Not “calm,” not “bright”...
A wondrous Christmas hymn, “Silent Night” was written by a German priest Josef Mohr in ( maybe before) 1816.
Needless to say, northern Europe in the early 1800’s was neither calm nor bright, nor holy, nor at peace, nor filled with love’s pure light, nor redeemed by grace.
There was a high infant mortality rate, crop failures, ravaging disease, and horrendous slaughter. Europe had had almost continuous, calamitous war for 25 years! No “calm” there.
Nothing bright or holy!
Napoleonic troops and anti-French troops had ravaged back and forth. 558,000 French-lead soldiers died during the campaign into Russia. In 1813, over 600,000 soldiers fought in one battle alone at Leipzig, Saxony. As many as 110,000 were killed or wounded.
Approximately 1 million or more civilian died from that war. Total deaths reached between 3 to even 6 million! Then Germany as a confederation was created from parts of the former Holy Roman Empire, but German nationalists assassinated leaders…
Speaking of assassinations, that takes us back to the time of Jesus’s birth in Roman Palestine under Herod the Great in about 4 B.C.E.
Not a time of love, peace, goodness, Godliness, or light either.
Nor was Britain at the birth of the Quaker movement in the 1600’s. Strangely, not even the early Quakers waged peace, contrary to many Friends histories and popular understanding! Many of the early Quakers fought in the great slaughter of the English Civil War.
Traagically, George Fox who would later emphasize the Lamb’s War, the peaceful way of Jesus, at first urged the Puritan killer Oliver Cromwell to carry forth his holy war all the way to Rome!! “Let thy soldiers go forth…that thou may rock the nations as a cradle.”
Not at all like the cradled-manger of Jesus.
So much for “silent night, holy night”...
Instead, even with those Friends of Jesus, the Children of Light, there was an ocean of darkness at first...
Nor is there any peace and holiness in the 21st century. Multi-millions of Christian Russian Orthodox soldiers and their leaders continue to invade and slaughter thousands of innocent Ukrainians.
Hundreds of Ukrainian children have been kidnapped and taken to Christian Orthodox Russia.
Then there is the endless massacres of Palestine-Israel, the Sudan, etc.
Consider that powerful “Silent Night” meditative song by Simon and Garfunkel back in the 1960’s, also a horrific time of slaughter.
What a paradoxical contrast between the way of Jesus versus how Christians, Muslims, and Jews trash Jesus’ way now.
May we truly witness of the love and peace of God in this often Christ-less, unholy season.
Yet still hoping--despite endless despairing news--
in the Light of Care, Good, True, Just...
Daniel Wilcox
Showing posts with label Muslims. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Muslims. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 10, 2025
Thursday, May 9, 2024
Excerpt of Interview with Palestinian leader Eli Chacour, follower of Jesus, author of Blood Brothers
From SOPHIA Vol.54 number 2, Spring 2024
“Unless We Share the Land Together,
We Are Doomed to Disappear Together.”
An interview with Archbishop Elias Chacour,
Author of Blood Brothers (his own family’s
tragic story of how his father and brother were
kidnapped by the Israeli Army, their church was
blown up, and they were banished from their
village, yet his father said they needed to love
their enemies—the Israelis as Jesus taught)
Elias Chacour is
Emeritus,
Melkite Catholic Archdiocese
of Akka, Haifa, Nazareth, and All Galilee
and Leader of Mar Elias Educational Institutions including a high school with 1200 students; 60% Muslim, 40% Christian, Druze... There are some Jewish teachers, but no longer any Jewish students.
Sophia: Westerners were quick to condemn Hamas’s
killing of Israeli civilians last
year, yet have been more
likely to excuse or ignore the
atrocities being committed
by the state of Israel against
Palestinians. Why do you
believe that is?
Elias Chacour: It is the traditional way in the Western world to
justify everything Israel does. Israel
is considered a divine entity. It can
do no wrong. That’s why there is so
little sympathy with the Palestinians.
We have to understand that the
violence did not happen out of the
blue. It’s like a circle in the chain.
Palestinians have been suffering for
75 years. They lost their homes. They
lost their independence. They were under siege in Gaza. All the people in
Gaza are Palestinians from Palestine, but they were reduced
to refugees in their own country and scattered around the
world. So, it’s understandable that, at some point,
they would revolt.
But it was too atrocious.
Of course, I condemn it. But
what has been done to the
Palestinians, both before the
Hamas attack and after it, as
retaliation, is also atrocious.
It is unbelievable and unacceptable. Israel is demolishing a whole section of Gaza
and reducing the people to refugees, without
any excuse. They want to destroy, and they want to demolish.
They want to finish with the existence of the Palestinians.
We are used to seeing the Western world being one-sided
and say that whatever Israel does is legitimate and good. Even
to massacre, kill, and destroy is good because they are the chosen people. My goodness, this isn’t God’s judgment!
The Palestinians lost everything. Their country, their independence,
and their dignity. Everything. They are a scattered people.
They have lost everything. What Israel has done in Gaza is an
atrocity. It is an act of revenge.
The Jews have a good memory. They remember the Holocaust, which is good. They don’t want to forget it, and they shouldn’t!
But they blame Palestinians. How can they blame us?
The Jews say they are here because this was their home 2,000
years ago. Fine. They were deported by the Romans, and we were
not.
We were here, too. We stayed here. We waited here. And
then we welcomed them when they came in. But we cannot accept what they are doing to us.
SOPHIA: There are many in the West who say that there’s no
such thing as Palestine and that Jordan might as
well be the Arab homeland. But you clearly have a
deep Palestinian identity.
Eli Chacour: Absolutely. Why do you think that Westerners have a hard time
understanding that all Arabs are not alike, and that Palestine is
a real place with a real people?
I think it is because the Zionist propaganda convinced the
Western world that they have to compensate for what was done
to the Jews during World War II—the Holocaust...
I remember my father told us, within a few days, we might
have Jewish soldiers come to our village. That was in 1948. He
said, these are the survivors of a certain satanic plan in Germany
aiming at destroying all the Jews... And
some would be coming to our village. We need to show them that
somewhere in this world, they are welcome. They are our blood
brothers. That’s why I wrote my book, Blood Brothers.
SOPHIA: That was a beautiful part of your autobiography.
Initially, your father wanted to welcome the Jews
because they had nowhere else to go.
Eli Chacour: I want to say something very dangerous. The land of Palestine does not belong to the Jews. Yet, it cannot belong to the Palestinians either.
The land is God’s and both have to share the land!
That’s why I wrote my second book, We Belong to the Land. The Jews can say that. The Palestinians have the right to say that also. Unless we share the land together, we are doomed to disappear together.
SOPHIA: The State of Israel has sometimes claimed that they
are trying to protect Palestinian Christians from
Islamist terrorists and radicals. Have you found
this to be the case?
Eli Chacor: No, no, no, no.... The Christian Palestinian villages
that were destroyed by the creation of the State of Israel are
many—about twenty villages...the Jews who
came, and they were welcomed by us, and then as a response
to our welcome, they destroyed our villages...
Eli Chacour:
... two Christian women were going to a church in Gaza, and the
Israeli snipers shot them...
To read the whole interview go to:
The Journal of the Melkite Catholic Eparchy, page 15-17
https://melkite.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Sophia-v54-02-2024-Spring.pdf
Those wishing to support Archbishop Elias’s educational apostolate can
donate to the Pilgrims of Ibillin (pilgrimsofibillin.org/donate-now/)
In the LIGHT of Justice, Sharing, Kindness, Peace-creating,
Daniel Wilcox
“Unless We Share the Land Together,
We Are Doomed to Disappear Together.”
An interview with Archbishop Elias Chacour,
Author of Blood Brothers (his own family’s
tragic story of how his father and brother were
kidnapped by the Israeli Army, their church was
blown up, and they were banished from their
village, yet his father said they needed to love
their enemies—the Israelis as Jesus taught)
Emeritus,
Melkite Catholic Archdiocese
of Akka, Haifa, Nazareth, and All Galilee
and Leader of Mar Elias Educational Institutions including a high school with 1200 students; 60% Muslim, 40% Christian, Druze... There are some Jewish teachers, but no longer any Jewish students.
Sophia: Westerners were quick to condemn Hamas’s
killing of Israeli civilians last
year, yet have been more
likely to excuse or ignore the
atrocities being committed
by the state of Israel against
Palestinians. Why do you
believe that is?
Elias Chacour: It is the traditional way in the Western world to
justify everything Israel does. Israel
is considered a divine entity. It can
do no wrong. That’s why there is so
little sympathy with the Palestinians.
We have to understand that the
violence did not happen out of the
blue. It’s like a circle in the chain.
Palestinians have been suffering for
75 years. They lost their homes. They
lost their independence. They were under siege in Gaza. All the people in
Gaza are Palestinians from Palestine, but they were reduced
to refugees in their own country and scattered around the
world. So, it’s understandable that, at some point,
they would revolt.
But it was too atrocious.
Of course, I condemn it. But
what has been done to the
Palestinians, both before the
Hamas attack and after it, as
retaliation, is also atrocious.
It is unbelievable and unacceptable. Israel is demolishing a whole section of Gaza
and reducing the people to refugees, without
any excuse. They want to destroy, and they want to demolish.
They want to finish with the existence of the Palestinians.
We are used to seeing the Western world being one-sided
and say that whatever Israel does is legitimate and good. Even
to massacre, kill, and destroy is good because they are the chosen people. My goodness, this isn’t God’s judgment!
The Palestinians lost everything. Their country, their independence,
and their dignity. Everything. They are a scattered people.
They have lost everything. What Israel has done in Gaza is an
atrocity. It is an act of revenge.
The Jews have a good memory. They remember the Holocaust, which is good. They don’t want to forget it, and they shouldn’t!
But they blame Palestinians. How can they blame us?
The Jews say they are here because this was their home 2,000
years ago. Fine. They were deported by the Romans, and we were
not.
We were here, too. We stayed here. We waited here. And
then we welcomed them when they came in. But we cannot accept what they are doing to us.
SOPHIA: There are many in the West who say that there’s no
such thing as Palestine and that Jordan might as
well be the Arab homeland. But you clearly have a
deep Palestinian identity.
Eli Chacour: Absolutely. Why do you think that Westerners have a hard time
understanding that all Arabs are not alike, and that Palestine is
a real place with a real people?
I think it is because the Zionist propaganda convinced the
Western world that they have to compensate for what was done
to the Jews during World War II—the Holocaust...
I remember my father told us, within a few days, we might
have Jewish soldiers come to our village. That was in 1948. He
said, these are the survivors of a certain satanic plan in Germany
aiming at destroying all the Jews... And
some would be coming to our village. We need to show them that
somewhere in this world, they are welcome. They are our blood
brothers. That’s why I wrote my book, Blood Brothers.
SOPHIA: That was a beautiful part of your autobiography.
Initially, your father wanted to welcome the Jews
because they had nowhere else to go.
Eli Chacour: I want to say something very dangerous. The land of Palestine does not belong to the Jews. Yet, it cannot belong to the Palestinians either.
The land is God’s and both have to share the land!
That’s why I wrote my second book, We Belong to the Land. The Jews can say that. The Palestinians have the right to say that also. Unless we share the land together, we are doomed to disappear together.
SOPHIA: The State of Israel has sometimes claimed that they
are trying to protect Palestinian Christians from
Islamist terrorists and radicals. Have you found
this to be the case?
Eli Chacor: No, no, no, no.... The Christian Palestinian villages
that were destroyed by the creation of the State of Israel are
many—about twenty villages...the Jews who
came, and they were welcomed by us, and then as a response
to our welcome, they destroyed our villages...
Eli Chacour:
... two Christian women were going to a church in Gaza, and the
Israeli snipers shot them...
To read the whole interview go to:
The Journal of the Melkite Catholic Eparchy, page 15-17
https://melkite.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Sophia-v54-02-2024-Spring.pdf
Those wishing to support Archbishop Elias’s educational apostolate can
donate to the Pilgrims of Ibillin (pilgrimsofibillin.org/donate-now/)
In the LIGHT of Justice, Sharing, Kindness, Peace-creating,
Daniel Wilcox
Saturday, April 17, 2021
Book Review: LIONESS: Golda Meir and the Nation of Israel by Francie Klagsbrun
Lioness is well worth reading. One learns a lot about the history and leaders of Israel from a different perspective, a different angle than the usual history of a nation.
From Golda Meir's inpoverished, troubled early life in the Soviet Ukraine, to about 10 years as an immigrant in the U.S., to her abandoning that middle class life in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to go pioneering in the British ruled Palestine after the Great War--what a fascinating life journey.
She left the conveniences of American life in Milwaukee to live in a tiny rental in Palestine where conditions were primitive, worse than her childhood in the Ukraine. She had to handwash all of her clothes, and do laundry for others for meager pay, etc. The Palestine Mandate for immigrants were harsh, impoverished, with diseases such as malaria, and dangerous.
Arabs resented and opposed the huge numbers of European Jews who were immigrating into what had been their Muslins' land for almost a 1,000 years (since the Muslim Conquest). The population in the 19th century had been 85% Muslim, 11% Christian, and 4% Jewish.
The area was often lawless, though administered by the British as a mandate. It was like living pioneering days of the 19th century on the Oregon Trail in America. But instead of Apaches and other indigenous tribes, there were Arab raiders and Muslim mobs who attacked and massacred Jewish civilians. And during the 1930's and later, Arab leaders supported Nazi Germany.
I learned and understand so much about that era and about Golda Meir, and have already started to reflect upon various important themes in the biography. Francie Klagsbrun has written a powerful account of her life.
The most vitally important theme is about the nature of Golda Meir's (and other famous immigrants) absolute devotion to establishing and focusing on the state of Israel. They were extremely dedicated to Zionism. Too much so thought the German Jewish thinker Hannah Arendt who wrote that Golda Meir’s total commitment to Jewish nationalism was an “idol.”
Though, fortunately, Golda, didn’t take her absolute commitment to Zionism to the murderous length that Irgun, Lehi, and other Jewish extremists did.
But she did seem to relegate nearly everything and everyone to Zionism's commitment to create the state of Israel, and to a secondary degree to worldwide socialism. Her fervent dedication led her many times to unhealthy personal sacrifice, to such deep involvement and obsession that she mostly ignored and failed her young children, was unfaithful to her husband, and then abandoned him.
Sometimes, she made immoral and unjust decisions. One was to abort her first infant, because naving a child would have gotten in the way of her fervent political goals. Besides, she knew she had to work much harder than other leaders because she was the sole woman in a male-dominated group. Her life does show how choosing a finite object to ‘worship’ such as one's nation or one's ethnic-culture is an idolatrous form of group egotism.
Though Klagsbrun’s book is a very good effort, and is mostly interesting, definitely well worth reading, and isn’t as dry and is seldom boring, it does slow down at times. Like so many government-leader biographies, the book spends many pages describing the bureaucratic meetings, political-infighting, political procedures, propaganda and deception, etc.
One serious lack in the volume is there is hardly any of details or stories of Golda’s personal life other than hints of her adulteries against her husband, affairs with other Israeli leaders, etc. Evidently, Klagsbrun was unable to find significant evidence and stories of her private life.
Good biography.
Evaluation: B
Dan Wilcox
From Golda Meir's inpoverished, troubled early life in the Soviet Ukraine, to about 10 years as an immigrant in the U.S., to her abandoning that middle class life in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to go pioneering in the British ruled Palestine after the Great War--what a fascinating life journey.
Arabs resented and opposed the huge numbers of European Jews who were immigrating into what had been their Muslins' land for almost a 1,000 years (since the Muslim Conquest). The population in the 19th century had been 85% Muslim, 11% Christian, and 4% Jewish.
The area was often lawless, though administered by the British as a mandate. It was like living pioneering days of the 19th century on the Oregon Trail in America. But instead of Apaches and other indigenous tribes, there were Arab raiders and Muslim mobs who attacked and massacred Jewish civilians. And during the 1930's and later, Arab leaders supported Nazi Germany.
I learned and understand so much about that era and about Golda Meir, and have already started to reflect upon various important themes in the biography. Francie Klagsbrun has written a powerful account of her life.
The most vitally important theme is about the nature of Golda Meir's (and other famous immigrants) absolute devotion to establishing and focusing on the state of Israel. They were extremely dedicated to Zionism. Too much so thought the German Jewish thinker Hannah Arendt who wrote that Golda Meir’s total commitment to Jewish nationalism was an “idol.”
Though, fortunately, Golda, didn’t take her absolute commitment to Zionism to the murderous length that Irgun, Lehi, and other Jewish extremists did.
But she did seem to relegate nearly everything and everyone to Zionism's commitment to create the state of Israel, and to a secondary degree to worldwide socialism. Her fervent dedication led her many times to unhealthy personal sacrifice, to such deep involvement and obsession that she mostly ignored and failed her young children, was unfaithful to her husband, and then abandoned him.
Sometimes, she made immoral and unjust decisions. One was to abort her first infant, because naving a child would have gotten in the way of her fervent political goals. Besides, she knew she had to work much harder than other leaders because she was the sole woman in a male-dominated group. Her life does show how choosing a finite object to ‘worship’ such as one's nation or one's ethnic-culture is an idolatrous form of group egotism.
Though Klagsbrun’s book is a very good effort, and is mostly interesting, definitely well worth reading, and isn’t as dry and is seldom boring, it does slow down at times. Like so many government-leader biographies, the book spends many pages describing the bureaucratic meetings, political-infighting, political procedures, propaganda and deception, etc.
One serious lack in the volume is there is hardly any of details or stories of Golda’s personal life other than hints of her adulteries against her husband, affairs with other Israeli leaders, etc. Evidently, Klagsbrun was unable to find significant evidence and stories of her private life.
Good biography.
Evaluation: B
Dan Wilcox
Thursday, February 2, 2017
Was the D.C. March part of "this Lamb's War"?
YES and NO
FROM Lucy Duncun at AFSC on the D.C. March:
"Yes, you are late, but now you are here. Hope you come willing to open your heart and learn from all the veterans of this Lamb’s war that have been fighting for all of us for years, for decades, for centuries.
of this Lamb's War..."
I came late, too."
"Lucy serves as Director of Friends Relations for AFSC. She has been a storyteller for 20 years and has worked with Quaker meetings on telling stories for racial justice and of spiritual experience.
Before working for AFSC, she was Director of Communications at FGC, managed QuakerBooks of FGC, and owned and managed her own children's bookstore in Omaha, The Story Monkey. She is a member of Green Street Friends Meeting (PhYM) and is the proud mom of a 14 year-old son."
"Here are some tips as you enter this work.
"Listen, listen, listen, then follow: Center the voices of women/people of color: listen and do what is asked of you. We are socialized as white women to take charge, to think our ideas are best. Stand back, listen, follow. Here’s a terrific article that goes into how to listen to support justice."
"Learn: Read books by women/people of color, learn about the legacy of liberation struggles from the people leading them from indigenous resistance movements to #BlackLivesMatter."
"Read anti-racist white folks from whose experience you can learn as well. AFSC has a terrific Denormalizing Whiteness for Racial Justice curriculum with online readings..."
"Get involved: Seek out organizations led by people of color, form relationships with them, show up, and ask what you can do. Follow through."
"Offer #SanctuaryEverywhere: #SanctuaryEverywhere is the simple idea that everyday people can come together to keep each other safe. We’ve compiled many resources to assist you in skilling up to be there for those who will be most targeted in the coming months, and years."
"Show up for #BlackLivesMatter: AFSC has endorsed the Vision for Black Lives and suggests ways to get involved and resources to study.
"Disrupt Islamophobia: AFSC has pulled together this “Dos and Don’ts for Bystander Intervention” resource and 5 things your congregation can do to stop Islamophobia.
See you in the streets."
FROM: https://www.afsc.org/blogs/acting-in-faith/letter-to-my-white-sisters-after-women%E2%80%99s-march
--
YES AND NO
MY short response to Lucy Duncan's thoughtful article:
Good morning Lucy,
Thanks for posting this thoughtful article on "inclusion and equality."
Secondly, Yes and No:-)
Yes,
it's true as you write, "you have been positioned as perpetrator and an agent of harm by the accident of your birth—that we as white folks are born with the stain and the benefit of that legacy—
It was exhilarating to be among the 500,000 people...
grateful for the newly awakened, those joining...
to oppose the deeper levels of oppression...
Hope you come willing to open your heart and learn from...this Lamb’s war..."
No,
the March in many ways wasn't "of this Lamb's war:-(
For instance, consider that one of the central leaders of the March kept shouting harsh, demeaning, dehumanizing obscenities over and over
(that CNN didn't cut!).
How in the world is hateful, dehumanizing speech such as that, "this Lamb's war"?
Another speaker was advocating superstition, completely contrary to "this Lamb's War."
Furthermore, there was in the March, like in so many political events of the past year, a lot of exclusion, distortion, and lack of compassion.
It seems we need to remember Bayard Rustin's and Martin Luther King's emphasis on reconciliation and the treatment of "enemies" as individuals to be loved, even when we stand up against their harmful wrong speech and behavior.
In the first paragraph I agreed with you that "we as white folk are born...an agent of harm by the accident..."
BUT that doesn't mean we ought to support Black Lives Matter as an organization.
Some BLM statements totally contradict everything that "this Lamb's War" stand for.:-(
Lastly, you and the AFSC wrote, that Islam isn't..."an inherently violent religion."
I strongly disagree.
Having, myself lived in Palestine-Israel, been involved with Muslims for 55 years, studied the Quran, Islamic history, and biographies of Muhammad, etc., I think there is almost overwhelming evidence that Islam itself is unjust and immoral.
We can welcome with loving arms at least 200,000 refugees (the number I think the U.S. ought to accept; and totally reject the hateful, self-centered shout of U.S. first, U.S. first, U.S. first.)
BUT, we do need to be aware of the injustice, inequality, harm, and evil the majority of Muslims from Muhammad to the present have caused and continue to cause
-- the oppression of women, recent killings around the world by Muslims,
that most Muslims support punishment of ex-Muslims,
that many American Muslims (except for small groups of liberal Muslims such as the Muslim Reform Movement) do believe in and support the horrific verses in the Quran, the very wrong doctrine of "qadar," Sharia Law, etc.
This last year I personally spoke with two Muslim leaders after their lecture at a local mosque. It was deeply troubling that the one Muslim leader, an American professor didn't believe in freedom of religion, and that both of them supported the verse in the Quran which orders a husband to hit his wife:-(((.
I've been involved with the Quaker Movement (to one extent or another), working for human rights, etc. since I was serving as a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War in 1967 in Philadelphia and attended a Quaker meeting there.
There has been the Yes and the No in various Friends' actions, speaking of truth to power, vigils, statements, social actions, and so forth.
Let us be careful to live "this Lamb's War," as compassionate, active listening witnesses, and not get caught down
in all of the wrangling, distorting, and dehumanizing of the current political debacle,
another historic instance of the "Ocean of Darkness."
In the Light,
Daniel Wilcox
FROM Lucy Duncun at AFSC on the D.C. March:
"Yes, you are late, but now you are here. Hope you come willing to open your heart and learn from all the veterans of this Lamb’s war that have been fighting for all of us for years, for decades, for centuries.
of this Lamb's War..."
I came late, too."
"Lucy serves as Director of Friends Relations for AFSC. She has been a storyteller for 20 years and has worked with Quaker meetings on telling stories for racial justice and of spiritual experience.
Before working for AFSC, she was Director of Communications at FGC, managed QuakerBooks of FGC, and owned and managed her own children's bookstore in Omaha, The Story Monkey. She is a member of Green Street Friends Meeting (PhYM) and is the proud mom of a 14 year-old son."
"Here are some tips as you enter this work.
"Listen, listen, listen, then follow: Center the voices of women/people of color: listen and do what is asked of you. We are socialized as white women to take charge, to think our ideas are best. Stand back, listen, follow. Here’s a terrific article that goes into how to listen to support justice."
"Learn: Read books by women/people of color, learn about the legacy of liberation struggles from the people leading them from indigenous resistance movements to #BlackLivesMatter."
"Read anti-racist white folks from whose experience you can learn as well. AFSC has a terrific Denormalizing Whiteness for Racial Justice curriculum with online readings..."
"Get involved: Seek out organizations led by people of color, form relationships with them, show up, and ask what you can do. Follow through."
"Offer #SanctuaryEverywhere: #SanctuaryEverywhere is the simple idea that everyday people can come together to keep each other safe. We’ve compiled many resources to assist you in skilling up to be there for those who will be most targeted in the coming months, and years."
"Show up for #BlackLivesMatter: AFSC has endorsed the Vision for Black Lives and suggests ways to get involved and resources to study.
"Disrupt Islamophobia: AFSC has pulled together this “Dos and Don’ts for Bystander Intervention” resource and 5 things your congregation can do to stop Islamophobia.
See you in the streets."
FROM: https://www.afsc.org/blogs/acting-in-faith/letter-to-my-white-sisters-after-women%E2%80%99s-march
--
YES AND NO
MY short response to Lucy Duncan's thoughtful article:
Good morning Lucy,
Thanks for posting this thoughtful article on "inclusion and equality."
Secondly, Yes and No:-)
Yes,
it's true as you write, "you have been positioned as perpetrator and an agent of harm by the accident of your birth—that we as white folks are born with the stain and the benefit of that legacy—
It was exhilarating to be among the 500,000 people...
grateful for the newly awakened, those joining...
to oppose the deeper levels of oppression...
Hope you come willing to open your heart and learn from...this Lamb’s war..."
No,
the March in many ways wasn't "of this Lamb's war:-(
For instance, consider that one of the central leaders of the March kept shouting harsh, demeaning, dehumanizing obscenities over and over
(that CNN didn't cut!).
How in the world is hateful, dehumanizing speech such as that, "this Lamb's war"?
Another speaker was advocating superstition, completely contrary to "this Lamb's War."
Furthermore, there was in the March, like in so many political events of the past year, a lot of exclusion, distortion, and lack of compassion.
It seems we need to remember Bayard Rustin's and Martin Luther King's emphasis on reconciliation and the treatment of "enemies" as individuals to be loved, even when we stand up against their harmful wrong speech and behavior.
In the first paragraph I agreed with you that "we as white folk are born...an agent of harm by the accident..."
BUT that doesn't mean we ought to support Black Lives Matter as an organization.
Some BLM statements totally contradict everything that "this Lamb's War" stand for.:-(
Lastly, you and the AFSC wrote, that Islam isn't..."an inherently violent religion."
I strongly disagree.
Having, myself lived in Palestine-Israel, been involved with Muslims for 55 years, studied the Quran, Islamic history, and biographies of Muhammad, etc., I think there is almost overwhelming evidence that Islam itself is unjust and immoral.
We can welcome with loving arms at least 200,000 refugees (the number I think the U.S. ought to accept; and totally reject the hateful, self-centered shout of U.S. first, U.S. first, U.S. first.)
BUT, we do need to be aware of the injustice, inequality, harm, and evil the majority of Muslims from Muhammad to the present have caused and continue to cause
-- the oppression of women, recent killings around the world by Muslims,
that most Muslims support punishment of ex-Muslims,
that many American Muslims (except for small groups of liberal Muslims such as the Muslim Reform Movement) do believe in and support the horrific verses in the Quran, the very wrong doctrine of "qadar," Sharia Law, etc.
This last year I personally spoke with two Muslim leaders after their lecture at a local mosque. It was deeply troubling that the one Muslim leader, an American professor didn't believe in freedom of religion, and that both of them supported the verse in the Quran which orders a husband to hit his wife:-(((.
I've been involved with the Quaker Movement (to one extent or another), working for human rights, etc. since I was serving as a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War in 1967 in Philadelphia and attended a Quaker meeting there.
There has been the Yes and the No in various Friends' actions, speaking of truth to power, vigils, statements, social actions, and so forth.
Let us be careful to live "this Lamb's War," as compassionate, active listening witnesses, and not get caught down
in all of the wrangling, distorting, and dehumanizing of the current political debacle,
another historic instance of the "Ocean of Darkness."
Daniel Wilcox
Sunday, August 23, 2015
3 Sons Still Kill
Given that the Israeli government has killed thousands of Palestinian civilians in the last year, and now this week is destroying more ancient olive trees (800,000 trees in the last years), and confiscated more Palestinian land...
And that Jewish settlers again attacked, not only vandalizing mosques and churches, but burning a Palestinian family, killing the father and baby son in their home...
And that Palestinian Muslims continue to attack and murder innocent civilians, and get praised by Fatah, the Palestine Authority and HAMAS!
And...check the daily bad news.
Let's stop this slaughter and bring back some hope:
Three Sons Change
Disking the rock strewn
Objected earth near Bet Shean,
Underneath the Middle Eastern sky
Rows of mean earth riven by the blades,
We cut away our anger, hate, and pride,
Stopping to drink, not from the liquor
Of fanatic corruption but from
The precious water welling up,
Our oasis of Jacob'd sharing,
In this Hanukkah season
Of Christ's mass after
Ramadan.
Allah
We three sons of Abraham,
Muslim, Jew, and Christian,
Fight the true battle
Not each other but
To be found worthy
In compassion
Giving,
And purity--
The true
Submission
To God
Over
All.
Selah
In the Light,
Daniel Wilcox
First published in
outwardlink.net
And that Jewish settlers again attacked, not only vandalizing mosques and churches, but burning a Palestinian family, killing the father and baby son in their home...
And that Palestinian Muslims continue to attack and murder innocent civilians, and get praised by Fatah, the Palestine Authority and HAMAS!
And...check the daily bad news.
Let's stop this slaughter and bring back some hope:
Three Sons Change
Disking the rock strewn
Objected earth near Bet Shean,
Underneath the Middle Eastern sky
Rows of mean earth riven by the blades,
We cut away our anger, hate, and pride,
Stopping to drink, not from the liquor
Of fanatic corruption but from
The precious water welling up,
Our oasis of Jacob'd sharing,
In this Hanukkah season
Of Christ's mass after
Ramadan.
Allah
We three sons of Abraham,
Muslim, Jew, and Christian,
Fight the true battle
Not each other but
To be found worthy
In compassion
Giving,
And purity--
The true
Submission
To God
Over
All.
Selah
In the Light,
Daniel Wilcox
First published in
outwardlink.net
Sunday, December 14, 2008
The Lamb's War
Probably in human history there is no sin, no evil worse than human warfare.
Literally millions upon millions of innocent people have been slaughtered in the name of God.
That doesn't even deal with the multi-millions of soldiers who chose to kill each other in countless battles.
Over 100 million unarmed civilians were slaughtered in the 20th Century alone.
Even we Friends started out supporting religious war. According to First Friends a biography of George Fox by H. Larry Ingle, some early Friends were in the New Model Army of Oliver Cromwell during the English Civil War. Those devout Christians would go off to stealing, destroying, and killing while singing, joyously, psalms to their God.
Massacre at Drogheda, Ireland by Cromwell's troops
However by 1652, George Fox wrote: "That which is set up by the sword is held up by the sword. That which is set up by spiritual weapons is held up by spiritual weapons, and not by carnal weapons."
"The peacemaker has the kingdom and is in it, and has Dominion over the peace-breaker, to calm him in the power of God...The days of virtue, love and peace are coming, and the Lamb...shall have the victory."
Indeed, Quakers came to speak of "The Lamb's War"--the spiritual war by which all forms of human warfare would be defeated by God's love, by the cross of redemption.
One of the best true stories of this "Lamb's War" concerns a Christian attacked by two thugs in New York City. In the process of robbing him, the criminals poked out his eye!
However, rather than wanting and seeking revenge, he forgave the thugs and showed them God's forgiveness and concern--"warring" on them through love.
He visited them regularly in jail.
When one of the criminals later got out of prison, the Mennonite helped him get an education. Then he helped the former attacker to go on to college.
Eventually, that former thug became an eye specialist and helped people with eye problems.
Love overcame evil not by destruction but by creation.
Now that is a wondrous story of redeeming love. Of course, showing forth God's unending love doesn't often end happy in this life.
Many thousands of Friends, Anabaptists, heretics, etc. and many, many other people committed to loving their enemies have died horrific deaths as did Jesus himself. From the cruel torture device of Roman 'justice,' Jesus said, "Forgive them for they know not what they do."
The Quaker Tom Fox who moved to war-torn Iraq to witness for peace and justice was kidnapped and brutally murdered by the Muslims he had come to help.
Let us live in the compassion and altruism of hope, live the "Lamb's War," to defeat violence with love.
Daniel Wilcox
Literally millions upon millions of innocent people have been slaughtered in the name of God.
That doesn't even deal with the multi-millions of soldiers who chose to kill each other in countless battles.
Over 100 million unarmed civilians were slaughtered in the 20th Century alone.
Even we Friends started out supporting religious war. According to First Friends a biography of George Fox by H. Larry Ingle, some early Friends were in the New Model Army of Oliver Cromwell during the English Civil War. Those devout Christians would go off to stealing, destroying, and killing while singing, joyously, psalms to their God.
However by 1652, George Fox wrote: "That which is set up by the sword is held up by the sword. That which is set up by spiritual weapons is held up by spiritual weapons, and not by carnal weapons."
"The peacemaker has the kingdom and is in it, and has Dominion over the peace-breaker, to calm him in the power of God...The days of virtue, love and peace are coming, and the Lamb...shall have the victory."
Indeed, Quakers came to speak of "The Lamb's War"--the spiritual war by which all forms of human warfare would be defeated by God's love, by the cross of redemption.
One of the best true stories of this "Lamb's War" concerns a Christian attacked by two thugs in New York City. In the process of robbing him, the criminals poked out his eye!
However, rather than wanting and seeking revenge, he forgave the thugs and showed them God's forgiveness and concern--"warring" on them through love.
He visited them regularly in jail.
When one of the criminals later got out of prison, the Mennonite helped him get an education. Then he helped the former attacker to go on to college.
Eventually, that former thug became an eye specialist and helped people with eye problems.
Love overcame evil not by destruction but by creation.
Now that is a wondrous story of redeeming love. Of course, showing forth God's unending love doesn't often end happy in this life.
Many thousands of Friends, Anabaptists, heretics, etc. and many, many other people committed to loving their enemies have died horrific deaths as did Jesus himself. From the cruel torture device of Roman 'justice,' Jesus said, "Forgive them for they know not what they do."
The Quaker Tom Fox who moved to war-torn Iraq to witness for peace and justice was kidnapped and brutally murdered by the Muslims he had come to help.
Let us live in the compassion and altruism of hope, live the "Lamb's War," to defeat violence with love.
Daniel Wilcox
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Destiny, the Way of God, Versus Evil and Disaster in the World
"God doesn't cause messes for a purpose but he brings purposes to the messes."
Greg Boyd
What deep waters in a pop maxim of only 14 words!
Such a hope-'comet' to hang one's life onto!
Instead of the despairing and severely misguided theology of religious people--from Calvinists to Muslims to Hindus--who claim God wills all evil and all suffering, that every typhoon, earthquake, and war are God's idea and plan.
On the contrary, in this imperfect, actually messy, world, in this unfinished cosmos, God is Unlimited Benevolence and Goodness seeking to guide the cosmos and us finite conscious humans.
God wants to help us redeem the time and the place of where ever we are.
Our destiny is not today's momentary temptation, superficial experience, or tragic event.
We are called to live in the Light of God's eternal becoming.
I John, I Corinthians 13, etc.
In the Light,
Daniel Wilcox
Greg Boyd
What deep waters in a pop maxim of only 14 words!
Such a hope-'comet' to hang one's life onto!
Instead of the despairing and severely misguided theology of religious people--from Calvinists to Muslims to Hindus--who claim God wills all evil and all suffering, that every typhoon, earthquake, and war are God's idea and plan.
On the contrary, in this imperfect, actually messy, world, in this unfinished cosmos, God is Unlimited Benevolence and Goodness seeking to guide the cosmos and us finite conscious humans.
God wants to help us redeem the time and the place of where ever we are.
Our destiny is not today's momentary temptation, superficial experience, or tragic event.
We are called to live in the Light of God's eternal becoming.
I John, I Corinthians 13, etc.
In the Light,
Daniel Wilcox
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