L-R: Dean Michael A. Simons, W. Mark Lanier, Professor Mark L. Movsesian, Student Fellow John Boersma '15, and Student Fellow Stephanie Cipolla '16
September 17, 2014
“We are witnessing one of the great human rights catastrophes in history—a genocide. Yet the outside world has done relatively little in response.” This sobering news was shared by Professor Mark L. Movsesian during a talk he gave earlier this month on Religious Freedom for Mideast Christians: Yesterday and Today sponsored by the Lanier Theological Library in Houston.
Professor Movsesian delivered his remarks to several hundred people gathered in a rebuilt Byzantine-era chapel and in two overflow seating areas on the library campus. Reflecting on the plight of Christian communities blighted by widespread religious and social intolerance, he addressed the history of Christians in the Middle East and the terrorist and other threats they face today. The talk had personal significance for Professor Movsesian, who shared: “It was very meaningful for me to give the lecture in the library’s chapel. My own ancestors came from a city in Cappadocia that’s not far from where the original chapel stood, and it’s quite possible that they were familiar with the building. It’s amazing, when you think about it, that I was able to give an address on Mideast Christians in a replica of a church my own ancestors might have known.”
The lecture was a fitting companion to a panel discussion held earlier the same day at the Lanier Library, a major center for the study of the Bible and Church history that has hosted leading scholars such as N.T. Wright (University of St. Andrews) and Alister McGrath (University of Oxford). Professor Movsesian participated in the panel along with Dean Michael A. Simons, Professor James Hoffmeier (Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Chicago), and Fr. Mario Arroyo (Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston). The conversation addressed a range of topics, including religious-law arbitration, the treatment of religious minorities in Islam, and US government counter-terrorism policies.
Watch the program video.
“The panel discussion and the talk given by Professor Movsesian allowed me to see how the issues in law and religion and related legal issues I study at St. John’s have real-world relevance,” said John Boersma ’15, a student fellow of the Law School’s Center for Law and Religion. “Learning from experts in the field about a topic so critical to understanding current world events was a unique opportunity and a wonderful experience.”
Charles Mickey, director of the Lanier Library, organized the program. "When this lecture was scheduled about one year in advance, the topic didn’t seem so urgent as it became because of happenings and headlines in the weeks just preceding the event,” he noted, adding: “Professor Movsesian delivered a superb lecture that was important, informative, and inspiring. The audience was blessed with an excellent overview of church history as the background for current events. He also outlined practical steps everyone can take to raise awareness of the terrible treatment Christians are receiving in the Mideast and to oppose it. The panel discussion in the afternoon included matters of religious liberty in the Mideast and beyond.” The audience of hundreds will expand to thousands who will be able to watch and listen to the program on the library's website and through DVDs in the months ahead.
“The plight of Christians in the Middle East was one of the topics addressed at this summer’s Rome conference on international religious freedom, which St. John’s hosted with the Libera Università Maria SS. Assunta (LUMSA),” Dean Simons said. “At the private Papal audience opening that event, Pope Francis expressed his great pain to know that Christians in the world are suffering under tremendous discrimination. I’m thankful to Mark Lanier and the Lanier Theological Library for giving us an opportunity to continue the dialogue on this important subject."