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hussyknee · 4 months

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Jesus is Under the Rubble

“This Advent, while global Christians prepare to commemorate the arrival of the Prince of Peace, our Palestinian kin in Gaza suffer unthinkable violence. Their cries of deliverance, echoing those of two millennia ago, seem to be falling unheard on the United States.”

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— by Kelly Latimore icons. All proceeds from sales of this digital image will go toward Red Letter Christians trusted partners in Gaza.

Transcript: Christ in the Rubble A Liturgy of Lament Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church Bethlehem Saturday, December 23rd, 2023 We are angry…

We are broken…

This should have been a time of joy; instead, we are mourning. We are fearful.

Twenty thousand killed. Thousands under the rubble still. Close to 9,000 children killed in the most brutal ways. Day after day after day. 1.9 million displaced! Hundreds of thousands of homes were destroyed. Gaza as we know it no longer exists. This is an annihilation. A genocide.

The world is watching; Churches are watching. Gazans are sending live images of their own execution. Maybe the world cares? But it goes on.

We are asking, could this be our fate in Bethlehem? In Ramallah? In Jenin? Is this our destiny too?

We are tormented by the silence of the world. Leaders of the so-called “free” lined up one after the other to give the green light for this genocide against a captive population. They gave the cover. Not only did they make sure to pay the bill in advance, they veiled the truth and context, providing political cover. And, yet another layer has been added: the theological cover with the Western Church stepping into the spotlight.

The South African Church taught us the concept of “The state theology,” defined as “the theological justification of the status quo with its racism, capitalism and totalitarianism.” It does so by misusing theological concepts and biblical texts for its own political purposes.

Here in Palestine, the Bible is weaponized against our very own sacred text. In our terminology in Palestine, we speak of the Empire. Here we confront the theology of the Empire. A disguise for superiority, supremacy, “chosenness,” and entitlement. It is sometimes given a nice cover using words like mission and evangelism, fulfillment of prophecy, and spreading freedom and liberty. The theology of the Empire becomes a powerful tool to mask oppression under the cloak of divine sanction. It divides people into “us” and “them.” It dehumanizes and demonizes. It speaks of land without people even when they know the land has people – and not just any people. It calls for emptying Gaza, just like it called the ethnic cleansing in 1948 “a divine miracle.” It calls for us Palestinians to go to Egypt, maybe Jordan, or why not just the sea?

“Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” they said of us. This is the theology of Empire.

This war has confirmed to us that the world does not see us as equal. Maybe it is the color of our skin. Maybe it is because we are on the wrong side of the political equation. Even our kinship in Christ did not shield us. As they said, if it takes killing 100 Palestinians to get a single “Hamas militant” then so be it! We are not humans in their eyes. (But in God’s eyes… no one can tell us we are not!)

The hypocrisy and racism of the Western world is transparent and appalling! They always take the words of Palestinians with suspicion and qualification. No, we are not treated equally. Yet, the other side, despite a clear track record of misinformation, is almost always deemed infallible!

To our European friends. I never ever want to hear you lecture us on human rights or international law again. We are not white— it does not apply to us according to your own logic.

In this war, the many Christians in the Western world made sure the Empire has the theology needed. It is self-defense, we were told! (And I ask: how?)

In the shadow of the Empire, they turned the colonizer into the victim, and the colonized into the aggressor. Have we forgotten that the state was built on the ruins of the towns and villages of those very same Gazans?

We are outraged by the complicity of the church. Let it be clear: Silence is complicity, and empty calls for peace without a ceasefire and end to occupation, and the shallow words of empathy without direct action— are all under the banner of complicity. So here is my message: Gaza today has become the moral compass of the world. Gaza was hell on earth before October 7th.

If you are not appalled by what is happening; if you are not shaken to your core— there is something wrong with your humanity. If we, as Christians, are not outraged by this genocide, by the weaponizing of the Bible to justify it, there is something wrong with our Christian witness, and compromising the credibility of the Gospel!

If you fail to call this a genocide. It is on you. It is a sin and a darkness you willingly embrace.

Some have not even called for a ceasefire.

I feel sorry for you. We will be okay. Despite the immense blow we have endured, we will recover. We will rise and stand up again from the midst of destruction, as we have always done as Palestinians, although this is by far the biggest blow we have received in a long time.

But again, for those who are complicit, I feel sorry for you. Will you ever recover from this?

Your charity, your words of shock AFTER the genocide, won’t make a difference. Words of regret will not suffice for you. We will not accept your apology after the genocide. What has been done, has been done. I want you to look at the mirror… and ask: where was I?

To our friends who are here with us: You have left your families and churches to be with us. You embody the term accompaniment— a costly solidarity. “We were in prison and you visited us.” What a stark difference from the silence and complicity of others. Your presence here is the meaning of solidarity. Your visit has already left an impression that will never be taken from us. Through you, God has spoken to us that “we are not forsaken.” As Father Rami of the Catholic Church said this morning, you have come to Bethlehem, and like the Magi, you brought gifts with, but gifts that are more precious than gold, frankincense, and myrrh. You brought the gift of love and solidarity.

We needed this. For this season, maybe more than anything, we were troubled by the silence of God. In these last two months, the Psalms of lament have become a precious companion. We cried out: My God, My God, why have you forsaken Gaza? Why do you hide your face from Gaza?

In our pain, anguish, and lament, we have searched for God, and found him under the rubble in Gaza. Jesus became the victim of the very same violence of the Empire. He was tortured. Crucified. He bled out as others watched. He was killed and cried out in pain— My God, where are you?

In Gaza today, God is under the rubble.

And in this Christmas season, as we search for Jesus, he is to be found not on the side of Rome, but our side of the wall. In a cave, with a simple family. Vulnerable. Barely, and miraculously surviving a massacre. Among a refugee family. This is where Jesus is found.

If Jesus were to be born today, he would be born under the rubble in Gaza. When we glorify pride and richness, Jesus is under the rubble.

When we rely on power, might, and weapons, Jesus is under the rubble.

When we justify, rationalize, and theologize the bombing of children, Jesus is under the rubble.

Jesus is under the rubble. This is his manger. He is at home with the marginalized, the suffering, the oppressed, and displaced. This is his manger.

I have been looking, contemplating on this iconic image….God with us, precisely in this way. THIS is the incarnation. Messy. Bloody. Poverty.

This child is our hope and inspiration. We look and see him in every child killed and pulled from under the rubble. While the world continues to reject the children of Gaza, Jesus says: “just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.” “You did to ME.” Jesus not only calls them his own, he is them!

We look at the holy family and see them in every family displaced and wandering, now homeless in despair. While the world discusses the fate of the people of Gaza as if they are unwanted boxes in a garage, God in the Christmas narrative shares in their fate; He walks with them and calls them his own.

This manger is about resilience— صمود. The resilience of Jesus is in his meekness; weakness, and vulnerability. The majesty of the incarnation lies in its solidarity with the marginalized. Resilience because this very same child, rose up from the midst of pain, destruction, darkness and death to challenge empires; to speak truth to power and deliver an everlasting victory over death and darkness.

This is Christmas today in Palestine and this is the Christmas message. It is not about Santa, trees, gifts, lights… etc. My goodness how we twisted the meaning of Christmas. How we have commercialized Christmas. I was in the USA last month, the first Monday after Thanksgiving, and I was amazed by the amount of Christmas decorations and lights, all the and commercial goods. I couldn’t help but think: They send us bombs, while celebrating Christmas in their land. They sing about the prince of peace in their land, while playing the drum of war in our land.

Christmas in Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, is this manger. This is our message to the world today. It is a Gospel message, a true and authentic Christmas message, about the God who did not stay silent, but said his word, and his Word is Jesus. Born among the occupied and marginalized. He is in solidarity with us in our pain and brokenness.

This manger is our message to the world today – and it is simply this: this genocide must stop NOW. Let us repeat to the world: STOP this Genocide NOW.

This is our call. This is our plea. This is our prayer. Hear oh God. Amen.

(Source)

I found these on Twitter a while ago. Original creator unknown.

I can't stop you ascribing hateful, paranoid meanings to these images, but they're not about blaming religions. Jesus was a Jew born to a community of Jews in Palestine, the cradle of the Abrahamic faiths. He was raised and loved by them, betrayed by their rulers* and killed by Romans. He's a Prophet of Islam. End of.

*Y'know, like how the people of the Arab and Muslim nations love Palestine and crying to help them, except their leaders are greedy and rotted to the core. The ruling class will always only serve the empire.

Edit: alt text provided by @this-world-of-beautiful-monsters

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padawan-historian · 2 years

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Imperialism and white supremacy come in more than one color . . . U.S. intervention is code for U.S. occupation and exploitation.

#currents events #Haiti #our world #black lives matter #ecosystem of white supremacy #stop U.S. intervention #stamp out imperialism

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auressea · 7 months

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uncolonize your mind..

https://thedialoguevictoria.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/SettlersTakeAction_OnCanadaProject.pdf

@allthecanadianpolitics

#so called 'Canada'#beneficiaries of a genocide #decolonize the state #uncolonize your mind #settler colonialism #kill white supremacy culture #stop the hate #racism #bigotry #systemic oppression #indigineous people #indigenous land #human rights

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decolonize-the-left · 3 months

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Tumblr socio-political observation time

Identifying with fandoms and movements and brands to validate yourself has led to a society where your interests define you and your character instead of your character defining you and your interests and I think as a whole that's why performative activism is so rampant

(and likewise it's probably why people are so protective of the things that bring them a sense of self and why it's so important those things remain politically neutral and separate from politics but that's another post)

I dont necessarily think it's a Bad as in something that makes you evil but it is bad in that we now have a lot of people doing things in good faith that some are doing in bad faith and all these people are being painted the same because as a whole we arent critically engaging with ideas anymore

As a millennial I know am very much responsible for creating that climate. I think a lot of us grew up thinking that we could shame people into being "good" the same way that we were shamed growing up anytime we had an opinion that differed from our bigoted genx & boomer parents.

It manifested in a lot of ways but one of the prominent examples that most of us will remember is doxxing. Now I want to be clear that I never did this myself but doxxing, call out posts, block lists, etc were everywhere from I wanna say about 2007 to 2017 when I'd say it's status as a common social behavior started to be frowned upon and ineffective.

We were trying to hold people accountable with those actions.

I think that very much backfired. Bigots just got better at hiding and they learned to co-opt our language and mental health terms to gaslight us when we did call them out until those words became meaningless to use. It's simple to not appear bigoted now. Just don't share anything from known bigoted brands or companies and don't follow anyone problematic. Easy.

Cuz those define you and your character, right? Isn't that why y'all still put "supports x" as reasons for your own call-out posts? That's what validates or voids your good person card. At least, thats what everyone made it seem like a decade ago.

The millennial failure was how superficial it all was. We weren't dismantling anything. We were shaming support of x, y, & z as a way of shaming bigots and racist comments and calling them out, but we weren't actually learning to recognize or dismantle racism itself and that's how 10+ years later most of us are watching our kids deal with the same shit we did except now they're also struggling with critical thinking skills inside and outside the classroom.

I think a lot of millennials mixed up righteous anger with doing what's right. Thinking that because we were angry about bigotry and taking it out on bigots that meant we couldn't be bigots. I mean everyone is a little bigoted but not like Bigots™ are bigots, you know?

And then we refused to put ourselves under that microscope or think about that any further. We stopped thinking about a lot of things, I think. We started accepting that we would be told what was okay to believe in or say and I think a LOT of millennials esp white millenials still wait for someone else, especially a Black person to speak on something so they can see the "right" side they're supposed to take.

Someone please learn something from this. This is still very much racist and avoiding the issue is still very much enabling white supremacy.

It will only go away if it's directly addressed.

•••

So I'd like to submit a formal request to bring back one good thing from back then. White responsibility for white supremacy.

Some of us may remember some posts that said if anyone should be responsible for engaging with white supremacists and helping them break down their beliefs it'd be white ppl ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ that its dangerous work for anyone else to do (for obvious reasons) and besides that white supremacists won't listen to anyone else. And allies did.

Bring that back.

The defensive white retaliation to this idea is seen on any mutual aid post in comments like "fuck your emotional labor, I don't owe you anything" or "idgaf if youre black/disabled/gay/whatever I don't owe you shit." So for the people getting ready to type something similar in my notes: This is a white supremacist defense mechanism that reinforces BIPOC isolation through individualism without seeming malicious on the surface. We all owe each other something tho; it's how a community operates and how humanity has survived for so long. Don't fall for this line of thinking and don't bring that nonsense to me.

White supremacy won't go away on its own and white supremacists sure as hell won't go away by letting them fester behind block lists until they're old enough to run for senator so if you can handle this task then respectfully, do it.

"but white supremacists are a waste of time to talk to" yeah for those of us who they'd rather see dead.

The labor and time it takes to make a white supremacist see you as a human who says words worth listening to so that you can then have a good faith conversation about politics is not WORTH the effort and risk to safety for the people who they hate. Especially not if we're doing it and getting death threats 9x out of 10 or they just wanted us to waste our time and exhaust us out of being effective

So if you are not included in the list of people that white supremacists want dead then it is worth your time and in fact is arguably one of the most productive ways to spend your time.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk

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violottie · 1 month

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And she spoke FACTS! Because its so clear what this is all about. if you "cant see it" you're refusing to look.

from Wear The Peace, 14/Mar/2024:

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ricomola · 5 months

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🍉🔥✊

#sugimoto saichi #golden kamuy #my art #free palestine #stop the occupation #zionism is white supremacy #antizionism #watermelon #pro palestine #human rights are more important than money or power

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lesbianjudasiscariot · 7 months

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misandry is so not a real thing. any situation where women "have it easier" (which don't even really exist) are always because of culture the patriarchy created.

#an mra saying well male victims aren't believed like... yeah man... thank God women don't have to go through that...#fucking annoying #so over the rise of misogyny/“men's rights activism”#only situation i can really see a case is white women weaponizing their whiteness to target poc mainly black men #which is obviously bad and should be addressed and stopped #but even that it something that is a consequence of white supremacy and not feminism #♡

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gayglitterdinosaur · 22 days

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#White supremacy #The iof is a terrorist organization #Israel is a terrorist state #free palestine #i stand with palestine #stop the genocide #freepalastine🇵🇸#save gaza #ceasefire now #end the occupation #sharing is caring #speak up #free gaza

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alwaysbewoke · 4 months

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#white supremacy #racism #social justice #equality #end hate #anti-racism #racial equality #stop racism #no to hate #dismantle racism #alwaysbewoke

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snekdood · 1 year

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i hope all the terfs looking at my blog rn are able to grab me a beer and maybe make me a sandwich perhaps while they’re at it

#im sorry its so hard to not want to be misogynistic to them in a jokey way about it #i mean- if they're gonna keep pretending im a woman i gotta keep reminding them im not /jk #its just that so many of them are white cis women who have no real problems. its hard to not want to remind them that oppressing ppl like #me isnt about to change the fact that plenty of cis men still only see them as objects #like idk bitch maybe if you actually shut up with your transphobia and worked with other oppressed minorities we wouldnt have red pillers #out and about. but naw. your attachment to your womanhood is too important ig.#more important than stopping your actual oppressors.#yall would rather uphold white supremacy than do any meaningful change for women.#otherwise maybe you'd actually listen to us when we talk about shit that effects BOTH os us- trans people and women alike.#its almost like enforcing the binary is entirely counterintuitive to your actual fucking goals of equality #its almost like reinforcing the binary back to cis men and pretending its valuable only reinforces to them their misogyny and idea #that men and women are entirely different species #its almost like your insistence that theres a binary actually doesnt serve you at fucking all and actually only AIDS in your oppression.#whatever happened to 'gender equality'? or is that too trans friendly for you now #ig women cant do everything men can do #imagine calling yourself a feminist and genuinely believing this

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kurokmask · 4 months

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thinking abt how ocarina of time era hyrule is essentially a segregated society

the civil war, which happens before the events of the game, and is the reason link grows up on kokiri forest at all, has no canonical explanation of why it happened, only that one it was done, the non-hylian races of hyrule kept to themselves. link had to get permission from the royal family to contact the zora and goron. we know for a fact ganondorf gave the hylian royal family gerudo territory when he swore fealty to them, though its likely hylians had been encroaching upon their land for some time before. like, why else would a civil war break out if not for hyrule exploiting/stealing/suppressing other racial groups?? we don't see a diverse military force until botw.

it seems to be a theme, that the races of hyrule only come together (under the crown, specifically) when a threat arises that endangers EVERYONE. to assume ganondorf started the civil war is, in my opinion, the easy, “don’t think about it” answer. and even if that was the case, it was most likely a Hylians vs. Everyone Else situation, meaning ganondorf took advantage of frustrations that had already been mounting for some time.

in twilight princess, which takes place a few hundred or so years after ocarina, things have gotten better (we see hylians living closer to other racial groups, more collaboration), but there's still a significant degree of separation, ie, hylian-only military (the resistance is hylian only, too). we also see a complete lack of gerudo, their desert a barren wasteland and the only surviving proof they existed being their writing, most of which is found in arbiter's grounds, a... PRISON... if the losing sides of the civil war were forced to swear fealty (the gerudo seem to be the only group that gave up land, as hylians can't access death mountain/zora's domain without permission), the punishment for trying to overthrow the hylian royal family...! banishment at best, mass execution at worse. probably both!

like. there's so much interesting shit that is brought up in ocarina. i'm not even touching on the sheikah/shadow temple and the implications of THAT. its so incredibly interesting and, shocker, when a world/government/people/whatever are deeply flawed instead of of blandly benevolent and Good Because We Say So, it actually is Good Worldbuilding. do i think zelda writers did this on purpose? i dont fucking know because they never bring it up again. hyrule is just portrayed, over and over and over again, as this pure, holy kingdom that has never done anything wrong in its entire existence, despite IN GAME! IN TEXT! evidence to the contrary. like, the games we play feel like hylian propaganda. AND ISNT THAT INTERESTING???? imagine if we could unpack that? totk could've been a perfect opportunity. (but they dropped, the ball, as always, who is shocked)

its no accident. that our heroes are blonde with blue eyes. that our main villain is a caricature of Evil Brown Man. fans do not like to talk about it, they do not want to admit it. but there are clear themes staring us right in the face and it blows my mind that no one seems to want to do anything with it. the idea of hyrule being a deeply flawed land whos history is defined by conflict (stemming from its own citizens oftentimes) is extremely interesting and makes it unique. i want my stories to be gray. i want my characters to be conflicted. my GOD.

#zelda rant #sry i just cant stop thinking abt the civil war #imo oot has my favorite worldbuilding of any zelda game and we just will never get to that level again. WAS IT ALL AN ACCIDENT?!?!?#anyways TLDR: hyrule is racist and link is an agent of white supremacy #and i would be fine with all that if the games chose to ENGAGE with it in ANY WAY #bc by setting all this up and then not doing anything w it. its just racist #also i feel the need to point out i am desi. i'm allowed to talk abt ganondorf and the can of worms he is #im also allowed to like him. hope this helps #rambling

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