Religion: Peace Maker or War Maker?
Rev. Habib Badr presented a lecture on Monday 20th of February 2017 at the Alumni Club of American University of Beirut (AUB) This lecture was organized by AUB Alumni Association (AAA) and Karaz w Laimoon group.
The lecture was on a controversial issue of religion: Peacemaker or War maker? Dr. Badr after defining what religion is and the different types of world religion as missionary (Christianity, Islam and Buddhism) and non-missionary (Druze Faith, Judaism, Sikhism), and how they hold on "The Truth", he said that in principle violence is not compatible with religion unless violence is prescribed within a certain religion (such as physical punishment to transgressors of the precepts of the religion, or execution of apostates). Since religion is practiced by so-called religious people, and these people cannot be always trusted, and they are subjected to psychological, social, economic, political culture, so religion maybe used or abused.
The issue here is whether religion can become a "violence maker", said Dr. Badr, and violence is not restricted to war. In this sense, unfortunately, religion is indeed a cause of violence and war. So religion can be either a peace maker or a conflict maker. Thus the new title should have been: Religion: Peacemaker and War maker.
Middle East's First Female Pastor
Middle East's first female pastor, Rev. Rola Sleiman, was ordained in the National Evangelical Church of Tripoli, Lebanon, on Sunday 26th of February 2017. Rev. Habib Badr with many Protestant local and international ministers, along with teachers, students from NEST and many faithful believers participated in the ceremony.
Rev. Rola was born in Tripoli and graduated from Near East School of Theology. She is 40 years old, full of love and dedication to the church, and to her own people. She has been serving her community and Tripoli Evangelical church, which is part of the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon, since 2005. Adding to this, Tripoli is the second largest city in Lebanon that confronted with enormous security, economic and religious challenges.
People were very happy and pastors were very proud to see an equal female minister with them.
Al Azhar Conference and Christian Muslim Relations
Rev. Habib Badr was invited by Al Azhar to participate in two-day international conference on freedom, citizenship, diversity and integration. Scholars, church leaders and thinkers have come from different countries to promote peace and dialogue. The conference was co-organized by UAE’s Muslim Council of Elders and Al Azhar global's seat of Sunni Muslim Learning, and took place in Cairo, from February 28th till 1st of March. Rev. Badr had the opportunity to address the subject of Christian Muslim coexistence and the diversity experience in Lebanon.
World Day of Prayer in Lebanon 2017
The World Day of Prayer (WDP) this year was celebrated at the Near East School of Theology, Beirut on the 3rd of March. The theme was prepared by the women in Philippines and inspired by the Gospel of Matthew 20:1-16, "Am I being Unfair to You?" The message of the day affirmed that in order to build and sustain a community, it is necessary to practice compassion and care for one another. Maybe this is the key to answer the question “Am I Being Unfair to you?” The speaker of the day was Dr. Renée Ghattas, a member of WDP's committee in Lebanon. Another member of WDP's committee from our church who helped in organizing this day is Mrs. Samia Boulad.
