‘Our community is terrified’: A faith leader talks about what it means to be a Palestinian Christian in the US

Pastor Khader Khalilia: When people ask me, “When did you convert to Christianity,” I always look at my watch and say, “2,000 years ago on the day of Pentecost.” And I always remind people that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, my hometown.

I was invited by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to continue my theological education here in the United States, and the goal is to serve the Arab and Middle Eastern community. And I’m serving at an Anglo congregation, but we are also merging with Salam Arabic Lutheran Church. It is the first Arabic Lutheran congregation in North America, and we will have one congregation with two expressions: English and Arabic.

Our members are excited to be together as the body of Christ, and the body of Christ is always diverse and unique and this is who we are now. We’re going to become a multicultural, multi-ethnic congregation.

Well, I came back [to my home], and I sat on the couch like a couch potato in my hometown of Beit Jala. And then, all of a sudden, I heard shooting. And then, a bullet passed my ear and I heard it, and then it hit a picture … that was hanging on the wall. And then, we had to lay on the ground, you know, and the shooting lasted for six hours, and we had moved from one corner to another. It was a very terrifying experience. At that time, I was protecting my younger brother. He was next to me. And when the shooting stopped, we went outside and we saw the bullets were made in the United States.

My people are open-minded. I shared this story in one of my sermons actually. They are aware of what happened to me growing up in Palestine. I shared my life growing up under occupation. I talk about what’s happening to Palestinians on a daily basis.

People were shocked to learn about what happened on Oct. 7, I have to say, but also they know Gaza has been under siege for 15 years. And they’ve been living in an open-air prison and, basically, the international community did not give a d— about what’s happening to the people in Gaza. And your listeners might know, like 60% of the population of Gaza is under the age of 18. And what we are witnessing happening there, it’s basically been displacement over displacement, destruction over destruction. And what’s happening now in Gaza is a genocide, and we are funding this genocide. The Biden administration is funding the genocide. And my people are very sympathetic to the families of the Israeli hostages and to those people who got killed on Oct. 7, but they also want to see Palestinians have their own self-determination and freedom and live as human beings.

The hardest part is basically, yes, I’m a pastor, and part of my job is to provide spiritual and emotional and psychological support. But I can tell you, people from the community have been coming to me, they are seeking counseling and guidance and help, and our community is terrified. We are witnessing the rise of hate against Arabs and Muslims and Muslim Americans, and nobody is doing anything to stop this hate, unfortunately. So, the hardest part is to be in people’s shoes and listen to them and provide emotional and psychological support.

Well, I love my job as a pastor. I see this as a call to preach, to preach to the word, administer the sacraments and walk with people. Like, for example, I’m with 12 youth from my congregation in New Orleans attending an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America youth gathering, doing community service here, but also being together to pray, study and sing and dance and be together. So, I love what I’m doing as a pastor.

I always say the word marhaba in Arabic, which comes from the Syrian and Aramaic language of early Middle Eastern Christianity, and the word marhaba means, “God is love.” When I hang out with people I always see people, not as strangers, but as part of my family. And this is something unique about the Palestinian culture.