Showing posts with label Christianity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christianity. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Pastors with Differing Motives Condemn the Philistines to Occupation


We quote Pastor RA anonymously as a courtesy, still hoping to make a friend of him. He did us a favor in writing to condemn as false two separate comments we made on stories about Huckabee and Coral Ridge Ministries. All three are flagrant in ignoring Jesus’ words and commands in order to follow their respective ambitions. It is likely that only Pastor RA believes the line he espouses; we think he is the victim of a bad book. Those he defends have long ago left the book behind in search of power and money.

We are a nation of churches, and if pastors taught what the Bible says about peacemaking, no politician or businessman would dare drag us into a war. War making is national economic policy, and most pastors dare not denounce it for fear of losing their tax exempt status. We only ask them to honestly teach what the New Covenant of Christ teaches in the New Testament about peacemaking and love of one’s brothers…all of our brothers, including those who are Muslim. Jesus did not exclude any race.

Coral Ridge Ministries, a once distinguished giant church and radio ministry, is promoting an issue solely for the sake of raising money. Its exaggerated anti-Islamic films make Christ-followers’ blood boil to the point where their checkbooks levitate out of their pocket, even if the accounts are empty.

We have no problem naming Coral Ridge because seven years ago we caught its business management in the act of raising money to free non-existent slaves, which contributors were told would be bought at non-existent “Arab Muslim” slave markets in petroleum rich Sudan. The byproduct of Coral Ridge’s highly successful fund raiser was mutual hatred between Muslims and Christians. Coral Ridge’s new pattern is to capitalize on anti-Islamic fervor by publishing frightening accounts of the evils of Islam and then asking readers and viewers to do their duty and write a check to support the Ministry’s ventures.

Coral Ridge Ministries was founded by Dr. D. James Kennedy, a conservative Reformed Presbyterian by theology, and in no way a Christian Zionist. But long before his death, his corporate style mission was taken over from within, during his long illness. Today Coral Ridge is all about money, and Dr. Kennedy’s wonderful sermons are a prop--recorded speeches from the grave every week on national TV. Many listeners still do not know Dr. Kennedy is dead.

Pastor RA also criticized our coverage of the story about former Baptist Pastor Mike Huckabee, who was carried by the Israel media, where he voiced a policy toward the occupied Philistines that can only lead to extermination and more war. His motive
appears to be power, for he ran well and capably for President in 2008, and is clearly preparing early for the next campaign where he will capitalize on the dreadful economy that the Obama people can only patch over.

Huckabee is a wannabe, and his strategy is to first secure Jewish Zionist confidence, and then the Christian Right vote; as a former Baptist preacher, he is well suited for the task.
Huckabee and Coral Ridge are lost causes, but in Pastor RA and 100,000 pastors like him we find both our greatest problem and our best hope. He sincerely believes what he says and has little in common with those he defends; else he would never take the risk to write to us. I do not know Pastor RA, so I am typing him based on contacts with hundreds of pastors and laymen--
Christians who talk just like him. His position (“its biblical… that no one but Israel owns the land”) is not based on avarice or his own craving for power, but on self-deception absorbed from the Bad Book of Christianity that teaches that the State of Israel is the fulfillment of Biblical prophesy, and that Israel‘s needs are more immediate than Jesus’ commands for us.

There is not just one bad book but many, for Judeo-Christianity have made end times writing a big business. False books of Judeo-Christian leaning are epidemic. However the Scofield Reference Bible is, we believe, the terrible root source of corruption of evangelical Christianity, published in 1908 by Oxford University Press, and now in about its fifth update. We have researched and written about this bible a lot. (5)

One who is taught from the Bad Book will eventually find himself placing the interest of Israel ahead of the teaching of Jesus Christ, especially relating to war and peace; the State of Israel has been at war with its neighbors and those it occupies for its entire 60-year existence. One cannot support Israel and its leaders without also supporting war.

Pastor RA’s words brand him as one who supports the two opportunists mentioned above only because they support Israel’s agenda; he supports a false doctrine promoted to control America’s huge Christian church vote. The enormous financial and media attention given to anti-Islamic fervor has probably helped to make his church at least modestly successful in harvesting converts to Christian Zionism. Mike Huckabee and leaders of churches like Coral Ridge fan the flame of race hatred to gain Jewish approval and financial rewards.

All in all, the Christian Zionists make themselves heard loud and clear, ignoring Jesus’ words about peace and love of brother. There is no excuse for those who believe Jesus’ words to remain silent. An easy and hardly disputable good stewardship that all military aid (paid for by US taxpayers) to both the Israelis and the Philistines, be stopped immediately. At present, Israel gets much and the Philistines nothing! Only food and clothing, cloaks and tunics, as Jesus condoned, should be given. This formula might also help us clean up our own financial and political messes: that really makes it our business.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Investigate Possible Israeli War Crimes


Background: In late July, FBI Special Agent Robert J. Cooke filed a criminal complaint in US District Court (District of New Jersey) against Levy Izhak Rosenbaum. The complaint alleges that Rosenbaum unlawfully conspired "to acquire, receive, and otherwise transfer human organs for valuable consideration for use in human transplantation ... and did an act to effect the object of the conspiracy." Rosenbaum is quoted as indicating that he had been procuring human organs for "ten years" and that there are "people over there [in Israel] hunting" for organs. The Rosenbaum case was part of broader corruption and money-laundering case that garnered international media attention.

On August 17, 2009, a Swedish newspaper, Aftonbladet, published "Our sons plundered for their organs," an article by veteran Middle East photojournalist Donald Boström. Boström indicates that the organ trafficking charges against Rosenbaum inspired him to bring to light his experiences in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1990s. He writes: "I then travelled around interviewing a great number of Palestinian families in the West Bank and Gaza – meeting parents who told of how their sons had been deprived of organs before being killed. ... The families ... felt that they knew exactly what had happened: 'Our sons are used as involuntary organ donors,' relatives of Khalid from Nablus told me, as did the mother of Raed from Jenin and the uncles of Machmod and Nafes from Gaza, who had all disappeared for a number of days only to return at night, dead and autopsied." Although Boström does not assert the factuality of the Palestinian accusations he does note that the charge that Palestinians are being used as Israel's "organ reserve" is "a very serious accusation, with enough question marks to motivate the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to start an investigation about possible war crimes."

It requires no great leap of logic or imagination to go from "support and direct involvement of the Israeli Ministry of Defense" in illegal Israeli organ transplantations abroad to Israeli military involvement in the harvesting of organs from Palestinians in territories under Israeli military occupation. And as it turns out, just a little more than a year after Scheper-Hughes gave her testimony, Israel's Chief Pathologist and Director of the national Institute of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv, Dr. Yehuda Hiss, was investigated for "for suspicions including the removal of organs from 81 deceased persons without familial consent." The Israeli news network, Arutz Sheva, reports in 2005, Hiss agreed to a plea bargain with Israel prosecutors. It say: "In all of the 125 cases, Dr. Hiss and his subordinates removed organs, bones and tissue without the permission of, and in many cases, against the expressed wishes of the families of the deceased."

As people deeply concerned with human rights, we believe it is essential to listen respectfully when many members of a population speak about war crimes committed against them. Therefore, we support Donald Boström and the editor and publisher of Aftonbladet in their decision to publish "Our sons plundered for their organs." We salute the Swedish government in refusing to submit to Israeli pressure and undermine the fundamental rights of freedom of the press and freedom of expression. We support calls for a thorough investigation into allegations that Israelis have removed organs from Palestinians in violation of international humanitarian law. We urge the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Court of Justice, and other competent tribunals to undertake a thorough, impartial investigation of these charges.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Christian Zionists Snap at the Heels of A Man From Galilee


Archbishop Elias Chacour is a rotund 69 year old dynamo. As a child of eight he was made homeless by the Israeli army, but against all odds he stayed in Israel long after most of his villagers became forced refugees elsewhere. He went on to become one of the most important educators of Arab children, and a Christian citizen of Israel. There he built schools that teach some 4000 thousand children in Galilee, northern Israel. Now he has been appointed Archbishop over several Melkite Catholic Churches that are sanctioned by Israel within its territory. Bishop Chacour is author of “Blood Brothers” (Arabs and Israelis) and is a proven advocate of peace, preaching love of all races as his “only weapon.”

Archbishop Chacour pulls no punches in describing his background. He remembers vividly when, in 1948, the state of Israel drove them from their home the family had owned for generations. He relates with the vivid memories of a child how the Israelis separated the village men from their families, shipping the men including his own father to the borders of Israel. The men gone, they ordered the women and children out of their homes to seek refuge wherever they could find it. Later, Israel’s new Air Force bombed the empty homes to rubble so no one could not sneak back to live. It is this part of his life's story that, in part, seemed to arouse the ire of Christian Zionists in his audience.

Elias Chacour’s life seems to demonstrate peace, love and sacrifice. But he also challenges Israel’s right to take life and property from his Christian and Muslim Arab friends. And he speaks with passion to his belief that his Christian God hates killing regardless of what race of human is being killed. And he emphasizes that God has no favored race held above His Commandments.

It seems these statements, which Chacour made with indelible clarity, were enough to elicit a charged response from a dozen or more who attended his talk at SBC. We can guess at their number by counting those who either spoke out or walked out! We will examine this strange and un-Christ-like reaction to this unimpeachable presentation because it is We Hold These Truths goal to expose and reclaim Christian Zionists, most of us having once had and rejected this virus.

Chacour’s lecture, at which perhaps a hundred attended, was not, we are told, a formal function of SBC, but was arranged privately and without church advertising, nor was the meeting even noted in the Church bulletin. This seems to suggest that the church leadership had reason for concern about the reaction to Chacour’s words. The invitation was spread, not by the church, but by word-of-mouth through sponsors, Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding, and friends, including We Hold These Truths.

In contrast to Chacour’s life of self-sacrifice, Israelists, the most extreme of which call themselves “Christian Zionists,” are invariably preoccupied with what they consider political Israel and its absolute right, as they see it, to take any and all land in the Middle East. And, if taking or holding land involves killing Arabs they feel the Bible justifies killing. And, they invariably believe that political Israel and its Jewish settlers are favored by God, and are still the “chosen people” of God. Finally, they wrap these three beliefs around their borrowed “end times” eschatology, to come up with "Israelism," posing as evangelical Christianity.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Hamas: the Best Chance for Peace in the Land of Palestine


For peace between Israel and the Philistines each side must have a government with an honest intent to represent its own tribe and to negotiate in good faith with the opposing one. This seems self evident, and we will assume it is so.

This writer believes Israel's two year blockade and the December holocaust in Gaza demonstrates that Hamas is the only qualified government, and that the United States and Israel must allow it to negotiate. Instead, the negotiating has been done by the Palestinian Authority (formerly the Palestinian Liberation Organization), which the people rejected two years ago in a free election. Corruption has been exposed at the very top of the PA, just as it was in Yasser Arafat’s PLO, a blow to the PA, and affirmation for Hamas.

Israel’s reputation for honesty in office is worse. A Google search on the words “Israel corruption” turns up no less than 688 articles containing the exact phrase. A broader search reveals thousands of articles in Israeli publications about graft and criminal acts at the top of every administration in Israel’s history. Ehud Olmert stands officially accused of massive financial misdeeds. Ariel “The Butcher” Sharon slipped into a coma three years ago; his crimes can be more easily forgotten if he is kept on life support for the next 10 years.

From its very beginning, the Likud has a history of constant wars on its neighbors, and it has campaigned on more war. Israel’s wars have destroyed two smaller, more helpless neighbors--Lebanon and Gaza--in as many years; occupation and division have destroyed the West Bank. The 2009 coalition government’s Avigdor Lieberman publicly boasted that the US Government will do anything Israel wants it to do. He wants to bomb Iran tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the noble and historical ancient Philistines, who populate two provinces but have no nation, are led by two separate and opposing movements, each claiming to represent the people: the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.

Americans are constantly reminded that the PA leaders are well-meaning but bumbling drones who don’t cause much trouble and are ready to compromise for peace; Mahmoud Abbas seems to be just such a drone…dull, pliable but honest. But we are learning that Mr. Abbas is a profiteer, like his predecessor, Yassar Arafat.

Hamas has faults. It has often dealt violence when faced with violence. Some, including American Arabs with long memories, believe Hamas was at one time backed and funded by Israel in order to create a counterbalance to PLO growth and power. This was probably true at one time, but it does not matter now because it is clear from the Gaza holocaust that Israel has a bull’s eye on every Hamas leader, who must be dedicated to want the job. Hundreds have been killed and arrested, so it is safe to say these were not Israeli agents.

It is also well known that PLO leaders were at times protected by the USA government. The Philistines only supported the PLO as long as there was no one else. It is natural they would turn to Hamas because the PLO had a long history of losing ground every year while its leaders became more wealthy.

We Hold These Truths listened to Jimmy Carter when he said the election that brought Hamas to power in 2007 was legitimate and represented the will of the people. His team had talked to the voters. Carter said democracy demands that the world recognize Hamas and let the people work out their own problems. Carter stood for self-determination--a decidedly American principle, and some Israeli's now agree.

We went a step farther after the December annihilation of the Gazans, when we stated Hamas appeared to be an amazingly efficient and accepted governing body, functioning under impossible conditions. We based this conclusion in large part on Hamas’ development of the tunnel system that is saving the lives of the men, women, and children in the gulag called Gaza.

What more can a government do than help its citizen feed and care for themselves under impossible conditions? For their life-saving efforts, many Hamas leaders and their families have been systematically hunted and killed by Israelis. Whoever and whatever Hamas is, it has support because it delivers.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Israel’s Death Culture Is a Dragging Anchor

Israel Defense Forces trains snipers to kill, but who are they trained to target? Many of us had military training at one time or another and the thought of killing a human is something soldiers must be prepared for. But based on the result, something about Israel's sniper training must be very different, for the thought of killing a woman, much less a child, never entered the mind of any soldier I have ever known.

These graduates of IDF sniper school came out wearing t-shirts that promoted killing children, women, and especially graphically about killing pregnant women. Israel has played the “self defense” card since 1948. It no longer works. The t-shirt orders were approved by officers, or at least by Platoon Sergeant, according to Haaretz. That means the commanders also had to know. Haaretz, the leading daily paper in Israel, broke the t-shirt story soon after it featured another story involving murders in Gaza admitted to by active duty IDF solders, which made it plain that this attitude is not confined to barracks’ latrines talk.

The sniper-graduates of the IDF kill school intended that these shirts be seen. They are not ashamed of what they’ve been taught to do and what some of them surely will do; they want to advertise it. Only those who do not want to know can fail to recognize the pride Israel takes in its death culture. Its young men and women are trained and conditioned to hate and kill Arab men, women, and children without reservation. In recent Haaretz new stories, veterans of the January campaign in Gaza revealed that they see nothing wrong with executions because their leaders expect it of them.


A soldier knows he can get away with any murder, so long as he does not do it at point blank range in front of a camera held by an Arab news service like Aljazeera. If he makes this mistake, then some minimum discipline may make him out as one bad apple in the Israeli barrel. Israel’s death culture extends beyond the mass killing fields of Lebanon and Gaza. Israelis also kill their own kind with impunity. They have killed many more Jewish Israeli babies (some 20,000 a year or more) than all the Philistine men, women, and children they have shot, burned, and starved in its 60 year life. Israel’s low live birth rate is the principle reason it cannot compete in a democratic society with the Arabs. This should horrify Christian Zionists who claim to be pro-life almost to a man.


Arabs have families in both Israel and Gaza. With rare exceptions, they do not abort their children. Israelis, however, have a high rate of abortion, subsidized by its national government. The most dangerous months of a young Israeli’s life are not those spent carrying a gun in the IDF, but those spent in his mother’s womb. Blame for the ongoing abuse of the Palestinians rests with the Israelis, with American Zionist Jews, the cowardly Congress, and flagrantly biased, Zionist-monitored media. How many times have you seen the t-shirt story, or the IDF confession story on ABC, NBC, or CBS? Once for ten seconds would be more than expected.


But the real villains who enable Israel’s Death Culture are the 70 million evangelical Christian Zionists who are led by a handful of fanatical leaders who reap huge personal profits from their Israel-worshiping donations and junkets. “Christian Zionism” is the oxymoronic name we gave this biggest of all cults nine years ago, and it stuck. We defined it as “Those who believe the State of Israel is the fulfillment of biblical prophesies.” Christian Zionists worship Israel and feel they have authority to pronounce curses upon anyone who criticizes Israel. I know, because I have had curses pronounced on me to my face, not to mention the silent ones I have been told about.


Conclusion:

Israel is a dragging anchor weighing down our Ship of State. Once we were a giant luxury liner, and the weight of Israel hanging from our bow was not noticeable; but now we have hit an iceberg and we are taken on water in a rough sea. The dead weight on our bow is enough to sink us. Israel is lionized by Jewish Zionists and deified by the American Christian Zionists movement, but is not respected by one else in the world. Every government including ours knows this and most say it. Evangelical Christian Zionists can also no longer afford their love affair with Israel because it is a toxic ungodly affection that abandons traditional Biblical values.


The American Government must cut loose the anchor and let Israel sink to its natural level; but for this to happen evangelical Christians must let go of the anchor chain. Israel’s Death Culture was always there, but it has been exposed in Gaza and Lebanon, and even the American media cannot put it back in the bottle. It is time to end Israel’s free ride on America’s bow.


What can we do personally about Israel’s Death Culture? Tell your Congressman you blame him for the blood and lives lost. Refuse to purchase products of any kind that are imported from or use materials from Israel; check labels or ask merchants and let them know what you’re doing; withdraw your patronage from anyone who supports Israel. Ask local merchant, and then walk out if they do. Followers of Christ should not take a tour to Israel until it grants full equality to the Palestinians. Tourism supports Israeli killing. If you know a church that offers tours, go to members, including the tour leader and the pastor, and show them why they should stop!

Monday, March 2, 2009

Would Jesus Concur or Weep?

Looking at the photo of an innocent, dead, Palestinian child, I want to weep. It appears that the child is a girl of around 3 years old. Her parents are probably Muslims because the population of Gaza is predominantly Muslim. However, there are Christians peaceably living there, side by side with the Muslims. So, there is a small probability that this little girl’s parents could be Christians. Of course, it doesn’t make any difference whether her parents were Muslims, Christians or Jews. If her parents are still alive, they would be grieving. And, we as Christians should be grieving.


Americans and our Congress have overwhelmingly supported the actions by the Israelis against the Palestinians in Gaza in the first few weeks of January, 2009. Probably hundreds of young children, as the girl pictured here, were killed. Typically, a large percentage of Americans view the loss of such young lives as “collateral damage.” This is an euphemism used by our military to sooth the American public. We’ve all heard about the collateral damage in Iraq and Afghanistan. It wouldn’t be nice if it were called what it really is: murder. One group in the United States that religiously and fervently supports Israel, no matter how it conducts itself against the Palestinians that reside in Israel, are Christian Zionists. They believe that the modern state of Israel is a fulfillment of Old Testament, Biblical prophecy.


In a nutshell, Christian Zionists believe unconditional love must be bestowed upon Israel; not doing so would result in condemnations and curses from God. The idea that the modern state of Israel is a fulfillment of Biblical prophecy is a debate topic that can be carried on between Christians of different viewpoints. As Christians, our first and most important allegiance must be to Jesus Christ. No where in the New Testament does Jesus or another writer require that a belief in a physical state of Israel is necessary for salvation. Jesus’ kingdom is based in the spiritual realm.


We are all equal in the sight of God. He displays no favoritism based on race, social status, or gender. Jesus Christ gave his life out of love, not to save a tiny plot of land or a favored ethnicity, but for all mankind. Not for inanimate shrines and places, as much as we may love what they represent to us, but for the forgiveness of sins and salvation of all who will receive Him. His sacrifice was to make us “living stones” in one glorious temple, not built by human hands, but by a living God who wants relationship with us. That is the gospel. The question for the American church today is simple: What gospel are we believing and preaching?

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Evangelical Zionist’s Dilemma: Love Your Enemy or Starve Him

Evangelical Zionism is our own descriptive term. It is not a denomination, but an acquired disease in the body of Christianity. The universal symptom is the belief that the political state of Israel is the fulfillment of biblical prophesies.” Jesus said, love you brother, even your enemy; Evangelical Zionism, in its extreme morphs, holds that Old Testament scripture allows the extermination of the Palestinians.


Elena has recovered from it, and this is her story. She wrote to us and called with several questions common to recovering Evangelical Zionists making them feel quite alone amid the hatred that is directed toward the people of Palestine and, in fact, toward all of Islam. She is learning to be a missionary for peace within her own church. Her story is not unique, but her tactful determination is. We have asked her to allow us to share her experience with you. Elena was raised a Catholic and became an evangelical protestant during her years of child-rearing. There she stayed for most of her adult years until she discovered that the church she had joined had a primary dedication to evangelical Zionist teachings and beliefs. This became clear to her as she learned of Israel’s abuse of the Palestinians, and her church’s unconditional and unquestioning support of Israel.


Like so many of us she had left one or more churches she found infected with Evangelical Zionism, looking for the prefect church. She did not find it. She finally settled into a small congregation with a Reform theology. She became an active part of the congregation and started a home bible study to encourage other church members. Strangely, it was here she was to discover her worst frustration. While her denomination’s theology denies evangelical Zionism, some of its members believe and teach a form of it.


On the positive side, her pastor says he shares her anti-war view and sympathy for Palestinians, but does not discuss it from the pulpit. He does not seem to have the disease but perhaps he fears to speak out against it. However, the volunteer leader of the Bible study, Carl, is a denominational church planner assigned to her church. When war became a hot issue, Elena discovered that all the class supported the U.S. wars and Israeli occupation. The study leader horrified her by telling her privately, “if it was up to me I would kill them all.”

Elena responded by purchasing and giving away a detailed secular book on Zionism in an attempt to show her friends what Zionists privately think of Christians, but it did not work. Elena’s letter ended with familiar and painful words asking if we can recommend another church for her and saying,


I feel like an outcast and I did nothing wrong! I know I believed the scoffed, dispensationalist lie for almost my entire Christian life, but when you read the truth you just can’t turn your back on it.”


She provided an exchange of messages with their Bible study leader, Carl. In it he denies he told her he would kill all the Palestinians; Instead he now asserts “he would cut off food and water to them.”

Saturday, January 3, 2009

The Lie That Justifies Mass Murder: "Hamas Hit Us First"

The White House’s press release is exactly the same as the Zionist Israel position, blaming the victims. It is imperative that we know why. Here is the official Israeli line, directly from Washington:

“It was ‘completely unacceptable’ for Hamas, which controls Gaza, to launch attacks on Israel after a truce lasting several months”, said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council. "These people are nothing but thugs, so Israel is going to defend its people against terrorists like Hamas that indiscriminately kill their own people." The reason the US Administration parrots Zionist Israel’s story is that there is a common agenda that calls for more war in the Middle East. As we have written for some years, ours is a war-based economy, and Israel plays a large part in it because the USA’s targeted enemy is Islam.

War, to those who direct our course from above and beyond presidential politics, is not about religion, but are a vehicle to force economic growth where there is now stagnation. Broader, bigger and more permanent wars are a part or the “Dilution Solution” planned to save our economy, much as World War II was thought by many to be a planned solution to the “Great Depression.”

Zionist politicians have their own political reasons for the unreasonable brutality which has been discussed in the Arab press. Israel wants to regain political control over the Philistines, so to their way of thinking, Hamas must go. This writer uses the biblical “Philistine” in place of the popular “Palestinian” to emphasize that Arabs are the historic occupants of the land, and they presently do not even have a state. Paradoxically, they are like the unarmed David, a stateless people wondering in the land of the Philistines, but with the slingshot, versus Israel, the militarist Goliath.

As a practical matter, Israel cannot kill all three or four million Philistines, although it has been officially considered. And, Likud politicians will do it if they can. Past Prime Minister Ariel Sharon actually stated he was capable and willing to kill all Palestinian Arabs if the Zionists could handle the world heat it would generate. Israel’s objective, instead, is to eliminate Hamas, so they can once again control the Philistines, as they have in the past, by controlling its leaders.

Israel with the help of the USA trained Yassar Arafat to be its kind of Arab leader and helped him to become a billionaire. In exchange Arafat created a terrorist image for his peace-seeking people, but he never attacked Israeli political figures, as he would have done if he was their enemy.

Before the spasms of violence by Philistine youths in the 1980s called “Intifada,” the Arab population of some three million was in effect a low cost labor pool for Israel. Philistines did the menial labor and farming, commuting from gulags called refugee camps in Gaza and the West Bank. Israel could and did build industry around this desperate labor force much as Germany provided its war materials from slave labor camps populated by prisoners, many of whom were European Jews. This writer wonders if Zionists did not borrow the idea from the National Socialists (NAZI). South Africa was criticized and embargoed for using its black labor pool to build its industry, called Apartheid, but it never bombed the slums where the laborers lived.

Israel’s forced labor pool declined with the Intifada from the early 1980’s on. The youth uprising started with Philistine children throwing rocks and the subsequent Israeli Defense Force policy of deliberate bone-breaking of children. Eventually the desperation led to human bombs. We Hold These Truths appeals to those who consider themselves moral and spiritual to speak out, making the cause of the Philistines a moral issue. Many of us want to be involved but are frustrated about finding an effective venue. We have chosen America's churches as our target because theirs is the biggest block of voters. The Philistines are not allowed to choose their leaders; we are, and there is no excuse for or silence or assent.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Salvage the Pieces of the Big Three; Don't Try To Patch the Broken Egg

The blog author would like to sincerely apologize for the very long hiatus in which our beloved readers were forced to endure a very long wait. We would like to inform you that we will now be posting a blog every 2-3 weeks in order to keep up with our current events.

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This writer wishes President-Elect Obama success in his endeavors and will give him the benefit of the doubt for sincerity. However, we also wish the best for our children, which come first. Obama’s task will be difficult if he stands on principle, impossible if he does not. What seems to appear easy for him will bring disaster to the American people. Hopefully the new President was taught and will remember the common sense of nursery rhymes; else he may lock us in an endless nightmare of depression with rising costs. Obama tells us he believes he has the power to fix the economic crisis, but Mother Goose says otherwise; he must realize he does not, and he should not try or he will destroy the capacity of our great system to purge itself, and to restart.

Every bailout is an abuse of the laws of nature, theft of the consumer’s stored wealth, and must be repaid with our sweat and tears. Bankruptcy is the right course for the automakers if they cannot arrange their own financing. General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler are brick and mortar with questionable and expensive managements. Their great plants with workers, inventory, and technology will not go away if they admit failure. The courts will decide who gets paid and who does not, the time honored way to settle the matter, and someone will take over these great enterprises and produce if there are buyers left. Those who beg for aid are the managements who gave us the Hummers, Escalades, and Expeditions.

Our Congress wants them to submit a “plan” for use of the bailout loan money. Only Congress would be so gullible as to trust their plan. Why should this failing management be rewarded with loans that will be paid by the consumers in higher prices? Mr. Obama should listen to Mother Goose, who said of the broken egg:

“...all the King's horses and all the King's men, couldn't put Humpty-Dumpty together again."

Let us hope President Obama's grandmother explained that old English rhyme to him. We must ask, does the new President-Elect understand the process by which trillions of dollars are now flooding our economy from the top? We repeat, the only company that he should nationalize is the one printing the money, the Federal Reserve System, who refuses to tell Congress to whom they are giving money.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

The Crucifixion of Jesus' Words

Evangelical teaching and preaching often directly contradict that which Jesus taught about love and peace, and more surprisingly, celebrity Christian statements often directly conflict with Jesus' statements about Heaven and Hell. Matthew, the first book in the New Testament, contains the most outrageous example of added words that directly contradicts Jesus words. A quote from the Scofield Reference Bible footnotes directly contradicts what Jesus Christ is quoted to have said, His simple words, taken from the King James Edition, describing the basis upon which Jesus told his followers He himself will someday judge every man from every tribe "nation".

Three classes of individuals are mentioned:

(1) Sheep, saved Gentiles;

(2) Goats, unsaved Gentiles; and

(3) Brethren, the people of Israel.

Oxford Press introduces radical racism into its interpolation of Jesus' words by limiting heaven to Jews and those non-Jews who are excessively kind to Jews. And the footnotes also claim it is not even Heaven Jesus it talking about. Instead it is an early kingdom that is yet to come...and it has (according to Oxford) nothing to do with the world the Disciples and Jesus lived in!

Who, to Jesus, were "the least of these my Brethren?" Oxford has them to be "Jews" living in the state of Israel at some future age. When Jesus spoke of "his brethren" He was in no way talking about the 1948 created State of Israel. Jesus words were (this writer thinks) relevant to those who followed him then; if not, how can the words be believable to those who try to follow Jesus now?

To make sure everyone knows what Jesus was talking about, Heaven and Hell, he provides two parables in first half of the same 25th Chapter that he labeled as explaining the kingdom of Heaven "the kingdom of Heaven is like". What is Oxford's motive? Oxford Press treats Jesus Christ like a public school drop out who cannot express himself.

We are supposed to believe that the Scofield bible (written and rewritten by Oxford University Press from 1921 on) is needed to interpret Jesus lack of expression. How insulting to God. Oxford Press and Pharisaic Christian leaders should tremble in fear if they indeed believe He is God. Traditional Christians (as well as Muslims as we understand them) believe Jesus was describing the "narrow path" to heaven.

Jesus words are easy to understand, but difficult to follow toward the Strait Gate. Oxford deliberately subverted the meaning of Jesus' analogy of the sheep and goats by italicized sub-headings. Schofield also claimed Christian conversion while doing time for forgery. Pastors who accept Oxford's deliberate abuse of Jesus words belong in the street, if not in jail with Scofield's ghost.

Oxford press sets out to convince the reader that Jesus changed the subject from what He said he was talking about, heaven and hell, to the "second coming" at his "return to earth" or Armageddon scheme by adding the above line of italics between the verses. We are to believe that Jesus was finished with heaven and hell and switched subjects without warning, to talking about "Christ's return to earth" popularly fictionalized as "the end times.”

Together sub-heading and footnotes complete the terrible forgery of God’s words. Without the sub-heading there is no reason to think Jesus changed the subject...he is still talking about his heaven in the sheep and goats story. Obviously, Oxford has a problem with Jesus words so it vetoed what Jesus said. This of course would make Jesus a liar to his own followers, but Oxford does not flinch at doing this.