Cancel culture strikes again

how can you be so controversial and yet so brave

(reposted from Twitter)

Hey so, have I ever told you about the time I was at an interfaith event (my rabbi, who was on the panel, didn't want to be the only Jew there), and there was a panel with representatives of 7 different traditions, from Baha'i to Zoroastrian?

The setup was each panelist got asked the same question by the moderator, had 3 minutes to respond, and then they moved on to the next panelist.

The Christian dude talked for 8 minutes and kept waving off the poor, flustered, terminally polite Unitarian moderator.

The next panelist was a Hindu lady, who just said drily, "I'll try to keep my answer to under a minute so everyone else still has a chance to answer." (I, incidentally, am at a table with I think the only other non-Christian audience members, a handful of Muslims and a Zorastrian.)

So then we get to the audience questions part. No one's asking any questions, so finally I decide to get things rolling, and raise my hand and the very polite moderator comes over and gives me the mic.

I briefly explain Stendahl's concept of "holy envy" and ask what each of theirs is.

(If you're not familiar, Stendahl had 3 tenets for learning about other traditions, and one was leave room for "holy envy," being able to say, I am happy in my tradition and don't desire to convert, but this is something about another tradition that I admire and wish we had.)

The answers were lovely. My rabbi said she admired the Buddhist comfort with silence and wished we could learn to have that spaciousness in our practice. The Hindu said she admired the Jewish and Muslim commitment to social justice & changing, rather than accepting, the status quo.

The Christian dude said he envied that everyone else on the panel had the opportunity to newly accept Jesus.

I shit you not.

Dead silence. The Buddhist and Baha'i panelists are resolutely holding poker faces. The Hindu lady has placed her hands on the table and folded them and seems to be holding them very tightly. Over on the middle eastern end of the table, the rabbi, the imam, and the Zoroastrian lady are all leaning away from the Christian at identical angles with identical expressions of disgust. The terminally polite Unitarian moderator is literally wringing his hands in distress.

A Christian lady at the table next to me, somehow unable to pick up on the emotional currents in the room, sighs happily and says to her fellow church lady, "What a beautiful answer."

anyway I love my rabbi to death and would do anything for her

except attend another interfaith event

Israeli settlers are attacking the Christian community in Jerusalem including bishops and priests! The Christian community is literally fighting for their lives right now in the Armenian Quarter. Christians: more of you need to stand up with us against this violence! This has never been a Muslim issue. (28.12.2023)

Chancellery Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem

28 December, 2023

A MASSIVE AND COORDINATED PHYSICAL ATTACK WAS LAUNCED ON BISHOPS, PRIESTS, DEACONS, SEMINARIANS, AND OTHER ARMENIAN COMMUNITY MEMBERS IN JERUSALEM WITHINONE HOUR OF THIS ANNOUNCEMENT. SEVERAL PRIESTS, STUDENTS OF THE ARMENIAN THEOLOGICAL ACADEMY, AND INDIGENOUS ARMENIANS ARE SERIOUSLY INJURED.

Over 30 armed provocateurs in ski-masks with lethal and less-than-lethal weaponry including powerful nerve-agents that have incapacitated dozens of our clergy broke into the grounds of the Cow's Garden and began their vicious assault. We stress again, several priest, deacons and students of the Armenian Theological Academy along with indigenous Armenians are seriously injured. ARMENIAN CLERICS IN JERUSALEM ARE FIGHTING FOR THEIR LIVES AGAINST IMPUNE PROVOCATEURS.

This is the criminal response we have received for the submission of a lawsuit to the District Court of Jerusalem for the Cow's Garden, which was officially received by the Court less than 24 hours ago. This is how the Australian-Israeli businessman Danny Rothman (Rubinstein) and George Warwar (Hadad) react to legal procedures.

The Armenian Patriarchate's existential threat is now a physical reality. Bishops, Priests, Deacons, Seminarians, and indigenous Armenians are fighting for their very lives on the ground. We are calling on authorities around the world and the International Media to help us save the Armenian Quarter from a violent demise that is being locally supported by unnamed entities. We call upon the Israeli Government and Police to start an investigation against Danny Rothman (Rubinstein) and George Warwar (Hadad) for organizing their continuous criminal attacks on the Armenian Patriarchate and Community, attacks which seem to have no end in sight.

Israel is a State of law and order and such criminal behavior cannot be tolerated and go unpunished.

(via. IG: rosypirani)

Gaza is home to one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, dating back to the first century, and the third oldest church in the world. Despite constant threats to survival, the community has persisted for two millennia. But now, extinction may be unavoidable this time due to Israel’s indiscriminate war and imposed famine, which has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians in Gaza. There are only about 800 Christians left in Gaza. The Western world, which often champions the rights of the religious minorities in the region, is eerily silent. Since the beginning of the Israeli attack on Gaza, the small Christian minority has been impacted in the same way as their fellow Palestinians. Most Christians have historically lived in Gaza City, an area, like other parts of north Gaza, that was systematically targeted at the very beginning of the war and is currently suffering from a lack of access to food and aid. Although there is no reliable estimate on the number of Christian homes fully or partially destroyed, the Christians sheltering at the churches indicate to me that Israel has destroyed some 80% of their houses and killed more than 3% of the population.

[...]

In the West, people often ask me why the number of Christians in the Middle East is decreasing and why we are leaving. Usually, they were waiting for us to blame the Muslims for their “persecution of Christians.” But this explanation is not only an oversimplification but also incorrect. No one can deny the occurrence of sectarian discrimination, in some cases, by the Muslim majority against the Christians minorities, but it is often not the primary cause of the mass exodus of indigenous Christians from the land. Instead, the mass exodus of Christians is caused by scenarios similar to Gaza today: the brutality of wars that make it harder for Christians to survive. In 1948, Palestinian Christians, like Muslims, were ethnically cleansed from Mandatory Palestine and never allowed back; this was the biggest hit for the number of Christians in Palestine.

Other Western-backed wars and the “War on Terror” have also significantly contributed to the exodus of Christians in the Middle East. Take, for example, Iraq, which had over 1.5 million Christians before the American invasion in 2003. The invasion and years of war harmed the Christians like Muslims, and it also created the conditions for the emergence of radical groups like the Islamic State that see religious minorities as a prime target. Today, Iraq has just 150,000 Christians left.

The tomb of a pastor's wife and stillborn child in a church in Hindelbank, Switzerland, 1751, depicting their resurrection.

Former Bush aide Peter Wehner's message to Christians who are supporting Trump despite his dehumanizing rhetoric:

“You've jettisoned almost everything that you claim to most cherish in your life to make inner peace with this man who's a sociopath, an unfiltered sociopath.”