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28828. jexster - 11/28/2006 11:35:05 PM Death to Israel (God)
Notes of a Palenstinian Bishop
‘War Without Boundaries’
by The Right Reverend Riah H. Abu El-Assal
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Bishop Riah is Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of Jerusalem, which includes Palestine, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Christians are a tiny fraction of the people of these countries, but deep rooted and enduring. What follows are excerpts from the Bishop’s letters.
July 26
For the past forty years we have been largely alone on this desert fighting a predator that not only has robbed us of all but a small piece of our historic homeland, but also threatens our traditions and holy sites. We are tired, weary, sick and wounded. We need your help.
The Right Reverend Riah H. Abu El-Assal, Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of Jerusalem.
Little more than a week ago, we were focused on the plight of the Palestinian people. In Gaza, four and five generations have been victims of Israeli racism, hate crimes, terror, violence and murder. Garbage and sewage have created a likely outbreak of cholera as Israeli strategies create the collapse of infrastructures. There is no milk. Drinking water, food, and medicine are in serious short supply. Innocents are being killed and dying from lack of available emergency care. Children are paying the ultimate price.
This week, war broke out on the Lebanon-Israeli border (near Banyas where Jesus gave St. Peter the keys to heaven and earth). The Israeli government’s disproportionate reaction to provocation was consistent with their opportunistic responses in which they destroy their perceived enemy. The “situation” as it has come to be called, has deteriorated into a war without boundaries or limitations.
August 2
When I wrote to you last Friday, I could not have imagined that a second Qana Massacre in a decade would be carried out by the State of Israel, crushing at least [28] people. They suffocated under dirt and debris, virtually buried alive in the make-shift bomb shelter where they had had little water and food and no toilet.
And [in Gaza] . . . according to an Associated Press count, in the past one-month period, Israeli troops have killed 159 Palestinians since they started their relentless attacks on the Gaza Strip in response to the capture of Cpl. Gilad Shalit. I have seen the Caterpillar bulldozers and the orchards of oranges uprooted by them. I saw an apartment building where forty families were given forty minutes to leave before it was demolished into a pile of rubble.
And I have seen children playing near mountains of garbage which are the breeding ground to rats and the threat of cholera, a disease that I watched devastate India when I lived there.
August 7
I was scheduled to leave Tel Aviv on Swiss Air this afternoon. After asking me both relevant and non-relevant security questions, the young woman security officer concluded by questioning why I did not have an Israeli visa even though I was carrying an Israeli passport!
I saw her rushing to a supervisor. Approaching me he asked, “English or Hebrew?” I responded, “Please, Arabic.” Arabic is one of two official languages of the State of Israel and I knew that it was my right in this “oasis of democracy” to make that official request.
Because I refused to speak other than Arabic, because I informed them that I am an Arab-Palestinian-Christian, and because down deep I knew that their behavior was designed to humiliate me, I insisted in conversing with them in the language I master which is Arabic, my mother tongue. Mr. Vardi turned his back and turned toward me only to say, “You will not fly today!”
This happened to me, an Anglican Bishop with special identification
. . . . What do you imagine happens to others?
28829. wonkers2 - 11/29/2006 3:28:32 AM Big news! WalMart sales down because of its "liberal agenda." WalMart's Liberal Agenda 28830. jexster - 11/29/2006 4:17:25 AM Benedict XVI to Visit Blue Mosque
 28831. jexster - 11/30/2006 11:55:34 AM 
28832. thoughtful - 11/30/2006 7:01:05 PM Poor walmart...I guess they don't cut it with the liberals either: See Wake Up Wal-mart 28833. jexster - 11/30/2006 8:43:11 PM Benedict and Grand Mufti of Istanbul at Blue Mosque
 28834. jexster - 11/30/2006 8:56:03 PM ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) -- Pope Benedict XVI stood in silent meditation in one of Turkey's most famous mosques Thursday in a dramatic gesture of outreach to Muslims after outrage from the pontiff's remarks linking violence and the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed.
The pope, accompanied by an Islamic cleric, bowed his head for nearly a minute inside the 17th century Blue Mosque in only the second papal visit to a Muslim place of worship. Benedict's predecessor, John Paul II, visited a mosque in Syria in 2001.
The mosque visit was added to Benedict's schedule as a "sign of respect" during his first papal trip to a Muslim nation, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman, said last week.
The pope removed his shoes before entering the carpeted expanse of the mosque, which is officially known as the Sultan Ahmet Mosque after the Ottoman sultan Ahmet I, who ordered its construction. But it's widely called the Blue Mosque after its elaborate blue tiles.
28835. jexster - 11/30/2006 9:19:18 PM The heretics of the Church of God in Bush should now understand a fundamental fact of Christian-Muslim relations, that is that the Catholic Church is not an ally but an adversary in their Crusade against Islam.
Whatever problems Catholic Christians may have with violent extremists, they do not extend to the Church's understanding of Islam. Benedict is not an enlistee in the Clash of Civilizations they wish to foment for he sees Islam an an ally in the clash that is important to him - that between belief and unbelief.
Der Spiegel:From Foe to Friend in Turkey
Before he arrived, the Turks hated him. Now that Pope Benedict XVI is in Turkey though, he has made 73 million new friends. Not only has he sought to heal the Christian-Muslim divide. But he also supports Turkish EU membership at a time when the country really needs an ally.
28836. thoughtful - 11/30/2006 10:35:32 PM I hadn't seen this stat before this a.m. but I found it most telling:
Beliefnet's poll showed that nearly 60 percent of non-evangelicals have a more negative view of Jesus because of Christian political involvement; almost 40 percent believe that George W. Bush's faith has had a negative impact on his presidency.
If evangelicals want to sell their religion to nonbelievers, they'd better come up with another way.
Who was it who said that mixing politics and religion diminishes both? 28837. jexster - 12/1/2006 6:14:06 PM Looney Jew Alert (via TPM)
Outrages come a dime a dozen these days. But here's one that deserves a few moments of attention. Dennis Prager, the Jewish and increasingly looney radio talk show host, says that Keith Ellison, the country's first elected Muslim congressman, shouldn't be in Congress if he won't take the oath of office on the Christian Bible. Click here for more details. 28838. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 12/1/2006 8:03:12 PM This is a wonderful video of Fox (What's- New-In-The-Toilet) News trying to stir up religious shit for the right-wing-nutz–but it backfires–Malik Shabazz is two smart for 'em . . .
28839. jexster - 12/2/2006 1:22:56 AM Iraq and the Christian Conscience
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied."
- Matthew 5:6
"Put not your faith in princes and sons of men, in whom there is no salvation."
- Psalm 146:3
28840. jexster - 12/12/2006 1:35:23 AM If you saw the Military Channel's special on the Arkansas Natl Guard units in Iraq, you saw evidence of this
Group seeks probe of evangelical military video
A watchdog group that promotes religious freedom in the U.S. military accused senior officers on Monday using their rank and influence to coerce soldiers and airmen into adopting evangelical Christianity.
Such proselytizing, according to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, has created a core of "radical" Christians within the U.S. armed forces and Pentagon who punish those who do not accept evangelical beliefs by stalling their careers.
"It's egregious beyond the pale," said Mikey Weinstein, president and founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. "We apparently have a radicalized, evangelical Christian Pentagon within the rest of the Pentagon."
28841. judithathome - 12/12/2006 1:37:05 AM I'm not suprised. 28842. jexster - 12/12/2006 3:13:41 AM 
28843. jexster - 12/14/2006 2:49:57 AM TOP SECRET
Judith would LOVE this for Christmas
 28844. wonkers2 - 12/18/2006 6:59:50 AM Don't let the door hit 'em in the ass on the way out! 28845. judithathome - 12/18/2006 11:42:11 PM A Very Ecumenical Christmas 28846. alistairConnor - 12/23/2006 9:43:46 PM Religious maturity in the UK
Most people have no personal faith, the poll shows, with only 33% of those questioned describing themselves as "a religious person". A clear majority, 63%, say that they are not religious - including more than half of those who describe themselves as Christian.
I heard some numbers on the radio from a French opinion poll : 27% believe that Jesus is the son of God, i.e. are Christian. 17% see Jesus as a prophet (since that's higher than the proportion of Moslems, that shows an encouragingly high percentage of Christian heretics). Of the rest, half think Jesus was an ordinary man, the other half think he never existed.
Merry Christmas all the same!
28847. jexster - 12/23/2006 10:05:22 PM O come, O come, Emmanuel,
and ransom captive Israel,
that mourns in lonely exile here
until the Son of God appear.
Refrain:
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel
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