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.
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.
What huge imago madeA psychopathic god:I and the public knowWhat all schoolchildren learn,Those to whom evil is doneDo 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
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… Read More
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/
Chris Hedges, a noted journalist, social critic, and ordained Presbyterian minister, preached a powerful sermon in Norway in August, 2023. Actress Liv Ullman read the introductory scripture from Jeremiah 37:11-21. Hedges preached on the courageous, incorruptible prophets who faced persecution. He then spoke of his incarcerated Julian Assange who aired out the dirty laundry of U.S. military operations in his Wikileaks. Watch the entire YouTube video or start at minute 50 for the sermon.
The following article’s subtitle says to modern Jews, “It was not baseless hatred that led to the destruction of the Temple in antiquity. It was the arrogance of the military and the absence of political judiciousness – precisely the same dangers we now face.” Read this lament by a modern Jewish author who distinguishes between God’s original intent for Israel and Israel’s misappropriation over millennia. HERE FOR LINK TO ARTICLE
Chris Hedges is a noted journalist, culture critic, and ordained Christian minister. He also is a contract instructor for Rutgers University teaching at a prison. Hedges notes that Rutgers, a public university in New Jersey, pays annual salaries to top administrators approaching $1 million, and football and basketball coaches exceed three million. The football team continues to incur debts now at $250 million as it spends lavishly on its programs trying to overcome a long streak of losing seasons. Meanwhile adjunct professors and grad students that make up much of the academic instruction are often under $30,000. At Rutgers, some… Read More
By St. Augustine, John Chrysostom, and Basil the Great The Plough is a publication of the Bruderhof, a Christian community of sharing goods. The introduction to some teachings of these three early Christian fathers begins, “In an age when Christianity is comfortably entwined with consumer capitalism, the early Christians’ passion for social and economic justice can come as a shock. From the first days of Christianity, the duty to care for the poor and marginalized was at the center of the gospel. Jesus preached a way of life free of possessions, the first church in Jerusalem abolished private property, and… Read More
The caption to this picture is the following: “An Iraqi family reacts after three family members, innocent civilians, were shot and killed by U.S. Marines in an incident in Baghdad, Iraq, on April 9, 2003.” (Photo by Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images) This picture hurts my heart. Look at the pain of the mother and surviving children at the murder of their children. Yes, murder, because the U.S. invasion of Iraq was justified by blatant lies propagandized by cowardly inept news media to the gullible American public still seething over the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center… Read More
The Petroleum Industry scientists knew over 50 years ago that their product would create massive climate change disasters on a global basis. At first the industry was open about the truth. However, facing potential loss of profit if society moved away from oil-related transportation, the industry began to fund fake science and pour on lobbying of Congress to stop climate change dialogue.Read this article written in 2018 from an article in Nature journal.
Haaretz is a newspaper published in Israel that I subscribe to online. Haaretz opinion pieces and reporting includes articles critical of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. Gideon Levy argues that the Apartheid treatment of Palestinians cannot comport with the illusion that Israel is a democracy. Levy states that Zionism in its present form means Israel as a Jewish state with special benefits to Jews. This does not comport with the democracy concept of equality of voting.For the article, see here.
Jesus said to those who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:31). Jesus counters HIs truth with lies, saying of the Devil,.. “that he was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44) Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels is inaccurately credited with originating “The Big Lie” that ““If you tell a lie big enough and… Read More
83 percent of married women are beaten by their husbands after the men have been drinking, according to the latest available official data. Our youngest son, Micah, and is wife, Heather, spent much of a year in Bihar state in India. Their hearts are toward the people.Because of grinding poverty and work, too many men drink alcohol excessively, and then they beat their spouses and family members. Alcohol is too often a gateway to addiction, crime, violence, accidents, and reckless behavior. I personally advocate that people avoid use of alcohol. Even if a person “can handle it,” one can tempt another to… Read More
Across the continent, organizations representing hundreds of millions of African farmers strongly oppose this Green Revolution model of large-scale, monocrop production reliant on chemical fertilizers. Today, agrochemical companies see Africa as the last expansion market. While an average 135kg of fertilizer is applied per agricultural hectare globally, that figure in sub-Sahara Africa is just 17kg. On the continent, smallholder farmers have been feeding hundreds of millions of people with little need for chemical fertilizers or so-called “improved” seeds. Entrenching a greater reliance on commercial inputs for African farmers is thus seen as a major opportunity for business growth. The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa… Read More
Wealth inequality continues to widen across the world. The ultra-rich control foreign and domestic policies, tax laws and enforcement, and install favorable government. This inequality, often resulting in exacerbated poverty, is harmful to participatory society. Oxfam is an esteemed, reputable global charity that has released a report on this inequality. See this link for the Executive Summary. Then advocate for increased taxation on the wealthy.
Bret Stephens, a columnist at the New York Times, recently wrote that “a couple with a combined income of $400,000 a year doesn’t necessarily have a lifestyle we’d describe as “rich”: “They’re scrimping to send their kids to college, driving a Camry, if they have a car at all, and wondering why eggs have gotten so expensive.” Ross Douthat, offers one answer: “These people are rich by any measure, and they are spending their money on things only rich people can afford, such as living in the best school districts and in or near amenity-rich megacities….many worry that their offspring… Read More
According to Manhattan Institute’s Brian Riedl, the GOP plan so far is to cut $130 billion from discretionary appropriations. Unfortunately, the defense budget and veteran’s health funds are excluded from cuts, despite making up $993 billion out of $1,602 billion discretionary budget. As Riedl notes, their plan will require “freezing those two items and cutting everything else by 21% immediately.” Spectator article (Veronique De Rugy, Jan. 19,2023), Likely these GOP leaders stye themselves as “Pro-Life.” An accurate description of them is hypocritical Anti-LIfe.–AJ
A Galilee entrepreneur hoped to achieve a modest goal: to make fish oil a tasty food additive for children. But along the way he came up with a revolutionary method to treat sugar – making it possible to use only a fraction of the amount usually found in processed food. Tastes just as sweet. Health implications have huge potential. Click this link to read article in The Haaretz.
A high school English class assignment for our son Jesse was to memorize and recite a poem. He chose “Ozymandias,” by Percy Bysshe Shelly. The poem’s thesis is that a cruel, powerful, arrogant tyrant is now and forever relegated to a forgotten dustbin of history. The poet-prophet Isaiah says the same, directing God’s impending judgment on the king of Babylon. “You said in your heart, “I will ascent to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God…I will make myself like the Most High.”… Read More
by Allen Johnson (written February 2012) The relationship and responsibility of humanity to the environment is a theme that marches throughout much of The Bible. The very first words testify to God as Creator. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). The text continues on to describe various stages of creation as “good.” Humanity is also created, and given the responsibility of overseeing creation as God’s image-bearer (Genesis 1:26-27).… Read More