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Wednesday, December 25, 2013
What the Middle East would be like without Christians
By Christa Case Bryant, CS Monitor, December 22, 2013
Bethlehem, West Bank—The pews at First Baptist Church of Bethlehem fill quickly as congregants stream in on a Sunday night, some with fancy purses, others with worn shoes and KFC takeout bags. Latecomers have to settle for plastic chairs in the back.
As the service gets under way, hands arc in the air as worshipers sing and thank God for a recent revival that drew more than 1,300 people to hear the message of the Bible—a testament to the theme of the sermon on this night: responding to the invitation of Christ.
In a city heralded as the place where Jesus Christ was born to the Virgin Mary, the church is something of a modern miracle. Founded in a two-bedroom apartment three decades ago by the Rev. Naim Khoury, First Baptist was bombed 14 times during the first intifada, struggled with financial difficulties, and is now facing a legal battle with the Palestinian Authority, which doesn’t recognize it as a church.
Thousands of Christians in Bethlehem have faced similar political and economic strife over the past few decades, leading many of them to flee the city where Christianity’s central figure was born in a straw-filled manger. Christians, who once made up 80 percent of the population, now represent 20 to 25 percent. But First Baptist defies the trend. Its congregation is 300 members strong—and growing.
"We fought and fought to remain and not to hide what we believe," says Mr. Khoury, who himself survived a bullet to the shoulder from an unknown sniper while in the church parking lot five years ago. "It’s time for them to realize that we are here. There’s no way for us to close down and go somewhere else…. We proved ourselves here by the help of the Lord that we are here to stay until the Lord comes back."
Khoury’s unflinching faith is something that more Christians may have to summon—not only here in the Holy Land but across the entire Middle East. Two thousand years after the birth of Jesus, Christianity is under assault more than at any time in the past century, prompting some to speculate that one of the world’s three great religions could vanish entirely from the region within a generation or two.
From Iraq, which has lost at least half of its Christians over the past decade, to Egypt, which saw the worst spate of anti-Christian violence in 700 years this summer, to Syria, where jihadists are killing Christians and burying them in mass graves, the followers of Jesus face violence and vitriol as well as declining churches and ecumenical divides. Christians now make up only 5 percent of the population of the Middle East, down from 20 percent a century ago. Many Arab Christians are upset that the West hasn’t done more to help.
Though many Muslims grew up with Christian friends and colleagues, powerful political and social forces have made such coexistence more difficult. As political Islam gains support, Christians can no longer find refuge in a shared Arab identity with their Muslim neighbors, but are instead increasingly marooned by an emphasis on religious identity. Calls for citizenship with equal rights are punctuated with stories of Islamist extremists demanding that Christians convert to Islam or pay an exorbitant tax. And many Muslims are facing persecution themselves as the Arab upheavals of 2011 continue to ripple across the region and nations try to find an equilibrium between freedom and stability.
"Whatever happens, it is going to be very difficult to put it back together again," says Fiona McCallum, a scholar of Middle Eastern Christians at the University of St Andrews in Scotland.
To be sure, Christians have confronted difficult times before, from the killing of Jesus’ immediate followers to the Mamluk oppression of Christians beginning in the 13th century to the rise of Islamist militant activity in Egypt in the 1970s. Warriors who came in the name of Christ have been responsible for egregious interreligious violence as well, such as during the First Crusade in 1099, when Christians took over Jerusalem and massacred nearly all the city’s residents.
Whether today proves to be yet another ebb in the flow of Christian history or something more fundamental remains uncertain. But what is evident is that both Muslims and Christians, as well as the region’s other minorities, are likely to be significantly affected by a continued deterioration.
Christians have traditionally run some of the region’s top schools, been active members of the merchant class, and brought a moderating influence to society and politics. That has led not only Christians and human rights activists to lobby for the preservation of these communities, but some Muslim leaders as well.
"The protection of the rights of Christians is a duty rather than a favor," declared Jordan’s King Abdullah in September, speaking to delegates at a palace-sponsored conference on Arab Christian persecution. "Christians have always played a key role in building our societies and defending our nations."
As an evening breeze sweeps across the Jordanian capital of Amman, dozens of Iraqi refugees file out of the Jesuit Fathers church, touching or kissing the cross on their way out.
Among them is Mofed, an Arab Christian who recently fled the turmoil in his native country. A year ago, Mofed (who, like other refugees, would only give his first name out of fear of retribution) was running a photo shop in Baghdad. Then one day several men came into his store and gave him three options: become Muslim; pay a $70,000 per capita tax (jizya) levied on non-Muslims; or be killed, along with his family.
"You pay, or get killed," says his wife, Nuhad. "There is no in between. If you say, ‘OK, I’ll become Muslim,’ there is no problem. That is their aim, to get you to change your religion, to be Muslim."
Mofed and Nuhad decided to exercise a fourth option: flee their homeland, bringing their three children along with them. Their decision is emblematic of what an estimated half million Christians have done since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the subsequent brutal civil war there. During that time, Muslim extremists have attacked more than 60 Christian churches across the country. This includes the 2010 Al Qaeda-linked strike on a mass at Our Lady of Salvation Church that killed 58 worshipers.
The proliferation of jihadist groups after the fall of Saddam Hussein, coupled with the rise of political Islam, has made an already tense environment even more unbearable for the country’s Christian community, which has been part of Iraqi society for more than 1,900 years. While many Muslims have fled the turmoil in Iraq as well, Christians have been disproportionately represented, in part because of their above-average means: Four years into the war, Christians—who made up 5 percent of the population in prewar Iraq—accounted for 15 to 18 percent of registered Iraqi refugees in neighboring countries, according to the International Red Cross. Today, fewer than 500,000 Christians remain in Iraq from a prewar population of 1 million to 1.4 million.
Christians in Syria worry that the same thing could happen in their country, where civil war has led to a rise in militant groups, some affiliated with Al Qaeda. Many worshipers who once prided themselves on being part of one of the safest Christian communities in the Middle East now face kidnapping or death. Muslim militants are targeting Christian businesses as well. In recent months, jihadists have carried out assaults on the town of Maaloula, where many residents still speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus.
Before the uprising broke out in March 2011, experts estimated that Christians represented 5 to 8 percent of Syria’s 22 million people. The Syrian patriarch of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church recently suggested that as many as 450,000 of the 2 million Syrian refugees today are Christians, though such figures vary widely and are difficult to confirm.
While Iraq and Syria have seen perhaps the worst widespread violence against Christians, some of the most concentrated anti-Christian attacks this year have taken place in Egypt. That’s of particular concern to Christians elsewhere in the region because Egypt’s Christian population, at about 9 million, forms the largest Christian contingent anywhere in the Middle East. The church’s demise there would be especially demoralizing.
Egypt’s Christians, which make up about 10 percent of the population, face harsh restrictions on building or renovating churches, and say they often face discrimination in schools and the workplace. Violent attacks on Christians and their houses of worship rose in the final years of the rule of Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted in the January 2011 uprising.
As Islamists expanded their power after his fall, many Christians said the threat and attacks multiplied, particularly in the wake of Mohamed Morsi’s election as president. But the violence didn’t diminish once Mr. Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood were removed from power this summer by the military. Many Islamists blamed Christians for supporting the coup, and angry Morsi supporters attacked dozens of churches across Egypt in August.
Samuel Tadros, author of “Motherland Lost: The Egyptian and Coptic Quest for Modernity,” called it the worst spate of violence for Egypt’s Copts since the 14th century.
It’s not just Christians who are concerned. Sheikh Ali Gomaa, grand mufti emeritus of Egypt and one of four senior Muslim scholars to attend the Arab Christian conference in Amman this fall, condemned the attacks, church torchings, and humiliation of Christians in Egypt.
Elsewhere in the Middle East, the situation is calmer but still difficult for many Christians. In Jordan, Christians make up 3 to 4 percent of the country’s 6.3 million citizens but have a parliamentary quota of 6 percent and a government that promotes interfaith dialogue. In Lebanon, the Christian population remains the region’s largest bloc in terms of percentage, with about 36 percent, and Christians are guaranteed half the seats in parliament by law.
In Gaza, fewer than 2,000 Christians remain. Muslim militants have bombed churches, killed prominent Christians, and forced others to convert to Islam. In the West Bank, Arab Christians are better off than many in parts of the region, but only an estimated 50,000 live there—about 2 percent of the population, down from 10 percent in 1920. Much of that change, however, is due to faster Muslim growth rather than an actual decrease in Christian totals.
One exception to the decline is Israel, where the Christian population has grown nearly fivefold, to 158,000, since the country’s founding in 1948. Even so, their share of the population has dropped from about 3 percent to 2 percent, and critics note that Palestinian Christian families who fled or were forced out just prior to Israel’s founding gave the country an artificially low baseline. Much of the increase was due to the immigration of Christians from the former Soviet Union, under Israel’s expanded law of return, which welcomes those with a Jewish mother or maternal grandmother.
Still, despite all the problems, this is not the darkest moment in history for Christians in the Middle East. Barbara Roggema, a scholar of Christian-Muslim relations at King’s College London, notes that there have been many cycles of Christian persecution and prosperity over the centuries.
Dr. Roggema sees three major differences between the problems Christians face today and those of the past: jihadist groups have access to arms on a scale unknown in history; propaganda can be more easily spread than ever before; and because of Western involvement in the Middle East, local Christian communities are more easily accused of being loyal to the West rather than to their own society.
"It is a gross historical and logical error to claim that being Christian equals being pro-Western, but it makes it easy for jihadists to accuse Middle Eastern Christians of not belonging to their own lands," she says.
Nasief Awwad was only 7 years old when his mother died, so his father—a Muslim laborer—decided to enroll him at a Mennonite-run boarding school in the West Bank city of Hebron. Later he transferred to the Hope Secondary School near Bethlehem, thus receiving not only the majority of his education but also much of his parenting from Christians.
Today, Mr. Awwad is the head of a major highway construction firm and serves on many local boards. At one point, he offered as many as 20 university scholarships annually for outstanding students. He credits his Christian schooling as a foundation stone of his success and says he enjoys correcting misconceptions about Christianity among his fellow Muslims.
"I appreciate all my life … the help that I was given, the education that I got from the Mennonite school, from the Mennonite family—teachers and [the sponsors abroad] who paid for my education," says Awwad, who sent all four of his children to the Quaker-run Friends School in Ramallah. "I don’t forget it."
The dividends of Awwad’s Christian education underscore why many say it’s important to maintain Christian communities in the Middle East. They see the quality of their schools; their contributions as entrepreneurs, merchants, and as overwhelmingly middle- or upper-class consumers; and the religious plurality they inevitably bring as essential and enriching to Arab society. Now, as their communities shrink or become increasingly marginalized, a key question is whether such positive influences will also dwindle.
Some say the high quality of education offered by Christian schools unwittingly contributed to the Christian exodus—and with it the loss of an educated elite.
"The Christian schools that helped to educate Christians in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank indirectly, without intending to do it, have encouraged the diaspora of the Christians … and they did that through giving quality education to Christians," says Alex Awad of the Bethlehem Bible College, citing the broader horizons, European languages, and cultural familiarity that helped them to fit into Western societies. "It was a blessing to these individuals, but it hurt the community as a whole."
But those Christians who are left are active in society. According to the Lutheran-based Diyar Consortium in Bethlehem, nearly half of Palestinian civil institutions are Christian, and Christian institutions (including churches) are one of the largest employers after the Palestinian Authority, providing jobs for 22,000 Christians and Muslims.
"You will see that Christians have very important organizations, foundations, schools, hospitals. They lead very important and prosperous development in the city," says Mayor Vera Baboun, who says she and her fellow Christians also retain significant influence in the Palestinian Authority, with some serving as ambassadors and government ministers. "We are part and parcel of the decisionmaking process in Palestine."
Amid all the persecution and violence, many Christians in the Middle East are able to survive by holding to two things—their faith and their fellowship with other Christians.
In the Egyptian city of Minya, head priest Abanoub Gad opens a worn Bible, some passages highlighted in bright pink, to Matthew 5:44, where Jesus told his disciples, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Father Gad encourages his congregation to practice that teaching in their own lives and reminds them of the good relations they enjoyed with their Muslim neighbors and friends for decades, to emphasize that the extremists who attack churches do not represent the majority. While some clerics instructed Muslims not to offer greetings to Christians for Christian holidays, Gad says he told his congregation: “Go celebrate their feasts with them.”
Many Christians believe that the centrality of forgiveness in Jesus’ teachings could, in fact, play a vital role in helping to reduce sectarian violence across the Middle East.
"Christianity can bring a role model, a founder—Jesus, and his immediate disciples—who were not warriors, who were not trying to establish political power," says Paul Wright, an ordained Baptist minister, biblical scholar, and president of Jerusalem University College.
Khoury, from the First Baptist Church in Bethlehem, would certainly echo that sentiment. He encourages his flock to smile at the Israeli soldiers who staff the checkpoints around Bethlehem and speak kindly to them.
"I think the whole world is hungering and thirsting for someone to love them," especially in the Middle East, says Khoury. "Whatever it is, accept it, pray for them, forgive them, don’t hold anything in your heart against them."
Ultimately, many argue, that is the kind of faith lived that will keep Christianity vibrant in the Holy Land and beyond. It is an approach that hinges more on the quality and fidelity of their faith than on the number of adherents—not unlike the early Christians who started out as a tiny, persecuted minority 2,000 years ago.
"Unless [Christians] have … spiritual and moral incentives, then whether they stay here or not, it doesn’t make a difference," says Professor Awad of Bethlehem Bible College. "I think we have an understanding of God through Jesus Christ that can bless the rest of the population and help the Arab world with the struggles that they are having."
Bethlehem, West Bank—The pews at First Baptist Church of Bethlehem fill quickly as congregants stream in on a Sunday night, some with fancy purses, others with worn shoes and KFC takeout bags. Latecomers have to settle for plastic chairs in the back.
As the service gets under way, hands arc in the air as worshipers sing and thank God for a recent revival that drew more than 1,300 people to hear the message of the Bible—a testament to the theme of the sermon on this night: responding to the invitation of Christ.
In a city heralded as the place where Jesus Christ was born to the Virgin Mary, the church is something of a modern miracle. Founded in a two-bedroom apartment three decades ago by the Rev. Naim Khoury, First Baptist was bombed 14 times during the first intifada, struggled with financial difficulties, and is now facing a legal battle with the Palestinian Authority, which doesn’t recognize it as a church.
Thousands of Christians in Bethlehem have faced similar political and economic strife over the past few decades, leading many of them to flee the city where Christianity’s central figure was born in a straw-filled manger. Christians, who once made up 80 percent of the population, now represent 20 to 25 percent. But First Baptist defies the trend. Its congregation is 300 members strong—and growing.
"We fought and fought to remain and not to hide what we believe," says Mr. Khoury, who himself survived a bullet to the shoulder from an unknown sniper while in the church parking lot five years ago. "It’s time for them to realize that we are here. There’s no way for us to close down and go somewhere else…. We proved ourselves here by the help of the Lord that we are here to stay until the Lord comes back."
Khoury’s unflinching faith is something that more Christians may have to summon—not only here in the Holy Land but across the entire Middle East. Two thousand years after the birth of Jesus, Christianity is under assault more than at any time in the past century, prompting some to speculate that one of the world’s three great religions could vanish entirely from the region within a generation or two.
From Iraq, which has lost at least half of its Christians over the past decade, to Egypt, which saw the worst spate of anti-Christian violence in 700 years this summer, to Syria, where jihadists are killing Christians and burying them in mass graves, the followers of Jesus face violence and vitriol as well as declining churches and ecumenical divides. Christians now make up only 5 percent of the population of the Middle East, down from 20 percent a century ago. Many Arab Christians are upset that the West hasn’t done more to help.
Though many Muslims grew up with Christian friends and colleagues, powerful political and social forces have made such coexistence more difficult. As political Islam gains support, Christians can no longer find refuge in a shared Arab identity with their Muslim neighbors, but are instead increasingly marooned by an emphasis on religious identity. Calls for citizenship with equal rights are punctuated with stories of Islamist extremists demanding that Christians convert to Islam or pay an exorbitant tax. And many Muslims are facing persecution themselves as the Arab upheavals of 2011 continue to ripple across the region and nations try to find an equilibrium between freedom and stability.
"Whatever happens, it is going to be very difficult to put it back together again," says Fiona McCallum, a scholar of Middle Eastern Christians at the University of St Andrews in Scotland.
To be sure, Christians have confronted difficult times before, from the killing of Jesus’ immediate followers to the Mamluk oppression of Christians beginning in the 13th century to the rise of Islamist militant activity in Egypt in the 1970s. Warriors who came in the name of Christ have been responsible for egregious interreligious violence as well, such as during the First Crusade in 1099, when Christians took over Jerusalem and massacred nearly all the city’s residents.
Whether today proves to be yet another ebb in the flow of Christian history or something more fundamental remains uncertain. But what is evident is that both Muslims and Christians, as well as the region’s other minorities, are likely to be significantly affected by a continued deterioration.
Christians have traditionally run some of the region’s top schools, been active members of the merchant class, and brought a moderating influence to society and politics. That has led not only Christians and human rights activists to lobby for the preservation of these communities, but some Muslim leaders as well.
"The protection of the rights of Christians is a duty rather than a favor," declared Jordan’s King Abdullah in September, speaking to delegates at a palace-sponsored conference on Arab Christian persecution. "Christians have always played a key role in building our societies and defending our nations."
As an evening breeze sweeps across the Jordanian capital of Amman, dozens of Iraqi refugees file out of the Jesuit Fathers church, touching or kissing the cross on their way out.
Among them is Mofed, an Arab Christian who recently fled the turmoil in his native country. A year ago, Mofed (who, like other refugees, would only give his first name out of fear of retribution) was running a photo shop in Baghdad. Then one day several men came into his store and gave him three options: become Muslim; pay a $70,000 per capita tax (jizya) levied on non-Muslims; or be killed, along with his family.
"You pay, or get killed," says his wife, Nuhad. "There is no in between. If you say, ‘OK, I’ll become Muslim,’ there is no problem. That is their aim, to get you to change your religion, to be Muslim."
Mofed and Nuhad decided to exercise a fourth option: flee their homeland, bringing their three children along with them. Their decision is emblematic of what an estimated half million Christians have done since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the subsequent brutal civil war there. During that time, Muslim extremists have attacked more than 60 Christian churches across the country. This includes the 2010 Al Qaeda-linked strike on a mass at Our Lady of Salvation Church that killed 58 worshipers.
The proliferation of jihadist groups after the fall of Saddam Hussein, coupled with the rise of political Islam, has made an already tense environment even more unbearable for the country’s Christian community, which has been part of Iraqi society for more than 1,900 years. While many Muslims have fled the turmoil in Iraq as well, Christians have been disproportionately represented, in part because of their above-average means: Four years into the war, Christians—who made up 5 percent of the population in prewar Iraq—accounted for 15 to 18 percent of registered Iraqi refugees in neighboring countries, according to the International Red Cross. Today, fewer than 500,000 Christians remain in Iraq from a prewar population of 1 million to 1.4 million.
Christians in Syria worry that the same thing could happen in their country, where civil war has led to a rise in militant groups, some affiliated with Al Qaeda. Many worshipers who once prided themselves on being part of one of the safest Christian communities in the Middle East now face kidnapping or death. Muslim militants are targeting Christian businesses as well. In recent months, jihadists have carried out assaults on the town of Maaloula, where many residents still speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus.
Before the uprising broke out in March 2011, experts estimated that Christians represented 5 to 8 percent of Syria’s 22 million people. The Syrian patriarch of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church recently suggested that as many as 450,000 of the 2 million Syrian refugees today are Christians, though such figures vary widely and are difficult to confirm.
While Iraq and Syria have seen perhaps the worst widespread violence against Christians, some of the most concentrated anti-Christian attacks this year have taken place in Egypt. That’s of particular concern to Christians elsewhere in the region because Egypt’s Christian population, at about 9 million, forms the largest Christian contingent anywhere in the Middle East. The church’s demise there would be especially demoralizing.
Egypt’s Christians, which make up about 10 percent of the population, face harsh restrictions on building or renovating churches, and say they often face discrimination in schools and the workplace. Violent attacks on Christians and their houses of worship rose in the final years of the rule of Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted in the January 2011 uprising.
As Islamists expanded their power after his fall, many Christians said the threat and attacks multiplied, particularly in the wake of Mohamed Morsi’s election as president. But the violence didn’t diminish once Mr. Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood were removed from power this summer by the military. Many Islamists blamed Christians for supporting the coup, and angry Morsi supporters attacked dozens of churches across Egypt in August.
Samuel Tadros, author of “Motherland Lost: The Egyptian and Coptic Quest for Modernity,” called it the worst spate of violence for Egypt’s Copts since the 14th century.
It’s not just Christians who are concerned. Sheikh Ali Gomaa, grand mufti emeritus of Egypt and one of four senior Muslim scholars to attend the Arab Christian conference in Amman this fall, condemned the attacks, church torchings, and humiliation of Christians in Egypt.
Elsewhere in the Middle East, the situation is calmer but still difficult for many Christians. In Jordan, Christians make up 3 to 4 percent of the country’s 6.3 million citizens but have a parliamentary quota of 6 percent and a government that promotes interfaith dialogue. In Lebanon, the Christian population remains the region’s largest bloc in terms of percentage, with about 36 percent, and Christians are guaranteed half the seats in parliament by law.
In Gaza, fewer than 2,000 Christians remain. Muslim militants have bombed churches, killed prominent Christians, and forced others to convert to Islam. In the West Bank, Arab Christians are better off than many in parts of the region, but only an estimated 50,000 live there—about 2 percent of the population, down from 10 percent in 1920. Much of that change, however, is due to faster Muslim growth rather than an actual decrease in Christian totals.
One exception to the decline is Israel, where the Christian population has grown nearly fivefold, to 158,000, since the country’s founding in 1948. Even so, their share of the population has dropped from about 3 percent to 2 percent, and critics note that Palestinian Christian families who fled or were forced out just prior to Israel’s founding gave the country an artificially low baseline. Much of the increase was due to the immigration of Christians from the former Soviet Union, under Israel’s expanded law of return, which welcomes those with a Jewish mother or maternal grandmother.
Still, despite all the problems, this is not the darkest moment in history for Christians in the Middle East. Barbara Roggema, a scholar of Christian-Muslim relations at King’s College London, notes that there have been many cycles of Christian persecution and prosperity over the centuries.
Dr. Roggema sees three major differences between the problems Christians face today and those of the past: jihadist groups have access to arms on a scale unknown in history; propaganda can be more easily spread than ever before; and because of Western involvement in the Middle East, local Christian communities are more easily accused of being loyal to the West rather than to their own society.
"It is a gross historical and logical error to claim that being Christian equals being pro-Western, but it makes it easy for jihadists to accuse Middle Eastern Christians of not belonging to their own lands," she says.
Nasief Awwad was only 7 years old when his mother died, so his father—a Muslim laborer—decided to enroll him at a Mennonite-run boarding school in the West Bank city of Hebron. Later he transferred to the Hope Secondary School near Bethlehem, thus receiving not only the majority of his education but also much of his parenting from Christians.
Today, Mr. Awwad is the head of a major highway construction firm and serves on many local boards. At one point, he offered as many as 20 university scholarships annually for outstanding students. He credits his Christian schooling as a foundation stone of his success and says he enjoys correcting misconceptions about Christianity among his fellow Muslims.
"I appreciate all my life … the help that I was given, the education that I got from the Mennonite school, from the Mennonite family—teachers and [the sponsors abroad] who paid for my education," says Awwad, who sent all four of his children to the Quaker-run Friends School in Ramallah. "I don’t forget it."
The dividends of Awwad’s Christian education underscore why many say it’s important to maintain Christian communities in the Middle East. They see the quality of their schools; their contributions as entrepreneurs, merchants, and as overwhelmingly middle- or upper-class consumers; and the religious plurality they inevitably bring as essential and enriching to Arab society. Now, as their communities shrink or become increasingly marginalized, a key question is whether such positive influences will also dwindle.
Some say the high quality of education offered by Christian schools unwittingly contributed to the Christian exodus—and with it the loss of an educated elite.
"The Christian schools that helped to educate Christians in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank indirectly, without intending to do it, have encouraged the diaspora of the Christians … and they did that through giving quality education to Christians," says Alex Awad of the Bethlehem Bible College, citing the broader horizons, European languages, and cultural familiarity that helped them to fit into Western societies. "It was a blessing to these individuals, but it hurt the community as a whole."
But those Christians who are left are active in society. According to the Lutheran-based Diyar Consortium in Bethlehem, nearly half of Palestinian civil institutions are Christian, and Christian institutions (including churches) are one of the largest employers after the Palestinian Authority, providing jobs for 22,000 Christians and Muslims.
"You will see that Christians have very important organizations, foundations, schools, hospitals. They lead very important and prosperous development in the city," says Mayor Vera Baboun, who says she and her fellow Christians also retain significant influence in the Palestinian Authority, with some serving as ambassadors and government ministers. "We are part and parcel of the decisionmaking process in Palestine."
Amid all the persecution and violence, many Christians in the Middle East are able to survive by holding to two things—their faith and their fellowship with other Christians.
In the Egyptian city of Minya, head priest Abanoub Gad opens a worn Bible, some passages highlighted in bright pink, to Matthew 5:44, where Jesus told his disciples, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Father Gad encourages his congregation to practice that teaching in their own lives and reminds them of the good relations they enjoyed with their Muslim neighbors and friends for decades, to emphasize that the extremists who attack churches do not represent the majority. While some clerics instructed Muslims not to offer greetings to Christians for Christian holidays, Gad says he told his congregation: “Go celebrate their feasts with them.”
Many Christians believe that the centrality of forgiveness in Jesus’ teachings could, in fact, play a vital role in helping to reduce sectarian violence across the Middle East.
"Christianity can bring a role model, a founder—Jesus, and his immediate disciples—who were not warriors, who were not trying to establish political power," says Paul Wright, an ordained Baptist minister, biblical scholar, and president of Jerusalem University College.
Khoury, from the First Baptist Church in Bethlehem, would certainly echo that sentiment. He encourages his flock to smile at the Israeli soldiers who staff the checkpoints around Bethlehem and speak kindly to them.
"I think the whole world is hungering and thirsting for someone to love them," especially in the Middle East, says Khoury. "Whatever it is, accept it, pray for them, forgive them, don’t hold anything in your heart against them."
Ultimately, many argue, that is the kind of faith lived that will keep Christianity vibrant in the Holy Land and beyond. It is an approach that hinges more on the quality and fidelity of their faith than on the number of adherents—not unlike the early Christians who started out as a tiny, persecuted minority 2,000 years ago.
"Unless [Christians] have … spiritual and moral incentives, then whether they stay here or not, it doesn’t make a difference," says Professor Awad of Bethlehem Bible College. "I think we have an understanding of God through Jesus Christ that can bless the rest of the population and help the Arab world with the struggles that they are having."
Monday, December 23, 2013
Feliz Natal
David Brandt Berg
Nós não sabemos se Jesus realmente nasceu na noite de Natal. Mas sabemos que Ele nasceu em algum momento, e comemoramos nesta data. Na verdade, não importa a data. Qualquer uma serve.
O importante é que Jesus nasceu, viveu e morreu por nós. E ressuscitou para que possamos fazer o mesmo. Por isso, para miam não tem problema algum se o dia 25 de dezembro foi escolhido para comemorar o Seu aniversário.
Quando meus filhos eram pequenos eu proibia a minha famÃlia de comemorar o Natal porque fui criado ouvindo pregadores dizerem que a árvore de Natal é um resquÃcio do culto de druidas, que era um ritual pagão, além de que a data nem era mesmo o aniversário de Jesus, etc. Por isso, durante uns três ou quatro anos os coitados dos meus filhos nunca tiveram uma árvore de Natal. Que fanatismo! Um dia, porém, eles arranjaram uma árvore baixinha sem eu saber e a enfeitaram toda e colocaram em casa.
Nós morávamos em um trailer na ocasião, com espaço mais ou menos do comprimento desta mesa e pouco mais largo do que isso. Mas era a nossa casinha. O outro dia eu disse a alguém que moramos em um trailer e a pessoa não conseguia acreditar que passamos 20 anos morando em trailer, barraca e motorhome. Eu sei o que é ser pobre.
Já lhes contei a história do ricaço americano que foi visitar o pobre missionário no México, no barraquinho onde ele morava.
Algumas pessoas que dão grandes donativos à s missões querem ir visitar a obra e serem entretidos pelos missionários, dormir com eles e alimentá-los — sendo que eles mal têm condições para isso.
Enfim, o colaborador ricaço foi passar a noite na pequena missão para ver como as coisas funcionavam. Antes de se deitarem, o missionário lhe disse: “Se precisar de alguma coisa, por favor, nos informe para podermos lhe explicar como passar sem isso.”
Seja como for, vi aquela arvorezinha lá em casa com umas três bolinhas — éramos tão pobres que nem tÃnhamos condições de comprar os enfeites — e um fiozinho de festão. Acho que as crianças também colocaram um cordão com luzes, coitadinhas. Entrei em casa depois de um dia difÃcil dando aulas, e vi aquela árvore. No mesmo instante minha esposa entrou correndo explicando:
“É uma arvorezinha de nada! E nós ganhamos as bolas, eu só precisei comprar o pisca-pisca. É só para as crianças!” Eu disse: “Bem, não posso fazer mais nada, afinal, a árvore já está montada.” Mas puxa vida, como essa árvore cresceu depois disso!
Eu acho bom o fato do mundo praticamente ser forçado a comemorar o Natal. As luzes de Natal são um testemunho. Se você montar luzes na parte externa da sua casa onde todos podem ver, está lembrando às pessoas que é Natal, e talvez elas pensem em Jesus!
Eu acho bom o mundo todo ser praticamente obrigado a se lembrar do nascimento de Cristo. É uma ocasião quando até os ateus, incrédulos e céticos reconhecem algo relacionado à fé, religião, Cristo e BÃblia — mesmo que não comemorem nesse espÃrito.
Estou agradecido pelo fato de o mundo se lembrar do aniversário de Cristo. Quem dera realmente se lembrassem do que se trata. Mas pelo menos as pessoas reconhecem o dia e todos comemoram. É um dos dias mais felizes do ano.
Oh vinde fieis, alegres triunfantes,
Oh vinde celebrar em Belém.
Vinde adorar ao rei dos anjos.
Oh vinde, adoremos, vinde adoremos.
Oh vinde adoremos, Cristo o Senhor.
Você está agradecido no seu coração? Não é maravilhoso ter amor? Quem tem Deustem amor, porque Deus é amor. Não é maravilhoso conhecer Jesus? Não é maravilhoso ser salvo? Não é maravilhoso ter Deus no seu coração? Feliz Natal! Feliz Ano Novo!
Publicado originalmente em dezembro 1976. Atualizado e republicado em dezembro 2013. Tradução Hebe Rondon Flandoli.
Things you didn't know about reindeer
By David Mac Dougall, AP, Dec 21, 2013
HELSINKI (AP)—Reindeer are featured on Christmas cards and in movies worldwide this time of year, galloping across the sky with Santa’s sleigh in tow.
But on Europe’s northern fringe, the migratory mammals are part of everyday life all year round as they roam the fells of Lapland—the Arctic homeland of the indigenous Sami people of Norway, Sweden, Finland and northwest Russia.
Here are some interesting things you may not have known about reindeer:
FAST AND WANDERING. Of course reindeer can’t fly but they can run quickly over long distances.
"Reindeer are fast, but not as fast as horses," says Jonas Vannar, a Sami reindeer herder from Jokkmokk in Swedish Lapland. "They can easily travel 40 to 50 kilometers (24 to 31 miles) a day if they have to."
The migratory animals can roam 125 miles (200 kilometers) or more in the spring from their winter grazing grounds in the forests to reach calving grounds high in the mountains.
"On hot summer days, they migrate vertically … until they reach snow patches where the temperature is lower, then back to the valleys, to graze during the midnight sun," says Vannar.
WARM AND WOOLY. Reindeer are also uniquely adapted to survive the harsh Lapland winters, explains Mari Heikkila, director of Ranua Wildlife Park in Finland.
"The hair of the reindeer is hollow, so there is air between the hairs and also inside the hair, and their winter coat is really thick," Heikkila says.
That makes them super-insulated, one reason why Samis have always made their winter clothes from reindeer hides.
Reindeer also have large hooves compared to moose or deer. When the snow is deep, they spread their hooves and make them even wider to stop themselves from sinking in.
EYES THAT CHANGE COLOR. Reindeer eyes change color between summer and winter to adapt to the widely varying levels of light in the high north.
"The reflection from reindeer eyes is yellow-green in summer … but deep blue in winter," says Karl-Arne Stokkan, a professor at the University of Tromsoe in Norway, part of a scientific team that discovered earlier this year why that is.
Due to the extremely limited light in the far northern winter, reindeer’s eyes need to be much more sensitive to light then than in summer. The blue color during the darkest months of the year helps scatter more incoming light and results in better vision, says Stokkan.
TASTY AND HEALTHY. Reindeer meat is a popular staple across Lapland. In Finland, demand for the gamey, low-fat meat outstrips the supply, so it has to import reindeer meat from Russia.
A reindeer cooking competition is held in the northern Finnish town of Inari each year, where Sami chefs pit their traditional recipes against modern culinary arts.
Traditionally, Finnish Sami have used all parts of the reindeer, making dishes such as reindeer sausage or stuffed reindeer stomach. A more common dish is sauteed reindeer with mashed potatoes and lingonberry jam.
At the Kaunispaan Huippu restaurant in the northern Finnish town of Saariselka, the menu features such delicacies as smoked reindeer mousse with blackcurrant sauce and reindeer with Lappish cheese.
"Our special way to cook reindeer meat is to hot-smoke the roast on an open fire," says chef Jorma Lehtinen, who then fries the meat in rosemary butter.
Reindeers are slaughtered in late autumn or early winter but their meat can be frozen and used throughout the year.
WHO REALLY SAW THEM FLY? In popular culture, eight flying reindeer pull Santa’s sleigh as he delivers presents to children around the world on Christmas Eve. That scenario was first described in the 1820s by American poet Clement Clarke Moore. More than 100 years later, American writer Robert L. May added Rudolph with his red nose leading the way.
Some of the story is rooted in reality, as migrating reindeer herds are usually led by a single animal.
But there’s debate on the origins of the flying reindeer, and some have traced it to reindeer eating hallucinogenic mushrooms. Ancient Sami shamans, the theory goes, would then drink filtered reindeer urine and get high themselves, then think they were seeing their reindeer “flying.”
"Mushrooms have been used to a certain extent in shamanic ceremonies," says Arja Jomppanen, a researcher at Sida, the National Museum of the Finnish Sami in Inari. "But drinking urine has not been mentioned in accounts of Sami traditions."
BUT THEY MUST PAUSE TO PEE. Reindeer can’t walk too far without answering the call of nature. In fact, they are unable to walk and pee at the same time, so they have to take a bathroom break roughly every 6 miles. In Finnish, this distance is known as “poronkusema” or “reindeer’s piss” and was an old-fashioned description of distances in the countryside.
HELSINKI (AP)—Reindeer are featured on Christmas cards and in movies worldwide this time of year, galloping across the sky with Santa’s sleigh in tow.
But on Europe’s northern fringe, the migratory mammals are part of everyday life all year round as they roam the fells of Lapland—the Arctic homeland of the indigenous Sami people of Norway, Sweden, Finland and northwest Russia.
Here are some interesting things you may not have known about reindeer:
FAST AND WANDERING. Of course reindeer can’t fly but they can run quickly over long distances.
"Reindeer are fast, but not as fast as horses," says Jonas Vannar, a Sami reindeer herder from Jokkmokk in Swedish Lapland. "They can easily travel 40 to 50 kilometers (24 to 31 miles) a day if they have to."
The migratory animals can roam 125 miles (200 kilometers) or more in the spring from their winter grazing grounds in the forests to reach calving grounds high in the mountains.
"On hot summer days, they migrate vertically … until they reach snow patches where the temperature is lower, then back to the valleys, to graze during the midnight sun," says Vannar.
WARM AND WOOLY. Reindeer are also uniquely adapted to survive the harsh Lapland winters, explains Mari Heikkila, director of Ranua Wildlife Park in Finland.
"The hair of the reindeer is hollow, so there is air between the hairs and also inside the hair, and their winter coat is really thick," Heikkila says.
That makes them super-insulated, one reason why Samis have always made their winter clothes from reindeer hides.
Reindeer also have large hooves compared to moose or deer. When the snow is deep, they spread their hooves and make them even wider to stop themselves from sinking in.
EYES THAT CHANGE COLOR. Reindeer eyes change color between summer and winter to adapt to the widely varying levels of light in the high north.
"The reflection from reindeer eyes is yellow-green in summer … but deep blue in winter," says Karl-Arne Stokkan, a professor at the University of Tromsoe in Norway, part of a scientific team that discovered earlier this year why that is.
Due to the extremely limited light in the far northern winter, reindeer’s eyes need to be much more sensitive to light then than in summer. The blue color during the darkest months of the year helps scatter more incoming light and results in better vision, says Stokkan.
TASTY AND HEALTHY. Reindeer meat is a popular staple across Lapland. In Finland, demand for the gamey, low-fat meat outstrips the supply, so it has to import reindeer meat from Russia.
A reindeer cooking competition is held in the northern Finnish town of Inari each year, where Sami chefs pit their traditional recipes against modern culinary arts.
Traditionally, Finnish Sami have used all parts of the reindeer, making dishes such as reindeer sausage or stuffed reindeer stomach. A more common dish is sauteed reindeer with mashed potatoes and lingonberry jam.
At the Kaunispaan Huippu restaurant in the northern Finnish town of Saariselka, the menu features such delicacies as smoked reindeer mousse with blackcurrant sauce and reindeer with Lappish cheese.
"Our special way to cook reindeer meat is to hot-smoke the roast on an open fire," says chef Jorma Lehtinen, who then fries the meat in rosemary butter.
Reindeers are slaughtered in late autumn or early winter but their meat can be frozen and used throughout the year.
WHO REALLY SAW THEM FLY? In popular culture, eight flying reindeer pull Santa’s sleigh as he delivers presents to children around the world on Christmas Eve. That scenario was first described in the 1820s by American poet Clement Clarke Moore. More than 100 years later, American writer Robert L. May added Rudolph with his red nose leading the way.
Some of the story is rooted in reality, as migrating reindeer herds are usually led by a single animal.
But there’s debate on the origins of the flying reindeer, and some have traced it to reindeer eating hallucinogenic mushrooms. Ancient Sami shamans, the theory goes, would then drink filtered reindeer urine and get high themselves, then think they were seeing their reindeer “flying.”
"Mushrooms have been used to a certain extent in shamanic ceremonies," says Arja Jomppanen, a researcher at Sida, the National Museum of the Finnish Sami in Inari. "But drinking urine has not been mentioned in accounts of Sami traditions."
BUT THEY MUST PAUSE TO PEE. Reindeer can’t walk too far without answering the call of nature. In fact, they are unable to walk and pee at the same time, so they have to take a bathroom break roughly every 6 miles. In Finnish, this distance is known as “poronkusema” or “reindeer’s piss” and was an old-fashioned description of distances in the countryside.
Countries to pray for this Christmas
Christian Today, December 20, 2013
Christian Solidarity Worldwide has issued a prayer list to help people stand in prayerful support of Christians around the world who are under pressure for their faith.
Iran. A wave of arrests of Christians usually occurs over the Christmas period. Church services are raided and Christians interrogated about their church activities.
Pray that Christmas services would be allowed to take place in peace, and that unjustly jailed Christians would be released.
Nigeria. Christians in northern and central Nigeria are frequently attacked by Islamist militia groups, including the terrorist group Boko Haram and its offshoot Ansaru. Churches are particularly vulnerable during Christmas and New Year celebrations.
Pray that any terrorist groups planning violence would be discovered, and their plans would fail.
Vietnam. Christmas in Vietnam is often a time when Christians of all denominations invite non-Christians to sing hymns and celebrate with them. This can leave the Christians open to accusations of ‘illegal evangelism’.
Ask God to protect Christians accused of ‘illegal evangelism’ for inviting people of other faiths to Christmas celebrations.
Pakistan. Less than two per cent of Pakistan’s population is Christian so most people in the country don’t celebrate Christmas. Minority festivals can be a time of tension between communities.
Pray for peace, understanding and goodwill between Christians and their Muslim neighbours, demonstrating the spirit of the Christmas message.
Bangladesh. National elections take place on 5 January. Christians and other minorities are at risk of violent attacks before and after elections.
Ask God to pour out his peace on the nation during the Christmas and New Year period.
Egypt. The Christian community is being targeted increasingly by supporters of former president Morsi. There are legitimate concerns that Christians may once again face violence or intimidation over Christmas and New Year.
Ask God to protect Egyptian Christians as they celebrate the birth of Christ.
Syria. Almost half a million Christians have fled the war in Syria, and those who have chosen to remain are increasingly vulnerable to attacks by Sunni Islamist militias.
Pray for a just and lasting peace, and for Syria’s diverse religious and ethnic groups to be reconciled.
Indonesia. Hundreds of churches in Indonesia have been forced to close by the authorities, and others have not been allowed to hold Christmas services.
Pray that the congregations of forcibly closed churches would find a place to celebrate Christmas in peace and safety.
Sudan. Christians and other minorities have faced continuing repression since South Sudan became an independent nation. Christmas 2012 was marked by tension, after a Muslim woman became a Christian, the priests who baptised her were arrested and their church was closed.
Pray that Christmas celebrations would take place peacefully with no arrests, and for good relations between Christians and Muslims.
Central African Republic. Previously harmonious relations between Christian and Muslim communities are currently at an all time low. In the past few weeks over 1,000 people have been killed in sectarian violence that has included targeted attacks on Christians, particularly families with young men.
Pray for an end to the violence, for political stability, and for reconciliation between Muslim and Christian communities.
Christian Solidarity Worldwide has issued a prayer list to help people stand in prayerful support of Christians around the world who are under pressure for their faith.
Iran. A wave of arrests of Christians usually occurs over the Christmas period. Church services are raided and Christians interrogated about their church activities.
Pray that Christmas services would be allowed to take place in peace, and that unjustly jailed Christians would be released.
Nigeria. Christians in northern and central Nigeria are frequently attacked by Islamist militia groups, including the terrorist group Boko Haram and its offshoot Ansaru. Churches are particularly vulnerable during Christmas and New Year celebrations.
Pray that any terrorist groups planning violence would be discovered, and their plans would fail.
Vietnam. Christmas in Vietnam is often a time when Christians of all denominations invite non-Christians to sing hymns and celebrate with them. This can leave the Christians open to accusations of ‘illegal evangelism’.
Ask God to protect Christians accused of ‘illegal evangelism’ for inviting people of other faiths to Christmas celebrations.
Pakistan. Less than two per cent of Pakistan’s population is Christian so most people in the country don’t celebrate Christmas. Minority festivals can be a time of tension between communities.
Pray for peace, understanding and goodwill between Christians and their Muslim neighbours, demonstrating the spirit of the Christmas message.
Bangladesh. National elections take place on 5 January. Christians and other minorities are at risk of violent attacks before and after elections.
Ask God to pour out his peace on the nation during the Christmas and New Year period.
Egypt. The Christian community is being targeted increasingly by supporters of former president Morsi. There are legitimate concerns that Christians may once again face violence or intimidation over Christmas and New Year.
Ask God to protect Egyptian Christians as they celebrate the birth of Christ.
Syria. Almost half a million Christians have fled the war in Syria, and those who have chosen to remain are increasingly vulnerable to attacks by Sunni Islamist militias.
Pray for a just and lasting peace, and for Syria’s diverse religious and ethnic groups to be reconciled.
Indonesia. Hundreds of churches in Indonesia have been forced to close by the authorities, and others have not been allowed to hold Christmas services.
Pray that the congregations of forcibly closed churches would find a place to celebrate Christmas in peace and safety.
Sudan. Christians and other minorities have faced continuing repression since South Sudan became an independent nation. Christmas 2012 was marked by tension, after a Muslim woman became a Christian, the priests who baptised her were arrested and their church was closed.
Pray that Christmas celebrations would take place peacefully with no arrests, and for good relations between Christians and Muslims.
Central African Republic. Previously harmonious relations between Christian and Muslim communities are currently at an all time low. In the past few weeks over 1,000 people have been killed in sectarian violence that has included targeted attacks on Christians, particularly families with young men.
Pray for an end to the violence, for political stability, and for reconciliation between Muslim and Christian communities.
Pope Francis Urges Vatican to Stop Gossiping, Exercise Professionalism
By Courtney Subramanian, TIME, Dec. 21, 2013
Pope Francis urged Vatican officials Saturday to remember to practice professionalism and competence to evade the trappings of mediocrity and bureaucracy that have long mired the Catholic Church.
Francis made the remarks at a Christmas address to the Vatican Curia, the administrative governing body of the Catholic Church, the Associated Press reports.
The Holy See also emphasized that Church officials should act as “conscientious objectors” to gossip, calling the practice harmful to their work, and pushed for a church focused on mercy over moralizing.
Named TIME’s Person of the Year, Pope Francis has spent his first year pushing reforms for the often antiquated Vatican system. He has already begun to shake up the Congregation for Bishops by removing a U.S. cardinal who was a flashpoint over the abortion and gay marriage wars, and other conservative figureheads. He will soon name his first set of cardinals and oversee recommendations for reforming the bureaucracy that riddles the church.
Pope Francis urged Vatican officials Saturday to remember to practice professionalism and competence to evade the trappings of mediocrity and bureaucracy that have long mired the Catholic Church.
Francis made the remarks at a Christmas address to the Vatican Curia, the administrative governing body of the Catholic Church, the Associated Press reports.
The Holy See also emphasized that Church officials should act as “conscientious objectors” to gossip, calling the practice harmful to their work, and pushed for a church focused on mercy over moralizing.
Named TIME’s Person of the Year, Pope Francis has spent his first year pushing reforms for the often antiquated Vatican system. He has already begun to shake up the Congregation for Bishops by removing a U.S. cardinal who was a flashpoint over the abortion and gay marriage wars, and other conservative figureheads. He will soon name his first set of cardinals and oversee recommendations for reforming the bureaucracy that riddles the church.
You Have a Vested Interest in Your Coworkers' Success
The Simple Dollar, 20 Dec 2013
If there is one lesson I want to teach my children about their professional lives, it’s this one.
You have a vested interest in the success of your coworkers. Let’s walk through some of the pieces of that.
If you talk negatively about your coworkers, it hurts you. You’re adding a bunch of negative emotions to the workplace. Rather than letting people deal with them individually and thus keeping the workplace positive, you’re creating a cesspool.
If you talk positively about your coworkers, it helps you. Not only does it build up their confidence and connection to you, it also shows others that you don’t badmouth people.
If you constantly toss work onto your coworkers’ plates, you don’t build up skills. You’re not seen as being very productive by both the other workers and the boss and, before long, you’re sliding down to the end of the chopping line.
If you look for opportunities to make your coworkers’ loads easier without drastically overburdening yourself, you cement strong relationships with people, keep your skills in tip-top shape, and create a reputation as a valuable contributor in the workplace.
If you focus on building good relationships with coworkers and do what you can to make the work environment better, people are going to associate positive attitudes with you.
What about other people? What about “slackers” in the office? What about the people that add nothing but poison?
To that, I say, what about them? Those people are not your problem. Just minimize your interaction with them, keep what interactions you have in a positive light, and let the situation resolve itself.
What’s the end result of these positive moves?
Most coworkers will think positively of you and want to help you out when you’re in a pinch. If you need to leave early one day or need help with a project, it’s the people you have a strong relationship with that will come through with you.
If you help coworkers achieve career milestones, most of them won’t forget it. Ever. I’ve had coworkers from more than a decade ago pop up again in my life just because I happened to help them at a key moment.
If you have a positive work reputation, you’re much more insulated from the pink slips and you’re more likely to receive raises, bonuses, and promotions. You’re the kind of person a company wants to keep around. That means they’ll be less likely to fire you and more likely to reward you.
If your coworkers succeed regularly, then the business as a whole succeeds, which helps you. When you’re in a workplace, everything is interconnected and your choices ripple out and affect everyone else and then, just like ripples in a small pond, they come back to you.
You are completely vested in the success of your coworkers. Keep that in mind every single day when you head into work.
If there is one lesson I want to teach my children about their professional lives, it’s this one.
You have a vested interest in the success of your coworkers. Let’s walk through some of the pieces of that.
If you talk negatively about your coworkers, it hurts you. You’re adding a bunch of negative emotions to the workplace. Rather than letting people deal with them individually and thus keeping the workplace positive, you’re creating a cesspool.
If you talk positively about your coworkers, it helps you. Not only does it build up their confidence and connection to you, it also shows others that you don’t badmouth people.
If you constantly toss work onto your coworkers’ plates, you don’t build up skills. You’re not seen as being very productive by both the other workers and the boss and, before long, you’re sliding down to the end of the chopping line.
If you look for opportunities to make your coworkers’ loads easier without drastically overburdening yourself, you cement strong relationships with people, keep your skills in tip-top shape, and create a reputation as a valuable contributor in the workplace.
If you focus on building good relationships with coworkers and do what you can to make the work environment better, people are going to associate positive attitudes with you.
What about other people? What about “slackers” in the office? What about the people that add nothing but poison?
To that, I say, what about them? Those people are not your problem. Just minimize your interaction with them, keep what interactions you have in a positive light, and let the situation resolve itself.
What’s the end result of these positive moves?
Most coworkers will think positively of you and want to help you out when you’re in a pinch. If you need to leave early one day or need help with a project, it’s the people you have a strong relationship with that will come through with you.
If you help coworkers achieve career milestones, most of them won’t forget it. Ever. I’ve had coworkers from more than a decade ago pop up again in my life just because I happened to help them at a key moment.
If you have a positive work reputation, you’re much more insulated from the pink slips and you’re more likely to receive raises, bonuses, and promotions. You’re the kind of person a company wants to keep around. That means they’ll be less likely to fire you and more likely to reward you.
If your coworkers succeed regularly, then the business as a whole succeeds, which helps you. When you’re in a workplace, everything is interconnected and your choices ripple out and affect everyone else and then, just like ripples in a small pond, they come back to you.
You are completely vested in the success of your coworkers. Keep that in mind every single day when you head into work.
Merry Christmas
By D.Brandt Berg
Download Audio
We don’t know whether Christmas was really the night when Jesus was born or not, but we know He was born some night, and this is the night we celebrate it. One night’s as good as another.
All that matters is that He was born, He lived and He died for you and me, and He rose again, so we could do the same. So if people want to pick December 25 to celebrate His birthday, that’s fine with me.
I used to forbid my little family to celebrate Christmas because I heard some preachers say that Christmas trees are an old hangover from Druid worship—that it was a pagan rite and it wasn’t even Jesus’ birthday, and all those things. So for about three or four years I wouldn’t let my poor little kids have a Christmas tree. What a fanatic! Then one day they snuck one in on me and they put it up with a few little decorations; it was only a few feet high.
We lived in this little trailer, and the inside was about twice as long as this table and not much wider, but it was our little house. I told somebody the other day and they could hardly believe that we lived in trailers, tents, and motorhomes for 20 years. So I know what it’s like to be poor.
I told you that story about the rich American who was visiting the poor missionary down in Mexico in his little poor hut.
Some people who donate a lot to missions want to go down and take a tour and have the missionaries entertain them and sleep them and feed them, when they can hardly afford it.
This rich donor came to spend the night to see how his little mission was getting along. After he got settled for the night, the missionary said to him, “If there’s anything you need, just let us know, and we’ll tell you how to get along without it.”
Anyway, I saw that little tree with only about three balls on it—we were so poor we could hardly afford it—and one little string of tinsel, and I think they bought one little string of lights, poor kids. I marched in after teaching school all day, a hard day at school, and saw that tree, and my wife came rushing up,
“It’s just a little tree! And they gave us the balls—all I bought was the lights. It’s only for the children!” I said, “Well, there’s not much I can do about it now; you’ve already got it.” But oh, how it grew!
I do think it is good that the world is almost compelled to celebrate Christmas. Christmas lights are a testimony. If you put up Christmas lights outside where everybody can see them, then you’re reminding everybody that it’s Christmas, and maybe they’ll think about Jesus!
I think it’s good that the whole world is almost compelled to remember Christ’s birthday. That’s the one time that even the atheists and the unbelievers and the skeptics acknowledge something that’s about faith and religion and Christ and the Bible, even if they don’t celebrate it as such.
I am thankful that the world remembers Christ’s birthday. I just wish that they would remember that that is what it is. But at least the world recognizes the day and everybody celebrates it. It’s one of the happiest days of the year.
O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye, to Bethlehem.
Come and adore Him, born the King of angels.
O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.
Is your heart full of thanksgiving? Isn’t it wonderful to have love? When you haveGod, you have love, because God is love. Isn’t it wonderful to know Jesus? Isn’t it wonderful to be saved? Isn’t it wonderful to have God in your heart? Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!
Originally published December 1976. Adapted and republished December 2013. Read by Simon Peterson. Music taken from the Rhythm of Christmas album.
Used by permission.
Download Audio
We don’t know whether Christmas was really the night when Jesus was born or not, but we know He was born some night, and this is the night we celebrate it. One night’s as good as another.
All that matters is that He was born, He lived and He died for you and me, and He rose again, so we could do the same. So if people want to pick December 25 to celebrate His birthday, that’s fine with me.
I used to forbid my little family to celebrate Christmas because I heard some preachers say that Christmas trees are an old hangover from Druid worship—that it was a pagan rite and it wasn’t even Jesus’ birthday, and all those things. So for about three or four years I wouldn’t let my poor little kids have a Christmas tree. What a fanatic! Then one day they snuck one in on me and they put it up with a few little decorations; it was only a few feet high.
We lived in this little trailer, and the inside was about twice as long as this table and not much wider, but it was our little house. I told somebody the other day and they could hardly believe that we lived in trailers, tents, and motorhomes for 20 years. So I know what it’s like to be poor.
I told you that story about the rich American who was visiting the poor missionary down in Mexico in his little poor hut.
Some people who donate a lot to missions want to go down and take a tour and have the missionaries entertain them and sleep them and feed them, when they can hardly afford it.
This rich donor came to spend the night to see how his little mission was getting along. After he got settled for the night, the missionary said to him, “If there’s anything you need, just let us know, and we’ll tell you how to get along without it.”
Anyway, I saw that little tree with only about three balls on it—we were so poor we could hardly afford it—and one little string of tinsel, and I think they bought one little string of lights, poor kids. I marched in after teaching school all day, a hard day at school, and saw that tree, and my wife came rushing up,
“It’s just a little tree! And they gave us the balls—all I bought was the lights. It’s only for the children!” I said, “Well, there’s not much I can do about it now; you’ve already got it.” But oh, how it grew!
I do think it is good that the world is almost compelled to celebrate Christmas. Christmas lights are a testimony. If you put up Christmas lights outside where everybody can see them, then you’re reminding everybody that it’s Christmas, and maybe they’ll think about Jesus!
I think it’s good that the whole world is almost compelled to remember Christ’s birthday. That’s the one time that even the atheists and the unbelievers and the skeptics acknowledge something that’s about faith and religion and Christ and the Bible, even if they don’t celebrate it as such.
I am thankful that the world remembers Christ’s birthday. I just wish that they would remember that that is what it is. But at least the world recognizes the day and everybody celebrates it. It’s one of the happiest days of the year.
O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye, to Bethlehem.
Come and adore Him, born the King of angels.
O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.
Is your heart full of thanksgiving? Isn’t it wonderful to have love? When you haveGod, you have love, because God is love. Isn’t it wonderful to know Jesus? Isn’t it wonderful to be saved? Isn’t it wonderful to have God in your heart? Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!
Originally published December 1976. Adapted and republished December 2013. Read by Simon Peterson. Music taken from the Rhythm of Christmas album.
Used by permission.
Saturday, December 21, 2013
Compartilhando o Amor do Natal
Uma compilação
Estamos mais uma vez naquela época maravilhosa em que celebramos o amor do Senhor ao vir à Terra para nos redimir! Nesta época as pessoas ficam mais receptivas à testificação, e é um perÃodo ótimo para testemunhar e levar ao máximo de pessoas possÃvel o amor e a verdade do nosso Salvador. Não vou dizer que este poderia ser o nosso último Natal, mas vai ser o último Natal de muita gente. Para muitos no mundo esta será a sua última chance de receber Jesus aqui na terra.
A maioria de nós já desfrutou de muitos natais, mas não sabemos quantos mais ainda teremos. Vamos aproveitar este Natal e todos os outros que ainda venhamos a ter, para pregar o Evangelho ao mundo todo como testemunho, para que o Fim possa vir.[1]
Mas mesmo quando não é Natal, deverÃamos nos sentir na obrigação de compartilhar com quem o Senhor coloca no nosso caminho a fé, o amor, a alegria e esperança que temos em abundância. Como Paulo disse, “me é imposta a necessidade de pregar as boas novas.”[2]
Deus é muito bom conosco. Ele nos dá tanto! E o que Ele mais deseja? Ele quer que o máximo de pessoas, Seus filhos, venham a conhecê-lO, amá-lO, e não só serem redimidos da morte, mas também do medo e do vazio do mundo, para que, por meio de um contato pessoal com Ele, possam ter uma vida celestial.
Vale a pena fazer tudo ao nosso alcance para isso acontecer. Conhecemos bem o conceito de fazer sacrifÃcios e renunciar a tudo para seguir a Jesus. E tentamos cada dia morrer para nós mesmos de modo a vivermos para Ele e os outros.[3] A época de Natal é ótima para pedirmos ao Senhor que renove a nossa paixão por Ele e pela testificação.
Espero que cada um de nós tome a decisão de compartilhar a mensagem de vida com aqueles que Deus colocar em nosso caminho. Essa atitude nos providenciará o melhor Natal, e daremos ao Senhor os melhores presentes que Ele deseja — mais filhos passando a ter um relacionamento com Ele por toda a eternidade.—Maria Fontaine
*
Porque a graça de Deus se manifestou salvadora a todos os homens. ... viver de maneira sensata, justa e piedosa nesta era presente, enquanto aguardamos a bendita esperança: a gloriosa manifestação de nosso grande Deus e Salvador, Jesus Cristo. Ele se entregou por nós a fim de nos remir de toda a maldade e purificar para si mesmo um povo particularmente seu, dedicado à prática de boas obras.—Tito 2:11–14[4]
Eu falo com você dos lugares dos recônditos da eternidade. Antes de o mundo ser formado, Eu sou! Você Me ouve no seu Ãntimo onde Eu fiz morada. Eu sou Cristo em você, a esperança da glória. Eu, o seu Senhor e Salvador, estou vivo em você. Aprenda a sintonizar-se com a Minha presença viva, buscando-Me na quietude.
Ao comemorar a maravilha do Meu nascimento em Belém, comemora também o renascimento para a vida eterna. Essa dádiva eternal lhe foi dada com o propósito expresso de lhe dar entrada no Meu mundo imaculado. Aceite esta dádiva com assombro e humildade. Tome tempo para explorar as vastas dimensões do Meu amor por você. Que a gratidão flua abundantemente do seu coração em resposta a este dom glorioso que lhe concede. Que a Minha paz reine no seu coração, e esteja agradecido.—Jesus falando em profecia[5]
*
Todos nós gostamos de ganhar presentes de amigos e amados. Ficamos ansiosos à espera dos presentes de aniversário, Natal e em datas comemorativas e outras ocasiões especiais. Mas os mais apreciados são as “lembrancinhas” dadas em dias comuns, simplesmente para mostrar que pensamos na pessoa. Presentes espontâneos são sinal de amor, a pessoa demonstra o seu amor dando alguém a alguém.
Um coração cheio do amor de Cristo deseja demonstrar esse amor de diferentes maneiras. Quanto mais vivenciamos o amor de Cristo, mais nossos corações se enchem e queremos compartilhar com outros assim que percebemos a necessidade da pessoa.
É um amor sem limites, como o que Cristo demonstrou à humanidade ao morrer na cruz. O amor dEle, que agora vive em nós, deveria transbordar do nosso coração para consolar e restaurar esse mundo sofrido.—Autor anônimo[6]
*
Até mesmo a árvore de Natal pode ser um testemunho para os outros, simbolizando a beleza da vida e de viver. No inverno a árvore perene é um sÃmbolo de vida eterna. Apesar do rigor do inverno, as conÃferas sobrevivem e permanecem verdes, vivas e lindas durante todo o inverno — exatamente como o Senhor!
Nestes últimos anos fiquei um pouco mais liberal na questão da comemoração do Natal. Antes eu dizia que era horrÃvel! “As pessoas gastam milhões de dólares todo Natal. E olhe aquela decoração dispendiosa, aquele tanto de árvores e enfeites e o Feliz Natal” — tudo sem Jesus! Mas agora fico satisfeito de ver as pessoas festejando o Natal. Se não pensarem em Jesus em nenhum outro momento do ano, pelo menos no Natal pensam.
Eu não acredito que Jesus tenha nascido exatamente no dia 25 de dezembro, mas não faz diferença! Contanto que o mundo comemore Jesus para mim está bom. Principalmente se lembrarem que o Natal está relacionado a Jesus. E que diferença faz o dia que comemoram, contanto que comemorem Jesus. —E a época oferece um incentivo para pensarem nEle pelo menos uma vez por ano, se presentearem, darem presentes para as crianças e fazê-las felizes no Natal e ficarem ansiosas por essa data!
Um aspecto positivo dos paÃses católicos é que nunca deixam você se esquecer da razão do Natal. Montam presépios, imagens de Maria, José e do Menino Jesus nas vitrines, debaixo de árvores, e cantam canções de Natal. Não dá para se esquecer que o Natal está relacionado a Jesus!
A árvore de Natal pode ser um lembrete para as pessoas pensarem em Jesus — a árvore perene do EspÃrito, Jesus, Filho do Deus eterno. — E as Suas dádivas que recebemos constantemente, e a vida eterna que temos. Deus nos ajude a jamais esquecermos o verdadeiro sentido do Natal, ou o verdadeiro sentido da árvore. Que jamais deixemos o genuÃno EspÃrito de Cristo do Natal se perder em toda a confusão deste mundo e do materialismo. Vamos glorificar ao Senhor no Natal! David Brandt Berg
Publicado no Âncora em dezembro 2013. Tradução Hebe Rondon Flandoli.
[1] Mateus 24:14.
[2] 1 CorÃntios 9:16.
[3] Lucas 14:33; 1 CorÃntios 15:31.
[4] NTLH.
[5] Sarah Young, Jesus Calling (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
[6] Every Day with Jesus (Worthy Publishing, 2011).
Estamos mais uma vez naquela época maravilhosa em que celebramos o amor do Senhor ao vir à Terra para nos redimir! Nesta época as pessoas ficam mais receptivas à testificação, e é um perÃodo ótimo para testemunhar e levar ao máximo de pessoas possÃvel o amor e a verdade do nosso Salvador. Não vou dizer que este poderia ser o nosso último Natal, mas vai ser o último Natal de muita gente. Para muitos no mundo esta será a sua última chance de receber Jesus aqui na terra.
A maioria de nós já desfrutou de muitos natais, mas não sabemos quantos mais ainda teremos. Vamos aproveitar este Natal e todos os outros que ainda venhamos a ter, para pregar o Evangelho ao mundo todo como testemunho, para que o Fim possa vir.[1]
Mas mesmo quando não é Natal, deverÃamos nos sentir na obrigação de compartilhar com quem o Senhor coloca no nosso caminho a fé, o amor, a alegria e esperança que temos em abundância. Como Paulo disse, “me é imposta a necessidade de pregar as boas novas.”[2]
Deus é muito bom conosco. Ele nos dá tanto! E o que Ele mais deseja? Ele quer que o máximo de pessoas, Seus filhos, venham a conhecê-lO, amá-lO, e não só serem redimidos da morte, mas também do medo e do vazio do mundo, para que, por meio de um contato pessoal com Ele, possam ter uma vida celestial.
Vale a pena fazer tudo ao nosso alcance para isso acontecer. Conhecemos bem o conceito de fazer sacrifÃcios e renunciar a tudo para seguir a Jesus. E tentamos cada dia morrer para nós mesmos de modo a vivermos para Ele e os outros.[3] A época de Natal é ótima para pedirmos ao Senhor que renove a nossa paixão por Ele e pela testificação.
Espero que cada um de nós tome a decisão de compartilhar a mensagem de vida com aqueles que Deus colocar em nosso caminho. Essa atitude nos providenciará o melhor Natal, e daremos ao Senhor os melhores presentes que Ele deseja — mais filhos passando a ter um relacionamento com Ele por toda a eternidade.—Maria Fontaine
*
Porque a graça de Deus se manifestou salvadora a todos os homens. ... viver de maneira sensata, justa e piedosa nesta era presente, enquanto aguardamos a bendita esperança: a gloriosa manifestação de nosso grande Deus e Salvador, Jesus Cristo. Ele se entregou por nós a fim de nos remir de toda a maldade e purificar para si mesmo um povo particularmente seu, dedicado à prática de boas obras.—Tito 2:11–14[4]
Eu falo com você dos lugares dos recônditos da eternidade. Antes de o mundo ser formado, Eu sou! Você Me ouve no seu Ãntimo onde Eu fiz morada. Eu sou Cristo em você, a esperança da glória. Eu, o seu Senhor e Salvador, estou vivo em você. Aprenda a sintonizar-se com a Minha presença viva, buscando-Me na quietude.
Ao comemorar a maravilha do Meu nascimento em Belém, comemora também o renascimento para a vida eterna. Essa dádiva eternal lhe foi dada com o propósito expresso de lhe dar entrada no Meu mundo imaculado. Aceite esta dádiva com assombro e humildade. Tome tempo para explorar as vastas dimensões do Meu amor por você. Que a gratidão flua abundantemente do seu coração em resposta a este dom glorioso que lhe concede. Que a Minha paz reine no seu coração, e esteja agradecido.—Jesus falando em profecia[5]
*
Todos nós gostamos de ganhar presentes de amigos e amados. Ficamos ansiosos à espera dos presentes de aniversário, Natal e em datas comemorativas e outras ocasiões especiais. Mas os mais apreciados são as “lembrancinhas” dadas em dias comuns, simplesmente para mostrar que pensamos na pessoa. Presentes espontâneos são sinal de amor, a pessoa demonstra o seu amor dando alguém a alguém.
Um coração cheio do amor de Cristo deseja demonstrar esse amor de diferentes maneiras. Quanto mais vivenciamos o amor de Cristo, mais nossos corações se enchem e queremos compartilhar com outros assim que percebemos a necessidade da pessoa.
É um amor sem limites, como o que Cristo demonstrou à humanidade ao morrer na cruz. O amor dEle, que agora vive em nós, deveria transbordar do nosso coração para consolar e restaurar esse mundo sofrido.—Autor anônimo[6]
*
Até mesmo a árvore de Natal pode ser um testemunho para os outros, simbolizando a beleza da vida e de viver. No inverno a árvore perene é um sÃmbolo de vida eterna. Apesar do rigor do inverno, as conÃferas sobrevivem e permanecem verdes, vivas e lindas durante todo o inverno — exatamente como o Senhor!
Nestes últimos anos fiquei um pouco mais liberal na questão da comemoração do Natal. Antes eu dizia que era horrÃvel! “As pessoas gastam milhões de dólares todo Natal. E olhe aquela decoração dispendiosa, aquele tanto de árvores e enfeites e o Feliz Natal” — tudo sem Jesus! Mas agora fico satisfeito de ver as pessoas festejando o Natal. Se não pensarem em Jesus em nenhum outro momento do ano, pelo menos no Natal pensam.
Eu não acredito que Jesus tenha nascido exatamente no dia 25 de dezembro, mas não faz diferença! Contanto que o mundo comemore Jesus para mim está bom. Principalmente se lembrarem que o Natal está relacionado a Jesus. E que diferença faz o dia que comemoram, contanto que comemorem Jesus. —E a época oferece um incentivo para pensarem nEle pelo menos uma vez por ano, se presentearem, darem presentes para as crianças e fazê-las felizes no Natal e ficarem ansiosas por essa data!
Um aspecto positivo dos paÃses católicos é que nunca deixam você se esquecer da razão do Natal. Montam presépios, imagens de Maria, José e do Menino Jesus nas vitrines, debaixo de árvores, e cantam canções de Natal. Não dá para se esquecer que o Natal está relacionado a Jesus!
A árvore de Natal pode ser um lembrete para as pessoas pensarem em Jesus — a árvore perene do EspÃrito, Jesus, Filho do Deus eterno. — E as Suas dádivas que recebemos constantemente, e a vida eterna que temos. Deus nos ajude a jamais esquecermos o verdadeiro sentido do Natal, ou o verdadeiro sentido da árvore. Que jamais deixemos o genuÃno EspÃrito de Cristo do Natal se perder em toda a confusão deste mundo e do materialismo. Vamos glorificar ao Senhor no Natal! David Brandt Berg
Publicado no Âncora em dezembro 2013. Tradução Hebe Rondon Flandoli.
[1] Mateus 24:14.
[2] 1 CorÃntios 9:16.
[3] Lucas 14:33; 1 CorÃntios 15:31.
[4] NTLH.
[5] Sarah Young, Jesus Calling (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
[6] Every Day with Jesus (Worthy Publishing, 2011).
Will the Christ Child Come?
By Gaye Willis, adapted
One Christmas we had an interesting experience. Halfway through December we were doing the regular evening things when there was a knock at the door. We opened it to find a small package with a beautiful ceramic lamb inside. We looked at the calendar and realized that the 12 days of Christmas were beginning! We waited with excitement for the next night’s surprise and only then, with the gift of a matching shepherd, did we realize that the lamb was part of a nativity set.
Each night we grew more excited to see what piece we would receive. Each was exquisitely beautiful. The kids kept trying to catch the givers as we slowly built the scene at the manger and began to focus on Christ’s birth.
On Christmas Eve, all the pieces were in place, except for the baby Jesus. My 12-year-old son really wanted to catch our benefactors and began to devise all kinds of ways to trap them. He ate his dinner outside in the mini-van watching and waiting, but no one came.
Finally we called him in to go through our family’s Christmas Eve traditions. But before the kids went to bed, we checked the front step—no baby Jesus! We began to worry that my son had scared them off. My husband suggested that maybe they had dropped the Jesus and there wouldn’t be anything coming.
Somehow something was missing that Christmas Eve. There was a feeling that things weren’t complete. The kids went to bed and I put out the Christmas presents, but before I went to bed I again checked to see if the Jesus had come. No, the doorstep was empty.
In our family the kids have to wait to open any presents until Dad wakes up. So one by one they woke up very early and I also woke up to watch them. Each child checked to see if perhaps during the night the baby Jesus had come. Missing that piece of the set seemed to have an odd effect. At least it changed my focus. I knew there were presents under the tree for me, and I was excited to watch the children open their gifts, but first on my mind was the feeling of waiting for the ceramic Christ Child.
We had opened just about all of the presents when one of the children found one more for me buried deep beneath the limbs of the tree. I was handed a small package from my former teaching companion at our church.
In the time we spent together, I learned that her family didn’t have much for Christmas. It sounded like she didn’t get many gifts to open, so I had always given her a small package—new dish towels, a book—not much, but something for her to open. I was touched when at church on the day before Christmas, she had given me this small package, saying it was just a token of her love and appreciation.
As I took off the bow, I remembered my friendship with her and was filled with gratitude for knowing her and for her kindness and sacrifice in giving me a gift this year. But as the paper fell away, I began to tremble and cry. There in the small brown box was the baby Jesus. He had come!
I realized on that Christmas Day that Christ will come into our lives in ways that we don’t expect. The Spirit of Christ comes into our hearts as we serve one another. We had waited and watched for Him to come, expecting the dramatic “knock at the door and scurrying of feet,” but He came in a small, simple package that represented service, friendship, gratitude, and love.
This experience taught me that the beginning of the true spirit of Christmas comes as we open our hearts and actively focus on the Savior. But we will most likely find Him in the small and simple acts of love, friendship, and service that we give to each other. This Christmas I want to again feel the joy of knowing that Christ is in our home. I want to focus on loving and serving. More than that, I want to open my heart to Him all year that I may see Him again.
One Christmas we had an interesting experience. Halfway through December we were doing the regular evening things when there was a knock at the door. We opened it to find a small package with a beautiful ceramic lamb inside. We looked at the calendar and realized that the 12 days of Christmas were beginning! We waited with excitement for the next night’s surprise and only then, with the gift of a matching shepherd, did we realize that the lamb was part of a nativity set.
Each night we grew more excited to see what piece we would receive. Each was exquisitely beautiful. The kids kept trying to catch the givers as we slowly built the scene at the manger and began to focus on Christ’s birth.
On Christmas Eve, all the pieces were in place, except for the baby Jesus. My 12-year-old son really wanted to catch our benefactors and began to devise all kinds of ways to trap them. He ate his dinner outside in the mini-van watching and waiting, but no one came.
Finally we called him in to go through our family’s Christmas Eve traditions. But before the kids went to bed, we checked the front step—no baby Jesus! We began to worry that my son had scared them off. My husband suggested that maybe they had dropped the Jesus and there wouldn’t be anything coming.
Somehow something was missing that Christmas Eve. There was a feeling that things weren’t complete. The kids went to bed and I put out the Christmas presents, but before I went to bed I again checked to see if the Jesus had come. No, the doorstep was empty.
In our family the kids have to wait to open any presents until Dad wakes up. So one by one they woke up very early and I also woke up to watch them. Each child checked to see if perhaps during the night the baby Jesus had come. Missing that piece of the set seemed to have an odd effect. At least it changed my focus. I knew there were presents under the tree for me, and I was excited to watch the children open their gifts, but first on my mind was the feeling of waiting for the ceramic Christ Child.
We had opened just about all of the presents when one of the children found one more for me buried deep beneath the limbs of the tree. I was handed a small package from my former teaching companion at our church.
In the time we spent together, I learned that her family didn’t have much for Christmas. It sounded like she didn’t get many gifts to open, so I had always given her a small package—new dish towels, a book—not much, but something for her to open. I was touched when at church on the day before Christmas, she had given me this small package, saying it was just a token of her love and appreciation.
As I took off the bow, I remembered my friendship with her and was filled with gratitude for knowing her and for her kindness and sacrifice in giving me a gift this year. But as the paper fell away, I began to tremble and cry. There in the small brown box was the baby Jesus. He had come!
I realized on that Christmas Day that Christ will come into our lives in ways that we don’t expect. The Spirit of Christ comes into our hearts as we serve one another. We had waited and watched for Him to come, expecting the dramatic “knock at the door and scurrying of feet,” but He came in a small, simple package that represented service, friendship, gratitude, and love.
This experience taught me that the beginning of the true spirit of Christmas comes as we open our hearts and actively focus on the Savior. But we will most likely find Him in the small and simple acts of love, friendship, and service that we give to each other. This Christmas I want to again feel the joy of knowing that Christ is in our home. I want to focus on loving and serving. More than that, I want to open my heart to Him all year that I may see Him again.
Putin Says Deal With Ukraine Was a Good-Will Gesture
By David M. Herszenhorn, NY Times, December 19, 2013
MOSCOW—President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Thursday explained his decision to rescue Ukraine with a $15 billion bailout and discounts on natural gas as a gesture of good will given the close historic ties between the two countries.
"I will be very frank with you and don’t take it as an irony—we very often use the term ‘brother nation’ or ‘sister nation,’" Mr. Putin said, seeming buoyant and supremely confident at his annual news conference here.
"We see the current situation, both political and economical is quite difficult," Mr. Putin said. "So if we say it is a sister nation, we should do what family members do. We should support our sister nation when in dire straits. This is the number one reason why this decision was taken."
Mr. Putin’s announcement of the loan and gas deal on Tuesday threw a lifeline to Ukraine’s embattled president, Viktor F. Yanukovich, who has been facing not only a severe and deepening economic crisis but also more than three weeks of civil unrest from protesters who have occupied Independence Square and seized control of several public buildings in Kiev, the capital.
The loan from Russia, using money from its national welfare fund, spares Mr. Yanukovich—at least for the moment—from further negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, which in exchange for its own aid package had demanded systemic economic reforms, including some tough austerity measures.
Mr. Putin’s move to offer unilateral assistance was a bold and risky step. The rules for investing money from the Russian national welfare fund require long-term bond ratings of at least AA, while Ukraine’s current rating from both Fitch and Standard & Poor’s is B- with a negative outlook.
But the bailout also underscored Russia’s economic and strategic interests in Ukraine and Mr. Putin’s resolve in keeping Ukraine within the Russian sphere of influence.
Russia maneuvered aggressively to dissuade Mr. Yanukovich from signing far-reaching political and trade agreements with the European Union and, by offering the bailout package, Mr. Putin ensured that Mr. Yanukovich would not revive those accords anytime soon.
To Mr. Putin’s evident glee, his bold steps left European officials stunned, and scrambling for a response.
Mr. Putin traditionally holds a large news conference in December, spending hours answering questions about the past year. Compared to a year ago, when he seemed tense and appeared to be in pain from a lingering back injury, Mr. Putin on Thursday seemed in high spirits and eager to spar with reporters.
In recent months, he has recorded a number of foreign policy successes that have established Russia as a dominant force in counterbalancing Western dominance of world affairs. These have included granting temporary asylum to Edward J. Snowden, the former contractor for the National Security Agency who exposed aggressive American surveillance programs; protecting his longtime ally, President Bashar al-Assad, from an American military strike by proposing a plan to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons; and swooping in to help Ukraine.
In just over a month, Mr. Putin will play host to the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, which he seems clearly to view as integral to his legacy as Russia’s pre-eminent leader of the 21st century. Ahead of the Olympics, Russia has come under criticism for its human rights record, and also for some new legislation, including a law banning propaganda on nontraditional relationships that is widely viewed in the West as an effort to suppress homosexuality.
In response to a question about what seems to be a clash of cultures between Russia and the West, Mr. Putin said that Russia was merely defending its values and traditions, and he suggested that the West was trying to impose its views on others.
"It is not about criticizing somebody," Mr. Putin said. "It is about protecting us from aggressive behavior on the part of some social groups, which I believe do not just live in a way they like, but they try to aggressively impose their opinion on other people and other countries."
In response to a question, Mr. Putin said that he had not met personally with Mr. Snowden, whose disclosures about surveillance programs have changed the way many governments, including some of Washington’s closest allies, view their relationship with the United States.
"I was not lucky to meet Snowden personally," Mr. Putin said. "I have many tasks at hand."
Asked about his relationship with President Obama, in the context of the Snowden situation, Mr. Putin said, “I envy him. I envy him because he can do all this and he is not going to be punished for it.” He also joked: “Well, espionage is one of the oldest professions, along with some other professions that I will not elaborate about.”
On another security topic, Mr. Putin denied that Russia had deployed short-range ballistic missiles to Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave nestled between Lithuania and Poland, but said that the country may do so as a counterbalance to American efforts to install a missile defense shield in Europe.
"We haven’t made that decision," Mr. Putin said, responding to a question from a state-run television channel about reports that the missiles were located in the enclave. "They should calm down," he said.
MOSCOW—President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Thursday explained his decision to rescue Ukraine with a $15 billion bailout and discounts on natural gas as a gesture of good will given the close historic ties between the two countries.
"I will be very frank with you and don’t take it as an irony—we very often use the term ‘brother nation’ or ‘sister nation,’" Mr. Putin said, seeming buoyant and supremely confident at his annual news conference here.
"We see the current situation, both political and economical is quite difficult," Mr. Putin said. "So if we say it is a sister nation, we should do what family members do. We should support our sister nation when in dire straits. This is the number one reason why this decision was taken."
Mr. Putin’s announcement of the loan and gas deal on Tuesday threw a lifeline to Ukraine’s embattled president, Viktor F. Yanukovich, who has been facing not only a severe and deepening economic crisis but also more than three weeks of civil unrest from protesters who have occupied Independence Square and seized control of several public buildings in Kiev, the capital.
The loan from Russia, using money from its national welfare fund, spares Mr. Yanukovich—at least for the moment—from further negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, which in exchange for its own aid package had demanded systemic economic reforms, including some tough austerity measures.
Mr. Putin’s move to offer unilateral assistance was a bold and risky step. The rules for investing money from the Russian national welfare fund require long-term bond ratings of at least AA, while Ukraine’s current rating from both Fitch and Standard & Poor’s is B- with a negative outlook.
But the bailout also underscored Russia’s economic and strategic interests in Ukraine and Mr. Putin’s resolve in keeping Ukraine within the Russian sphere of influence.
Russia maneuvered aggressively to dissuade Mr. Yanukovich from signing far-reaching political and trade agreements with the European Union and, by offering the bailout package, Mr. Putin ensured that Mr. Yanukovich would not revive those accords anytime soon.
To Mr. Putin’s evident glee, his bold steps left European officials stunned, and scrambling for a response.
Mr. Putin traditionally holds a large news conference in December, spending hours answering questions about the past year. Compared to a year ago, when he seemed tense and appeared to be in pain from a lingering back injury, Mr. Putin on Thursday seemed in high spirits and eager to spar with reporters.
In recent months, he has recorded a number of foreign policy successes that have established Russia as a dominant force in counterbalancing Western dominance of world affairs. These have included granting temporary asylum to Edward J. Snowden, the former contractor for the National Security Agency who exposed aggressive American surveillance programs; protecting his longtime ally, President Bashar al-Assad, from an American military strike by proposing a plan to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons; and swooping in to help Ukraine.
In just over a month, Mr. Putin will play host to the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, which he seems clearly to view as integral to his legacy as Russia’s pre-eminent leader of the 21st century. Ahead of the Olympics, Russia has come under criticism for its human rights record, and also for some new legislation, including a law banning propaganda on nontraditional relationships that is widely viewed in the West as an effort to suppress homosexuality.
In response to a question about what seems to be a clash of cultures between Russia and the West, Mr. Putin said that Russia was merely defending its values and traditions, and he suggested that the West was trying to impose its views on others.
"It is not about criticizing somebody," Mr. Putin said. "It is about protecting us from aggressive behavior on the part of some social groups, which I believe do not just live in a way they like, but they try to aggressively impose their opinion on other people and other countries."
In response to a question, Mr. Putin said that he had not met personally with Mr. Snowden, whose disclosures about surveillance programs have changed the way many governments, including some of Washington’s closest allies, view their relationship with the United States.
"I was not lucky to meet Snowden personally," Mr. Putin said. "I have many tasks at hand."
Asked about his relationship with President Obama, in the context of the Snowden situation, Mr. Putin said, “I envy him. I envy him because he can do all this and he is not going to be punished for it.” He also joked: “Well, espionage is one of the oldest professions, along with some other professions that I will not elaborate about.”
On another security topic, Mr. Putin denied that Russia had deployed short-range ballistic missiles to Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave nestled between Lithuania and Poland, but said that the country may do so as a counterbalance to American efforts to install a missile defense shield in Europe.
"We haven’t made that decision," Mr. Putin said, responding to a question from a state-run television channel about reports that the missiles were located in the enclave. "They should calm down," he said.
Prince Charles 'deeply troubled' by plight of Christians in Middle East
Kevin Rawlinson, The Guardian, 17 December 2013
Relations between Christians and Muslims in the Middle East have reached crisis point, according to Prince Charles, who is “deeply troubled” by the plight of Christians in the region.
The heir to the British throne told a reception for Middle East Christians at Clarence House on Tuesday that the divisions have been “achieved through intimidation, false accusation and organised persecution, including to the Christian communities in the Middle East at the present time”.
Charles, who spoke of his work to promote understanding between the two religions, said bridges between Christians and Muslims were being deliberately destroyed by people with a vested interest.
He said this affected Arab Christians in countries such as Syria, Iraq, Palestine and Egypt, as well as those from other Arab countries.
"I have for some time now been deeply troubled by the growing difficulties faced by Christian communities in various parts of the Middle East," he said. "It seems to me that we cannot ignore the fact that Christians in the Middle East are increasingly being deliberately targeted by fundamentalist Islamist militants.
"Christianity was literally born in the Middle East and we must not forget our Middle Eastern brothers and sisters in Christ," he added. Charles said Christians now accounted for 4% of the population in the Middle East and North Africa—the lowest concentration in the world.
Syria’s minority Christian community has faced growing violence during the bloody civil war, which has claimed more than 100,000 lives and displaced millions from the country.
In an interview in October, the Melkite Greek Catholic patriarch Gregorios III said almost a third of Syria’s Christians had fled their homes. A report by the charity Aid to the Church in Need, published in October, said there were now “grave questions” about the long term survival of Christianity in the Middle East.
Relations between Christians and Muslims in the Middle East have reached crisis point, according to Prince Charles, who is “deeply troubled” by the plight of Christians in the region.
The heir to the British throne told a reception for Middle East Christians at Clarence House on Tuesday that the divisions have been “achieved through intimidation, false accusation and organised persecution, including to the Christian communities in the Middle East at the present time”.
Charles, who spoke of his work to promote understanding between the two religions, said bridges between Christians and Muslims were being deliberately destroyed by people with a vested interest.
He said this affected Arab Christians in countries such as Syria, Iraq, Palestine and Egypt, as well as those from other Arab countries.
"I have for some time now been deeply troubled by the growing difficulties faced by Christian communities in various parts of the Middle East," he said. "It seems to me that we cannot ignore the fact that Christians in the Middle East are increasingly being deliberately targeted by fundamentalist Islamist militants.
"Christianity was literally born in the Middle East and we must not forget our Middle Eastern brothers and sisters in Christ," he added. Charles said Christians now accounted for 4% of the population in the Middle East and North Africa—the lowest concentration in the world.
Syria’s minority Christian community has faced growing violence during the bloody civil war, which has claimed more than 100,000 lives and displaced millions from the country.
In an interview in October, the Melkite Greek Catholic patriarch Gregorios III said almost a third of Syria’s Christians had fled their homes. A report by the charity Aid to the Church in Need, published in October, said there were now “grave questions” about the long term survival of Christianity in the Middle East.
Friday, December 20, 2013
Thursday, December 19, 2013
US scholars endorse academic boycott of Israel
By Rachel Zoll and Karin Laub, AP, Dec 16, 2013
NEW YORK (AP)—The American Studies Association on Monday endorsed a boycott of Israeli universities, the largest group of U.S. scholars to do so.
About one-third of the group’s more than 3,800 members voted, approving the boycott by 66 percent. Last April, the smaller Association for Asian American Studies, which has about 800 members, became the first scholarly group in the U.S. to support an academic boycott of Israel.
"The ASA condemns the United States’ significant role in aiding and abetting Israel’s violations of human rights against Palestinians and its occupation of Palestinian lands through its use of the veto in the UN Security Council," the American Studies Association said in a statement explaining the endorsement.
The vote, which is largely symbolic, is nonetheless a sign of the increasing momentum of the international boycott movement against Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians. While the movement—which presses for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel—has scored some successes in Europe and elsewhere, it has had far less influence in the United States, Israel’s closest and most important ally.
Kenneth Stern of the New York-based American Jewish Committee called the American Studies Association decision “abhorrent.” Stern said he was particularly disturbed by language in the group’s statement accompanying the resolution, comparing Israeli policies to apartheid and referring to the “Zionist settler-colonial project.”
In the Palestinian territories, civil society groups launched a boycott-divertment-sanctions campaign against Israel in 2005 and have created a far-flung network of activists, including in Europe and the United States. The impact on Israel’s robust economy has remained largely negligible.
Still, activists say they have changed the tone of the debate.
"It is not anymore a taboo, like it was before," to call for a boycott, said Luisa Morgantini of Italy, a former vice president of the European Parliament and pro-Palestinian activist. "More and more people are aware of the violation of human rights, and also of the colonization that the Israelis are doing in the land of Palestine."
While some activists call for a boycott of Israeli companies and institutions, others attempt to target Israel’s settlement enterprise. Close to 600,000 Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Last week, the Dutch water company Vitens, the largest supplier of drinking water in the Netherlands, decided to cut ties with Israel’s national water carrier over its operations in West Bank settlements.
At the same time, Britain’s overseas trade body issued a warning to firms investing in Israeli settlements, saying ties to the Israeli communities established in the West Bank could be bad for business. Last month, Israel acceded to a European funding ban on projects in the occupied territories by assuring the EU it would not spend money received under a technology-sharing pact in the West Bank or east Jerusalem.
NEW YORK (AP)—The American Studies Association on Monday endorsed a boycott of Israeli universities, the largest group of U.S. scholars to do so.
About one-third of the group’s more than 3,800 members voted, approving the boycott by 66 percent. Last April, the smaller Association for Asian American Studies, which has about 800 members, became the first scholarly group in the U.S. to support an academic boycott of Israel.
"The ASA condemns the United States’ significant role in aiding and abetting Israel’s violations of human rights against Palestinians and its occupation of Palestinian lands through its use of the veto in the UN Security Council," the American Studies Association said in a statement explaining the endorsement.
The vote, which is largely symbolic, is nonetheless a sign of the increasing momentum of the international boycott movement against Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians. While the movement—which presses for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel—has scored some successes in Europe and elsewhere, it has had far less influence in the United States, Israel’s closest and most important ally.
Kenneth Stern of the New York-based American Jewish Committee called the American Studies Association decision “abhorrent.” Stern said he was particularly disturbed by language in the group’s statement accompanying the resolution, comparing Israeli policies to apartheid and referring to the “Zionist settler-colonial project.”
In the Palestinian territories, civil society groups launched a boycott-divertment-sanctions campaign against Israel in 2005 and have created a far-flung network of activists, including in Europe and the United States. The impact on Israel’s robust economy has remained largely negligible.
Still, activists say they have changed the tone of the debate.
"It is not anymore a taboo, like it was before," to call for a boycott, said Luisa Morgantini of Italy, a former vice president of the European Parliament and pro-Palestinian activist. "More and more people are aware of the violation of human rights, and also of the colonization that the Israelis are doing in the land of Palestine."
While some activists call for a boycott of Israeli companies and institutions, others attempt to target Israel’s settlement enterprise. Close to 600,000 Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Last week, the Dutch water company Vitens, the largest supplier of drinking water in the Netherlands, decided to cut ties with Israel’s national water carrier over its operations in West Bank settlements.
At the same time, Britain’s overseas trade body issued a warning to firms investing in Israeli settlements, saying ties to the Israeli communities established in the West Bank could be bad for business. Last month, Israel acceded to a European funding ban on projects in the occupied territories by assuring the EU it would not spend money received under a technology-sharing pact in the West Bank or east Jerusalem.
Stand to Reason- What is Faith?
by Greg Koukl
Faith & Wishing
It’s not that faith isn’t valuable. True biblical faith is essential for salvation. But faith is often deeply misunderstood in a way that hurts Christianity and harms Christians.
Some think that having a level of certainty about the truth of Christianity makes “belief” unnecessary or irrelevant. That kind of knowledge undermines genuine faith and offends God.
The reasoning goes something like this. We all know God wants us to have faith. In fact, without faith, it’s impossible to please Him (Hebrews 11:6). However, gathering evidence for God and Christianity leaves little room for faith. After all, how can one have faith in something he knows is true? Faith, then, is opposed to knowledge. Therefore, apologetics undermines the faith project and thus displeases the Lord.
On this view, faith is believing the unbelievable, clinging to your convictions when all the evidence is against you. Faith is a “leap,” a blind, desperate lunge in the darkness. When doubts or troubles beset us we’re told to “just have faith,” as if we could squeeze out spiritual hope by intense acts of sheer will.
This view of faith reduces Christian conviction to religious wishful thinking. We can hope, but we can never know.
But this will never work. Someone once said, “The heart cannot believe that which the mind rejects.” If you are not confident the message of Scripture is actually true, you can’t believe it even if you tried.
The “I just take Christianity on faith” attitude can’t be the right approach. It leaves the Bible without defense, yet Peter directs us to make a defense for the hope that is in us. (1 Peter 3:15)
Also, the biblical word for faith, pistis, doesn’t mean wishing. It means active trust. And trust cannot be conjured up or manufactured. It must be earned. You can’t exercise the kind of faith the Bible has in mind unless you’re reasonably sure that some particular things are true.
In fact, I suggest you completely ban the phrase “leap of faith” from your vocabulary. Biblical faith is based on knowledge, not wishing or blind leaps. Knowledge builds confidence and confidence leads to trust. The kind of faith God is interested in is not wishing. It’s trust based on knowing, a sure confidence grounded in evidence.
The following biblical examples suffice to make my point.
Blood, Boils, Frogs, and Flies
Israel’s exodus from Egypt was depicted in a clever animated film called “The Prince of Egypt.” After seeing the movie, my wife and I spent time reading the original account in the Hebrew Scriptures.
Though I’d read this passage a number of times, something jumped out at me I hadn’t seen before, a phrase God kept repeating over and over.
Reading the encounter with God at the burning bush, we sense Moses’ reluctance to be God’s deliverer. And it’s understandable. Why would Pharaoh, the most powerful leader in the world, submit to a renegade? Why would two million Hebrew slaves follow a murderer and a defector?
“What if they won’t believe me, or listen to me?” Moses demurred. “What if they say, ‘The Lord hasn’t appeared to you’?”
What God didn’t say in response is as important as what He did say. He didn’t say, “Tell Pharaoh he’s just going to have to trust you on this one. Tell the Hebrews they’ve got to have faith.”
Instead God asked, “What’s that in your hand?”
“A staff,” Moses answered.
“Throw it on the ground.”
So he threw it down, and it became a serpent.
“Stretch out your hand,” the Lord said. “Grab it by the tail.”
Reluctantly, Moses did as he was told. When he grabbed the snake, it became a staff again.
“Do this,” God said, “and then they’ll believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, has appeared to you.”
More signs followed that got the people’s attention: the river of blood and frogs covering the land; the gnats, flies, and locusts; the boils and the pestilence; the hail, the darkness, and finally the angel of death. All for one purpose: “That they might know there is a God in Israel.” This phrase is repeated no less than ten times throughout the account. (Cf., Exodus 6:7, 7:5, 7:17, 8:10, 8:22, 9:14, 9:29, 10:2, 14:4, and 14:18)
What was the result? “And when Israel saw the great power which the Lord had used against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in His servant Moses” (Exodus 14:31).
Note the pattern: a powerful evidence (miracles, in this case), giving the people knowledge of God, in Whom they then placed their faith. Knowledge –some level of certainty—went before belief in each of these cases.
God didn’t ask Pharaoh, the Hebrews, or even Moses for mindless faith, blind leaps, or wishful thinking. He demonstrated His power, giving them good reason to believe, resulting in obedience. First, Pharaoh and the Hebrews were given good reason to know. This then grounded their investment of faith (active trust) in God. (Of course, Pharaoh’s “faith” was not expressed in humble surrender leading to salvation, but in obedience under compulsion. The point is, he was compelled to act based on the unmistakable evidence of God’s power.)
In the animated feature, Miriam sings a song of deliverance which includes the refrain, “There can be miracles when you believe.” But the reality was just the opposite. Miracles didn’t follow belief; they preceded it. Acts of power led to knowledge, which then allowed faith to flourish.
Taking the Easy Way Out?
Fast forward to the New Testament and you’ll find the same pattern in the life of Christ.
In Mark 2, we encounter Jesus speaking to a group gathered in a home in Capernaum. A crowd blocks the front door, keeping a paralytic—being carried by his four friends—from gaining an audience with the Healer. The only way in is from above, so they dig through the earthen roof and lower the deformed man down on a pallet.
Jesus is impressed. Seeing their faith He says to the paralytic, “My son, your sins are forgiven.”
His words offend the scribes, though, who grumble among themselves at such an audacious claim. “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” they whisper.
Jesus, aware of their complaint, puts a question to them. “Which is easier to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or ‘Arise, take up your pallet and walk’?”
How would you respond? If you were in Jesus’ position, would it be easier for you to claim to forgive sins or claim to heal paralysis? The correct answer is it’s always easier to boast about something no one can check up on than to claim to have supernatural powers and be put to the test.
Jesus knew it looked like He was taking the easy way out, until His next remark: “But in order that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—He then turned to the paralytic—”I say to you, rise, take up your pallet and go home.” Then, in the sight of everyone, the paralytic got up and got out.
Jesus gives us the same lesson we find in Exodus. He proves something that can’t be seen—the forgiveness of sins—with evidence that can be seen—a dramatic healing. Jesus heals “in order that you may know.” Once again, the concrete evidence allows the doubters to know the truth so they can then trust in the forgiveness Christ could give.
The Apostle Peter
On to the book of Acts and Peter’s dramatic sermon on Pentecost. The crowd is both amazed and bewildered at the manifestations of the Spirit they see with their own eyes.
Peter takes his stand before the throng. It isn’t intoxication they witness , he tells them, but inspiration, prophecy being fulfilled in their midst by the hand of God. He recounts that Jesus—even though attested to by miracles, signs, and wonders—had been murdered at the hands of godless men. Death couldn’t hold Him in the grave, though. He has risen. Not only did King David himself foretell such a thing; Peter and the rest of the disciples had witnessed the risen Christ themselves. The promise of the Father, the Holy Spirit, was now being poured out in a way that Peter’s entire audience could see and hear.
He closes with a statement tailor-made for all those who think that certainty somehow diminishes genuine faith: “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” (Acts 2:36)
When the crowd hears the evidence—the miracles, the fulfilled prophecy, the witnesses of the resurrection, the powerful manifestations of the Spirit in their midst—the people are pierced to the heart. They are convinced of their error, they know the truth, and thousands believe, putting their trust in the Savior.
Hear, See, Handle, Believe
The Beloved Disciple brings it all together for us in 1 John. He opens his letter with the evidence of his own eyewitness encounter with Christ. Notice how many senses he appeals to:
What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled concerning the Word of Life—and the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us—what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also….
Then he closes his letter like this:
by Greg KouklAnd the witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life. (1 John 5:11-13)
To John, faith wasn’t a blind leap. It wasn’t wishing on a star. It was grounded in evidence that led to knowledge. It was certain.
The record is clear from the Old Testament, to the Gospels, from the very beginnings of the early church, to the epistles of the apostles: Biblical faith isn’t wishing, it’s confidence. It’s not denying reality, but discovering reality. It’s a sense of certainty grounded in evidence that Christianity is true—not just “true for me,” but actually, fully, and completely true.
Spiritual growth involves increasing our knowledge and our certainty of God. So there are two things here: first knowledge, and second confidence in what we know.
How do we increase confidence? Wish harder? Hope against hope? Stop our ears to the sounds of the critics without, and ignore the doubts of the agnostic within? This will never work, because confidence cannot be fabricated. It must be earned. As you gather substantiating evidence, your confidence grows automatically and your faith is deepened.
Faith is not about wishing, but about confidence, and the facts make the difference. You get a hold of the facts, you study, you learn—even a little—and you’ll realize you’re not just wishing on a star about eternal things. You’ll realize Christianity is really true.
And that changes everything.
Faith & Wishing
I don’t like the word “faith.”
It’s not that faith isn’t valuable. True biblical faith is essential for salvation. But faith is often deeply misunderstood in a way that hurts Christianity and harms Christians.
Some think that having a level of certainty about the truth of Christianity makes “belief” unnecessary or irrelevant. That kind of knowledge undermines genuine faith and offends God.
The reasoning goes something like this. We all know God wants us to have faith. In fact, without faith, it’s impossible to please Him (Hebrews 11:6). However, gathering evidence for God and Christianity leaves little room for faith. After all, how can one have faith in something he knows is true? Faith, then, is opposed to knowledge. Therefore, apologetics undermines the faith project and thus displeases the Lord.
On this view, faith is believing the unbelievable, clinging to your convictions when all the evidence is against you. Faith is a “leap,” a blind, desperate lunge in the darkness. When doubts or troubles beset us we’re told to “just have faith,” as if we could squeeze out spiritual hope by intense acts of sheer will.
This view of faith reduces Christian conviction to religious wishful thinking. We can hope, but we can never know.
But this will never work. Someone once said, “The heart cannot believe that which the mind rejects.” If you are not confident the message of Scripture is actually true, you can’t believe it even if you tried.
The “I just take Christianity on faith” attitude can’t be the right approach. It leaves the Bible without defense, yet Peter directs us to make a defense for the hope that is in us. (1 Peter 3:15)
Also, the biblical word for faith, pistis, doesn’t mean wishing. It means active trust. And trust cannot be conjured up or manufactured. It must be earned. You can’t exercise the kind of faith the Bible has in mind unless you’re reasonably sure that some particular things are true.
In fact, I suggest you completely ban the phrase “leap of faith” from your vocabulary. Biblical faith is based on knowledge, not wishing or blind leaps. Knowledge builds confidence and confidence leads to trust. The kind of faith God is interested in is not wishing. It’s trust based on knowing, a sure confidence grounded in evidence.
The following biblical examples suffice to make my point.
Blood, Boils, Frogs, and Flies
Israel’s exodus from Egypt was depicted in a clever animated film called “The Prince of Egypt.” After seeing the movie, my wife and I spent time reading the original account in the Hebrew Scriptures.
Though I’d read this passage a number of times, something jumped out at me I hadn’t seen before, a phrase God kept repeating over and over.
Reading the encounter with God at the burning bush, we sense Moses’ reluctance to be God’s deliverer. And it’s understandable. Why would Pharaoh, the most powerful leader in the world, submit to a renegade? Why would two million Hebrew slaves follow a murderer and a defector?
“What if they won’t believe me, or listen to me?” Moses demurred. “What if they say, ‘The Lord hasn’t appeared to you’?”
What God didn’t say in response is as important as what He did say. He didn’t say, “Tell Pharaoh he’s just going to have to trust you on this one. Tell the Hebrews they’ve got to have faith.”
Instead God asked, “What’s that in your hand?”
“A staff,” Moses answered.
“Throw it on the ground.”
So he threw it down, and it became a serpent.
“Stretch out your hand,” the Lord said. “Grab it by the tail.”
Reluctantly, Moses did as he was told. When he grabbed the snake, it became a staff again.
“Do this,” God said, “and then they’ll believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, has appeared to you.”
More signs followed that got the people’s attention: the river of blood and frogs covering the land; the gnats, flies, and locusts; the boils and the pestilence; the hail, the darkness, and finally the angel of death. All for one purpose: “That they might know there is a God in Israel.” This phrase is repeated no less than ten times throughout the account. (Cf., Exodus 6:7, 7:5, 7:17, 8:10, 8:22, 9:14, 9:29, 10:2, 14:4, and 14:18)
What was the result? “And when Israel saw the great power which the Lord had used against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in His servant Moses” (Exodus 14:31).
Note the pattern: a powerful evidence (miracles, in this case), giving the people knowledge of God, in Whom they then placed their faith. Knowledge –some level of certainty—went before belief in each of these cases.
God didn’t ask Pharaoh, the Hebrews, or even Moses for mindless faith, blind leaps, or wishful thinking. He demonstrated His power, giving them good reason to believe, resulting in obedience. First, Pharaoh and the Hebrews were given good reason to know. This then grounded their investment of faith (active trust) in God. (Of course, Pharaoh’s “faith” was not expressed in humble surrender leading to salvation, but in obedience under compulsion. The point is, he was compelled to act based on the unmistakable evidence of God’s power.)
In the animated feature, Miriam sings a song of deliverance which includes the refrain, “There can be miracles when you believe.” But the reality was just the opposite. Miracles didn’t follow belief; they preceded it. Acts of power led to knowledge, which then allowed faith to flourish.
Taking the Easy Way Out?
Fast forward to the New Testament and you’ll find the same pattern in the life of Christ.
In Mark 2, we encounter Jesus speaking to a group gathered in a home in Capernaum. A crowd blocks the front door, keeping a paralytic—being carried by his four friends—from gaining an audience with the Healer. The only way in is from above, so they dig through the earthen roof and lower the deformed man down on a pallet.
Jesus is impressed. Seeing their faith He says to the paralytic, “My son, your sins are forgiven.”
His words offend the scribes, though, who grumble among themselves at such an audacious claim. “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” they whisper.
Jesus, aware of their complaint, puts a question to them. “Which is easier to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or ‘Arise, take up your pallet and walk’?”
How would you respond? If you were in Jesus’ position, would it be easier for you to claim to forgive sins or claim to heal paralysis? The correct answer is it’s always easier to boast about something no one can check up on than to claim to have supernatural powers and be put to the test.
Jesus knew it looked like He was taking the easy way out, until His next remark: “But in order that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—He then turned to the paralytic—”I say to you, rise, take up your pallet and go home.” Then, in the sight of everyone, the paralytic got up and got out.
Jesus gives us the same lesson we find in Exodus. He proves something that can’t be seen—the forgiveness of sins—with evidence that can be seen—a dramatic healing. Jesus heals “in order that you may know.” Once again, the concrete evidence allows the doubters to know the truth so they can then trust in the forgiveness Christ could give.
The Apostle Peter
On to the book of Acts and Peter’s dramatic sermon on Pentecost. The crowd is both amazed and bewildered at the manifestations of the Spirit they see with their own eyes.
Peter takes his stand before the throng. It isn’t intoxication they witness , he tells them, but inspiration, prophecy being fulfilled in their midst by the hand of God. He recounts that Jesus—even though attested to by miracles, signs, and wonders—had been murdered at the hands of godless men. Death couldn’t hold Him in the grave, though. He has risen. Not only did King David himself foretell such a thing; Peter and the rest of the disciples had witnessed the risen Christ themselves. The promise of the Father, the Holy Spirit, was now being poured out in a way that Peter’s entire audience could see and hear.
He closes with a statement tailor-made for all those who think that certainty somehow diminishes genuine faith: “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” (Acts 2:36)
When the crowd hears the evidence—the miracles, the fulfilled prophecy, the witnesses of the resurrection, the powerful manifestations of the Spirit in their midst—the people are pierced to the heart. They are convinced of their error, they know the truth, and thousands believe, putting their trust in the Savior.
Hear, See, Handle, Believe
The Beloved Disciple brings it all together for us in 1 John. He opens his letter with the evidence of his own eyewitness encounter with Christ. Notice how many senses he appeals to:
What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled concerning the Word of Life—and the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us—what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also….
Then he closes his letter like this:
by Greg KouklAnd the witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life. (1 John 5:11-13)
To John, faith wasn’t a blind leap. It wasn’t wishing on a star. It was grounded in evidence that led to knowledge. It was certain.
The record is clear from the Old Testament, to the Gospels, from the very beginnings of the early church, to the epistles of the apostles: Biblical faith isn’t wishing, it’s confidence. It’s not denying reality, but discovering reality. It’s a sense of certainty grounded in evidence that Christianity is true—not just “true for me,” but actually, fully, and completely true.
Spiritual growth involves increasing our knowledge and our certainty of God. So there are two things here: first knowledge, and second confidence in what we know.
How do we increase confidence? Wish harder? Hope against hope? Stop our ears to the sounds of the critics without, and ignore the doubts of the agnostic within? This will never work, because confidence cannot be fabricated. It must be earned. As you gather substantiating evidence, your confidence grows automatically and your faith is deepened.
Faith is not about wishing, but about confidence, and the facts make the difference. You get a hold of the facts, you study, you learn—even a little—and you’ll realize you’re not just wishing on a star about eternal things. You’ll realize Christianity is really true.
And that changes everything.
Peter O'Toole: 'No one can take Jesus away from me.'
Laura Turner, Religion News Service, Dec 15, 2013
Peter O’Toole, one of the last century’s greatest actors whose roles in films such as “Lawrence of Arabia” and “The Lion in Winter” earned him eight Oscar nominations but no wins (a record), died Saturday (Dec. 14) at the age of 81.
O’Toole grew up in Leeds, England, the son of an English nurse and an Irish bookie. He was evacuated from Leeds during World War II and sent off to Catholic school, where the nuns forced him to become right-handed.
O’Toole recalled one time in his childhood when his father, Patrick, “stood his young son up on the mantelpiece and said: ‘Jump, boy. I’ll catch you. Trust me.’” O’Toole jumped and fell onto the floor with a thud. “The lesson, said his father, was ‘never trust any bastard.’” It’s hard to imagine that lesson not bearing itself out in O’Toole’s worldview.
In a 2007 interview with The New York Times, O’Toole described himself as a “retired Christian.” He played, among others, the pope (twice–onstage early in his career and in “The Tudors”), a Catholic priest (“Fore Greater Glory”), and a British lord who thought he was Jesus (“The Ruling Class”).
O’Toole left his Catholic faith behind in his childhood, but often had high praise for the figure behind Christianity. Speaking of his admiration of the Sermon on the Mount, O’Toole said, “No one can take Jesus away from me…there’s no doubt there was a historical figure of tremendous importance, with enormous notions. Such as peace.” He didn’t have much use for the institution of the Catholic church, but he held Jesus in reverence.
Peter O’Toole, one of the last century’s greatest actors whose roles in films such as “Lawrence of Arabia” and “The Lion in Winter” earned him eight Oscar nominations but no wins (a record), died Saturday (Dec. 14) at the age of 81.
O’Toole grew up in Leeds, England, the son of an English nurse and an Irish bookie. He was evacuated from Leeds during World War II and sent off to Catholic school, where the nuns forced him to become right-handed.
O’Toole recalled one time in his childhood when his father, Patrick, “stood his young son up on the mantelpiece and said: ‘Jump, boy. I’ll catch you. Trust me.’” O’Toole jumped and fell onto the floor with a thud. “The lesson, said his father, was ‘never trust any bastard.’” It’s hard to imagine that lesson not bearing itself out in O’Toole’s worldview.
In a 2007 interview with The New York Times, O’Toole described himself as a “retired Christian.” He played, among others, the pope (twice–onstage early in his career and in “The Tudors”), a Catholic priest (“Fore Greater Glory”), and a British lord who thought he was Jesus (“The Ruling Class”).
O’Toole left his Catholic faith behind in his childhood, but often had high praise for the figure behind Christianity. Speaking of his admiration of the Sermon on the Mount, O’Toole said, “No one can take Jesus away from me…there’s no doubt there was a historical figure of tremendous importance, with enormous notions. Such as peace.” He didn’t have much use for the institution of the Catholic church, but he held Jesus in reverence.
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Goliath: The Book That May Delegitimize Israel’s Apartheid State
By Justin Raimondo, Antiwar.com, December 12, 2013
Thanks to the Israel lobby’s slander campaign against Max Blumenthal and his new book, Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel, I not only learned things about the Jewish state that I never knew, I also made a wonderful discovery—but more about that later. I confess I probably wouldn’t have read Goliath if not for the controversy it has generated: those squeals of pain coming from Israel’s apologists had to mean something, I figured. Either the book was egregiously unfair to the Jewish state or else a brilliant chronicle of its depredations against ordinary human decency. I had to read it in order to find out.
Goliath is an easy read on a subject that makes many very uneasy: although it’s fairly long, it consists of many short vignettes told in the first person, chronicling Blumenthal’s travels across the length and breadth of the Holy Land—and the story it tells is alarming, especially for those who count themselves among Israel’s friends.
For years, the Israeli body politic has been moving rightward—i.e. toward militarism, ultra-nationalism, and religious fundamentalism—to such a degree that it seems unrecognizable to those of us who belong to the older generation. We remember—or think we remember—the Israel of Exodus, the brave little upstart that defied the odds and, surrounded by enemies on every side, made the desert bloom with the verdant fields of a liberal democracy.
Goliath proves that liberal democracy is now, for all intents and purpose, defunct: indeed, it may have never existed in the first place. The book demonstrates this on every page with brutal real-life firsthand reporting. Starting off slowly, Blumenthal paints a portrait of a society living in a bubble, with the Israeli Ashkenazi aristocracy on top, the Mizrahi drone-workers charged with police work and other non-elite tasks near the bottom, and the Palestinian helots on the lowest rung, eking out a problematic existence with all the legal and economic factors pointing to their eventual expulsion from Israeli society. As the rightist wave engulfs what had been the dream of socialist Zionists to build an egalitarian society, and turns it into a bastion of religious nationalism and outright racism, Blumenthal moves through this society-in-transition with the unforgiving eye of a born documentarian, mercilessly exposing the hypocrisy, mendacity, and criminality of a country that is coming unhinged.
How else are we to explain the fact that, during the attack on Gaza, IDF soldiers killed an eight-year-old child, one Ibrahim Awajah, and used his corpse for target practice? This was no isolated incident: one by one we read the stories of disgusting atrocities carried out by the IDF—how they lobbed a shell into the living room of Izeldeen Abuelaish, a Harvard-trained fertility doctor and medical researcher who had helped many Israelis have children. The shell decapitated two of his daughters and “shredded” his other children “to pieces.” As this was going on, Israelis sat on Parash Hill, near Sderot, which offers a clear view of the Gaza Strip, watching the slaughter and cheering as if it were the latest hit movie—spectators to their own moral degeneration.
As if they were quite well aware of what they were becoming—indeed, had become—ordinary Israelis reacted with hatred against anyone in their midst who held up an unflattering mirror to their war hysteria. Right-wing demagogues like Avigdor Lieberman, now Foreign Minister, demanded that antiwar protesters be jailed. At Tel Aviv University, the youth organizer of the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu said antiwar protesters should be deprived of their citizenship, to raucous cheers: the university’s reputation as a bastion of liberalism to the contrary notwithstanding.
As Operation Cast Lead came to a horrific and bloody close, a poll taken by Daniel Bar-Tal, an eminent political psychologist, found that more than half of Israelis wouldn’t allow an Arab into their homes. A full 68 percent wouldn’t live in the same building as an Arab, while 63 percent said Arabs represented a dire security threat to the state of Israel. Forty percent said the government should deport them all or “encourage” them to leave. The backdrop to this was a rising tide within the political and clerical class of brazen racism. Israel’s Chief Rabbi, Ovadiah Yosef, screeched “It is forbidden to be merciful to the Arabs. You must send missiles to them and annihilate them. They are evil and damnable!”
Blumenthal’s portrait of Avigdor Lieberman is something the scandal-plagued right-wing demagogue and former bouncer may never recover from: while Lieberman has earned the contempt of the liberal Ashkenazi “coastal elite,” as Blumenthal dubs them, in America he is less well-known. Blumenthal’s account of how this “hulking bear-like man” hunted down a twelve-year-old Arab boy and beat him up for punching his son—slamming him into a wall and “leaving him with a painful head wound”—captures the essence of a born bully. A legal “fixer” allowed the thuggish politician to get off with just a fine.
An immigrant from Russia, where he was a nobody, Lieberman came to Israel and founded a party, Yisrael Beiteinu, that is the most successful fascist political formation in the world: the party advocates a truculent mix of domestic authoritarianism and territorial expansionism, the expulsion of all Arabs and the forced “Judaization” of the West Bank. His nationalism, however, is entirely secular: he and his followers have no interest in the Torah, or the 3,000 year tradition of Jewish moral and political law. As Blumenthal puts it, “He was content to allow the army to define who was a Jew.” His “politics melded authoritarian populism with a distinctly anti-clerical strain, appealing to anyone who loathed the presence of Muslims, radical leftists, and the ultra-Orthodox.”
Unfortunately, as Blumenthal writes, “there was no shortage of citizens in Israel who held this sentiment.”
Lieberman’s crudeness is well-known to observers of Israeli politics, but in the US his ties to Mafia figures may be less widely understood: Michael Cherney, a Russian Jewish oligarch, paid Lieberman half a million through a Cypriot shell firm, and is known to have ties to criminal gangs in the former Soviet Union. The two, says Cherney, were in daily communication. Another supporter of dubious moral character: Martin Schlaff, whose connections to the East German Stasi made him a rich man. Evidence of Schlaff’s $3.5 million payoff to Ariel Sharon in exchange for permission to build a casino in Israel was rendered moot when Sharon fell into a coma from which he has yet to emerge. Schlaff then became a major backer of Yisrael Beiteinu, as Lieberman took in millions in mysterious payments through a company run by his daughter. After gaining 11 Knesset seats, Lieberman was named Minister of “Strategic Threats” (Warmongering) in Ehud Olmert’s rather shaky government. Today he is Foreign Minister, after being temporarily kicked out of the government while being investigated for fraud, the David Duke of Israel to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s George Wallace.
What is particularly shocking in Blumenthal’s book is its exposure of the explicit racism that has become commonplace in Israeli society. When Anastasia Michaeli, a Yisrael Beitenu MK, served on a panel charged with choosing someone to represent Israel in the Eurovision song contest, she objected to one contestant because he “looks Arab.” In her defense, she stated: “I am looking at this competition from a Zionist point of view.”
If so, it isn’t any sort of Zionism the older Ashkenazi elite would recognize. But that’s the point: the “new” Zionism is something else altogether.
The theme of this book is encapsulated in its portrayal of one of my heroes—or, I should say, my newest hero, since I had no knowledge of him before reading Blumenthal’s work: his name is Yeshayahu Leibowitz. The Israeli polymath, who fled Germany in 1933 and emigrated to Palestine where he taught brain physiology at Tel Aviv University, starting teaching philosophy at the age of 72 (!), was an Orthodox Jewish scholar who edited the Encyclopedia Hebraica. As the Independent describes him,
“On the one hand he was a libertarian, an extreme form of classical liberalism, and believed that human beings should be free to determine their way of life without any state interference. On the other hand, he was an ultra-Orthodox Jew who insisted that the state and religion must be separated completely to avoid corrupting each other.
“Leibowitz argued vehemently for two positions: that holding any state as a value in itself was inherently fascist and that sanctifying any piece of land, including Israel, was a form of idolatry. Very soon after the Six-Day War, Leibowitz predicted that if Israel didn’t withdraw immediately from the occupied territories, all of the state’s energy would be tied up in ruling another people against its will.”
While he was indeed a Zionist, who believed—as I do—that Jews living in Palestine have the right to national self-determination, it was Leibowitz’s critique of the particular circumstances of Israel’s nation-building project that allowed him to see the society he was living in in realistic terms. In a prescient essay published on the eve of Israel’s great victory in the 1967 war—when the rest of Israeli society was celebrating and the Likud party was getting its start as the “Movement for a Greater Israel”—the man Isaiah Berlin called “the conscience of Israel” foretold the fate of the Jewish state if it absorbed its new conquests into the realm:
“The Arabs would be the working people and the Jews the administrators, inspectors, officials, and police—mainly secret police. A state ruling a hostile population of 1.5 million to 2 million foreigners would necessarily become a secret-police state, with all that implies for education, free speech and democratic institutions. The corruption characteristic of every colonial regime would also prevail in the State of Israel. The administration would have to suppress the Arab insurgency on the one hand and acquire Arab quislings on the other. There is also good reason to fear that the Israel Defense Force, which has been until now a people’s army, would, as a result of being transformed into an army of occupation, degenerate, and its commanders, who will have become military governors, resemble their colleagues in other nations.”
And so it came to pass.
Israel, “unpartitioned Eretz Israel,” would become like the apartheid state of South Africa, Leibowitz warned: racism would overwhelm the culture. Instead of filling the concrete needs of its citizens, the Jewish state, Leibowitz said, would devote itself to “the specific tasks of government and administration of this strange system of political domination.”
When it was revealed that an Arab woman who had been arrested for belonging to the Palestine Liberation Organization was handcuffed while she gave birth to her child, Leibowitz took to calling the perpetrators—the government—”Judeo-Nazis.” As the IDF overran the Occupied Territories, he wrote that the final phases of Israel’s moral and political degeneration would see the appearance of “concentration camps”—at which point “Israel would not deserve to exist, and it will not be worthwhile to preserve it.”
The vast system of prisons and “administrative detention” camps set up by the Israelis to detain thousands of Palestinians held without charge—as well as the giant concentration camp being constructed to intern African refugees who have turned up seeking asylum—is well documented in Goliath. Indeed, we follow Blumenthal as he takes us into the heart of this monster, and he tells the story of resisters and just plain ordinary people caught up in the maleficent wheels of an oppressive system. As both Palestinians and Israelis-with-a-conscience are arrested arbitrarily, held without charges, and abused, we hear their cries for help.
What kind of a “liberal democracy” segregates its citizens according to their ethnic affiliation, with entire Palestinian towns—whose inhabitants are indeed citizens of Israel—walled off from “Israel proper” and forced into destitution and ruin by petty regulations forbidding commerce and building renovation? What kind of “democracy” has a police state apparatus fully mobilized to detect and crush even the slightest form of nonviolent dissent, responding to peaceful demonstrations with bullets and brutal repression? The knock on the door in the night—a feature of Nazi Germany, or any totalitarian system—is a regular occurrence in Goliath: activists, both Palestinian and Israeli, who are organizing for peaceful change are harassed, arrested, beaten, and attacked. The chilling conformity of Israeli society, where “patriotism” and militarism are the norm, is depicted here in disturbing detail.
Particularly shocking is the degree to which segregationist policies, going far beyond those of the old American South, are openly and even enthusiastically advocated even by the ostensibly “liberal” Ashkenazis. The stretching of the law to allow for “Jews only” housing, roads, and entire towns is dramatized over and again by the stories of people whose fate is a plaything in the hands of a police state: one couple must give up their sun-filled home in a good area for life in a dark slum because one doesn’t have the right papers and will be deported if they move. Villages where people have lived since the time of Christ are demolished, the inhabitants driven out and “Jewish only” communities arise out of the ruins—all paid for and justified by the Israeli government, which is being funded to the tune of $3.5 billion per year by you and I.
Yes. Israel still has a relatively free press, but military censorship is a reality: yes, they have elections, but the electorate is poisoned by a crazed nationalism and a racist streak that resembles the Ku Klux Klan at its height: formally, Israel is still a “democracy,” but Leibowitz was right when he declared that “Israel is the only dictatorship that exists today in the enlightened world.” It is a “democratic” despotism based on blood, soil, and conquest, and it is fast losing even its formal democratic character: e.g., when the Supreme Court makes decisions the government disagrees with, such as the right of Palestinians who are Israeli citizens to organize protests, the court is ignored. And nothing is said. Increasingly there are attempts by the far right to make it impossible for open dissent to assert itself: laws demanding a “loyalty oath” of all citizens, and blatant attempts to stifle speech are increasingly in the air. The desire for an “Israeli Putin,” a strong leader who will dispense with the “democratic” niceties, transfer the Arabs out, and unite the nation around the vision of a Greater Israel, is palpable. This is the vision of Lieberman and his fellow rightists, many of whom emigrated from Russia in the 1980s, and it is increasingly the Israeli reality.
Of particular concern to the Israelis and their Western amen corner is the movement for nonviolent resistance to the apartheid state, which is being taken up by both Palestinians and Israeli leftists, including the BDS campaign to boycott Israeli goods: this movement has been ruthlessly crushed wherever it has arisen, but it just keeps bouncing back—much to the consternation of the publicity-conscious regime, which is horrified by the prospect of the whole world watching as nonviolent Palestinians and their Israeli comrades are brutalized by their thugs. The Israelis are truly the Bull Connors of the new millennium.
It is now illegal to advocate boycotting Israeli goods inside Israel, or to memorialize “the Nakba”—the 1948 expulsion of the Palestinians from their historic homeland. Mob attacks on Palestinians right in the center of Jerusalem are commonplace, along with vicious attacks—including the arson of an orphanage—on African refugees. This coarsening—brutalization, really—of Israeli society is something one imagines Leibowitz would have despised had he lived to see it. The mere fact that the Israelis routinely arrest and torture Palestinian children as young as eight should be enough to delegitimize the “Jewish state” in the eyes of the world—that is, if enough eyes see it.
Thanks to the Israel lobby’s slander campaign against Max Blumenthal and his new book, Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel, I not only learned things about the Jewish state that I never knew, I also made a wonderful discovery—but more about that later. I confess I probably wouldn’t have read Goliath if not for the controversy it has generated: those squeals of pain coming from Israel’s apologists had to mean something, I figured. Either the book was egregiously unfair to the Jewish state or else a brilliant chronicle of its depredations against ordinary human decency. I had to read it in order to find out.
Goliath is an easy read on a subject that makes many very uneasy: although it’s fairly long, it consists of many short vignettes told in the first person, chronicling Blumenthal’s travels across the length and breadth of the Holy Land—and the story it tells is alarming, especially for those who count themselves among Israel’s friends.
For years, the Israeli body politic has been moving rightward—i.e. toward militarism, ultra-nationalism, and religious fundamentalism—to such a degree that it seems unrecognizable to those of us who belong to the older generation. We remember—or think we remember—the Israel of Exodus, the brave little upstart that defied the odds and, surrounded by enemies on every side, made the desert bloom with the verdant fields of a liberal democracy.
Goliath proves that liberal democracy is now, for all intents and purpose, defunct: indeed, it may have never existed in the first place. The book demonstrates this on every page with brutal real-life firsthand reporting. Starting off slowly, Blumenthal paints a portrait of a society living in a bubble, with the Israeli Ashkenazi aristocracy on top, the Mizrahi drone-workers charged with police work and other non-elite tasks near the bottom, and the Palestinian helots on the lowest rung, eking out a problematic existence with all the legal and economic factors pointing to their eventual expulsion from Israeli society. As the rightist wave engulfs what had been the dream of socialist Zionists to build an egalitarian society, and turns it into a bastion of religious nationalism and outright racism, Blumenthal moves through this society-in-transition with the unforgiving eye of a born documentarian, mercilessly exposing the hypocrisy, mendacity, and criminality of a country that is coming unhinged.
How else are we to explain the fact that, during the attack on Gaza, IDF soldiers killed an eight-year-old child, one Ibrahim Awajah, and used his corpse for target practice? This was no isolated incident: one by one we read the stories of disgusting atrocities carried out by the IDF—how they lobbed a shell into the living room of Izeldeen Abuelaish, a Harvard-trained fertility doctor and medical researcher who had helped many Israelis have children. The shell decapitated two of his daughters and “shredded” his other children “to pieces.” As this was going on, Israelis sat on Parash Hill, near Sderot, which offers a clear view of the Gaza Strip, watching the slaughter and cheering as if it were the latest hit movie—spectators to their own moral degeneration.
As if they were quite well aware of what they were becoming—indeed, had become—ordinary Israelis reacted with hatred against anyone in their midst who held up an unflattering mirror to their war hysteria. Right-wing demagogues like Avigdor Lieberman, now Foreign Minister, demanded that antiwar protesters be jailed. At Tel Aviv University, the youth organizer of the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu said antiwar protesters should be deprived of their citizenship, to raucous cheers: the university’s reputation as a bastion of liberalism to the contrary notwithstanding.
As Operation Cast Lead came to a horrific and bloody close, a poll taken by Daniel Bar-Tal, an eminent political psychologist, found that more than half of Israelis wouldn’t allow an Arab into their homes. A full 68 percent wouldn’t live in the same building as an Arab, while 63 percent said Arabs represented a dire security threat to the state of Israel. Forty percent said the government should deport them all or “encourage” them to leave. The backdrop to this was a rising tide within the political and clerical class of brazen racism. Israel’s Chief Rabbi, Ovadiah Yosef, screeched “It is forbidden to be merciful to the Arabs. You must send missiles to them and annihilate them. They are evil and damnable!”
Blumenthal’s portrait of Avigdor Lieberman is something the scandal-plagued right-wing demagogue and former bouncer may never recover from: while Lieberman has earned the contempt of the liberal Ashkenazi “coastal elite,” as Blumenthal dubs them, in America he is less well-known. Blumenthal’s account of how this “hulking bear-like man” hunted down a twelve-year-old Arab boy and beat him up for punching his son—slamming him into a wall and “leaving him with a painful head wound”—captures the essence of a born bully. A legal “fixer” allowed the thuggish politician to get off with just a fine.
An immigrant from Russia, where he was a nobody, Lieberman came to Israel and founded a party, Yisrael Beiteinu, that is the most successful fascist political formation in the world: the party advocates a truculent mix of domestic authoritarianism and territorial expansionism, the expulsion of all Arabs and the forced “Judaization” of the West Bank. His nationalism, however, is entirely secular: he and his followers have no interest in the Torah, or the 3,000 year tradition of Jewish moral and political law. As Blumenthal puts it, “He was content to allow the army to define who was a Jew.” His “politics melded authoritarian populism with a distinctly anti-clerical strain, appealing to anyone who loathed the presence of Muslims, radical leftists, and the ultra-Orthodox.”
Unfortunately, as Blumenthal writes, “there was no shortage of citizens in Israel who held this sentiment.”
Lieberman’s crudeness is well-known to observers of Israeli politics, but in the US his ties to Mafia figures may be less widely understood: Michael Cherney, a Russian Jewish oligarch, paid Lieberman half a million through a Cypriot shell firm, and is known to have ties to criminal gangs in the former Soviet Union. The two, says Cherney, were in daily communication. Another supporter of dubious moral character: Martin Schlaff, whose connections to the East German Stasi made him a rich man. Evidence of Schlaff’s $3.5 million payoff to Ariel Sharon in exchange for permission to build a casino in Israel was rendered moot when Sharon fell into a coma from which he has yet to emerge. Schlaff then became a major backer of Yisrael Beiteinu, as Lieberman took in millions in mysterious payments through a company run by his daughter. After gaining 11 Knesset seats, Lieberman was named Minister of “Strategic Threats” (Warmongering) in Ehud Olmert’s rather shaky government. Today he is Foreign Minister, after being temporarily kicked out of the government while being investigated for fraud, the David Duke of Israel to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s George Wallace.
What is particularly shocking in Blumenthal’s book is its exposure of the explicit racism that has become commonplace in Israeli society. When Anastasia Michaeli, a Yisrael Beitenu MK, served on a panel charged with choosing someone to represent Israel in the Eurovision song contest, she objected to one contestant because he “looks Arab.” In her defense, she stated: “I am looking at this competition from a Zionist point of view.”
If so, it isn’t any sort of Zionism the older Ashkenazi elite would recognize. But that’s the point: the “new” Zionism is something else altogether.
The theme of this book is encapsulated in its portrayal of one of my heroes—or, I should say, my newest hero, since I had no knowledge of him before reading Blumenthal’s work: his name is Yeshayahu Leibowitz. The Israeli polymath, who fled Germany in 1933 and emigrated to Palestine where he taught brain physiology at Tel Aviv University, starting teaching philosophy at the age of 72 (!), was an Orthodox Jewish scholar who edited the Encyclopedia Hebraica. As the Independent describes him,
“On the one hand he was a libertarian, an extreme form of classical liberalism, and believed that human beings should be free to determine their way of life without any state interference. On the other hand, he was an ultra-Orthodox Jew who insisted that the state and religion must be separated completely to avoid corrupting each other.
“Leibowitz argued vehemently for two positions: that holding any state as a value in itself was inherently fascist and that sanctifying any piece of land, including Israel, was a form of idolatry. Very soon after the Six-Day War, Leibowitz predicted that if Israel didn’t withdraw immediately from the occupied territories, all of the state’s energy would be tied up in ruling another people against its will.”
While he was indeed a Zionist, who believed—as I do—that Jews living in Palestine have the right to national self-determination, it was Leibowitz’s critique of the particular circumstances of Israel’s nation-building project that allowed him to see the society he was living in in realistic terms. In a prescient essay published on the eve of Israel’s great victory in the 1967 war—when the rest of Israeli society was celebrating and the Likud party was getting its start as the “Movement for a Greater Israel”—the man Isaiah Berlin called “the conscience of Israel” foretold the fate of the Jewish state if it absorbed its new conquests into the realm:
“The Arabs would be the working people and the Jews the administrators, inspectors, officials, and police—mainly secret police. A state ruling a hostile population of 1.5 million to 2 million foreigners would necessarily become a secret-police state, with all that implies for education, free speech and democratic institutions. The corruption characteristic of every colonial regime would also prevail in the State of Israel. The administration would have to suppress the Arab insurgency on the one hand and acquire Arab quislings on the other. There is also good reason to fear that the Israel Defense Force, which has been until now a people’s army, would, as a result of being transformed into an army of occupation, degenerate, and its commanders, who will have become military governors, resemble their colleagues in other nations.”
And so it came to pass.
Israel, “unpartitioned Eretz Israel,” would become like the apartheid state of South Africa, Leibowitz warned: racism would overwhelm the culture. Instead of filling the concrete needs of its citizens, the Jewish state, Leibowitz said, would devote itself to “the specific tasks of government and administration of this strange system of political domination.”
When it was revealed that an Arab woman who had been arrested for belonging to the Palestine Liberation Organization was handcuffed while she gave birth to her child, Leibowitz took to calling the perpetrators—the government—”Judeo-Nazis.” As the IDF overran the Occupied Territories, he wrote that the final phases of Israel’s moral and political degeneration would see the appearance of “concentration camps”—at which point “Israel would not deserve to exist, and it will not be worthwhile to preserve it.”
The vast system of prisons and “administrative detention” camps set up by the Israelis to detain thousands of Palestinians held without charge—as well as the giant concentration camp being constructed to intern African refugees who have turned up seeking asylum—is well documented in Goliath. Indeed, we follow Blumenthal as he takes us into the heart of this monster, and he tells the story of resisters and just plain ordinary people caught up in the maleficent wheels of an oppressive system. As both Palestinians and Israelis-with-a-conscience are arrested arbitrarily, held without charges, and abused, we hear their cries for help.
What kind of a “liberal democracy” segregates its citizens according to their ethnic affiliation, with entire Palestinian towns—whose inhabitants are indeed citizens of Israel—walled off from “Israel proper” and forced into destitution and ruin by petty regulations forbidding commerce and building renovation? What kind of “democracy” has a police state apparatus fully mobilized to detect and crush even the slightest form of nonviolent dissent, responding to peaceful demonstrations with bullets and brutal repression? The knock on the door in the night—a feature of Nazi Germany, or any totalitarian system—is a regular occurrence in Goliath: activists, both Palestinian and Israeli, who are organizing for peaceful change are harassed, arrested, beaten, and attacked. The chilling conformity of Israeli society, where “patriotism” and militarism are the norm, is depicted here in disturbing detail.
Particularly shocking is the degree to which segregationist policies, going far beyond those of the old American South, are openly and even enthusiastically advocated even by the ostensibly “liberal” Ashkenazis. The stretching of the law to allow for “Jews only” housing, roads, and entire towns is dramatized over and again by the stories of people whose fate is a plaything in the hands of a police state: one couple must give up their sun-filled home in a good area for life in a dark slum because one doesn’t have the right papers and will be deported if they move. Villages where people have lived since the time of Christ are demolished, the inhabitants driven out and “Jewish only” communities arise out of the ruins—all paid for and justified by the Israeli government, which is being funded to the tune of $3.5 billion per year by you and I.
Yes. Israel still has a relatively free press, but military censorship is a reality: yes, they have elections, but the electorate is poisoned by a crazed nationalism and a racist streak that resembles the Ku Klux Klan at its height: formally, Israel is still a “democracy,” but Leibowitz was right when he declared that “Israel is the only dictatorship that exists today in the enlightened world.” It is a “democratic” despotism based on blood, soil, and conquest, and it is fast losing even its formal democratic character: e.g., when the Supreme Court makes decisions the government disagrees with, such as the right of Palestinians who are Israeli citizens to organize protests, the court is ignored. And nothing is said. Increasingly there are attempts by the far right to make it impossible for open dissent to assert itself: laws demanding a “loyalty oath” of all citizens, and blatant attempts to stifle speech are increasingly in the air. The desire for an “Israeli Putin,” a strong leader who will dispense with the “democratic” niceties, transfer the Arabs out, and unite the nation around the vision of a Greater Israel, is palpable. This is the vision of Lieberman and his fellow rightists, many of whom emigrated from Russia in the 1980s, and it is increasingly the Israeli reality.
Of particular concern to the Israelis and their Western amen corner is the movement for nonviolent resistance to the apartheid state, which is being taken up by both Palestinians and Israeli leftists, including the BDS campaign to boycott Israeli goods: this movement has been ruthlessly crushed wherever it has arisen, but it just keeps bouncing back—much to the consternation of the publicity-conscious regime, which is horrified by the prospect of the whole world watching as nonviolent Palestinians and their Israeli comrades are brutalized by their thugs. The Israelis are truly the Bull Connors of the new millennium.
It is now illegal to advocate boycotting Israeli goods inside Israel, or to memorialize “the Nakba”—the 1948 expulsion of the Palestinians from their historic homeland. Mob attacks on Palestinians right in the center of Jerusalem are commonplace, along with vicious attacks—including the arson of an orphanage—on African refugees. This coarsening—brutalization, really—of Israeli society is something one imagines Leibowitz would have despised had he lived to see it. The mere fact that the Israelis routinely arrest and torture Palestinian children as young as eight should be enough to delegitimize the “Jewish state” in the eyes of the world—that is, if enough eyes see it.
Libya militia says oil terminals to remain closed
By Esam Mohamed, Associated Press, Dec. 15, 2013
TRIPOLI, Libya (AP)—The head of a Libyan militia that has shut down most of the country’s oil terminals for months said Sunday they will remain closed because the government has failed to meet his group’s demands—mainly a share of revenues for their eastern region.
Ibrahim Jedran, leader of the militia in eastern Libya, had promised to reopen the oil terminals Sunday following mediation from influential tribal leaders. Jedran accused the government of corruption and of “watering down” his group’s demands.
Jedran, head of the so-called Political Bureau of Barqa, is a leading advocate of a federal state in which each region has some autonomy as was the case from 1951 until 1963 under King Idris when Libya was divided into three regions: Cyrenaica, or Barqa, Tripolitania and Fezzan. Like other Libyan regions, easterners have long complained of discrimination by the central government in Tripoli.
He had declared the formation of an autonomous regional government and the formation of a regional company to handle sales of oil in the last two months, increasing the challenge to a central government already weakened by the proliferation of militias. The central government rejected the declarations but has not moved against the militia that shut the terminals since last summer.
"The closure of the oil terminals in eastern Libya will continue. Work will not resume there because of the failure to reach an agreement with the interim government to implement the conditions of the region," he said in the eastern town of Ajdabiya, 480 miles (800 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli. "We will not reopen the terminals because of the corruption of the interim government which doesn’t care about the real demands of Libyans."
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Ali Zidan said that the government is spending billions of dollars of its foreign reserves to compensate the losses of oil revenues. Libya has been losing millions of dollars every day after production dropped from 1.4 billion barrels a day to a few thousand since the closure.
On Friday, Zidan said the government can force open the terminals but would rather avoid the bloodshed.
TRIPOLI, Libya (AP)—The head of a Libyan militia that has shut down most of the country’s oil terminals for months said Sunday they will remain closed because the government has failed to meet his group’s demands—mainly a share of revenues for their eastern region.
Ibrahim Jedran, leader of the militia in eastern Libya, had promised to reopen the oil terminals Sunday following mediation from influential tribal leaders. Jedran accused the government of corruption and of “watering down” his group’s demands.
Jedran, head of the so-called Political Bureau of Barqa, is a leading advocate of a federal state in which each region has some autonomy as was the case from 1951 until 1963 under King Idris when Libya was divided into three regions: Cyrenaica, or Barqa, Tripolitania and Fezzan. Like other Libyan regions, easterners have long complained of discrimination by the central government in Tripoli.
He had declared the formation of an autonomous regional government and the formation of a regional company to handle sales of oil in the last two months, increasing the challenge to a central government already weakened by the proliferation of militias. The central government rejected the declarations but has not moved against the militia that shut the terminals since last summer.
"The closure of the oil terminals in eastern Libya will continue. Work will not resume there because of the failure to reach an agreement with the interim government to implement the conditions of the region," he said in the eastern town of Ajdabiya, 480 miles (800 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli. "We will not reopen the terminals because of the corruption of the interim government which doesn’t care about the real demands of Libyans."
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Ali Zidan said that the government is spending billions of dollars of its foreign reserves to compensate the losses of oil revenues. Libya has been losing millions of dollars every day after production dropped from 1.4 billion barrels a day to a few thousand since the closure.
On Friday, Zidan said the government can force open the terminals but would rather avoid the bloodshed.
If a Drone Strike Hit an American Wedding, We would Ground Our Fleet?
By Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic, Dec. 16, 2013
On my wedding day, my wife and I hired a couple of shuttle vans to ferry guests between a San Clemente hotel and the nearby site where we held our ceremony and reception. I thought of our friends and family members packed into those vehicles when I read about the latest nightmarish consequence of America’s drone war: “A U.S. drone mistakenly targeted a wedding convoy in Yemen’s al-Baitha province after intelligence reports identified the vehicles as carrying al Qaeda militants,” CNN reported, citing government sources in Yemen. “The officials said that 14 people were killed and 22 others injured, nine in critical condition. The vehicles were traveling near the town of Radda when they were attacked.”
Can you imagine the wall-to-wall press coverage, the outrage, and the empathy for the victims that would follow if an American wedding were attacked in this fashion? Or how you’d feel about a foreign power that attacked your wedding in this fashion?
The L.A. Times followed up on the story and found slightly different casualty figures: “The death toll reached 17 overnight, hospital officials in central Bayda province said Friday. Five of those killed were suspected of involvement with Al Qaeda, but the remainder were unconnected with the militancy, Yemeni security officials said.”
More than a dozen dead, many more injured, and an unknown number of survivors whose lives have suddenly taken a nightmarish turn the likes of which we cannot imagine, and all for the sake of five people suspected of ties to al-Qaeda. How many actual al-Qaeda terrorists would we have to kill with drones in Yemen to make the benefits of our drone war there outweigh the costs of this single catastrophic strike? If U.S. drone strikes put American wedding parties similarly at risk would we tolerate our targeted-killing program for a single day more? Our policy persists because we put little value on the lives of foreign innocents. Even putting them through the most horrific scene imaginable on their wedding day is but a blip on our media radar, easily eclipsed by a new Beyonce album.
The Obama Administration dishonestly talks of “surgical” drone strikes, as if surgeries ever result in double digit casualties. “Before any strike is taken, there must be near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured—the highest standard we can set,” President Obama promised back in May. The CNN story about this latest strike says, “The convoy consisted of 11 vehicles, and the officials said that four of the vehicles were targeted in the strikes.” Is attempting to pick off alleged militants while in a wedding convoy with innocents the highest standard we can set to avoid civilian deaths? If so, the results speak for themselves.
In that same May speech, Obama said:
Remember that the terrorists we are after target civilians, and the death toll from their acts of terrorism against Muslims dwarfs any estimate of civilian casualties from drone strikes. So doing nothing is not an option. Where foreign governments cannot or will not effectively stop terrorism in their territory, the primary alternative to targeted lethal action would be the use of conventional military options. As I’ve already said, even small special operations carry enormous risks. Conventional airpower or missiles are far less precise than drones, and are likely to cause more civilian casualties and more local outrage.
And invasions of these territories lead us to be viewed as occupying armies, unleash a torrent of unintended consequences, are difficult to contain, result in large numbers of civilian casualties and ultimately empower those who thrive on violent conflict.
Does anyone believe that, if not for our lethal drone program, the United States would’ve sent the Air Force or ground troops to fire on this wedding party? The thousands of drone strikes we’ve carried out in recent years suggest that drones decrease the cost of lethal action so much that the U.S. takes it more often now than we would if we didn’t have a drone fleet at the ready—and not, as their defenders sometimes argue, that drones are saving us from air strikes and ground invasions.
Finally, Obama says that drone strikes are ordered only against targets who pose “a continuing, imminent threat to Americans.” Is anyone else skeptical that the targets in this wedding convoy would be imminently attacking us right now if not for those Hellfire missiles?
Even if you disagree with the growing global opposition to America’s targeted-killing program, and believe that the frequent use of lethal drone strikes is necessary, reflect on the U.S. reaction to killing more than a dozen people in this wedding convoy, including many innocents. The moral course, if we must have a drone program that puts civilians at risk, would be to apologize for any terrible mistakes that we make, pay reparations to the wronged survivors, and explain what steps will be taken to insure nothing like this will ever happen again. Instead, according to CNN, “U.S. officials declined to comment on the report.”
On my wedding day, my wife and I hired a couple of shuttle vans to ferry guests between a San Clemente hotel and the nearby site where we held our ceremony and reception. I thought of our friends and family members packed into those vehicles when I read about the latest nightmarish consequence of America’s drone war: “A U.S. drone mistakenly targeted a wedding convoy in Yemen’s al-Baitha province after intelligence reports identified the vehicles as carrying al Qaeda militants,” CNN reported, citing government sources in Yemen. “The officials said that 14 people were killed and 22 others injured, nine in critical condition. The vehicles were traveling near the town of Radda when they were attacked.”
Can you imagine the wall-to-wall press coverage, the outrage, and the empathy for the victims that would follow if an American wedding were attacked in this fashion? Or how you’d feel about a foreign power that attacked your wedding in this fashion?
The L.A. Times followed up on the story and found slightly different casualty figures: “The death toll reached 17 overnight, hospital officials in central Bayda province said Friday. Five of those killed were suspected of involvement with Al Qaeda, but the remainder were unconnected with the militancy, Yemeni security officials said.”
More than a dozen dead, many more injured, and an unknown number of survivors whose lives have suddenly taken a nightmarish turn the likes of which we cannot imagine, and all for the sake of five people suspected of ties to al-Qaeda. How many actual al-Qaeda terrorists would we have to kill with drones in Yemen to make the benefits of our drone war there outweigh the costs of this single catastrophic strike? If U.S. drone strikes put American wedding parties similarly at risk would we tolerate our targeted-killing program for a single day more? Our policy persists because we put little value on the lives of foreign innocents. Even putting them through the most horrific scene imaginable on their wedding day is but a blip on our media radar, easily eclipsed by a new Beyonce album.
The Obama Administration dishonestly talks of “surgical” drone strikes, as if surgeries ever result in double digit casualties. “Before any strike is taken, there must be near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured—the highest standard we can set,” President Obama promised back in May. The CNN story about this latest strike says, “The convoy consisted of 11 vehicles, and the officials said that four of the vehicles were targeted in the strikes.” Is attempting to pick off alleged militants while in a wedding convoy with innocents the highest standard we can set to avoid civilian deaths? If so, the results speak for themselves.
In that same May speech, Obama said:
Remember that the terrorists we are after target civilians, and the death toll from their acts of terrorism against Muslims dwarfs any estimate of civilian casualties from drone strikes. So doing nothing is not an option. Where foreign governments cannot or will not effectively stop terrorism in their territory, the primary alternative to targeted lethal action would be the use of conventional military options. As I’ve already said, even small special operations carry enormous risks. Conventional airpower or missiles are far less precise than drones, and are likely to cause more civilian casualties and more local outrage.
And invasions of these territories lead us to be viewed as occupying armies, unleash a torrent of unintended consequences, are difficult to contain, result in large numbers of civilian casualties and ultimately empower those who thrive on violent conflict.
Does anyone believe that, if not for our lethal drone program, the United States would’ve sent the Air Force or ground troops to fire on this wedding party? The thousands of drone strikes we’ve carried out in recent years suggest that drones decrease the cost of lethal action so much that the U.S. takes it more often now than we would if we didn’t have a drone fleet at the ready—and not, as their defenders sometimes argue, that drones are saving us from air strikes and ground invasions.
Finally, Obama says that drone strikes are ordered only against targets who pose “a continuing, imminent threat to Americans.” Is anyone else skeptical that the targets in this wedding convoy would be imminently attacking us right now if not for those Hellfire missiles?
Even if you disagree with the growing global opposition to America’s targeted-killing program, and believe that the frequent use of lethal drone strikes is necessary, reflect on the U.S. reaction to killing more than a dozen people in this wedding convoy, including many innocents. The moral course, if we must have a drone program that puts civilians at risk, would be to apologize for any terrible mistakes that we make, pay reparations to the wronged survivors, and explain what steps will be taken to insure nothing like this will ever happen again. Instead, according to CNN, “U.S. officials declined to comment on the report.”
