Like a Clanging Cymbal

"My" City

I’m invited to Homecoming at my Christian school in SE Pa this weekend. I’ve never ever attended nor did I ever expect to, partly because I hold a sort of “grudge” over their moving out of center city into the burbs, decades ago. I was a Social Work major and the city was grimy, and perfect for me.

But,  my friend is flying in from far away as the key-note speaker and hopes to give me an opportunity to mention my passion for Palestine, and so for these reasons, I’ll be on campus.

Which brings me to my “clanging cymbal” metaphor.

Christians don’t seem to be aware of, nor want to hear about, the terrible things that are happening in Palestine/Israel. It is the Holy Land, the Land of the Jews.

Most Christians I talk to only hold the OT rights of the Jews to the “Land of Promise” and seem to let slide all other teaching in the Scripture about, justice, God‘s heart for the poor, the alien etc.

Jesus himself was a Palestinian Jew, which most of the people who are settling in the West Bank (42 %) are not. They are foreigners, paid to settle in Israel. Mary and Joseph’s own descendants may have already been displaced by settlers from Europe or New York City.

There are so many issues, I’m praying God will give me wisdom to know which one to speak about if I have even one or two minutes (or less).

I pray there will be just a few at least who will have a heart to listen and hear and perhaps return to disturb the calm of their Christian friends, or at least, do some honest research.

Here’s an update on the settlement issue from:

Foreign Policy  The Middle East Channel

http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/09/24/not_settling_on_the_settlement_freeze_expiration