The N Word

No, not that N word. It's the Arabic letter nun, for nasrani, a term for Christian often used as a slur. It is sometimes scrawled above the doors of Christian homes in the Middle East and is a centuries old symbol for religious persecution. ISIS revived the practice when they began their horrific campaign in Syria and Iraq. Christians around the world have begun adopting the letter on Facebook and Twitter as an expression of solidarity. If you see the symbol or the hashtag #WeAreN, that's what it means. Assyrian Christians dominated much of Persia and Mesopotamia from the early third century but began to decline after Arab conquest in the seventh. Distinct in language, liturgy, and Christology from the Roman Catholic Church, they like to say they accepted God when Jonah walked through Nineveh, and Jesus when Saint Thomas passed through on his way to India. They are not in full communion with Rome but in the sixteenth century a sizable group, the Chaldeans, split off and became Catholic. Under an agreement between Pope Paul II and Patriarch Mar Dinkha IV of the Assyrian Church of the East, in times of necessity Catholics may receive the sacraments at an Assyrian service, or Assyrians at a Catholic service. Necessity is generally defined as there being no alternative. There is no Assyrian Church is North Texas so the small community of 250 or so Assyrians living here commonly attend Catholic Mass. As often as they can, about twice a year, they fly in an Assyrian priest so they can celebrate their own liturgy, usually in a Catholic Church. The liturgy is celebrated in Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke. Assyrians speak a version of it at home. With more than four million refugees from Syria alone the current humanitarian crisis is the most serious in a generation. Normally the first and most energetic to respond to such events, the U.S. is strangely lethargic, particularly toward the Christians involved, and not just militarily. A house bill to expedite processing for religious minorities seeking asylum in the U. S. didn't even get a committee vote last year. Last August President Obama did sign off on legislation creating a special envoy to aid Christians and other minorities being targeted by the Islamic State but the position remains unfilled. The White House won't say when or even if they intend to fill it. Most of the refugees don't want io emigrate. They just want to go home. Who knows when that might be possible. It could be years, or never. Right now they need help and they aren't getting nearly enough. They need material assistance of course but they also need things like work permits and for that they need to be registered. That can take years. In Turkey there are so many refugees the administrative processes are overwhelmed to the point the backlog for initial registration interviews alone is two years or longer. A delegation from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops visited Turkey recently to assess the refugee crisis. They concluded the most urgent need is schools. Some of the children haven't been in school for four years. A U.S. special envoy could help with all of this if only in raising awareness. Part of the problem seems to be that most Americans aren't quite sure what an Assyrian Christian, a Chaldean, a Yazidi, or a Kurd even is. Most news reports distinguish between Kurds and Sunni Muslims though almost all Kurds are Sunni. I had never heard of Yazidis until thousands of them were trapped recently on a Mountain in Iraq. And I had to do some research to get the difference between an Assyrian Christian and a Chaldean. Maybe the increasing popularity of the N word will begin to change that.