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The very best friend I ever had was an Army buddy who happened to be a naturalized American and Christian from Jordan. He passed away in 2001. He had arrived here at 8 years old and he and his family were beyond thankful to this country. Over the last 20 years, he and his family moved around Riverside, Redding, San Bernadino, and Indio and fellowshiped mostly in the Calvary Chapels of those areas.

My only contention I ever had with both he and his family was their attitude toward Israel and the contest in that region. They may have been Christians, but they were definitely Arab in outlook and took that side of the conflict. Surprisingly, his parents were never nearly as strident as their children in their views.

As I have kept track of them, their extended family, and friends over the years, I have seen an incredible change in their attitudes. The attitude they hold now is one of respect for Israel and a growing distrust of the palace governments of the Arab world. Christians have in Jordan moved into a more pronounced dimitude the past couple decades.

An example given me was of a Jordanian woman visiting in Amman and wearing a cross in public. She was picking up a dress at a market and told by the male owner that the days of her displaying a cross were numbered. He said he was going to keep the receipt and check on her in the coming years at her address and see that she converted to Islam or "face the sword of justice." This same woman payed a visit to Israel a couple years ago and found that she marveled at what has been created there. She actually said. "Thank God there is an Israel", meaning that without Israel, the onus of hate on Christians in Arab lands would be so much worse. Due to the difference in procreation numbers and emigration, Christians have fallen from 16 to 7 percent of the population.