A Christian redoubt?

With Christians in Iraq and Syria on the brink of destruction, Walter Russell Mead wonders if Christians in the West will do more than wring their hands.

He says we can either help Christians in the Middle East flee persecution and start new lives elsewhere, or we can help them “fort up”—create “redoubts,” or enclaves that they can defend by force. Mead has in mind, for example, the way Marionite Catholic militias are able defend themselves against Muslim militias in Lebanon. 

I tried on Mead’s thought experiment and I found it unnerving. It is extremely hard to imagine mainline Christians in the U.S. sending arms to fortify Christian groups in a military fight against Muslim groups. The idea foments a literal “clash of religious civilizations” ideology that I want to resist.