Alas, Elves, the link does not work!

Try here.

See also this related story.

This is precisely why I don’t understand the slavish devotion to Israel shown by evangelicals. (I also don’t understand how and why they think they can hasten Jesus’ return by funding Jewish causes and trying to get the temple rebuilt, but that’s another issue.) The Christian presence in the Holy Land, particularly in Jerusalem, has been waning and under threat for a long time and it’s only recently that I’ve seen some acknowledgement of the problems and collections taken for them.

We should be supporting the Christians there, including those in the West Bank whose homes are being destroyed in defiance of the treaty and boundaries. I remember the outpouring of pathos when settlers’ homes (that were built there illegally) were removed and wondered how Christians could lament that action while doing nothing for the plight of Christian Palestinians. When they turn to Hamas for help, can we really blame them?

I have long wondered why Americans treat Israel like the 51st state. I think it mostly comes down to a deeply ingrained Protestant Evangelical take on the Apocalypse of St. John. Many, especially the Dispensationalist types, are all too eager to tie US foreign policy to their peculiar theology.

RE: “This is precisely why I don’t understand the slavish devotion to Israel shown by evangelicals.”

Well, I don’t know whether I exhibit “slavish devotion” but I certainly support the right of Israel to defend its borders against those who wish to obliterate it from the face of the map and who do not recognize its identity as a nation or its right to exist.  And I support Israel’s right to maintain the land it advanced upon during its war defending Israel against attack in 1967, as well as Israel’s right to offer no more to the “Palestinians” [sic] than it offered at the failed 2000 Camp David summit.

Just to, um . . . deal with the uh . . . red herrings . . .

—I do not think that we can hasten Jesus’ return by funding “Jewish causes.”

—I do not think that we can hasten Jesus’ return by “trying to get the temple rebuilt.”

—I do not relate the “Apocalypse of St. John” to any of my opinions about the current country of Israel.

—I am not a dispensationalists, though I don’t find that belief system any more “peculiar” than certain other doctrines of other ecclesial entities—and just this past week I hung out with a dispensationalist who is anti-current-country-of-Israel rather similar to Pat Buchanan.

I’m glad you think as you do, Sarah. The Christian Zionists feast on those so-called “red herrings,” though.

I don’t care if Israel “defends its borders.” Of course they should. But I do care about Palestinian Christians and I also care about Israel trying to draw us into a war with Iran. They can trash-talk all they want about Iran but they can also “defend their borders” by themselves if they provoke a confrontation with the expectation that we’ll jump into it.

I’m not sure that Israel’s trash-talking Iran will provoke any kind of confrontation.

But two nations—Israel and the US—determining that Iran cannot develop nuclear weapons—will do so, I expect.

This sounds like the work of extremist, Hasidic Jews.  Even in Israel, they are a thorn in the flesh of the Israeli authorities.  I grew up in a heavily Hasidic community in New York and well remember having rocks thrown at my car on a Friday night when I dared to try and drive on the public roads near the Hasidic temples while they were walking to and from temple, completely blocking the streets.  They also managed to have the public buses partitioned with men only and women only seating.  The extremist Hasidim (by no means all of them) are not that different from other minority, extremist religious groups that advocate violent action in the name of religion to achieve their political goals.  They are thankfully, however, a definite minority within Judaism and Israel.

I’m not that worried about graffiti in Israel, what with 150,000 dead Christians around the world.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/100177915/radical-islam-revives-an-ancient-hatred/

The article’s point about western mainstream media being deaf to stories about Christians being persecuted is a good one.  There are a lot of us, and we should each look for ways to bring pressure on our local representatives and media, to deal with these issues.

Ah! But MichaeA - were the press to cover dead Christians, they would have to divert attention from The Rising Tide of Islamophobia in America, which is, we all know, the greatest threat to world peace.

That was inappropriate on this date.  My apologies.