from Jonathan at my invitation to ...

... to respond to, 'My thoughts on the new antisemitism' - on 8 August 2018

I think Jews/Israel are/is the victim, not the oppressors. The neighbouring Arab nations are the ones wanting to wipe them off the planet, not vice versa! Israel are defending their nation which we all have a right to do. It is a nation of peace and prosperity and of equality to all. A fine example of values we hold dear, yet thats why their neighbours hate them... They are different. It's frankly hypocritical to condemn them.

Hamas and the Palestinians make things worse for themselves by provoking Israel at every opportunity and playing the media into their hands. To believe the widespread media 100% is naive. You must be more open minded to the spiritual warfare also going on... 

That's my opinion."

Fresh light on the story of the Good Samaritan

It seems that in the time of Jesus, the Jews and Samaritans had hated each other for 600 years.  "The Samaritans were descendants of the surviving Israelites of the northern kingdom who intermarried with the newly imported alien population after the fall of Samaria in 722 BC."  (The Lion Handbook to the Bible, p 497)  The Jews saw them as a heretical sect, especially after they built their own temple on Mt Gerizim.  Perhaps, the final straw of rejection and disdain.  It was a Jewish king who destroyed this temple in 128 BC.  Yet, the Jews and Samaritans had so much in common.  The believed and worshipped the same God and both accepted the Torah, the first five books of the Bible as their authority.  Both waited the coming of a prophet like Moses - the Messiah.

Do the people of Israel have a new set of Samaritans to hate?  The Palestinians or the Gazans or Hamas or the Iranians, perhaps?
Or, Jeremy Corbyn - the JC of Islington North instead of the JC of Nazareth?
Just as the Jews longed for a Messiah to overthrow their Roman rulers 2000 years ago, is the boot on the other foot today in that part of the holy land that the state of Israel has designs on - Judea and Samaria?
In other words, do the Palestinians, in Gaza and in Judea and Samaria, regard their Israeli occupiers in the same way that the Jews, 2000 years ago, regarded their Roman occupiers?
Is the state of Israel the new Rome for the people in the internationally recognised Occupied Territories, that many Jews and Christians call Judea and Samaria?
Is raising these questions so indicative of the new anti-Semitism on the Left in the UK today?

For 600 years, the people of Israel regarded the Samaritans as their enemy.  Yet, the Israelities had so much in common with this Jewish sect.  For the next 1900 years, the Jews were dispersed and, then in more recent centuries they were the subject of enmity from the West and from the Western Christian Church.  From 1948, the Jews regarded some Arabs, many Muslims, all Palestinians, every Gazan, Hamas en bloc and, the nation of Iran - all as their enemies.

When it comes to the Luke 10 story or parable of the Good Samaritan, is it acceptable to ask if Jesus the Jew was being deliberately provocative or even disloyal to his compatriots in putting his own religious leaders in such a poor light and, to cap it all, to put their enemy as the hero - the hated Samaritan?

He seems to have  been putting himself and his fellow Jews down and putting their enemies, the Samaritans on a pedestal to be admired.  Or, is there no significance in Jesus choosing a Samaritan as the hero?

Or, was Jesus giving an example of what it means, practically, to love your enemies, to do good to those who hate you, to bless those who curse you and to pray for your persecutors?

The story in modern dress
For the Judaeo-Christian nations today, is a modern day Samaritan, our 70 year old traditional enemy, Russia?  But we Westerners would call them the Bad Samaritan, of course but Jesus would see some good in the Russians and put one Russian in a story to put them in a good light.  Or is politicising the parables of Jesus unacceptable, for they are meant for personal, private holiness by individual, born again believers?

Or, does the West view the Robbers in the story as wicked Russia beating up our allies like Ukraine and occupying Crimea?

The 89 year old Father of my church and retired leader has wondered if the State of Israel is behaving as the robbers beating up the poor defenceless Gazans.  The 2014 July/August war killed over 2200 including about 500 children and the 2018 boundary protests killed over 140 Gazans and one Israeli soldier.

Who would you class as a modern day, walk on by, do nothing, priest and levite in the story?
Were we the priest and levite in knowing but doing nothing to save the Jews, the Roma and all the other minorities and outcasts in the 1930s and 40s in Nazi ruled Germany?

"And who is my neighbour?"
The shocking thing about this story is that we are being told that our neighbour is Hamas, Hezbollah, the suicide bomber, the terrorist, the Gazan and the Palestinian.  Our neighbour is our enemy to whom we are to do good.  But, never, the enemy is our neighbour!  Unfortunately, Israel has made enemies of some neighbours by giving nothing and wanting more.  Yet, it has made peace treaties with two of its neighbours - Egypt and Jordan.

We have every right to execute evil terrorists, whenever we like. So there!

Very many thanks, Tom for all these thoughts of yours, particularly for the following that I do think is true:

"It seems to me that we as humans are a warring breed. The human race has warred with each other since we were created and throughout our evolution. I'm going back to biblical times and Well before. Wars generally speaking are largely about territory, retaining our way of life and reclaiming territory we believe to have been taken from us. Another factor is the need for world domination. Muscelling in on others people's territory and way of life. As a result, people have had to defend themselves against aggressors in order to defend their territory and ways of life which they have worked hard to build."

At its height, the British Empire had world domination of about one third of the known world.  We went to war on 4 August 1914 to make clear to upstart Germany who was the world's ruler - US.  And, now, we remain the world's ruler with the full support of the USA with whom we are in tandem!

Just because we have an innate​ instinct for revenge and violence does not mean we should give in to those instincts.  Should we not have more self-control and resist all our aggressive urges?

I do think that we all have to be far less gullible; far more sceptical about whether it really is necessary, let alone ethical and legal for us to attack other countries.  Don't trust the politicians when they tell us we must go to war.  We should think things out for ourselves.  No blind obedience, please!

It now seems that our declaration of war on the 4 August 1914 was premature, when Germany never had any intention of invading the UK nor, at any time during the four years.  The German leaders wanted to control more European territory, certainly.  (One hundred years on, Germany is now the respected and acknowledged leader of the European Union under Angela Merkel, a right wing politician who is liked by both Europe and Russia.)  We should have lived up to our nickname of 'perfidious Albion' and, yet again, broken our outdated 1839 treaty with Belgium and, secondly, refused to go to the aid of France when she was attacked.  Unthinkingly tying ourselves to an alliance with France and going to war 100 years ago when we had a small professional army (100,000 in the UK), and no conscription was sheer stupidity.  We were very lucky to get away with it - and nearly did not!  Unfortunately, one-sided disarmament and reparations and folly was seen with the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.  Even our former Tory leader, Ian Duncan Smith believes that it led to the rise of the Nazis and the 1939 war.

Hence, one 20th century, European, Christian war that led to world war because all these Christian nations had their own colonies all over the world.  And we, clean living Brits were the worst offenders, with the biggest empire ever seen in the history of humanity.  All this, in direct contravention with what our Founder said and did in His temptations before his public ministry!  Every British monarch, for centuries, had been commanded in their Coronation to submit themselves to the "living oracles of God" (the Bible).  Our forbears betrayed Christ and, His life and teaching.  Our Christian nation has engaged in warfare in every single year, ever since (1914).  Shameful!

Now, it seems, our Judeo/Christian based nations are wanting to exterminate every single member of Islamic State.  As if they could!  Israel is engaged in exterminating every member of Hamas by drones that we build, here in the West Midlands (Stafford)  As if Israel could ever bring about such complete slaughter.  We fully support Israel in killing cold blooded murderers without the delay and cost and inconvenience of judicial process.  Never any sanctions against our good friend, Israel.  Then, we bulldoze their homes as further punishment.  We then get all indignant when they try and kill us Brits and Israelis, whether it is in Muslim lands or in our own lands!

For every single year for at least the last one hundred years (Guardian 12.2.2014) we have persistently shown violence to expand our territories or to hold them.  Now, we are reaping what we have sown over our military interventions in the Middle East - more violence from those we have attacked.  In addition, with yet more nuclear weapons as we replace Trident at the cost of £100 billion of irreplaceable resources and gruesome greenhouse gases.  As if a fleet of submarines can stop the rise of Islamic State in Muslim majority Syria and Iraq!  One nuclear warhead from one sub, could wipe out most of humanity.  But that is what most of the electorate think is a very good idea indeed - if it comes to it!

Just because Christian believers, Muslims and the rest are so aggressive and violent, does that give the rest of us an excuse for being equally violent and aggressive, Tom?

Conscience is my god.  But for the children of Abraham (Jews, Christians, Muslims who all have the same God with three names), this is heretical.  At Zion Christian Centre last week, I heard Jeff Lucas, a Christian leader, speaker and author, downplay the importance of conscience as not being adequate when God's Laws and His Will are pre-eminent!

In short, international law and the UN Charter allows nations to defend themselves but not to be aggressors and to attack other nations, as we do.  Therefore, I am not a pacifist although, like Christ, I do believe in non-violent direct action and passive resistance.  Therefore, for me, the COs were the real heroes between 1914 and 1918.  All the others were badly hoodwinked by the politicians who preached patriotism, nationalism and militarism - and the people gladly swallowed the lies.  The politicians told us to: 'Be silent.  Consum​e.  Die.'  Exactly what happened to so many of them.

Life for the unborn and the dying but death for the rest!!

Joan asked me for evidence, the other evening.  All I can offer is an absence of specific evangelical engagement in stopping the killing of civilians in our UK wars of aggression on first Communists and, now Muslims.

Working in the UK's major arms industry and in the armed forces has never been off limits for 95% of true, born again Christians for the last 1700 years.  Yet, it was 95% unheard of for the followers of the Way in the first 300 years.  Indeed, some Bible believing Christians (in line with Deuteronomy 20 v 1-20 and, in Joshua and Judges) argue for the extermination of Hamas, Islamic State, and all jihadists, as the West achieved over the Nazis in 1945 and as the Nazis failed to do with the Jews and the other minority groups in Germany.  All out total war is the only answer!

Yet, there are specific evangelical organisations campaigning for the life of the unborn and for the prolonging of life for those who, like me, want the option to be assisted to die in their last days or hours.  No evangelical campaigning organisation for the poor civilians in the prime of life, who don't want their life ended, who get cut down by our immoral but so well-meaning and foolish foreign policy!  Hence, my jaundiced thinking now, compared with my young, know it all, idealistic, Westhill days of Eric Rolls rightly calling my RE teaching "dogmatic and doctrinaire".  I did not last long!

Britain set a bad example - the sad evidence

This, I think, is a corrective to much prejudice in favour of Britain by Brits and how the West is best - but, minus me!

1. Britain was the first with concentration camps in the Boer War that killed over 20,000 women and children.
2. Our scorched earth policy in that war was not noble and the war itself was nothing about protecting these British islands of ours.
3. Next, Churchill turned our warships from being fueled by coal to being driven by oil.  He then saw the domination of the Middle East for oil as the prize to gain world mastery.  Not Hitler, after world mastery but our own beloved Churchill actually did it and used those two words of intent when Hitler was still a boy!  (Source: 'The Prize' by Daniel Yergin)
4. In 1914, Churchill turned a friend into an enemy; he then persuaded the War Cabinet to initiate an attack on that Ottoman Empire and, after months of bloody war, lost catastrophically.
5. According to Admiral Lord West, in his Radio 4 series, 'Britain at Sea', we Brits attacked Russia from 1917, after their defeat/withdrawal in the world war.  This was to gain their re-entry on our side against Germany so that German troops would have to be moved from fighting us to fighting the Russians on the eastern front, once more!  After the November armistice of 11 Nov 1918, we carried on our war with Russia because of their Bolshevik government - totally unacceptable to us fine British folk!
6. Our premature entry into the 1914 World War before we were attacked or about to be attacked was wrong.  It was simply unethical and contrary to all normal standards of decency, especially at that time of far greater church-going and Christian belief.  We should have known better.  Our declaration of war on the 4 August was not self defence.  Our security was not threatened.  It was really all about not wanting to see the status quo, the balance of power, changed on the mainland of Europe.  The war was sold to the public as us gallant Brits coming to the defence of poor, trampled all over, Belgium and teaching the wicked Germans a lesson.  Yet, we had a history of keeping to alliances and treaties only when it suited us at the time.  On 4 August 1914, we over-reacted to an assassination 37 days earlier and, then, on the side of the assassin against the wronged party, Austria-Hungary!  That doubly wrong decision by Asquith, Churchill and Grey, et al had the unfortunate effect of leading to 'Britain's 100 years of War' (see 9, below).  Then and now, we just could not resist keeping our noses out of other countries businesses.  Well, we did know what was best for them, after all, just as we do now over the need for EU reform.
7. Throughout the mad month of July 1914, our government did absolutely nothing to bang heads together on the mainland of Europe to prevent a continental war.  Our very stupid and far too early entry into the war turned it into a worldwide conflagration by virtue of our huge empire.
8. We controlled/dominated 30% of the world with the largest empire in the history of humanity.  This is not something to be proud of.
9. Nor, was our untold riches gleaned from the abominable trade in our fellow members of the human family - the slave trade.  More pernicious deaths in the human family of which we were responsible.  Still no reparations paid.  We pocketed the immoral earnings from our filthy trade and have no intention of returning even a penny to a single African nation.
10. Britain was as anti-Semitic as many other European countries were for centuries.  Germany took it to a new and disgusting level between 1933 and 1945 yet, we did nothing officially to save the Jews and the many other minorities in Germany.  There were a handful of very brave people who did all they could, throughout the war, to shelter Jews.  Our government did nothing.  Yet, Churchill at least, it seems, knew what was going on from before war was declared.
11. Our total war, our saturation fire bombing of German towns, cities and other settlements in the closing months of the war, when our victory was assured, was a war crime.  No regret has ever been whispered by us upstanding Brits, despite our fine British values of high morality!
12. Our armed forces ended up slaughtering many more Germans than they did of our people.
13. 'Britain's 100 years of War' - the four page spread in the Guardian, 12 Feb 2014, of proof and shameful evidence of aggression and killing of foreigners in every single year since the 4 August 1914, if not earlier, to the present.
14. Germany's non-aggressive foreign policy has been excellent and exemplary since 1945 (somewhat undone by its membership of NATO!).  The Germans are, rightly, the respected leaders of the EU.  Their energy and transport policy is also superb and sensible.  We Brits could learn much from them.  Instead, we want out - and the sooner the better.

Was Hitler, uniquely, the epitomy of evil?

Was Hitler the most evil, demagogic, psychopathic leader of any nation that there has ever been?

Was he after world domination of every single country in the world?

Or, did he want Germany to be the new superpower of the 1940s to take over from the British Empire and to rival the USA?

Or, like Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1914 who, it seems, wanted German hegemony in Europe, is that what Hitler also wanted?

Was he wanting revenge for the surprise defeat of Germany in 1918?  A Germany that had come close to victory in the World War 1914-18, more than once and, that had defeated Russia in 1917.

Was he wanting Germany to become a Great Military Power, like France, UK and like USA, as AJP Taylor argued in 'The Origins of the Second World War'?

We now use Hitler as the benchmark to measure if any other of our present day enemies measure up to his pure evil.  For example, the Prince of Wales in May 2014 after Putin had taken back Crimea that had been given by Khrushchev to Ukraine, in 1954.  Saddam Hussein was also likened to Hitler to justify his removal from power by the West in 2003.

Yet, it was the British who were the first to use concentration camps and not Hitler.  Over 20,000 Boer women and children were killed by neglect and/or deliberate policy by the British in concentration camps.  And this was well before even the 1914-18 war in Europe.

It was the British who killed many more Germans than they did us, it seems, between 1939 and 1945.  Although, as we know, they killed millions of Jews, gypsies and other minorities in Germany.  Yet we, the Christian, democratic West after our success in 1945, carried on with the killing of unknown numbers but perhaps millions in far off countries of which we knew little.  Justified as fighting Communism, then militant, extremist Muslims to this day.

It was Churchill who knew about the concentration camps of the Germany of the 1930s and 40s. Yet, even when he was Prime Minister, he failed to order the precision targeting of the rail lines to the camps. Precision targeting of dams; yes. Revenge, saturation, fire bombing of people's homes in the closing months of the war; yes. Saving the millions in the minority groups of Germans; no.

According to the 'Guardian' spread in February 2014, it was us Brits who waged war for every single year over the last one hundred years in many countries around the world.  Finally, in 2015, we may be content to lay down our weapons for the first time since 1914.  Nearly 17,000 of our men and women in the armed forces were killed since 1945 but, that number must be multiplied by an unknown figure to get the numbers they killed around the world.

If Hitler was the most evil leader of any nation in the history of the world, then we have to say that all individual Germans were just as evil in carrying out his orders from 1933 to 1945.  Perhaps, that was how we justified the indiscriminate mass slaughter of German civilians and children in the closing months of the war, even when our victory was assured.  Revenge is sweet for Christians, Muslims and Jews - and, for us all.  We called our enemies evil then and, in recent years and today, we call them Communists, terrorists and Muslim radicals and extremists.

Since then, peace followed by co-operation and union between the countries of Europe has seen less desire to participate in the wars of the UK and the USA.  Only, perhaps, have those European countries membership of NATO compelled them to send troops in this century's Middle Eastern wars that had been started by the United States of Aggression, seconded by the UK ( UK = united killers with the USA?).

Corruption is the greater evil than killing Commies and Muslims

Dear all

What some sons of Abraham get up to!

For what its worth, this is how I see things, after reading Simon’s blog about the Central African Republic (CAR).

ONE VERSION:

What a horrendous time for the people of the CAR.  I cannot possibly understand how the situation developed to such a frightening scenario of sectarian violence.  All I do know that the killings by Muslims must not make us even more anti-Islam or prejudiced, in anyway against Muslims we might meet.  It certainly must not make us even more determined to get our own back or, to extend the War of Terrorism in Afghanistan beyond the end of 2014.

As regards political correctness, I think that being correct in every way is the only correct thing to be!  We could do with being religiously correct, too but then that means being loyal to the faith you were brought up in when we should be able to think things out for ourselves and to come to our own conclusions.

Being correct in every way means, I think, acknowledging that the Muslims have a better track record than the Christians when it comes to who does the least violence.

Being correct in every way means, I think, accepting that the Koran has no violence but the Bible has much.

Being correct means understanding that the Arab slave trade was much less extensive,  and brutal than the slave trade by the ‘Christian’ nations.

It seems to me that the Muslim countries look as though they are less avaricious, materialistic and less dominated by the ‘consume ever more’ mentality of the now very rich ‘Christian’ nations.

It is definitely the Western world, with those nation’s wars over their various empires, over the last two hundred years, at least, that has the worst record for man’s inhumanity to man.  The Western, ‘Christian’ world that includes America, is responsible for

• the killings of Africans that included Muslims during the vicious slave trade.
• decades of oppression and deaths of black people by the supposedly ‘Christian’ and advanced nations of the USA and South Africa.

• the persecution and killing of Jews,
• then, Communists in the countries of SE Asia as we fought for “our vital strategic interests”, capitalism and democracy against godless, evil Communism; and, now
• the latest horrors are perpetrated against Islam and the people of Iraq and Afghanistan.  Both direct and indirect killings in, so far, twelve years of the war of terrorism in leaving a wasteland, mayhem and intermittent civil war in Iraq.
• Yet, Bush and Blair sincerely believed they were doing what God wanted in launching the War of Terrorism.  Just like the two Muslims who killed the soldier outside his barracks in Woolwich in 2013.  Except Bush and Blair have much more blood on their hands than the two Muslims, of course.  Abraham and his God and Allah have much to answer for.
• for years the West has threatened to attack Iran for wanting nuclear weapons to balance or match Israel’s arsenal and so deter an attack from them.
• this year, the Western powers nearly attacked Syria as punishment for a chemical attack in July.  Putin saved the day.  And, what an excellent article of his in the ‘New York Times’, too!

Yet, we get into such a state of indignation over the very much lower killings in the countries of eastern Europe that came under Stalin’s control in the wake of his help in defeating Nazism.  We honestly think USSR communism killed “millions of millions” of their own (Daily Mail Dep Editor, Jon Staefel, ‘Newsnight’ 2013) but we conveniently forget our own millions whose premature deaths we are responsible for! However, since we kill blacks and foreigners, perhaps that does not matter.

Therefore, not man’s inhumanity to man but ‘Christian’, Western inhumanity to the Muslims of this century.  How very ironic, how very thoughtless and hypocritical of us, how very unkind of us, how very reprehensible of us!

ANOTHER VERSION:

1. I do suspect (but there is no way of proving this) that down through the centuries, the adherents of the three dominant and influential Abrahamic faiths have been more responsible for killing their own than all the other faiths put together.

2. Muslims in my former workplace (I have now retired) tend to view their home of Britain as being founded and still based on the Judeo/Christian view of the world eg for many centuries the practices of Parliament on the centrality of the Bible and Christian belief and, especially, in the Coronation ceremony of our once all powerful, unelected and dictatorial and, too often, very badly behaved monarchs.  In other words, since we label all Arabs as Muslims, some Muslims do like to label all people in the West as Christians.  That is understandable.

3. The latest upsurge of violence between two largest branches of Abraham's family started with what the 'Christian' West called a declaration of war on the USA - 9/11.  The 11 September 2001.  Indeed, that Bible believing Christian who was saved from alcoholism by the Lord, President GW Bush called his launch of the War of Terrorism, a crusade.  For Muslims, the word, 'crusade' has the horrifying connotations of the first named Christian crusades against the Muslims some centuries ago.

4. That far wiser man of God, Bishop Desmond Tutu, commented on 9/11 as being an act of terrorism and not an act of war.  The implication being that the White House administration of the time, rather than seeing the attack on the twin towers as an opportunity to launch their 'New American Century Project' of violence and domination in the Middle East, should have used the courts of law to bring Osama bin Laden and the other surviving plotters to justice under American law in the USA and not to lock suspects up for years in Guantanamo Bay outside American law, in a state of limbo.  Many seem to be suspects picked up on a whim, provided they were Muslims.  Some remain in Guantanamo Bay without evidence against them and without trial.  No wonder we have many Muslim insurgents or terrorists fighting our brave, upstanding, heroic soldiers.

5. Rather than keeping within the law, we have seen both the very military powerful Jewish state of Israel and its financial backer and supporter, the 'Christian' state of the USA, both indulging in extra judicial assassinations of their enemies who are classed by both democratic states as 'terrorists'.  Exactly the same name was used to describe Nelson Mandela who narrowly escaped hanging for his crime against the state of South Africa.

6. Using the term ‘terrorist’ does help them to assuage their consciences in circumventing the far lengthier but inconvenient route of going down the legal avenues of using American law on US territory.  Or, in the case of Israel, Israeli law.

7. What is worse, the men of violence in both the Knesset and in the White House feel quite unable to even abide by the resolutions and mandates of the United Nations.  The UN, like the law, is another inconvenience that both the Western states, with sometimes Russia and China, simply ignore when it suits them!

8. No wonder we have constant war and mayhem in some parts of Africa, along with Iraq and Afghanistan.  Iraq and Afghanistan that we have liberated to enjoy the rich blessings of Western democracy, religion, culture and schooling for girls.

9. In addition, all these men of violence, some the sons of Abraham in the prosperous 'Christian' West (and not so prosperous 'Christian' Africa) or the 'Muslim' Middle East and Africa, make the very weapons that fuel these never-ending wars.

10. The Bible has much violence in the Old Testament (see NOTE, below); the Koran has none.  I have read every single word (practically) more than once in the Bible and literally every word in the Koran, once.

11. The Bible even has rules for waging holy war (Deut 20 v 1-20); the Koran has none.  The Koran allows self-defence but not pre-emptive attacks of so called ‘self-defence’ as the Israelis have done many times since their state was founded.  Founded, too out of many acts of terrorism in 1946 and 1947 to force the hand of the authorities to give them, and only them, the land.  The most unholy Holy Land, ever.

12. The centuries of the most shocking violence indulged in by the supposedly Christian Western European nations - and the United States of Aggression with its offshoot, Israel - all, in this century, set a very bad example to the warring factions in the Central African Republic.  Or, is it just human nature the world over, regardless of religious belief?

The time is well overdue for us good Christian men and women, the righteous of the Lord, to actually begin living up to the, admittedly, extremely difficult teachings of Jesus Christ in the Gospels.  Or, if we cannot even attempt to do the non-aggression of being peacemakers instead of warmongers, how about abiding by UN mandates, international law or, just the law of our own lands?

​​

Or, if even that is beyond us, how about keeping to the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights?  This time, only thirty paragraphs of sound, common decency for us to attempt!

NOTE

The Bible is a contrast of ‘Thou shalt not kill’, yet also ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth’, to genocide as God told Israel to wipe the inhabitants of the Promised Land off the face of the map. From that to a loving God and His people are to love neighbour and to love enemies.  Perhaps, all that explains why atheist, agnostic and devout Christian believers all take part in warfare, and look up to our soldiers as heroes, as making the ultimate sacrifice, as noble service and, who so respect our soldier heroes (as my father in law did).  Nearly all vote for the three main political parties who are this century’s war parties.  For it is they who order the years of aggression, invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, without any authorisation from the UN.

So much in common but the differences dominate!

Jews, Christians and Muslims are so similar but so different.  So much in common, yet are not only so divided but have been so full of hatred, enmity and killing of each other from time to time through the centuries and today.  Far too much at each others throats when it comes to nations with one of these religions predominating - the Christian West, the Jewish Israel and the Arab Muslims.  This is madness, this is tragic, this is scandalous.

What unites them all:

• All children of Abraham.  All have the same father!
• The Christians scriptures are Jewish and include their Torah!
• The Muslims regard Jesus Christ as a great and important prophet, second only to their own Mohammed.
• Jesus was a Jew, as were the first Christians. 
• Disgust at homosexuality is common to them all.
• Sexual immorality is more important, a far greater sin, than violence.

We have to be honest and face up to these 9 observations on the Faith!

God is wrong in having 'Rules for Waging Holy War' in Deuteronomy 20 v 1-20.

He is mistaken about homosexuality being immoral.  I believe I am right in saying that Christians, Muslims and Jews did nothing about changing the law to prevent homosexuals being imprisoned.  Now, all of them accept the new law without a murmur of dissent being heard.  Homosexuality is not unheard of in the animal kingdom, of which we are part, as the human animal.

God shows favouritism in having one nation out of 193 nations as his one and only Chosen, Special and No 1 nation who is the apple of His eye (Israel).  For the surrounding Arab nations, Israel is seen as part of the all powerful, all domineering, War of Terrorism Western powers.  The West is noted for its centuries of Christianity and, unfortunately, its Scriptures command the faithful to pray only for the peace of Jerusalem - certainly NOT Mecca or any other city!  Thus Israel is identified even here, with the West in the heart of the Arab and Muslim Middle East.

God has missed out the most obvious and much needed command that should be the first and foremost viz: "Thou shalt embrace non-violence and never embark on attack, aggression and dominating other countries." The last one, domination, in defiance of temptation 3 that Jesus rightly rejected.

The Lord's Commandment no 6 is not strong enough with "Thou shalt not murder."  It let the people of Israel off the hook to allow them to wipe out the inhabitants of the holy land - the land that God promised them and them alone - as now.  Hence, we have in the Bible how the people rejoiced that, "King Saul has slain his thousands but David his tens of thousands."  No wonder the modern people of Israel are so ready to attack their neighbours, of course in self defence and, so desperate not to kill women and children.  However, Israel always seems to end up killing many more of them than their enemy kill Israelis. Over ten times more in both the November 2012 attack on Gaza and the 2008/2009 war on Gaza when 1,400 Palestinians, unfortunately and quite unintentionally, of course, ended up dead.

All God-fearing Jews, Christians and Muslims should see this behaviour, above as morally deviant.  Perversely and shamefully they do not, viewing instead, homosexuality as being morally deviant.

God is wrong in having Kings and Queens over past centuries who all appointed themselves as having the authority and power of God on earth; together with Presidents and Prime Ministers down the years.  Two of them, since 7 October 2001 with the War of Terrorism, who both believed they were doing God's will in attacking first Afghanistan on 10/7 (2001) and then Iraq in March 2003.

God is prejudiced in disallowing women from positions of leadership in His church.  Yet, His Son was forgiving, compassionate and sympathetic to women - even those caught in adultery and, prostitutes, too.

It is unacceptable for God to promise one nation, Israel all the land from the cedars of Lebanon in the north to the deserts of Sinai in the south; from the rivers Euphrates and Tigris in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west (Joshua 1 v 4).  It all the more encourages that nation's expansionist tendencies, the growth of illegal settlements on the West Bank and in east Jerusalem; and, the flouting of UN resolutions.

The Wild, White, Western Powers!

The West's world wars, after centuries of the European countries dominating everyone else, was the (not so grand) climax of centuries of warfare by and between these Christian, white, European nations.  The 2nd World War was the zenith, the high point (actually, of course, nadir or low point) of centuries of discrimination, persecution and hatred of the Jews, not by Muslims but by the Christian, white, European nations.

Questions for author and speaker, Kevin who was much taken by our victory in the battle of El Alamein as what prevented the Nazis from invading occupying what was then Palestine:-
From Christ's temptations, how would you conclude was His teaching on dominating other countries? From the Sermon on the Mount, how would you conclude was His teaching on warfare?

For President George Bush Jnr, the prophet Mohammed's teaching was "good and peaceful". What a pity that the President's actions, for all the many years after the 7 October 2001 when he launched his War of Terrorism, was the exact opposite of being "good and peaceful".

The exact opposite of "good and peaceful" was the hallmark of the first half of the 20th century and the second half was not much better - thanks to a string of American Presidents and European Prime Ministers, voted in by us!  A century of bloodshed and of white inspired conflicts.  It saw our wars (directly armed or in direct engagement), continuing on (almost immediately from 1945) in SE Asia and the Middle East.  It also very nearly saw a nuclear exchange between the two white, super powers over missiles both had installed - first, the Americans in Turkey on the Russian's doorstep and then, the Russians followed in Cuba on America's doorstep.

Israel or the USA or the Church?

Is it Israel or the USA that is the apple of God's eye?

How can you have a God of justice and equality having one Chosen Nation, Israel, only and, then putting that nation on a pedestal above all others as the apple of His eye?

Is he not meant to be the God of all the nations? Or, perhaps, he is the God of none of them.
And, supposedly, along with Israel, He is God of one of the most military powerful and economically one of the strongest nations in the world - the USA. This is the exact opposite of what the Founder of this most Christian of all nations intended, from what we know of His life and teachings. Therefore, it is not Israel, the Chosen Nation that is the top dog amongst all the nations of the world but the USA that is. In addition, it claims that it is the City set on a hill, to give a light to all the Jews and gentiles and is the salt of the earth. It is called manifest destiny. It is the USA that claims to be especially blessed of the Lord and has a special place in God's heart. Yet, it is these same Christians who so highly regard Israel as especially favoured of God.

Is Israel the Lord's Chosen Nation or is it the USA or, as in replacement theology, is it the Christian Church?
God must have two or even three Chosen Nations on whom he heaps all His favours and blessings - at the expense of the rest.

Kings Kids thoughts

This was an enjoyable evening of Israeli dance, music and verses from the Bible performed by mostly young Israelis who were all, also, Messianic Jews (Jewish Christians). Therefore, all had an unshakeable conviction that God had chosen only themselves, the People of Israel, for a special blessing and favour from the Lord. Only this tiny portion of God created humanity was to be treated as special, as God's Chosen People. All the other 99% of humankind is very plain and ordinary. Therefore, God shows partiality, favouritism, that is hardly in line with God being a God of justice, treating everyone the same.

It is also an unfortunate impression that Israel is a cut above all the other peoples of the world. It indicates that Israel has a certain hubris. Christianity also feels that it, alone is the true faith. Some Christians say they are the new Israel, the new Chosen People of God (replacement theology, I understand). Their faith alone is the manifestation of God's will; is the true Kingdom of God. They are the true city set on a hill; sometimes known as manifest destiny, who have a special favour and relationship with God. Therefore, the majority of humankind are second class citizens.

The evening was also noted for the leader of Kings Kids speaking with approval that one of the brothers was to enter the Israeli Defence Force in a few weeks time. The 16 year old young man in the dance group also told me how he was looking forward to entering the army. Therefore, Messianic Jews deny the Old Testament assertion, "Not by might, nor by power but by my Spirit, says the Lord" (Zech 4 v 6). The spirit of Jesus, that should include non-violence but never does, goes out of the window in favour of military might, great power and force. You don't talk and compromise and make friends of Arabs, Palestinians, Muslims, Hamas, Hezbullah, you just grind their noses in the dirt and make even more vociferous enemies of your neighbours. Extraordinary!

The evening was also noted for use of the quote from the Bible, that we are"to pray for the peace of Jerusalem." The context is never quoted but, it goes on as, "May they prosper who love you. Peace be within your walls,and security within your towers." (Psalm 122 v 6, 7). This is often quoted by Messianic Jews and born again Christians (the true believers) but, the verses strike me as fair enough if the literal interpretation is taken, that Jerusalem is never to be the subject of war - ever again. However, it again shows God as biased, showing favouritism and only interested in peace for one capital city out of the 193 nations of the world. All the other 192 can have struggles, conflict and wars, as far as God is concerned. Again, quite extraordinary!

However, the leader of Kings Kids on the evening, told me that it meant praying for the return of Christ. My wife said it was to do with the people of Jerusalem finding true peace through making their peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Unholy human inhumanity to human in the Holy Land!

Everyone seems unmoved by the latest slaughter - a ratio of 100:1 in Gaza in favour of the Jews. Their big supporters, like some at our church, see what is going on in Israel/Palestine as fulfilment of biblical prophecy and everything working together for the return of Christ. Turning their back on violence and sharing the land with the Palestinians seems to be an alien concept! I really do despair for our God-fearing people and explains my infrequent church attendance, these days, on principle.

One friend wrote in reply:

If all this slaughter is there to prepare the way for the Second Coming, I do not want to accept a God who uses innocent humans as fodder to trumpet his eventual arrival...

I do not believe this is "God's Will"... it is the behaviour of a collective aggressive neurosis which has its basis in the Holocaust .. the Palestinians are only second in the queue behind the Jews when it comes to their revulsion of Hitler.

Israeli Propaganda!

I don't like this misleading e-mail one little bit. Please do not pass it on!

It was the white, Christian, western Europeans who were responsible for the Jewish holocaust, not the Arab/Muslims. We killed tens, certainly, thousands of Arab/Muslims in the 1991 Gulf War and, again in this latest War of Terrorism since the 7 October 2001 that now amounts to hundreds of thousands of deaths from our (US/UK) unethical and illegal foreign policy.

We used Saddam Hussein as our surrogate to attack Iran from 1980 to 1988 when our Russian and Western weapons slaughtered one million young men in the Iran/Iraq War. Unlike ourselves, the West, Iran has not attacked another country for over 200 years. Yet, here we are having them as our latest enemy that we are planning to attack 'cos we assume that they are building (or just wanting) to build nuclear weapons! No evidence, mind you; just assumptions!

The e-mail is factually wrong. Russia was our ally throughout the 2nd WW. It was not just the "German and Russia (sic) peoples looking the other way!" The former BBC correspondent, Charles Wheeler has shown how Churchill and the War Cabinet were also anti-Semitic and looked the other way. They knew about the industrial killing of the Jews and others in Germany but, very nearly, did absolutely nothing to help. They were not even prepared to bomb the rail lines taking the victims to the concentration camps. We Brits invented the concentration camps, too! This was during the Boer War when over 20,000 women and children died in the appalling conditions that we allowed in those camps.

The Jews in Israel are the most heavily armed and protected nation in the Middle East and the only nation with WMD in the Middle East. Israel is our Western outpost in the Arab/Muslim Middle East. The US gives them $1.5bn of weaponry every year! It is absurd to think that the Jews there are ever going to be wiped off the face of the earth by Muslims. We are wiping the Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan and in Palestine and Lebanon off the map! This Jewish propaganda is all cock-eyed.

The Islamic extremists are simply defending their homelands from the United States of Aggression with its best buddy, the UK. We are the occupying force that the extremists/insurgents want shot of - and quite understandably so!

"The conquest of the world and the destruction of anyone who doesn't believe the way they do." For many centuries, the W European powers have been conquering the world and destroying the cultures and religions of the lands they discovered and claimed for their God and King, as well as killing the native populations. The white, Western nations have been supreme on this planet for many centuries. We still hold the upper hand and will never willingly relinquish it, will we? It is plain stupid/mischievous to put it about, as this e-mail does, that we would ever let the Arabs/Muslims conquer Israel or to drive her into the sea, let alone conquer the rest of the world! The rich, Western, white nations are the conquerors of the world and will remain so for as long as we can hang onto our power and wealth.

I think it is more the Chinese than the Arabs that the neo-Cons in the White House are fearful of. The Chinese, they think, might knock them off their powerful, pedagogic pedestal one day! The Muslims/Arabs are under the thumb of imperialistic America and its friends and the Muslim extremists can be imprisoned and tortured and killed, at will, by our forces.

I do commend the writings of blogger, climateextremist.blogspot.com, for sane, common sense on how we can all, as members of the one human family, get on better with each other. Read, 'Harnessing the Power of Belief ', dated October 2006.