Over the years I've interacted with Christians who I'd classify as strongly anti-Semitic and/or anti-Zionist. While I don't want to pigeon-hole anyone, I've come to suspect that too often there's a link between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. Most of these extreme examples have come from people who hold to Amil-Postmil-Preterist positions. Hence they also subscribe to Replacement Theology.
Note: I am not saying that RT is the cause of anti-Semitism or that all proponents are anti-Semitic.
But there have also been samplings from Futuristic Premillennialists who don't necessarily hold to RT. These FP examples have tended not to be as virulent as the former, though in some cases they are. However, I have detected an animus against modern Israel within some who identify as dispensational posttribulational and non-disp posttrib, even while not being overtly anti-Semitic. I have no idea why this should be so.
More recently one of these folk raised the Khazar Myth. I've come to the conclusion that no evidence will satisfy certain people. They want to believe what they want to believe. They can explain it all to the Lord one day. In response, watch Chris White's excellent rebuttal of that myth HERE.
Links addressing associated topics:
Blessing & Cursing Israel
Fake Modern Israel
An Unholy Tribulation Temple?
Showing posts with label anti-Zionism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label anti-Zionism. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 22, 2020
Saturday, December 10, 2016
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
Anti-Semitism at Lichfield Cathedral
I've been writing and blogging about eschatology and Israel for about eight years now. I see these two topics as closely associated. With that in mind the following article pretty much summarizes the attitudes I've come across in the secular world and (sadly) from some churches. This is an article which needs to be read by those unfamiliar with anti-Israel activist tactics:
I have just spent a weekend at Lichfield cathedral for a conference “on the Israel/Palestine Conflict and the prospect of peace”. And what a weekend it was! A naïve Dean, antisemitism, conspiracy theories, global control, blood sucking Jews, child kidnappers, Arabs in 100ad. and of course, Jesus the Palestinian...keep reading
Friday, December 5, 2014
Craig M. Nielsen on "Christian Zionist Heresy"
I followed a rabbit trail last week. After seeing that the preterist folk had visited my blog, I followed them back to their home and noted that they'd linked one of my posts. But it wasn't that which attracted my attention - it was a link to another article on the Mondoweiss website: Why Christian Zionism is nothing short of outright heresy. The article plugs Craig Michael Nielsen's book Israel-Palestine: A Christian Response to the Conflict. Of Christian Zionism the article notes:
Yet few, if any, scholarly Christian theologians support this view. It is a belief advanced mostly by powerful TV evangelists and lobby groups. The average “garden variety” Christian has little to arm themselves against the deluge of almost hysterical demands on Christians that they must support the Zionists’ absolute entitlement to their colonialist project in the Holy Land with its dispossession and ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Arabs.
The blurb on Nielsen's book tells us that:
.... We must stop defending the radically anti-Christian Zionist movement. It's not anti-Semitic to oppose Israel's genocide of Palestinians. It's anti-Christian to accept it. Find out how wrong we have been about Israel. Then demand that the U.S. stop funding the Palestinian Holocaust. It's the Christian thing to do. (Emphases mine)
The notions of genocide and Palestinian Holocaust, as applied to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, are both shameful and factually challenged. If you want a quick rundown on Nielsen's thoughts on Zionism, you can read them HERE. This excerpt captures it in a nutshell:
Christian Zionist ethics are driven by a mantra of “the end justifies the means”. For them, since God is bringing back the Jewish people to Israel according to prophecy, the Jewish people’s responsibility to treat non-Jews with equality and mercy in Israel can be ignored. What matters is that they take all the land, every other consideration is trumped by the golden rule of “take the land by whatever means necessary”.
Mondoweiss claims to be driven by a "progressive Jewish perspective." In fact it is one of the most biased sites in the anti-Israel market place. One left wing editor has even claimed that Israel was behind the Passover Kansas City shootings. You know, just like Jews were behind 9/11 and all that other stuff. Daniel Greenfield observes of them:
Mondoweiss is probably the leading anti-Israel site on the internet after Stormfront. Its editors are often openly bigoted. One Mondoweiss editor said, “I do not consider myself an anti-Semite, but I can understand why some are.”
One contributing Mondoweiss writer is Stephen Sizer's collaborator Ben White. Are you starting to get the picture? White has written articles asking why there has been a rise in anti-Semitism. He has his theories: an oppressive, occupying Israel can only blame itself. White cites the "alleged anti-Semitic remarks made by Jürgen Möllemann" and concedes that comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany are unsound. But then he writes as if with authority:
Comparisons between the Israeli government and the Nazis is (sic) unwise and unsound, since the Israelis have not (at the time of going to press) exterminated in a systematic fashion an enormous percentage of the Palestinians. Cold-blooded killings, beatings, house demolitions, vandalism, occupation, military assaults, and two historical pushes at ethnic cleansing–yes. Full fledged genocide–no.
One inconvenient fact is that the Jews have been hounded and persecuted for centuries - even when they weren't in the land. There's always some excuse (or lie) for anti-Semitism. White has attempted to draw the reader's attention to what others have said about Israel. Then he's tried to distance himself from that egregious narrative while actually promoting it. I guess he's still working on his Matt 5:9.
But let's get back to Craig Nielsen. Nielsen is associated with the Palestinian Israel Ecumenical Network (PIEN). One of the stated goals of PIEN is to foster peaceful relations between the Palestinians and Israel. A closer look at its website reveals it to be an anti-Israel instigator. In one 16 page document the word "occupation" is used 33 times. The word "suffering" appears 14 times and is presented as a motivation for Palestinian violence:
When we review the history of the nations, we see many wars and much resistance to war by war, to violence by violence. The Palestinian people has (sic) gone the way of the peoples, particularly in the first stages of its struggle with the Israeli occupation.
Aside from not providing hard data for these assertions, one doesn't see any reprimand about how Hamas, or the Palestinian Authority, treat their populations (especially the Christian minorities) or their historical hatred for Jews. PIEN even links to an article by Hanan Ashrawi who blames Israel for the evacuation of Christians in the Middle East. Ashrawi is a member of the PLO Executive Committee, a terrorist apologist and a revisionist.
That Christians are leaving the Middle East (and other areas) in droves has nothing to do with Israel. One should read Persecuted - The Global Assault On Christians and/or watch the authors being interviewed HERE to understand that the culprit isn't Israel.
I'll say it once again -Israel isn't perfect. But neither is it the oppressor that instigators like White, Nielsen and Sizer portray. And neither is Israel's alleged occupation the motivating factor for the violence against it. That notion should be discarded along with the one that claims poverty breeds terrorism.
What motive undergirds this narrative? I can hear familiar protests - I'm not an anti-Semite; I'm anti-oppression and anti-occupation. It has nothing to do with the Jew. What would Jesus do?
It has everything to do with the Jews.
As I grow older I should be growing kindlier and more patient. Sadly, I've become cynical in some areas. May God forgive me...but when your time is exclusively occupied in trumping up charges against Israel and ignoring abundant data that contradicts your narrative, and when you consistently ignore oppression elsewhere - then you are likely an anti-Semite. It's an insidious cancer that creeps up on you. The antidote is to read your Bible carefully and worshipfully.
Unfortunately, it has been my experience that debating people who embrace these views is rarely fruitful, especially when they insist on ignoring or re-interpreting Scripture.
Further resources:
Supersessionism, the Holocaust, and the Modern State of Israel
Supersessionism
Epicenter 2012 - Panel Discussion on RT
“Hating Jews More Than is Absolutely Necessary”
Debunking the Palestine Lie
Christian Palestinianism
The world’s fastest growing faith is not Islam!
Yet few, if any, scholarly Christian theologians support this view. It is a belief advanced mostly by powerful TV evangelists and lobby groups. The average “garden variety” Christian has little to arm themselves against the deluge of almost hysterical demands on Christians that they must support the Zionists’ absolute entitlement to their colonialist project in the Holy Land with its dispossession and ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Arabs.
The blurb on Nielsen's book tells us that:
.... We must stop defending the radically anti-Christian Zionist movement. It's not anti-Semitic to oppose Israel's genocide of Palestinians. It's anti-Christian to accept it. Find out how wrong we have been about Israel. Then demand that the U.S. stop funding the Palestinian Holocaust. It's the Christian thing to do. (Emphases mine)
The notions of genocide and Palestinian Holocaust, as applied to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, are both shameful and factually challenged. If you want a quick rundown on Nielsen's thoughts on Zionism, you can read them HERE. This excerpt captures it in a nutshell:
Christian Zionist ethics are driven by a mantra of “the end justifies the means”. For them, since God is bringing back the Jewish people to Israel according to prophecy, the Jewish people’s responsibility to treat non-Jews with equality and mercy in Israel can be ignored. What matters is that they take all the land, every other consideration is trumped by the golden rule of “take the land by whatever means necessary”.
Mondoweiss claims to be driven by a "progressive Jewish perspective." In fact it is one of the most biased sites in the anti-Israel market place. One left wing editor has even claimed that Israel was behind the Passover Kansas City shootings. You know, just like Jews were behind 9/11 and all that other stuff. Daniel Greenfield observes of them:
Mondoweiss is probably the leading anti-Israel site on the internet after Stormfront. Its editors are often openly bigoted. One Mondoweiss editor said, “I do not consider myself an anti-Semite, but I can understand why some are.”
One contributing Mondoweiss writer is Stephen Sizer's collaborator Ben White. Are you starting to get the picture? White has written articles asking why there has been a rise in anti-Semitism. He has his theories: an oppressive, occupying Israel can only blame itself. White cites the "alleged anti-Semitic remarks made by Jürgen Möllemann" and concedes that comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany are unsound. But then he writes as if with authority:
Comparisons between the Israeli government and the Nazis is (sic) unwise and unsound, since the Israelis have not (at the time of going to press) exterminated in a systematic fashion an enormous percentage of the Palestinians. Cold-blooded killings, beatings, house demolitions, vandalism, occupation, military assaults, and two historical pushes at ethnic cleansing–yes. Full fledged genocide–no.
One inconvenient fact is that the Jews have been hounded and persecuted for centuries - even when they weren't in the land. There's always some excuse (or lie) for anti-Semitism. White has attempted to draw the reader's attention to what others have said about Israel. Then he's tried to distance himself from that egregious narrative while actually promoting it. I guess he's still working on his Matt 5:9.
But let's get back to Craig Nielsen. Nielsen is associated with the Palestinian Israel Ecumenical Network (PIEN). One of the stated goals of PIEN is to foster peaceful relations between the Palestinians and Israel. A closer look at its website reveals it to be an anti-Israel instigator. In one 16 page document the word "occupation" is used 33 times. The word "suffering" appears 14 times and is presented as a motivation for Palestinian violence:
When we review the history of the nations, we see many wars and much resistance to war by war, to violence by violence. The Palestinian people has (sic) gone the way of the peoples, particularly in the first stages of its struggle with the Israeli occupation.
Aside from not providing hard data for these assertions, one doesn't see any reprimand about how Hamas, or the Palestinian Authority, treat their populations (especially the Christian minorities) or their historical hatred for Jews. PIEN even links to an article by Hanan Ashrawi who blames Israel for the evacuation of Christians in the Middle East. Ashrawi is a member of the PLO Executive Committee, a terrorist apologist and a revisionist.
That Christians are leaving the Middle East (and other areas) in droves has nothing to do with Israel. One should read Persecuted - The Global Assault On Christians and/or watch the authors being interviewed HERE to understand that the culprit isn't Israel.
I'll say it once again -Israel isn't perfect. But neither is it the oppressor that instigators like White, Nielsen and Sizer portray. And neither is Israel's alleged occupation the motivating factor for the violence against it. That notion should be discarded along with the one that claims poverty breeds terrorism.
What motive undergirds this narrative? I can hear familiar protests - I'm not an anti-Semite; I'm anti-oppression and anti-occupation. It has nothing to do with the Jew. What would Jesus do?
It has everything to do with the Jews.
As I grow older I should be growing kindlier and more patient. Sadly, I've become cynical in some areas. May God forgive me...but when your time is exclusively occupied in trumping up charges against Israel and ignoring abundant data that contradicts your narrative, and when you consistently ignore oppression elsewhere - then you are likely an anti-Semite. It's an insidious cancer that creeps up on you. The antidote is to read your Bible carefully and worshipfully.
Unfortunately, it has been my experience that debating people who embrace these views is rarely fruitful, especially when they insist on ignoring or re-interpreting Scripture.
Further resources:
Supersessionism, the Holocaust, and the Modern State of Israel
Supersessionism
Epicenter 2012 - Panel Discussion on RT
“Hating Jews More Than is Absolutely Necessary”
Debunking the Palestine Lie
Christian Palestinianism
The world’s fastest growing faith is not Islam!
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
What Will Christian Leaders in Bethlehem Say?
Article by CAMERA's Dexter Van Zile:
It’s crunch time for Palestinian Christian leaders, especially those living in the city of Bethlehem.
Palestinian terrorists are murdering and crippling Israelis in the streets of Jerusalem by running them over in cars. They are stabbing unsuspecting Israelis to death.
Leaders in the allegedly “moderate” Palestinian Authority are accusing Israel of contaminating Muslim holy sites and calling for more violence against Israelis.
They are starting to talk like Hamas about the impossibility of allowing Jewish sovereignty on land previously governed by Muslim rulers...keep reading
It’s crunch time for Palestinian Christian leaders, especially those living in the city of Bethlehem.
Palestinian terrorists are murdering and crippling Israelis in the streets of Jerusalem by running them over in cars. They are stabbing unsuspecting Israelis to death.
Leaders in the allegedly “moderate” Palestinian Authority are accusing Israel of contaminating Muslim holy sites and calling for more violence against Israelis.
They are starting to talk like Hamas about the impossibility of allowing Jewish sovereignty on land previously governed by Muslim rulers...keep reading
Saturday, September 6, 2014
New Book on Israel & the Jews
We are living in a world that is increasingly hostile to both the modern state of Israel and the Jews. This hostility generally comes from Islamists and secular sources, but also from some Christians. There is a steady shift away from support for Israel within the churches. I am regularly seeing premillennialists in this shift.
In a previous post I mentioned a newly published book on Israel, the Land and the Jews. It is edited by Mitch Glaser of Chosen People Ministries and Darrell Bock.
The book features a large number of notable authors, each tackling diverse subjects concerning Israel. Each chapter is accessibly concise, yet packed with loads of information. Much of this information was new to me.
Given the times, this book is a very important contribution. You can buy it from Amazon, and can watch some of the videos of the 2013 Conference which resulted in the book HERE
The People, The land, and The Future of Israel
Foreword by Joel Rosenberg & Introduction by Mitch Glaser
Hebrew Scriptures
1) Israel according to the Torah - Eugene H Merrill
2) Israel according to the Writings - Walter C Kaiser
3) Israel according to the Prophets - Robert B Chisholm Jr.
4) The People and Land of Israel in Jewish Tradition - Michael L Brown
New Testament
5) Israel according to the Gospels - Michael J Wilkins
6) Israel in Luke-Acts - Darrel L Bock
7) The Jewish People according to the Book of Romans - Michael Vanlangingham
8) Israel according to the Book of Hebrews and the General Epistles - Craig A Evans
Hermeneutics, Theology, and Church History
9) Israel and Hermeneutics - Craig A Blaising
10) Israel as a Necessary Theme in Biblical Theology - Mark R Saucy
11) Israel in the Land as an Eschatological Necessity? - John S Feinberg
12) Israel in Church History - Michael J Vlach
13) Israel in Light of the Holocaust - Barry R Leventhal
Practical Theology
14) The Jewish People: Evidence for the Truth of Scripture - Michael Rydelnik
15) Israel and Jewish Evangelism Today - Mitch Glaser
16) Israel and the Local Pastor - David Epstein
17) A Survey of Positions on Israel Currently Taught At Theological Schools - Gregory Hagg
Conclusion by Darrell Bock followed by Chapter Notes (352 pages)
In a previous post I mentioned a newly published book on Israel, the Land and the Jews. It is edited by Mitch Glaser of Chosen People Ministries and Darrell Bock.
The book features a large number of notable authors, each tackling diverse subjects concerning Israel. Each chapter is accessibly concise, yet packed with loads of information. Much of this information was new to me.
Given the times, this book is a very important contribution. You can buy it from Amazon, and can watch some of the videos of the 2013 Conference which resulted in the book HERE
The People, The land, and The Future of Israel
Foreword by Joel Rosenberg & Introduction by Mitch Glaser
Hebrew Scriptures
1) Israel according to the Torah - Eugene H Merrill
2) Israel according to the Writings - Walter C Kaiser
3) Israel according to the Prophets - Robert B Chisholm Jr.
4) The People and Land of Israel in Jewish Tradition - Michael L Brown
New Testament
5) Israel according to the Gospels - Michael J Wilkins
6) Israel in Luke-Acts - Darrel L Bock
7) The Jewish People according to the Book of Romans - Michael Vanlangingham
8) Israel according to the Book of Hebrews and the General Epistles - Craig A Evans
Hermeneutics, Theology, and Church History
9) Israel and Hermeneutics - Craig A Blaising
10) Israel as a Necessary Theme in Biblical Theology - Mark R Saucy
11) Israel in the Land as an Eschatological Necessity? - John S Feinberg
12) Israel in Church History - Michael J Vlach
13) Israel in Light of the Holocaust - Barry R Leventhal
Practical Theology
14) The Jewish People: Evidence for the Truth of Scripture - Michael Rydelnik
15) Israel and Jewish Evangelism Today - Mitch Glaser
16) Israel and the Local Pastor - David Epstein
17) A Survey of Positions on Israel Currently Taught At Theological Schools - Gregory Hagg
Conclusion by Darrell Bock followed by Chapter Notes (352 pages)
Saturday, August 9, 2014
Rethinking Zionism
Dr. Mitch Glaser takes Another Look at Zionism.
Excerpt:
Today many will say they support Israel but try as much as possible to separate support for the modern state of Israel with the term and “philosophy” of Zionism. Even some Christians and Messianic Jews who believe Israel has a divine right to the Land sometimes want to distance themselves today from the term Zionism. Over the years the term Zionism has been battered about and linked with racism in United Nations statements , which was later revoked by UN resolution 46/86 in 1991. It has become a synonym for Middle East imperialism, racial intolerance and hatred for all Palestinians. Oren will convince you to reconsider if for some reason you are beginning to believe these things.
Excerpt:
Today many will say they support Israel but try as much as possible to separate support for the modern state of Israel with the term and “philosophy” of Zionism. Even some Christians and Messianic Jews who believe Israel has a divine right to the Land sometimes want to distance themselves today from the term Zionism. Over the years the term Zionism has been battered about and linked with racism in United Nations statements , which was later revoked by UN resolution 46/86 in 1991. It has become a synonym for Middle East imperialism, racial intolerance and hatred for all Palestinians. Oren will convince you to reconsider if for some reason you are beginning to believe these things.
Friday, August 8, 2014
Young Evangelical Anti-Israel Activism
I thought this was worth posting:
In 2010, a film was released that perfectly encapsulated the erosion of Evangelical Christian support for Israel. The film, With God on Our Side, featured a young man learning about the Palestinian struggle and coming to see Israel not as evidence of God’s faithfulness, but as a mean and heartless nation enabled by American Evangelicals who have embraced Zionist ideology.
The film’s narrative of peace-loving Palestinians mistreated by heartless Israelis and their Christian Zionist supporters has been repackaged and promoted again and again by anti-Israel activists in some of the most influential Evangelical institutions in the United States. These activists, often in high positions, have found eager disciples in places like the megachurch campus of Willow Creek and the academic halls of Wheaton College, one of America’s preeminent Evangelical institutions. And they have been able to exploit the resources of popular Evangelical development organizations like World Vision...keep reading
(Hat tip Andy Woods)
In 2010, a film was released that perfectly encapsulated the erosion of Evangelical Christian support for Israel. The film, With God on Our Side, featured a young man learning about the Palestinian struggle and coming to see Israel not as evidence of God’s faithfulness, but as a mean and heartless nation enabled by American Evangelicals who have embraced Zionist ideology.
The film’s narrative of peace-loving Palestinians mistreated by heartless Israelis and their Christian Zionist supporters has been repackaged and promoted again and again by anti-Israel activists in some of the most influential Evangelical institutions in the United States. These activists, often in high positions, have found eager disciples in places like the megachurch campus of Willow Creek and the academic halls of Wheaton College, one of America’s preeminent Evangelical institutions. And they have been able to exploit the resources of popular Evangelical development organizations like World Vision...keep reading
(Hat tip Andy Woods)
Friday, July 4, 2014
Jesus was a Palestinian - Palestinian Liberation Theology
Melanie Phillips looks at a darker side of pro-Palestinian theology.
Within the Protestant world, many churches are deeply hostile to the State of Israel. They present the Palestinians as victims of Israeli oppression while ignoring the murderous victimization of Israeli citizens at their hands. This much is generally known. What is less known is the even more disturbing fact that this perverse animus is increasingly fed not by the politics of the present moment but by theology...keep reading
As an aside; soon after three Israeli teenagers were abducted, two self-described Christian Peace Activists tweeted the following message.
"The abduction of three yeshiva students in the West Bank last Thursday was ordered in advance - by Israel."
Sizer will likely be more familiar to observers than Alice Bach. The latter was an academic at Case Western University who blogs with The Electronic Intifada and has written for the Huffington Post. Biblical authority isn't exactly prominent in Bach's personal theology. She has also drawn the attention of Campus Watch, among others.
Further resources:
The full story behind the kidnappings
Within the Protestant world, many churches are deeply hostile to the State of Israel. They present the Palestinians as victims of Israeli oppression while ignoring the murderous victimization of Israeli citizens at their hands. This much is generally known. What is less known is the even more disturbing fact that this perverse animus is increasingly fed not by the politics of the present moment but by theology...keep reading
As an aside; soon after three Israeli teenagers were abducted, two self-described Christian Peace Activists tweeted the following message.
"The abduction of three yeshiva students in the West Bank last Thursday was ordered in advance - by Israel."
Sizer will likely be more familiar to observers than Alice Bach. The latter was an academic at Case Western University who blogs with The Electronic Intifada and has written for the Huffington Post. Biblical authority isn't exactly prominent in Bach's personal theology. She has also drawn the attention of Campus Watch, among others.
Further resources:
The full story behind the kidnappings
Saturday, May 3, 2014
Changing the Anti-Israel Mind Set.
An encouraging article by Jim Fletcher:
A series of programs coordinated by the America-Israel Friendship League is making real headway in changing negative perceptions about the Jewish state...keep reading
See also this video interview of Chloé Simone Valdary: a Junior at the University of New Orleans and founder of the Allies of Israel Association.
A series of programs coordinated by the America-Israel Friendship League is making real headway in changing negative perceptions about the Jewish state...keep reading
See also this video interview of Chloé Simone Valdary: a Junior at the University of New Orleans and founder of the Allies of Israel Association.
Saturday, January 11, 2014
Zionist Churches an Abomination?
“There are certainly churches in Israel/Palestine that side with the occupation, that side with Zionism. One of my burdens is to challenge them theologically and show that they’ve repudiated Jesus, they’ve repudiated the Bible, and they are an abomination.” ~ Stephen Sizer
Read the article from Rosh Pina Project HERE
Sizer apologizes and then rescinds. Also a link to the Moody Bible hosted Radio Debate with Sizer and Michael Brown at Rosh Pina Project HERE
Well done, Dr Bown!
Read the article from Rosh Pina Project HERE
Sizer apologizes and then rescinds. Also a link to the Moody Bible hosted Radio Debate with Sizer and Michael Brown at Rosh Pina Project HERE
Well done, Dr Bown!
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
A Response to the St. James Church Christmas Stunt
From Gatestone Institute:
Within hours of her release, Wafa al-Biss was speaking to Palestinian children, urging them to put on suicide vests and kill as many Jews as possible. And some people wonder why the Israelis need a security barrier.
It is a lie to say that Israel is an apartheid state and that the wall is an apartheid wall. It is a security barrier, just like dozens of others around the world, none of which is ever called an "apartheid wall."
The clergy and congregants of St. James have open, tolerant hearts, yet not, it seems, for Jews or Israelis. They venerate Palestinians above other suffering people and fail to distinguish between Palestinians who suffer from the conflict and those whose hate for Jews drives them to violence...keep reading
Excerpt:
"The Christians who berate Israel in this fashion have two biases. First, they seem to be in favor of a style of Christianity that takes Christ's vocation for the poor — a value that has led to so much good throughout history — and blends it with political strategies that may sound well-intended, but that often harbor dark and corrosive side-effects. It has for some time seemed natural to many Christians to follow a political path that disparages the norms of stable society by taking decent liberal values to extremes, by elevating the rights of gays above the rights of the majority, or women above men, disruption against the state (something that led to violent action in the counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s), a hatred for colonialism, that has led to a wider hatred of the West and its values, a love for the Third World that results in turning a blind eye to things such as honor killings and executions for apostasy, and a concerted hatred for Israel that slips all too easily into anti-Semitism in a bizarre reflection of the far right. What it adds up to is a striving for political correctness above all other values."
Within hours of her release, Wafa al-Biss was speaking to Palestinian children, urging them to put on suicide vests and kill as many Jews as possible. And some people wonder why the Israelis need a security barrier.
It is a lie to say that Israel is an apartheid state and that the wall is an apartheid wall. It is a security barrier, just like dozens of others around the world, none of which is ever called an "apartheid wall."
The clergy and congregants of St. James have open, tolerant hearts, yet not, it seems, for Jews or Israelis. They venerate Palestinians above other suffering people and fail to distinguish between Palestinians who suffer from the conflict and those whose hate for Jews drives them to violence...keep reading
Excerpt:
"The Christians who berate Israel in this fashion have two biases. First, they seem to be in favor of a style of Christianity that takes Christ's vocation for the poor — a value that has led to so much good throughout history — and blends it with political strategies that may sound well-intended, but that often harbor dark and corrosive side-effects. It has for some time seemed natural to many Christians to follow a political path that disparages the norms of stable society by taking decent liberal values to extremes, by elevating the rights of gays above the rights of the majority, or women above men, disruption against the state (something that led to violent action in the counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s), a hatred for colonialism, that has led to a wider hatred of the West and its values, a love for the Third World that results in turning a blind eye to things such as honor killings and executions for apostasy, and a concerted hatred for Israel that slips all too easily into anti-Semitism in a bizarre reflection of the far right. What it adds up to is a striving for political correctness above all other values."
Saturday, December 21, 2013
Christian Slaughter
I suggest that Christian slaughter and persecution should be a hot topic for the upcoming Christ At the Checkpoint Conference in 2014. It won't - but it should be! It would also be nice if Vicar Sizer added the topic to his impressive and growing list of audio & literary efforts.
Two of the most tragic Islamic attacks on Christians, killing several women and children, took place in the month of October, one in Syria another in Egypt...On October 21 in Syria, the U.S.-supported Islamic rebels invaded and occupied the ancient Christian settlement of Sadad for over a week, till ousted by the military. During that week, “the largest massacre of Christians in Syria,” in the words of Orthodox Archbishop Alnemeh, took place. Among other things, 45 Christians—including women and children—were killed, several tortured to death; mass graves were discovered; all of Sadad’s 14 churches, some ancient, were ransacked and destroyed; the bodies of six people from one family, ranging from ages 16 to 90, were found buried at the bottom of a well (an increasingly common fate for “subhuman” Christians)...keep reading
Two of the most tragic Islamic attacks on Christians, killing several women and children, took place in the month of October, one in Syria another in Egypt...On October 21 in Syria, the U.S.-supported Islamic rebels invaded and occupied the ancient Christian settlement of Sadad for over a week, till ousted by the military. During that week, “the largest massacre of Christians in Syria,” in the words of Orthodox Archbishop Alnemeh, took place. Among other things, 45 Christians—including women and children—were killed, several tortured to death; mass graves were discovered; all of Sadad’s 14 churches, some ancient, were ransacked and destroyed; the bodies of six people from one family, ranging from ages 16 to 90, were found buried at the bottom of a well (an increasingly common fate for “subhuman” Christians)...keep reading
Thursday, May 2, 2013
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