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03/09/2003 Entry: "Campolo calls evangelicals to 'face facts' about Middle East"

Campolo calls evangelicals to 'face facts' about Middle EastStrong stuff indeed. Here are a few selected quotes to whet your appetite:

"Right now, we have to face the facts that the Christian church, in its proper zeal to support the state of Israel, has forgotten that there's a group of people called the Palestinians. And unless we stand up and speak for justice on behalf of the Palestinians, we are going to lose the missionary struggle in the next hundred years."

"Let me just say that our attitudes towards Israel have hurt the missionary enterprise. Hurt them, hurt them greatly. Do not get me wrong. Do you hear me when I say I believe that the state of Israel must and should by God exist, that it is God's will that it exists? But my Bible says "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice." Justice for all people, justice for the Palestinians."

"Nothing would destroy the authority of Saddam Hussein more than if we Christians provided a massive relief program of food and medicine to the people of Iraq. And if we are going to pave the way for missionary enterprise, we have got to do that. We've got to do that. I don't know who's going to do it; but somebody's got to organize the Christian community, and say we're going to load up freighters with food and medicine -- and we're going to send them to Iraq, and we dare the US Navy to stop us.

"When we try to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, you say "You can't overcome Saddam Hussein that way" . . . I believe in Jesus, and Jesus says "Overcome evil with [good]." "

"Let me lay it on you: You don't get rid of terrorism by killing terrorists, anymore than you get rid of malaria by killing mosquitoes. You get rid of malaria, not by killing mosquitoes, but by getting rid of the swamps that breed those mosquitoes. You don't get rid of terrorists by killing terrorists -- because it only creates more terrorists, does it not? You get rid of terrorists by dealing with the poverty and the humiliation that Arab peoples have had to endure. It's time that we stand up and speak as peacemakers in the world. We are called to a ministry of reconciliation"

Posted by Richard @ 03/10/2003 04:05 PM CST

Dear Phil,

Why did you sign YOUR post with MY email address?

Is that how YOU win an argument -- by exposing ME to the expense of SPAM?

Richard, I don't mind the opposing comment, but could you do something about "Phil's" email address?

Posted by Dean Peters @ 03/10/2003 01:13 PM CST

I am not an Athenian or a Greek, I am a citizen of the world. ~Socrates

Posted by Phil @ 03/10/2003 09:54 AM CST

You could say the same thing about British colonialism, slavery in America,

I suspect your "historical" comparison of British Colonialism or American Slavery to the Palestinian problem, I have to suspect you're joking -- or trying to provoke me.

I mean ther is absolutely no comparision to the political firestorm Hafez Al-Assad of Syrian created back in 1982 and that of British colonies.

Moreover, how do you compare the Palestinian problem with American Slavery in light of almost 1 million dead Union soldiers ... or today, entire cities, such as Washington D.C. ?

But since you have gone so far as to impugn my forgiveness -- Regan -- I do you one better. I'm of Greek decent. My family came over to the States after our land was absconded by the Turks -- AND SEVERAL OF MY DECENDENTS SLAUGHTERED AT THEIR HANDS.

But you don't see me strapping bombs to my daughter nor raising her with some notion of entitlement or victomhood. Instead, I point her towards the idealism that is the American Dream.

Posted by Dean Peters @ 03/10/2003 07:18 AM CST

"There is a long history of terrorism..."You could say the same thing about British colonialism, slavery in America, the abuse of indigenous people around the globe. If one particular people group is unforgivable because of their sin, I expect that you accept being unforgiven for those who tresspass within your own culture.

Posted by Regan @ 03/09/2003 10:12 PM CST

But there's a problem here. We can't attribute our thinking, our paradigm to the Palestinian way of life.

In other words, just I don't live in a culture where it is honorable to raise a child with the belief that they should strap a bomb to themselves -- I fear that neither will they see the sense in not.

Posted by Dean Peters @ 03/09/2003 07:23 PM CST

You don't. Ever.But understandingthe reasons for such behaviour is not the same as condoning it. As TC says in he article: "The British were so worn out [by] the terrorism over the next 20 years that they wanted out of the mess. So after World War II, they presented to the United Nations meeting, in New York, a proposal: that the land that hitherto had belonged to people who lived in Palestine was going to be partitioned and made into the state of Israel. Now stop and think about that. If [you were] a Palestinian . . . [and] some people on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean decide that your homeland isn't your homeland any more. Dress it up any way you want, and get mad at me if you want -- that's not right."I'm sure Campolo's right that it is justice for all in Israel that will prove the key to peace in the Middle East.

Posted by Richard @ 03/09/2003 03:35 PM CST

Look guys, I don't want to stir the pot here, but "... justice on behalf of the Palestinians, ...

There is a long history of terrorism by Palestinians leaders ... and an equally long history of injustice by neighboring Arab states against the Palestinians which has created the current mess in Israel.

I mean, how many innocents on the way to college were killed or injured by a recent bus bombing? How do we condone such behaviour?

Posted by Dean Peters @ 03/09/2003 02:11 PM CST