Compromise

When people live here, they sometimes have to make compromises. Yesterday there was this one couple, they had been married for 31 years. All those years ago they had been married in an Islamic service. They were both Christians at the time, but they really had no choice if they wanted to get married. And so now, all these years later, they wanted to renew their vows, but in the Christian fashion. And this is what has to happen when you live in an area of the world where 'religious freedom and tolerance' doesn't really mean anything. Well it does mean something... it means 'our religion has freedom to do whatever it wants and we'll tolerate you if we really have to but we're not happy about it if we do, go away'. You wonder what other sacrifices people have to make. There are not terribly many arabs in the church and I had asked about that. It is believed that there are many 'secret' Christians, but they do not fully engage their new belief because if they did, at the least, they would be thrown out of their families and since the family is the center of the arabs life (socially, economically... and in every which way) they don't dare do this, the cost is simply too high. Now there are some who have, and they have paid that price, but for many, it is simply too much. You wonder what compromises that these secret Christians make, and which compromises those who are not secret, and even those who do not come from a Muslim background, make.