Seeking justice and peace in Israel-Palestine

The following video by the Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac, pastor of Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem, albeit brief, makes a strong case for political advocacy for justice and peace, and critiques evangelical Christians for their biased, and blind-sighted theological views.  Well worth watching. It reminded me of the words of the prophet Micah 6:8: "He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" 

A short story

Joy was a missionary who had taught school in Iraq for seven years. True to her name, she spread the joy of Jesus’s love to whomever she met. Many of her Muslim students fell in love with Jesus through the beautiful songs Joy sang. Joy had the voice of an angel. Listening to her sing inspired the soul, melted the heart, and was like a drink of cold water in the hot desert sun.

   Then, one day without warning Islamic State fighters invaded Joy’s school. One fighter grabbed Joy and threatened to kill her on the spot if she resisted him.

   She was blindfolded, pushed into a truck with other prisoners, and driven to an Islamic State building. They locked her up in a room for two days with nothing to eat or drink.

   Then, on the third day, a man came in and started ordering Joy to take off her clothes. She refused. Instead she started singing the most beautiful rendition of “Jesus Loves Me” that she had ever sung.

   The man pulled out a knife and threatened to kill her if she refused to do his bidding.

   Joy continued to sing. The man then grabbed her, shook her and yelled at her as he brought the knife closer to her neck: “I told you to take off your clothes!”

   Joy ignored his order and continued to sing, she couldn’t stop singing. As she sang, the man began to listen, he soon dropped the knife and let go of Joy.

   A few moments later, he began to cry. He sobbed uncontrollably, and fell to his knees, and buried his head with his arms.

   Joy stopped singing and looked at him and prayed for him in silence. She prayed as she never had before, for an enemy, one who most likely hated her and everything that she loved and believed in.

   After a few minutes, the man looked up at Joy and said gently: “Forgive me. Please sing that song again, it is beautiful.”

   Shocked, and expecting the worst, Joy was surprised and began to sing again.   

   “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.” (Matthew 5:43-45)

   “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:21)

Interfaith relations and world peace

Several years ago, religious leaders and theologians made the case for the following thesis: “Without peace among the world’s religions, there can be no peace in the world.” The recent tragic events committed by Muslim jihadists in Pakistan, Nigeria and Kenya leaves Christians living in Muslim-majority nations, in the very least nervous, and at its worst, fearing for their lives and livelihood.  What, if anything, are Muslims doing about this evil violence and terrorism? Is there adequate trust and mutual respect for both faiths to work together for peace with justice in the world? What do peace and justice look like for both faith traditions? In a recent article in the Globe and Mail, Lorna Dueck shares some hopeful thoughts on Christian-Muslim relations.  

   “Muslims finding common ground with Christians: The path to peace,” by Lorna Dueck: This week, my Muslim friend Raheel Raza asked me to come to Toronto’s Pakistani Consulate with her to protest her faith’s violent extremism against Christianity. It was an unexpected reach of kindness from Islam to me, a Christian, in response to a horrific attack days earlier at All Saints Anglican in Peshawar, which saw 85 Christians die when obscurantist suicide bombers rushed church doors as worshippers left. Like many, I’m angry that a powerful religion cannot correct its jihadism, and I don’t trust its ethos. Read the whole article here. 

Short Story: Jacob the sixth generation "PK"

He is a sixth-generation "PK," that's short of preacher's kid, coming from a long line of clergy ancestors, including a famous Scandinavian hymn writer-bishop. Of course he was raised in the good graces of mother church: baptized the first week of his life on Easter Sunday, attending worship services every Sunday and on special festivals with his parents, Sunday School, Confirmation on Pentecost Sunday, involvement in a youth group, choir, a special youth service trip building a school in a two-third world country, and loving, supportive parents. All of this, so his parents had hoped, would facilitate his faith-formation and maturity process. 

   Alas, then the shocking news came like a sharp knife to the heart. Jacob had written his parents a letter of farewell. Farewell not only to them, but also to everything they held near and dear, their rock-solid Christian faith and traditions. "What went wrong? What happened to our son that he'd do such a thing?!  They had hoped he would enter seminary and go into parish ministry. What is Jacob doing?! How could he become a Muslim? Is this for real, or a terrible dream?!" they lamented, crying, agonizing over this most horrible news.

   You see, Jacob had fallen in with "the wrong crowd" in college. In his religious studies class at the University of British Columbia, he'd met up with a few Muslims. They'd had their in-class debates and rivalries. Jacob was one of the strongest Christian debaters, and the Muslim students knew it. In fact, it took all of them to win a debate with only this one articulate and vigorous, Christian debater-infidel. 

   So what did they eventually do? Well, they decided the diplomatic tact. They befriended him. One day they invited him to attend an "information night" at their neighbourhood mosque. Jacob accepted the invitation, thinking he might have more opportunity to convince his classmates and other Muslims of the truth of his Christian faith. 

   When he arrived however, Jacob was in for a surprise. First, there was music and eating. Then he began to feel a bit drugged and passive. Had they doped up his food or drink? Then this strange looking imam entered the room and began his long 2 hour lecture. One point after another about how Christianity was inferior to Islam. Then the showing of three YouTube videos in a row. Followed by speeches by his Muslim classmates. The anti-Christian rhetoric exacerbated and Jacob's head was swimming now, being polluted with Islamic  radical jihad ideology. This continued all night, until this Al-Qaeda cell had successfully brainwashed and recruited this infidel Christian, Jacob. 

   In the morning he wrote his letter to his parents, and the cell group recorded his renunciation on video, sending it to YouTube for the world to see. 

   Next, Jacob and these cell group members went to Afghanistan to be trained in an Al-Qaeda camp. A month later, Jacob and the other cell group members were ready to enter Syria and terrorize Christian communities there. 

   They entered a mountain top village where Christians had lived for centuries. Then without asking any questions they opened fire. Jacob fired his rocket launcher into a small house, demolishing it. He then went to see the damage. He saw a mother with three young children-all dead. The mother still had her Bible in one hand. The Bible was opened up to Matthew 5:43-48. Jacob began to read: "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven..." 

   Jacob took a deep breath, swallowed hard, and immediately realised what he had done. So he began his prayer: "Father, forgive me, and..."