[The_Reader_David]

Actual Syrian Christians almost certainly have provably Christian relatives in either Lebanon or the U.S. who could vouch for them.

It would also be easy to pick out fakes by observing their behavior at a Divine Liturgy or Mass (depending on which Christian confession they profess): real Christians will have the service essentially memorized and will fluidly cross themselves at all the right places even if it’s being served in English when they only speak Arabic or Aramaic. (And fluent Aramaic or Assyrian is hard to fake so the real Jacobites and Nestorians should be easy to pick out — my fellow Orthodox and the various Uniate groups who only speak Arabic will be a little harder to verify.)

[a fool in paradise]

It would also be easy to pick out fakes by observing their behavior at a Divine Liturgy or Mass (depending on which Christian confession they profess): real Christians will have the service essentially memorized and will fluidly cross themselves at all the right places even if it’s being served in English when they only speak Arabic or Aramaic. (And fluent Aramaic or Assyrian is hard to fake so the real Jacobites and Nestorians should be easy to pick out — my fellow Orthodox and the various Uniate groups who only speak Arabic will be a little harder to verify.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA8rU3nWzyg

“…Catholics begin every Mass with the sign of the cross. It is the sign the priest makes over a penitent at that mysterious moment when one’s sins take flight. But the president seems to find Christianity’s defining symbol a hoot. The first time President Obama made the gesture, the crowd laughed appreciatively. “I like doing that,” the president said and then did it again. Try to imagine any previous president of the United States publicly funning with the sign of the cross.” - Charlotte Hays