Benjamin Weir (December 20, 1923https://www.crowell.com/pdf/weir.pdf – October 14, 2016) was an American

hostage A hostage is a person seized by an abductor in order to compel another party, one which places a high value on the liberty, well-being and safety of the person seized, such as a relative, employer, law enforcement or government to act, or ref ...

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

in 1985.

Background

Weir, who with his wife Carol served as

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

with the

Presbyterian Church (USA) The Presbyterian Church (USA), abbreviated PC(USA), is a mainline Protestant denomination in the United States. It is the largest Presbyterian denomination in the US, and known for its liberal stance on doctrine and its ordaining of women and ...

for nearly 30 years, was kidnapped off the streets of

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

in May 1984. The kidnapping was done by an

Islamic fundamentalist Islamic fundamentalism has been defined as a puritanical, revivalist, and reform movement of Muslims who aim to return to the founding scriptures of Islam. Islamic fundamentalists are of the view that Muslim-majority countries should return t ...

group, Islamic Jihad, that later evolved into

Hezbollah Hezbollah (; ar, حزب الله ', , also transliterated Hizbullah or Hizballah, among others) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group, led by its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah since 1992. Hezbollah's parami ...

. He was freed 16 months later in exchange for US anti-tank weapons, as part of the Iran-Contra Affair. Shortly thereafter he was elected moderator of the 1986 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, the highest elected office in that denomination. He remained one of the world's most respected voices for peace and reconciliation in the Middle East for the past 30 years. The book ''Hostage Bound Hostage Free'' tells the story of his captivity from his perspective as well as his wife's. While a student at

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...

, Weir was initiated into the Beta chapter of

Alpha Gamma Omega Alpha Gamma Omega (, or AGO) was founded in 1927 at UCLA as a Christ-centered fraternities and sororities, fraternity. Alpha Gamma Omega now has chapters at universities in California, Colorado, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. It mai ...

, a Christ-centered fraternity. Later he attended

San Francisco Theological Seminary The San Francisco Theological Seminary (SFTS) is a seminary in San Anselmo, California with historic ties to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). SFTS became embedded in a new Graduate School of Theology of the University of Redlands in 2019. It was ...

. Weir died on October 14, 2016.

References

1923 births 1980s missing person cases 2016 deaths American expatriates in Lebanon American people taken hostage Formerly missing people Kidnapped people Kidnappings by Islamists Missing person cases in Lebanon Presbyterian Church (USA) teaching elders University of California, Berkeley alumni {{US-crime-bio-stub

Background

See also

References