I have learned (thanks to EoZ) that we''ve had a visit from a State Department official. One Shaun Casey.
He is
the head of the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Faith-Based Community Initiatives and associate professor of Christian Ethics and director of the National Capital Semester for Seminarians (NCSS) at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC. His research interests include ethics and international affairs, the public implications of religious belief, and the intersection of religion and politics. A graduate of Harvard Divinity School with a Doctorate of Theology in Religion and Society, Casey has written on the ethics of the war in Iraq as well the role of religion in American presidential politics.
He
visited Bishop Munib Younan and the Lay Preachers Academy on Friday, February 14th, to discuss the peace process and the role of the Lutheran church in peace. Mr. Casey met Bishop Munib Younan in Jerusalem and asked Bishop Younan to speak on how the church sees its role as peacemakers in the Middle East.Mr. Casey then traveled to Abrahams Herberge in Beit Jala to speak with the members of the Lay Preachers Academy and ask for their candid opinions on the peace process and to ask how Palestinian Christians view themselves and their community. Mr. Casey spent 90 minutes listening to the Lutheran Christian voices of Palestine on their concerns about the current peace talks and their hopes for the future.
I haven''t heard that he visited a Jewish community in Judea and Samaria. Did he?
Which is odd.
Why?
Because if his job is based on faith, why were Jews not visited? Are we not also faith people? Are not, moreover, usually accused, pejoratively, of mixing religion and politics? But Christians and Muslims can, it seems.
That Bishop?
His political agenda is:-
it is my strong hope that these discussions result in a just solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including a shared Jerusalem, the right of return for Palestinian refugees, and the end of Israeli occupation, including settlements, according to international law.
There go the Jews, I guess No "settlements" mean no Jews.
He also gets nasty:
It continues to be my vision that Palestinians will one day see the image of God in their Israeli neighbors
"One day"? We have no such image now? The Arabs are blind? Or do they blind themselves to the reality, victims of their own propaganda and incitement campaigns?
the occupation of Palestinian land as a sin against God and humanity
The document also suggests we Jews have a lesser right to this land:
2.3.2 Our presence in this land, as Christian and Muslim Palestinians, is not accidental but rather deeply rooted in the history and geography of this land, resonant with the connectedness of any other people to the land it lives in. It was an injustice when we were driven out. The West sought to make amends for what Jews had endured in the countries of Europe, but it made amends on our account and in our land. They tried to correct an injustice and the result was a new injustice.
It is as if only anti-Semitism is our justification; we have no national ethos. That the true geography and connectedness predates Christians and Muslims. The land is the land if Israel and it is holy becuase of the Jews. It is his presentation in that document whihc is a perversion and, worse, a sin.
So, is this Kerry''s new ally, his political ally? In his peace crusade?
What a lack of faith.
^