Christmas in Iraq

If your church received bomb threats that it would be destroyed if church services were held on Christmas, would you attend? If your church had to be protected by armed policemen in order for services to be held, would you attend? Would you feel safer if the men of your church surrounded the area with large dirt berms (hills) to impede the approach of suicide car bombers? Would you announce your identity if Christian men were being shot while walking down the street? Would you put up your Christmas tree and house lights?

All of these things are happening right now in Iraq. Although they may be becoming less public about it, the majority of Iraq's approximately 750,000 Christians continue to meet and worship. One Iraqi woman, Ann Benjamin (??), is quoted in The New York Times of 23 December, 2009 as saying,"I am not afraid of going to church - even if I die there. I will be happy to die in God's home."