“The age of warrior kings and of warrior presidents has passed. The nuclear age calls for a different kind of leadership….a leadership of intellect, judgment, tolerance and rationality, a leadership committed to human values, to world peace, and to the improvement of the human condition. The attributes upon which we must draw are the human attributes of compassion and common sense, of intellect and creative imagination, and of empathy and understanding between cultures.” – William Fulbright
The way to protect the USA from the violence and mayhem in the Mid East from revisiting our shores is to truthfully deal with the immorality of trusting in weapons of destruction to change hearts and minds. What is needed is imagination and intelligent leadership that reflects upon what we have done wrong and courageously seeks to right it.
We the people have been told that the “terrorists” hate us because of “our freedoms”. Never a word is heard from the MSM about USA made weapons being used by Israelis to massacre refugees or that target Red Cross ambulances and have now slaughtered more than 1,000 Lebanese civilians. And yet, President Bush clings too- and the limp MSM continues to report- that it is our freedoms that “they” hate!
Journalists quote “security sources” without challenging the information/propaganda and for those who dare to speak out about the other side of the wall, we are ignored or labeled anti-Semitic. Speaking out against inhumane and violence perpetuated by any government is a moral imperative for those who know the truth and are compelled to share it. Criticizing USA policy does not make one an unpatriotic American, but a thinking, feeling and compassionate world citizen. Opposing Israel’s occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people does not make one anti-Semitic, but proves one cares for the weak, the vulnerable and those without a voice.
“The Israeli aggression is relentless, and Israel benefits from Lebanon, in that the world is not paying attention to Gaza,” said Interior Minister Said Syiam in Gaza City. “I appeal to the world to pay attention.” http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/807/re2.htm
Seven weeks into Israel’s offensive on Gaza finds the civilian population desperate, isolated, and defenceless before Israeli massacres, but perhaps there is good news?
On July 24, 2006 Franklin Graham, President of Samaritans Purse, issued a “Prayer Alert: Crisis in the Holy Land.” He states the “latest conflict between Israel and the Hezzbollah terrorist group in Lebanon has created a unique opportunity for the church to the Lord Jesus Christ to reach out with God’s love to thousands of families displaced by the fighting.”
The good news maybe, that in the midst of the mayhem of the Middle East the potential now exists as never before, to wake up USA Christians to the six decade long refugee crisis in the land we all call Holy, and the nearly four decades of occupation that has been allowed to not just continue unchallenged by America, but is also supported by the USA with billions of dollars worth of weapons of destruction and billions of USA tax dollars.
Graham sites Matthew 5:44, that Christians are to “love your enemies” and Psalm 122:6 that we are to “pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” Lebanon is 30% Christian, and now that American evangelicals are waking up to the ‘crisis in the Holy Land, the real crisis may soon be addressed. A partial list includes:
1. Four decades of Israeli occupation in Palestinian territories.
2. Millions of refugees who are not allowed to return home and millions more who cannot get passports to leave
3. Over 100 unrecognized villages in Israel where Arab’s have Israeli citizenship and pay taxes, but receive no services; no electricity, no water, no medical, no schools, no human rights, no respect.
4. 4,170 Palestinian Homes have been demolished without reason or compensation since 2000. [http://www.ifamericansknew.org/]
5. A concrete wall/electrified fence that does not follow the Green Line and has been deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice and must come down, but continues to grab Palestinian land, water and divides families and prevents farmers from tending their land.
6. 9,599 Palestinians prisoners are being held, many without charges and access to legal council, and many of these are woman and children. [IBID]
7. 60+ new Jewish-only settlements have been built on confiscated Palestinian land between March 2001 and July 11, 2003. [IBID]
8. The U.S. gives $15,139,178 per day to the Israeli government and military and has furnished billions in weapons of destruction.
According to The Nation on the web [Aug. 8, 2006 "Birth Pangs of a New Christian Zionism"] over the past months, the White House has convened a series of off-the-record meetings about its policies in the Middle East with leaders of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), a newly formed political organization that tells its members that supporting Israel’s expansionist policies is “a biblical imperative.”
The Nation reported that CUFI’s pressed White House officials to adopt a more confrontational posture toward Iran, to refuse aid to the Palestinians and give Israel a free hand as it ramped up its military conflict with Hezbollah. The White House has not revealed the names of the officials who met with CUFI lobbyists which is a tentacle from the Armageddon-based foreign-policy views of its founder, John Hagee. Hagee is a fundamentalist, fire-and-brimstone preacher and a leader of the fastest growing cult in America: Christian Zionism.
While Jewish Zionism began with the hope that all Jewish people would have a safe and peaceful dwelling place, these corruptors of the gospel Christ preached, adhere to a 200 year old mis-interpretation and mis-reading of disparate scriptures that they have weaved together to support their fear based doctrine.
Hagee has captivated nearly 18,000 misled Christians at his Cornerstone Church and he also hosts a major TV ministry where he explains his views of how the end times will unfold. He blatantly corrupts and denies the message that Christ preached. Hagee, Hal Lindsay and the Left Behinder’s are doomsday false ‘prophets’ who believe that the only way to defeat “Islamist fascists” is with a full-scale military assault. The cult of ‘Christian’ Zionism is basically the spirit of what an Antichrist has been understood to be for centuries of theologians.
The theology of Premellenial Dispensation worships a god of Armageddon and not the God of love, forgiveness and compassion that Jesus/AKA The Prince of Peace taught. To be anti-Christ is to be anti-what Christ taught, such as it is the peacemakers who are God’s children and one must forgive to be forgiven. While Jewish Zionism’s intent was that all Jews would have a safe and peaceful place to live, Christian Zionism and their Pre-Millenial philosphy is inherently anti-Semitic. Their intent is to convert the Jews to Christianity or leave them to perish in a nuclear holocaust, which they believe they will be raptured out of.
In 1891, Christian fundamentalist and lay-preacher, William Blackstone appealed to President Benjamin Harrison to help establish a Jewish state in Palestine. Blackstone was a disciple of Dwight L. Moody and they both were influenced by the father of premillenial dispensationalism, John Nelson Darby. Darby had great success in connecting with the post-Civil War survivors and was able to transmit his new theology into the heartland of America. Despite the horrifying news of Czarist pogroms that could have been the catalyst to establishing a Jewish state before the Holocaust, the fundamentalists moved onto the Scope’s Trial and forgot about the Jews for a while.
Fifty years later and after six million innocents were cold bloodedly murdered, and then only after the British Mandate ran out, Israel was born. Most evangelicals interpreted the establishment of Israel to be the fulfillment of how they understood and interpreted certain prophetic scriptures. They interpreted the Israeli victory in the 1967 War and the capture of Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza, Sinai and the Golan Heights to be an act of God and not because of Israeli superior military might.
The American Bi-Centennial in 1976 was a watershed year for the religious right. While mainline churches declined evangelical fundamentalist churches became the fastest growing sector of American Christianity. TIME magazine named 1976 as The Year of The Evangelical and suddenly they became a legitimate political and religious force.
“Following the War of 1967, Israel gained an increased portion of USA foreign aid and military budgets, becoming the ‘western pillar’ of the USA strategic alliance against Soviet incursion into the Middle East…During this period AIPAC and other pro-Israeli lobby agencies began their ascent to power in shaping USA foreign policy. The Roman Catholic Church and mainline Protestant denominations began to develop a more balanced approach to the Middle East, bringing them closer to the international consensus on the Palestinian question. Pro-Israel organizations interpreted this shift as being Anti-Israel and in turn began to court the conservative Christians.”-pg. 35 Challenging Christian Zionism www.sabeel.org
In 1977, when President Carter stated “The Palestinians deserve a right to their homeland.” The Christian fundamentalists and Israeli lobby responded with full page ads stating: “The time has come for evangelical Christians to affirm their belief in biblical prophecy and Israel’s divine right to the land…and affirm our belief in the Promised Land to the Jewish people.” [Ibid]
The Reagan White House hosted a series of seminars from the Israeli lobby and Christian right. This was when Hal Lindsay, Pat Robertson, Jerry Fawell and the Moral majority infiltrated the West Wing.
“Fawell received a Lear Jet from the Israeli government for his personal travel…When Israel bombed the Iraqi nuclear plant in 1981, Prime Minister Begin called Jerry Fawell [ before he called Reagan] to ask him ‘to explain to the Christian public the reasons for the bombings.’” [Ibid pg. 37]
In 1996, Netanyahu and Likud ideology dominated Israeli policy and 17 evangelical USA pastors pledged their support of illegal colonies in the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan Heights and full support for a Jerusalem under sovereignty of Israel.
The Christian Zionists launched a PR campaign under the banner: “Christians Call for a United Jerusalem.”
They ignored the fact that they were in conflict with American policy and the Oslo process as well as a direct attack on Roman Catholic and mainline Protestant unity with the Churches for Middle East Peace that called for a Shared Jerusalem. What Hagee and the Left Behind crowd have left behind is that Christ promised: “The Peacmakers shall be called the children of God.” Matthew 5:9
“The coming nuclear showdown with Iran is a certainty,” Hagee wrote this year in the Pentecostal magazine Charisma. “Israel and America must confront Iran’s nuclear ability and willingness to destroy Israel with nuclear weapons. For Israel to wait is to risk committing national suicide.”
The theology of the fictional Left Behind series, is an example of the spirit of anti-christ: fear of the other that drives one to violence. THE PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS of JESUS of NAZARETH, as penned by Thomas Jefferson illuminate just how far these neo-Christians have strayed from the message Christ delivered and modeled with his life. According to Christ, to be his follower, one must be just: for justice comes from virtue which comes from the heart. And that one is to treat ALL people the way one wants to be treated and not to judge the non-believer.
Christ taught that the only way to resist evil is with good and modeled that one must always work for PEACEFUL resolutions, even to the point of returning violence with compassion and forgiveness, as Jesus did when nailed to a cross for he prayed:
“Father forgive them, they do not know what they are doing.”
Eileen is a retired RN, activist, author, poet, reporter and editor for the WAWA Blog:
http://www.wearewideawake.org
Her first novel, KEEP HOPE ALIVE can be ordered through her website.