ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 6, 1997 TAG: 9704070005
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BETHLEHEM, WEST BANK
SOURCE: CHARLES W. HOLMES/COX NEWS SERVICE
Victor Batarseh, a Palestinian whose Christian ancestral roots reach back 900 years to the time of the Crusades, is a lonesome man these days.
Born 63 years ago in Bethlehem, Batarseh, a physician and Roman Catholic, has seen his family steadily depart the turbulent Holy Land.
His four siblings and three grown children live in America, part of a westward tide of Palestinians - Christian and Muslim - who fled political and economic repression.
``The community is moving,'' Batarseh lamented. ``If things keep up like this, we'll have churches without Christians in them.''
In parts of the Middle East, that day already has come. In this century, the creation of the Jewish state, the ensuing Israeli-Arab wars and the rise of Islamic fundamentalism have made Christians a small and shrinking minority.
As Christianity approaches the start of its third millennium, it has fallen on hard times in the place it all began. In some parishes, only a few nuns, monks or priests remain to carry out the daily rites as their congregations have vanished.
Political and religious repression of Christians is not unique to the Middle East. A 1996 report published by the Washington, D.C.-based Freedom House documented growing religious persecution against Christians worldwide, from Cuba to Saudi Arabia to China.
But perhaps nowhere is the plight as dramatic as in the Holy Land, fabled in the Christian West as the spiritual platform where Jesus of Nazareth preached and his disciples carried forth the word.
Reality is far from the story-book images of Sunday school.
Throughout history, political clout has determined the subsistence of religion in the Middle East. Today, Christians are without it, and in places like Israel, Egypt and Lebanon, they suffer economic hardships and harassment because of it.
``The reasons for the emigration are still there, in that Christians are always going to be second-class citizens either in a Jewish state or in a Muslim-majority state. They are never going to be a force,'' said the Rev. Jerome Murphy O'Connor, a scholar at the French Dominican School of Bible and Archaeological Studies in Jerusalem.
The Vatican has announced that Pope John Paul II will visit Lebanon in May, the first papal visit to the Middle East since 1964, prompted in part to reassure the dwindling Christian community still living there after the bitter, bloody civil war. The pope also has expressed his desire to visit Jerusalem before 2000.
There are an estimated 6 million to 10 million Arab Christians in the Middle East, about 5 percent of the population, according to statistics at the Jerusalem-based Christian Information Center. While exact figures are difficult to come by, experts agree the proportion has slipped steadily over the years.
In Bethlehem alone, the ratio of Christians to Muslims has undergone a complete reversal in the last 50 years - from a 70 percent majority of Christians at the end of World War II to a 30 percent minority today.
At the start of Lebanon's civil war in 1975, Christians dominated the country's political and economic establishment and represented about half of the population.
Armed Christian factions were responsible, in part, for starting and sustaining the war. It cost them dearly. Today, Christians represent only about 30 percent of Lebanon's 3.7 million people - and their clout has faded.
The largest Christian Arab population resides in Egypt. The Copts, among the oldest of denominations, believed to have been founded by the disciple Mark, range in numbers from 3 million to 10 million in varying government and church estimates. For years, they have been targeted for attack by Muslim militants and discriminated against by the secular Egyptian government.
In Israel, some Arab Christian villages continue to thrive, while others simply disappeared after the war that gave Israel its independence in 1948. A tide of refugees, Christians and Muslims, left Israel and later the West Bank and Gaza Strip when Israel captured those territories in 1967.
In Israel and the Palestinian-ruled territories - home to Jerusalem and Bethlehem - Christians number fewer than 200,000 among a population of 5 million Jews and 2.5 million Muslims.
Across the Middle East, Christians tend to come from the merchant classes and receive their education in better-equipped, church-supported schools.
As a rule, they are more affluent, more learned and more able to escape the confines of Israeli occupation or repressive Muslim regimes for travel and jobs in the United States and Europe.
The 1993 peace between Israel and the Palestinians, which ended Israeli military occupation in parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, sparked hope among Christian leaders that Palestinians would begin returning. But continued economic depression and political unrest has continued the outflow of Christians and Muslims alike.
Likewise in Lebanon, the end of the 15-year civil war in 1990 stirred hopes that Christians would return.
Last year, Emile Konsor, a Lebanese priest, came home after 20 years abroad. A Greek Catholic priest from the ancient port city of Tyre, Konsor said he felt he was needed more in southern Lebanon than in America or Australia, his most recent home.
But he finds himself in a minority, as most Christians who departed Lebanon's carnage have remained overseas. In some parts of the country, Christian villages remain virtual ghost towns.
His country's myriad Christian and Muslim factions remain divided. Syrian troops occupy much of Lebanon and Israeli troops control the southern border region in an ongoing war with Muslim guerrillas.
Lebanese electoral laws minimize the Christian vote, prompting some Christians to boycott elections last year and in 1992. Syria's dominant role over Lebanese domestic affairs prompted a government roundup in December of about 80 Lebanese Christians deemed hostile to Syria.
Some Lebanese political analysts believe the Muslim dominance of the post-war era could create a backlash that could reignite the war.
``The Christians are saying, `How long are we going to be marginalized?' This is a recipe for future problems,'' said Farid el Kazen, a political scientist at the American University of Beirut.
Still, Konsor said he will stay in Lebanon. He and other Christians are bolstered by the upcoming papal visit and the Middle East peace process they hope will eventually bring stability to Lebanon.
``The pope's visit to Lebanon is to tell the people: you have to stay here. It is your country,'' Konsor said.
But the deck was always stacked against Christians with the rise of Jewish and Arab nationalism in the early 20th century, said Daniel Rossing, an Israeli scholar on religion.
The predicament was particularly troublesome for Arab Christians, whose theology is rooted in the same Old Testament that Jews evoked to justify the creation of Israel.
``Stressing the Jewish roots of Christianity is not the way to play favor with your Arab Muslim neighbors,'' Rossing said. ``When your Bible is filled with references to Jerusalem and Israel, you've got a problem.'' Still, Christians like Batarseh in Bethlehem and Konsor in Lebanon insist they will remain.
``It is very difficult to live here,'' said Batarseh staring a portrait of Madonna and child on his office wall. ``But it's home.''
As a religious concept, the state of Israel is the fulfillment of a biblical dream to Christians whose theology is steeped in the Old Testament.
But in practice, the political reality of Israel has essentially created two Christian camps: those who defend the Jewish state and those whose sympathies rest with the Palestinians and their Christian minority.
Fundamentalist Protestants such as Baptists and Evangelicals tend to sympathize with the modern state of Israel, believing its creation is the realization of biblical prophesies.
Older, establishment churches such as the Roman Catholics, Greek Orthodox and Anglicans take a critical view of Israeli policy as they seek to protect the some 200,000 Arab Christians in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
LENGTH: Long : 144 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Color map by KRT. Graphic.by CNB