Creation Song
My Christian Witness in Science, Politics, Values, Culture
My Heart Mourns: Israel and Palestine
I will write more on the conflicts in Palestine and Israel later. My heart aches.
As one who believes that to follow Jesus is the way to justice, peace, and flourishing, albeit the pathway may be misunderstood and opposed, i cannot countenance retaliation, revenge, hatred.
I recently signed a petition, “An Open Letter from Palestinian Christians to Western Church Leaders and Theologians.”
Pray and act upon prayer.
Media is Ignoring Most Global Crises
The rush of rich nations of the Global North to support the tragic war in Ukraine has diverted attention and resources from other nations and desperate peoples. In Yemen, Syria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, Sudan, human food shortage is at critical levels for mass starvation. Much of this is war-related. Major media is silent.
Read this link to a descriptive article, then advocate for these millions who are suffering.
Prolonging the Ukraine-Russia War: Why?
“The first casualty of war is truth.” Senator Hiram Johnson said this in 1917 as WWI continued to decimate the male population of Europe. To concede defeat in war is a humiliation that few national leaders are willing to do. The U.S. knew that the Vietnam War was a stalemate at least by 1967, but the U.S. pressed on for many years later at huge cost of life and limb.
The war between Russia and Ukraine (and the U.S. and allies as proxy), is a stalemate. The future will only decimate populations, poison the land, and heighten the risk of a nuclear conflagration. Mature, wise leadership will forsake ego to negotiate. Jesus teaches, “Suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace.” (Luke14:31-32)
See this article for a comparison of the Vietnam War and the current Russian-Ukraine War.
The U.S. Chose Retribution, not Grace, in the Aftermath of 9/11
What huge imago made
A psychopathic god:
I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return.
(W. H. Auden’s poem, September 1, 1939)
Almost immediately after the horrific terrorist attack September 11, 2001 on the World Trade Center and Pentagon killed 3000 Americans, the drumbeat for retribution and revenge pounded loudly. Drowned out were voices calling for restraint. While peoples from nations around the world offered sympathy, so-called Christian America cast aside Jesus’s clear teachings against returning evil for evil to instead foment violent war on Afghanistan, to be followed 18 months later upon Iraq.
read more…
How Israeli Settlers Force Palestinians Off Their Lands
Herding sheep into others’ fields, preventing access to water, blocking roads, killing animals and breaking into homes in the middle of the night – these and other tactics are part of the daily terror perpetrated by settlers in Palestinian villages.
I witnessed these tactics when I lived with Palestinians in the southern Hebron Hills (Masafer Yatta) in 2005, 2006, 2008. It is even worse now since the extreme racist Isaeli government has taken power. This settler violence is a wicked distortion, betrayal and perversion of God’s biblical calling forth Jews to be an instrument of righteousness.
Here are two articles on this. Haaretz, an Israel newspaper of integrity The picture shows furnishings of expelled Bedouins. Aljazeera, an Arabic publication.
Morally Derelict Sen. Blumenthal Cheers Ukraine/Russia War Because Americans Are Not Dying, and Russia Is Getting Weaker
I am so angrily disgusted by U.S. government leaders who smugly fund and urge further warfare carnage in the Ukraine/Russia war. Even though Ukraine has been unable to reclaim territory seized by Russia at huge casualty costs on both sides, Sen. Romney recently called the proxy war the ‘the best national defense spending’ the US has ever done.
Apparently Biden, Romney, Blumenthal, and maybe most others are blind to moral evil. Read Jeremy Camp’s article about this despicable evil talk. https://news.antiwar.com/2023/08/30/sen-blumenthal-us-getting-its-moneys-worth-in-ukraine-because-americans-arent-dying/