CYI Worldwide
  • GOD
    • God's Love Letter To You
    • Does GOD Exist?
    • This Was Your Life
    • Find God
  • Q&A
  • Prophecy
  • COMIC BOOKS
  • Get HELP
    • Speak To A Counselor
    • Bullying Sucks!
    • Depression
    • ADHD
    • Encouragement
    • Fighters
  • Exposed
  • Podcasts
  • Sex
  • Evangelism

       NEWS WATCH

EXPOSED! Pop Culture Lies

In midst of Syrian war, giant Jesus statue arises!

11/11/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
BEIRUT –  In the midst of a conflict rife with sectarianism, a giant bronze statue of Jesus has gone up on a Syrian mountain, apparently under cover of a truce among three factions in the country's civil war.
Jesus stands, arms outstretched, on the Cherubim mountain, overlooking a route pilgrims took from Constantinople to Jerusalem in ancient times. The statue is 40 feet tall and stands on a base that brings its height to 105 feet, organizers of the project estimate.

That the statue made it to Syria and went up without incident on Oct. 14 is remarkable. The project took eight years and was set back by the civil war that followed the March 2011 uprising against President Bashar Assad.

Christians and other minorities are all targets in the conflict, and the statue's safety is by no means guaranteed. It stands among villages where some fighters, linked to Al Qaeda, have little sympathy for Christians.

So why put up a giant statue of Christ in the midst of such setbacks and so much danger?

Because "Jesus would have done it," organizer Samir al-Ghadban quoted a Christian church leader as telling him.

The backers' success in overcoming the obstacles shows the complexity of civil war, where sometimes despite the atrocities the warring parties can reach short-term truces.

Al-Ghadban said that the main armed groups in the area -- Syrian government forces, rebels and the local militias of Sednaya, the Christian town near the statue site -- halted fire while organizers set up the statue, without providing further details.

Rebels and government forces occasionally agree to cease-fires to allow the movement of goods. They typically do not admit to having truces because that would tacitly acknowledge their enemies.

It took three days to raise the statue. Photos provided by organizers show it being hauled in two pieces by farm tractors, then lifted into place by a crane. Smaller statues of Adam and Eve stand nearby.

The project, called "I Have Come to Save the World," is run by the London-based St. Paul and St. George Foundation, which Al-Ghadban directs. It was previously named the Gavrilov Foundation, after a Russian businessman, Yuri Gavrilov.

Documents filed with Britain's Charity Commission describe it as supporting "deserving projects in the field of science and animal welfare" in England and Russia, but the commission's accounts show it spent less than $400 in the last four years.

Al-Ghadban said most of the financing came from private donors, but did not supply further details.

Russians have been a driving force behind the project -- not surprising given that the Kremlin is embattled Assad's chief ally, and the Orthodox churches in Russia and Syria have close ties. Al-Ghadban, who spoke to The Associated Press from Moscow, is Syrian-Russian and lives in both countries.

Al-Ghadban said he began the project in 2005, hoping the statue would be an inspiration for Syria's Christians. He said he was inspired by Rio de Janeiro's towering Christ the Redeemer statue.

He commissioned an Armenian sculptor, but progress was slow.  A series of his backers died, including Valentin Varennikov, a general who participated in the 1991 coup attempt against then President Mikhail Gorbachev. He later sought President Vladimir Putin's backing for the statue project.

Varennikov died in 2009.

Another backer, Patriarch Ignatius IV, the Lebanon-based head of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch and All the East, died in 2012. He had donated the land for the statue, according to church official Bishop Ghattas Hazim.

By 2012, the statue was ready, but Syria was aflame, causing the project's biggest delay, al-Ghadban said.

Majority Sunni Muslims dominate the revolt, and jihadists make up some of the strongest fighting groups. Other Muslim groups along with the 10-percent Christian minority have stood largely with Assad's government, or remained neutral, sometimes arming themselves to keep hard-line rebels out of their communities.

Churches have been vandalized, priests abducted. Last month the extremists overran Maaloula, a Christian-majority town so old that some of its people still speak a language from Jesus' time.

On Tuesday a militant Muslim cleric, Sheik Omar al-Gharba, posted a YouTube video of himself smashing a blue-and-white statue of the Virgin Mary.

Al-Ghadban and the project's most important backer, Gavrilov, weighed canceling it.

They consulted Syria's Greek Orthodox Patriarch John Yaziji. It was he who told them "Jesus would have done it."

They began shipping the statue from Armenia to Lebanon. In August, while it was en route, Gavrilov, 49, suffered a fatal heart attack, al-Ghadban said.

Eventually the statue reached Syria.

"It was a miracle," al-Ghadban said. "Nobody who participated in this expected this to succeed."

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Get News Updates!  

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    Subscribe in a reader

    Categories

    All
    2 Timothy 3
    501c3
    911
    Abortion
    Alcohol
    Aliens UFO
    Aliens - UFO
    America Destruction
    America Destruction
    Anti Semitism
    Anti-Semitism
    Apologetics
    Apostacy
    Atheism
    Atheist Church
    Attack On Family
    Bible
    Border Wars
    Bullying
    Catholicism
    Censorship]
    Chicago Terror Zone
    Chrislam
    Christian Persecution
    Christian Persecution
    Christian Values
    Chris White
    Church Decline
    Church Issues
    Church Nonsense
    Climate Change
    College
    Culture Of Death
    Cutting Edge Ministries
    Cutting-edge-ministries
    Damascus
    Debate
    Destruction Of America
    Destruction-of-america
    Deviant Sexuality
    Drugs
    Ecumenical Movement
    Elite
    Emergent Church
    End Times
    End-times
    Evangelism
    Evolution
    Extreme Christianity
    False Flag
    False Gospels
    False Gospels
    Farming
    FEMA Camp
    Feminism
    Feminization Of Men
    Free Speech
    Gangs
    Gay
    Gay Agenda
    Gender Identity
    Global Warming
    Global-warming
    GMO
    Good News
    Government Corruption
    Grace
    Grok Radio
    Hate Groups
    Health News
    Heaven
    Hollywood Exposed
    Hollywood Exposed
    Homeless
    Homeschooling
    Homosexuality
    Human 2.0
    Humanism
    Immigration
    Incest
    Indoctrination
    Injustice System
    International Religious News
    Isaiah 17 Prophecy
    Isis
    Islam
    Islam Debunked
    Israel
    Jack-van-impe
    Jack Van Impe Presents
    Jeremiah 49
    Jewish News
    Jews
    Joel Rosenberg
    John Piper
    Korea
    Liberal Nonsense
    Loss Of Liberties
    Mainstream Media Exposed
    Mainstream Media Exposed
    Mark Dice
    Mark Of The Beast
    Martial Law
    Media Deception
    Media Deception
    Mental Health
    Middle East
    Middle-east
    Military
    Millennial Nonsese
    Missionaries
    Multiculturalism
    Multi Culturalism
    Multiculturalism6e9605f9ef
    Murder
    Music Industry
    Music Industry Exposed
    Muslim Agenda
    Mysticism
    Natural Disasters
    New Age
    NewsWatch Video
    New World Order
    Noah
    Nwo
    Occult
    One World Government
    One World Religion
    Oprah
    Parenting
    Pestilence
    Pets
    Planned Parenthood
    Police Brutality
    Police State
    Political Correctness
    Pope
    Pornography
    Positive News
    Poverty
    Prayer Request
    Prepping
    Prophecy
    Prophecy-in-the-news
    Prostitution
    Race Manipulation
    Racism
    Rapture
    Research
    Revival
    Robotics
    Russia
    Salvation
    Saracsm-hoaxes
    Satanism
    Satire
    School Curriculum
    School Violence
    School Violence
    Science
    Sex
    Sex Trafficing
    Sexual Abuse
    Shadow Government
    Sharia Law
    Signs Of End Times
    Social Media
    Spiritual Warfare
    Suicide
    Taking A Stand
    Taking-a-stand
    Technology
    Terrorism
    Terrorism In America
    Testimony
    Transgender
    Transhumanism
    True American History
    United Nations
    Vampirism
    Violence
    Virtue SIgnals
    Walmart
    War On Christianity
    Wars/Rumors Of Wars
    What The?!
    Witchcraft
    Woman Issues
    Word-of-faith
    Xxx-church
    Youth Gone Wild
    Youth Issues
    Youth On Fire

    Archives

    February 2021
    January 2021
    February 2019
    July 2018
    September 2017
    August 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • GOD
    • God's Love Letter To You
    • Does GOD Exist?
    • This Was Your Life
    • Find God
  • Q&A
  • Prophecy
  • COMIC BOOKS
  • Get HELP
    • Speak To A Counselor
    • Bullying Sucks!
    • Depression
    • ADHD
    • Encouragement
    • Fighters
  • Exposed
  • Podcasts
  • Sex
  • Evangelism