Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac, Academic Dean at Bethlehem Bible College and Pastor of Christmas Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bethlehem.
Two years ago, my PhD supervisor introduced me to the work of Dr. Munther Isaac, a biblical scholar and pastor from Bethlehem. Prior to my assignments (reading Isaac’s The Other Side of the Wall and listening to a sermon he preached on the book of Daniel), I was ignorant of the existence of Palestinian Christians and the conditions in which they live. In the years since, I have continued to pay attention to his work through Bethlehem Bible College and its Christ at the Checkpoint Conference.
I have increased my attentiveness to Dr. Isaac’s postings on social media since the dramatic and tragic increase in violence following the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023. I wholeheartedly echo his pleas for the loss of every life to be lamented, for violence from any of the respective groups toward others to be abandoned as a means toward any solution––meaning there needs to be an immediate ceasefire. Isaac’s commitment to love of neighbor and rejection of violence resonates deeply with that of two other voices I have spent a lot of time studying in the past few years: Thomas Merton and Martin Luther King, Jr., and I hear each of the three voices coming from varying but thoroughly Christian perspectives.
As I have listened, I have also had a deep desire for these Christian Palestinian voices to be heard by my fellow Christians in North America. As evidenced by the fact that I had no idea of their existence until I was introduced to them in my PhD studies in my 40s, their stories are largely invisible in the frequent news and conversations around me about their circumstances. I want to highlight their voices and allow them to describe their own experiences.
The further I have dug in, the more fascinating stories I have found. In addition to those linked above, here are a few of my favorites to date, each from a different perspective:
Elias Chacour: Like Munther Isaac, Chacour is a Palestinian Christian scholar and clergy, but unlike Isaac, he is an Israeli citizen. Isaac called Chacour’s Blood Brothers: The Dramatic Story of a Palestinian Christian Working for Peace in Israel a “classic and must-read by all those involved in this topic.” The book is excellent, and here is a 30-minute video summary of Chacour’s story.
Lisa Loden: She is an Israeli Messianic Jew whose Zionist views changed when she met a group of Palestinian Christians. She now partners with Salim Munayer (a colleague of Munther Isaac at Bethlehem Bible College) in peacemaking efforts between Palestinians and Israelis. They co-authored Through My Enemy’s Eyes: Envisioning Reconciliation in Israel-Palestine, and she has done fascinating podcast interviews here and here.
Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger: An Israeli rabbi whose perspective changed dramatically once he began to know some of his Palestinian neighbors. He now works to help each group value the humanity of their neighbors through Roots/Judur/Shorashim. Hear an interview with him by a fellow rabbi here, an American Jew here, and an American Christian here.
Before reading Dr. Isaac’s work and beginning to explore these issues, I often dismissed the variety of opinions of North American Christians on some theological topics as things that it is okay for us to agree to disagree on. Since reading The Other Side of the Wall, however, it feels like much more of an issue of integrity for me to speak up when those differences of opinion have costs of human lives attached to them––especially when those lives are among groups that are too often invisible to the majority in my culture.