Local Heroes: The Legacy of Christian Social Activists and Social Justice in the Middle East

Abstract

This article deals with Christian social justice traditions in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) using a comparative approach. Focusing on Lebanon as a case study, the trajectory of faith-based social welfare and social advocacy policy is explored from the time of the Great Plagues in the late Roman Empire, through the Great Famine of Mount Lebanon during WWI up until the revolutionary uprising (thawra) in the fall of 2019 and its ultimate failure in 2020. An attempt is made to determine why in the MENA progressive Christian movements have not exhibited the same vitality as was the case in the Global North as of the mid-nineteenth century and in many predominantly Christian regions of the Global South beginning with the anti-colonial uprisings in the twentieth century. The main cause for the weakness of progressive Christian movements in the MENA is located in the legacy of the Ottoman millet system which has been perpetuated within the sectarian power sharing mechanisms which are arguably at the root of the multiple crises now plaguing Lebanon. The author argues that the religious power elites (sulta) are one of the main pillars propping up systemic corruption in Lebanon and that currently the only Christian voices “speaking truth to power” are individual “local heroes” who base their social justice activism on both their personal faith and the traditions of Christian activism in other regions of the Global South. The article includes reference to an empirical study of 170 predominantly Christian social justice activists in the MENA, an overview of the best know “local heroes” in Lebanon, and an analysis of the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant social justice traditions in the MENA region from the mid-nineteenth century until today.