that were never truly stable to begin with, given everything the country has endured, and continues to endure, over the past decades.

The latest war waged against Lebanon by forces of destruction, with each round usually harsher than the one before it, has produced major disruptions that will not easily subside in the foreseeable future, nor within the limits of the resources currently available. This has led to sweeping political, social, and economic chaos, further aggravated by social media platforms that open the door to those who seek to fish in troubled waters.

As a result of the large-scale displacement that took place over recent months, the first signs of internal tensions have begun to surface, along with attempts to tamper with civil peace. Everyone senses that a boiling cauldron is about to erupt, whenever the right elements of ignition become available.

In light of these realities, evident to any discerning observer, action was needed to address one of the most influential and effective factors capable of creating confusion and unrest in Lebanon: the sectarian factor. Political and security alignments are largely built upon political sectarianism, which formed the basis of the National Pact and was later reaffirmed at the end of the civil war.

Because of displacement, unemployment, poverty, and the pressure of limited living spaces, animosities have developed among some segments of the Lebanese people. These feelings have roots in both the recent and distant past, and have taken the form of mutual demonization among Lebanese groups, reinforced by hate speech that is being circulated and amplified through far-reaching social media platforms.

Against this backdrop, Lebanon’s religious leaders, through the National Islamic-Christian Dialogue Committee (ICNDC), took the initiative to convene a spiritual summit. Its purpose was to remove any religious cover from negative or destructive action, and to affirm the solidarity of religious leaders around fundamental and indisputable principles, foremost among them unity in shared life and the sovereignty of the homeland, in addition to other constants detailed in the final statement issued by the spiritual summit held yesterday in a decent Community House, at the invitation and under the patronage of its esteemed host, a longstanding pioneer of dialogue.

In the darkest circumstances, and amid political and security tensions, religious leaders succeeded in producing a unifying and inclusive text, capable of restraining those who seek to exploit religion as a tool of politics.

Through this summit, and through the consensus it expressed on social and national principles, Lebanon proved once again that it is the homeland - message, a space that safeguards free thought, and a social and cultural laboratory whose example is relevant far beyond its borders. What succeeds in Lebanon may succeed anywhere in the world, precisely because of the intensity and richness of its cultural diversity.

This model of social unity, emanating from a common life among people of different backgrounds, is a universal model that must be preserved, whatever the sacrifices. It should also be conveyed to all societies marked by cultural, religious, or ethnic diversity.

What matters to us at the Middle East Council of Churches, which took part in organizing this spiritual summit, is to say to all our people in this beloved region, our homeland: control hate speech, and learn to accept difference among the components of your societies, for it is a source of richness and progress. Diversity, interaction within diversity, and dialogue are the future of human culture; without them, its fate will be inevitable ruin.

We thank the Lord for His blessings, foremost among them the gift of reason, which enables us to remain vigilant, and to recognize, before it is too late, the dangers surrounding us, so that we may take the necessary preventive action.

We, who belong to humanity, have no instrument other than the word. We draw it forth in the face of an unjust ruler, an oppressive occupier, and a bewildered ignorant one.

In the beginning was the Word — and the Word shall remain!