Source: SAT-7, via Christian Newswire, April 21, 2020<\/p>\n
Amid strict coronavirus lockdowns, millions of people across the Middle East and North Africa clamoring for a spiritual and practical lifeline are finding help right in their own homes through television.<\/p>\n
In the region where Christianity began but is now a minority faith, Christian satellite television broadcaster SAT-7<\/a> has seen viewer numbers surge and social media interest skyrocket since the COVID-19 stay-at-home orders.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s an explosion of spiritual hunger across the Middle East and North Africa right now as people stuck at home seek real hope and real answers,\u201d said Dr. Rex Rogers, president of SAT-7 USA.<\/p>\n \u201cMillions of people in countries like Iran, Iraq, and Turkey are clamoring to see and hear in their own language what it\u2019s like to be a follower of Jesus in a time of crisis,\u201d Rogers said.<\/p>\n In coronavirus hotspot Turkey, where 99 percent of the population is non-Christian, more viewers have contacted the SAT-7 T\u00dcRK channel daily in the past few weeks than any day in the previous five years since broadcasts began.<\/p>\n In Iran, another virus hotspot, viewers\u2019 calls and messages to the live, Farsi-language Signal show\u2014beamed into millions of homes across the nation\u2014jumped to seven times the usual number last month, as Iranians rattled by the pandemic turned to the show\u2019s hosts for reassurance and practical advice.<\/p>\n \u00bb Read full story<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00bb See also Tyndale: Bible Sales up 44-60% During COVID Crisis<\/a> (God Reports).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Source: SAT-7, via Christian Newswire, April 21, 2020 Amid strict coronavirus lockdowns, millions of people across the Middle East and North Africa clamoring for a spiritual and practical lifeline are finding help right in their own homes through television. In the region where Christianity began but is now a minority faith, Christian satellite television broadcaster … Continue reading MIDDLE EAST: COVID-19 Lockdown Ignites Spiritual Interest<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-briefs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9317"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9318,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9317\/revisions\/9318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}