In an attempt to more clearly define the meaning of “empty gesture”, two Church of England vicars are engaging in refugee playacting by sleeping on the floor of a community centre. Well, alright, it isn’t completely empty: they are donating money to a Gaza charity – of course, that could have been done without the silly political posturing.
From here:
TWO vicars and their family are living as “refugees” to draw attention to the plight of people in Gaza.
Rev Andrew Ashdown, the Anglican rector of Knights Enham, and his wife, the Rev Victoria Ashdown, curate of Whitchurch, are relying on the generosity of others while they and their family live without money in St Paul’s Church and Community Centre in Smannell Road, Andover.
They are spending each night on the floor in one of the community rooms.
[….]
Victoria added: “I feel it is our duty as a church to speak for the oppressed and against injustice. Standing in solidarity with the suffering felt like something we could do here to highlight the plight.”
I wonder if Victoria is as enthusiastic about standing in solidarity with the suffering if those who are suffering are Jews? Don’t bother trying to answer that.
“Hamas is fighting…to reinstate its lines of finance…to receive cash from Qatar, Turkey,
IRAN, and the PA. …Hamas is the tax authority…Dr. Moshe Elad to ‘Globes’ ‘Hamas siphons money off every dollar in and transferred to Gaza because it controls all the aid pipelines. Every dollar of international humanitarian aid to UNRWA and every other organization goes through that pipeline and part of the funds are transferred to Hamas.”
‘Our World:Congress, Obama and The Way to Defeat Hamas’,
Caroline B. Glick, Jerusalem Post, August 1, 2014.
That should separate out the Kairos from the chrono$.
It is no fun to be homeless. At one time in the late 1940s, half of the population of Hong was homeless. James 3:9 says that humans generally, not just believers, “are made in the likeness of God”. Every human (a Jew or Arab) must be treated with the dignity and respect that is due to God’s image-bearer. After the fall of man, the image of God is distorted but not lost.
It is absolutely true that individuals should be treated with dignify and respect but in this conflict we need to remember that Hamas started the war by firing rockets into Israel and refused to stop and have continued to refuse even when they had declared a temporary truce. They use locations where the general population resides and then complain when Israel responds to destroy launching sites. While it is indeed a tragic and deplorable situation the facts clearly show the fault rests almost entirely with Hamas. Hamas is one of the many radical Muslim groups who believe it is their duty to annialate anyone who does not bow down to their god, Allah. They believe all who do not do so are infidels.
I definitely pray for the violence to end and it would if Hamas agreed to stop sending rockets into Israel and fully upheld that agreement. Israel has stated repeatedly the violence would stop if that condition was met. The loss of live and injury to Gaza’s residents and also Israel’s residents is tragic but the fault for this conflict rests with Hamas and not Israel.
We should care for the suffering people. We should be pro-Jesus, not Jews or Arabs.