Title
Honoring and celebrating Palestinian theologian and educator, Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac, the Pastor of Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem and the Lutheran Church in Beit Sahour, Dean of Bethlehem Bible College, Director of the Christ at the Checkpoint Conference, and Coordinator of Global Kairos for Justice.
Body
WHEREAS, Christian Palestinians have lived on and cultivated Palestinian land since the days of the first Pentecost; and
WHEREAS, Rev. Dr. Isaac's family stretches back hundreds of years on Palestinian land in the town of Beit Sahour; and
WHEREAS, Rev. Dr. Muther Isaac grew up in Beit Sahour, mere miles from West Jerusalem, where his grandfather had moved and flourished before he was forced off of his land during the 1948 Nakba; ethnically cleansed from Israel along with the other 750,000 Palestinians forcibly removed to the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and the Golan Heights; and
WHEREAS, Having earned his Master degree in Biblical Studies from Westminster Theological Seminary in Glenside, Pennsylvania and his PhD from the Oxford Center for Mission Studies, Rev. Dr. Isaac returned to his homeland and has invested his life in developing Christian Palestinian theological and civic leadership as the Dean of Bethlehem Bible College. Founded by Bishara Awad in 1979, under Israeli military occupation, Bethlehem Bible College is a leading institution of higher learning in the West Bank; and
WHEREAS, Having witnessed the violent hopelessness of the second Intifada and Israel's subsequent establishment of the West Bank Separation Wall, Rev. Dr. Isaac wrote, The Other Side of the Wall: A Palestinian Christian Narrative of Lament and Hope. Specializing in the theology of empire, other books by Rev. Dr. Isaac include: From Land to Lands, from Eden to the Renewed Earth; An Introduction to Palestinian Theology (in Arabic); a commentary on the book of Daniel (in Arabic); and more recently has published a book on women ordination in the church (in...
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