Middle East Christians – more visible than ever before

Middle East (SAT-7/MNN) — The Middle East is a hotbed of turmoil and Christian persecution. Whether tomorrow’s peace talks bring stability–and thereby protection–for Middle East Christians or not, SAT-7 isn’t stopping.

SAT-7 is a Christian satellite television ministry to the Middle East and North Africa. According to SAT-7 leadership, Christians have a bigger platform and can reach more of their neighbors, thanks to new technology.

The presence and beliefs of Christians in the Middle East are now more visible and more accessible to the region’s people than ever before, according to the founder and Executive Director of Christian TV network SAT-7, Dr. Terence Ascott.

Despite the percentage of the Middle Eastern population that is Christian falling by 10% over the last century (from around 14% to 4%), Ascott said this small minority is sharing its faith today in ways that were “unthinkable” 20 years ago. And, they are doing it at a time when violence in the name of religion is causing many in the region to question their inherited beliefs.

As Middle East network SAT-7 counts down to the 20th anniversary of its first broadcast on May 31, Ascott said satellite TV and new media have created “unimagined” opportunities over the last two decades.

Dr. Ascott said that whenever the vision for an indigenous Christian TV channel in the region was presented in the 1980s, it met the same objections: “Arab Christians would not risk showing their faces on camera; it would be impossible to fund; governments wouldn’t permit it to make or broadcast programs.”

“One by one,” Ascott says, “these objections and obstacles were overcome. SAT-7 is ‘owned’ by all denominations; broadcasts across 25 countries, and has studios in three Middle Eastern cities. Amazingly, too, Christians from the region are willing to be seen on screen.”

With much admiration, Ascott remembers the bravery of the early presenters who nervously appeared on screen, unsure of how Arab governments were going to react to SAT-7. This continues to be a challenge even today.

Christians in Algeria are willing to appear on SAT-7 in televised worship services and testimony programs.
(Photo, caption courtesy SAT-7)

“Perhaps the bravest people we’ve had on air in 20 years are the Algerian and Tunisian presenters,” he says. “In the last few years they have been willing to go on screen and publicly testify to their faith – even though they’re not from a Christian background.“

Lebanese Christian Rita El-Mounayer, who appeared in the station’s first transmission and is now SAT-7’s Channels Director, said, “The Church had the unprecedented opportunity come out from behind its walls and share its faith – and it did!”

As a result of that pioneering work, some 15 million viewers across the region now regularly watch SAT-7’s 24-hours-a-day Christian programming in Arabic, Farsi (Persian) and Turkish. With the explosion of social media, as many as 4.7 million SAT-7 videos a month are being watched on YouTube and Facebook.

In two decades, many conflicts have overtaken or drawn in more than half the countries SAT-7 serves. But these, and extremism in the name of religion, have increased the hunger for SAT-7’s programming.

“SAT-7 is enabling the Church to be salt and light in society, to be a prophetic voice and show a different way,” Ascott said. “This is a prime time for us as a ministry and it comes at a time when political Islam has been discredited and people are looking for answers to man’s inhumanity to man.

“It is a fantastic time for us to be reaching into millions of homes that are totally inaccessible to other forms of witness, with a Gospel of love, peace, hope and reconciliation.”

Through SAT-7 USA, $10 reaches 10 Middle East viewers with the hope of Christ.

Prayer Points

• Ask the Lord to encourage Middle East Christians through SAT-7 programs.
• Pray that the Lord would use SAT-7 to bring people in the Middle East to salvation through Jesus Christ.
• Pray that hearts would be open to the Gospel message.