- John 15:20
Another slaughter in a church:
Further proof that it requires real courage to walk with Him.Ten people died when gunmen tried to storm a church south of Cairo, but were intercepted by police.About an hour later, a Coptic-owned shop in the same area was attacked, leaving two dead.More than 100 Christians have been killed in Egypt in the past year - most attacks claimed by the local branch of the so-called Islamic State group.Security forces have put checkpoints in place around the capital in response to the attacks.
Why not run that courage to walk with Him rap on Bibi Netanyahu who, by the way, 20,000 Jews rallied in protest against in Israel on 12/4/2017, but of course he says they're operating based on fake news.
ReplyDeletePlease tell me how Benjamin Netanyahu has one fucking thing to do with this post
ReplyDeleteAm I supposed to be ashamed that I led you to choose the f word here? I would explain the obvious bit would only be met with fundamental denial.
ReplyDeleteYou haven't explained what Netanyahu has to do with this post. There's nothing obvious about it.
ReplyDeleteThere is if you blame Israel for the rise of radical Islam and it's renewed fervor over you know what recently. I know it's your blog but sometimes I tire of all the answers you say are found in Jesus, yet a main reason for all the discord in the Middle East is the continued denial of Jesus and His way by a major combatant you US fundamentalist Christians are so madly supportive of.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWell, you see, it's a lot of horseshit to blame Israel for the rise of radical Islam. Radical Islam has its roots in Wahhabism, which dates back to the 1700s. The jihadists responsible for either of the 9/11s - the one in the US in 2001 or the one in Libya in 2012 - didn't say a damn thing about Israel in their pronouncements. Ditto any of the other major attacks so far this century.
ReplyDeleteConsider the nature of this particular attack. What the hell do Egyptian Coptic Christians have to do with US support of Israel? What is the connection when churches are attacked in Ethiopia or Pakistan?
ReplyDeleteOK, let's just start with the WTC bombing in 1993, then move forward from there.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the transcript of his trial, Yousef hoped that his explosion would topple Tower 1 which would fall into Tower 2, killing the occupants of both buildings, which he estimated to be about 250,000 people[8] in vengeance for America's support for Israel against Palestine.[9] According to the journalist Steve Coll, Yousef mailed letters to various New York newspapers just before the attack, in which he claimed he belonged to "Liberation Army, Fifth Battalion".[10] These letters made three demands: an end to all US aid to Israel, an end to US diplomatic relations with Israel, and a pledge by the United States to end interference "with any of the Middle East countries' interior affairs." He stated that the attack on the World Trade Center would be merely the first of such attacks if his demands were not met. In his letters, Yousef admitted that the World Trade Center bombing was an act of terrorism, but this was justified because "the terrorism that Israel practices (which America supports) must be faced with a similar one."
See wiki
On May 14, 1948, the state of Israel was born. Europeans were no longer just trying to influence the Middle East from a distance—now they had set up their own nation inside of it. To some, this was a moment of celebration, but for many of the people living there, it was an affront, a moment that would light the spark of Islamic terrorism.
Delete“The creation and continuation of Israel is one of the greatest crimes,” Osama bin Laden said after the September 11 attacks, trying to justify his involvement. Palestine, he said, had been under military occupation since the day Israel was formed.
http://listverse.com/2017/03/03/10-reasons-the-terrorists-hate-us/
Anyhow just google why the terrorists hate America, but I did locate an NR article that blames, of all entities, Islam and Islamism, but I did not find the word Israelwithin his extrapolation upon my initial perusal of the article. The author's name is somewhat telling--Ira Strauss
Deletehttp://www.nationalreview.com/article/414113/actual-root-causes-islamic-terrorism-ira-straus
Your listverse link lists the existence of the State of Israel itself as one of ten causes. (Bingo, we are back to the main reason it's pointless to negotiate with Palestinians.) A perusal of the others makes it clear that that is within the context of an overall resentment of the West ("puppet leaders," "sanctions," "military leaders"). Another one listed is Sharia law. That's at the root of all this. Jihadists will not rest until all lands currently not living under sharia are living under sharia.
ReplyDeleteBut let's grant you the fact that support for Israel is a component of this, most explicitly demonstrated by the statement in your first link, the demand from teh 1993 bombing mastermind.
Let's see, the US, an unquestionably virtuous country (on balance, of course) support a fellow Western country, also virtuous (on balance, of course). If we were to stop that support just because vicious thugs like Yousef, that would amount to appeasement, actually surrender. It would set a precedent, and every slime ball outfit on earth would start bombing and listing demands of the advanced and virtuous nations of the West.
In short, "These mean, scary guys want us to drop support for one of our five closest allies. We'd better do it so they don't attack us anymore."
Oh, and you have not answered why last question: how this Egyptian Coptic Christian Church has any ties with not only Netanyahu but this protests rally you cite.
Any Islamic terrorist attack anywhere against any group or person is connected with the Israel question. And I never said that was the only reason for Islamic terrorism. The protest rally in Israel earlier this month is merely indicative of dissent against him at home, that's all. We've got our problems with our leader (not plural because you seem to really dig most of his peeps) here at home.
ReplyDeleteI read where you fundies think you're persecuted for being Christian even here at home. Hmmm, well, I do recall the remnants of anti-Catholicism in my little home town, but persecuted now, not at all. Cheers!
ReplyDeleteIf any attack is connected to Israel, spell out just how that plays out in the Coptic church attatck.
ReplyDeleteWhy, does ISIS, who's claiming responsibility love Jews but not Christians? There are multiple reasons for their jihad and chief among them is anti Israeli. I don't condone it of course. It's heinous beyond my parochial understanding. But in no way do Infeel persecuted for being a Christian here in America. Do you!
ReplyDeleteYou can't just go by your own experience. You have to look at what is happening to brothers and sisters in Christ, like Baronelle Stutzman and Jack Phillips.
ReplyDeleteBut, yes, if you want to talk about personal experience, there are ever-shrinking parameters on what is considered acceptable to publicly talk about right here in my community. In one of my last opinion columns for the local paper, I used what I consider the innocuous term "unconventional sex lives" to refer to homosexuality, and the letters to the editor excoriating me came pouring in. A former state senator and local Dem party bigwig called it "incendiary rhetoric" and said "Surely the paper can find a conservative voice that is more responsible and less divisive that Mr. Quick." A nationally know folk singer who resides here called for my ouster. (I was eventually given the ultimatum to choose between my magazine work and continuing my column "due to the rather pointed nature of [my] last few columns".) Currently there is a say-no-to-hate intiative going on that includes Black Lives Matter, several local churches (think Presbyterian and Unitarian) and Su Casa. The stinking mayor has given it the official imprimatur of city government. At the initial meeting, somebody officially involved went beyond the ostensible reason for the whole thing (some poorly attended white-supremacist rally a few months earlier) to start talking about DACA, the Muslim community, and, of course, the LGBTQ people. It doesn't take a genius to see what they're cooking up.
OK, I will retract my blanket statement that Islamic terrorists are targeting Christians ostensibly because of the Israel question (for them, not you and not me, we don't operate that way of course, and while you might now, I've never even owned a gun and don't plan to start now, but I have fired them but they just don't ring my bell, but if they ring yours and other Americans, go right on ahead. I do know they can indeed be roundly defeated eventually, but I also hear they want a worldwide conflagration. I've also heard that said about Christian evangelicals here in America. Word has it the crowd in Pensacola for Trump's recent speech cheered for Armageddon.
ReplyDelete"Targeting Egypt’s Christians is a cold and calculated strategy for the group. ISIS hopes that inflaming sectarian strife in Egypt will be the first step in the country’s unraveling. Several explosions have rocked Cairo and the Delta since 2013, carried out by both ISIS and its precursor group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, which pledged its allegiance to Raqqa in 2014. Yet despite this, Islamic State efforts had before now largely floundered in mainland Egypt—where nearly 97 percent of the population resides—due in part to the strength of the central government, the amateur nature of Islamic State assets, and perhaps most importantly, the relative cohesiveness of Egyptian society. The group has fared much better in the remote North Sinai, where it has killed over a thousand government troops in recent years, but the area is simply too far away from Cairo to constitute an existential threat to the government."
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/04/why-isis-declared-war-on-egypts-christians/522453/
GOP winger state Sen. Doug Broxson, who made a speech welcoming Trump to Florida, led the crowd in applause and cheers ... for the end of the world. (33:15 in the video).
ReplyDelete“Now, I don’t know about you, but when I heard about Jerusalem — where the King of Kings, where our soon coming King is coming back to Jerusalem, it is because President Trump declared Jerusalem to be capital of Israel,” Sen. Broxson enthused...
https://crooksandliars.com/2017/12/trump-rallygoers-cheer-end-world
Yes I know you got your conservative now evangelical Christian nipple in the wringer there in our little town. You might recall I am of the stripe that thinks politically activist Christianity has done grave damage to the brand here in America. "Preach the gospel always; if necessary use words." It might be rainbows & unicorns, but as the song goes, "they'll know we are Christians by our love...."
ReplyDeleteThe latest challenge to evangelical unity arises from the extent to which a large majority of self-identified "evangelical" voters have aligned themselves with such politicians as Donald Trump and Judge Roy Moore, both of whom have a record of stoking cultural resentments rather than building community. To some evangelicals, a pattern of narcissism, lies, misogyny and vilifying immigrants and refugees disgraces their religious tradition.
"For those of us who care deeply that our neighbors come to know the love of Jesus Christ, this is a tragic moment," says Collin Hansen, editorial director for The Gospel Coalition, an organization of church leaders dedicated to restoring the "historic beliefs and practices" of traditional evangelicalism. "We talk about the evangel, the good news, that makes us evangelicals, [but] our neighbors hear a certain kind of political agenda or they hear a kind of anger or frustration."
https://www.npr.org/2017/12/29/574590758/2017-has-been-a-rough-year-for-evangelicals?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=2059
Circling back, you're not expecting more terrorism with renewed fervor after the Trump order to upend 20 years of dilly dallying in service of a solution short of the Final Solution? And I never said to abandon Israel, but several of our current Commander in Chief's generals are on record that the current situation in Jerusalem is unsustainable (quoted of course before the almost universally maligned edict by our extremely divisive president who digs discord (very very accomplished at dishing discord), though he spouted unity in Miller's speech he delivered on inauguration day. This megalomaniac is no Mr. Nice Guy. He'll throw a chair first in the ring (championship wrestling analogy) and the crowd cheers the good guy stooping to bad guy tactics. Yet he never was a good guy, but there are still suckers born every minute.
ReplyDeleteA.) "Vilifying immigrants" is wrong when it happens, but phrases like that are often used as code for giving a pass to people who are here illegally.
ReplyDeleteB.) I'm on record as saying that evangelical support for Moore - and Trump - is a wrong turn and that ministers and public figures taking that stance are misguided, right down to the spiritual level.
C.) Not sure why you bring up Trump's megalomania once again. That he is one is exactly the LITD position. But the Jerusalem-as-capital declaration was a law passed by Congress in 1995, and has only been put on hold since then because so many people feel like they have to walk on eggshells around the Jew-Haters that constitute there Palestinian leadership (and, polls show, the populace as well) and that constitute the preponderance of UN sentiment. Which gets to why the "situation is unsustainable." Until these Palestinians are willing to recognize Israel as a sovereign state with a Jewish identity and quit indoctrinating their children to believe Israel is illegitimate, it's going to remain unsustainable.
Zionists stole land (back?) even as early as the 1920s and Israeli courts were no better than commie dogs in seizing lawful property of Palestinians. The Jews are as culpable as the Palestinians. There was a reason for the suspension of the congressional will in 95. More that Trump has seemed Jerusalem the capital of Israel we shall see what happens. Remember that the radical Islamists want Armageddon every bit as much as some of the Christians are said to want it. Trump has claimed to be the only American president with courage since Truman but many, maybe you included, think he's simply off his rocker. I hate him and I hate much of what he has done in his first year. See ya at the ballot box.
ReplyDeleteAgain, your view is so toxic I don’t see how you sleep at night. Really chilling stuff. I really don’t see how you can deny hating Jews, you handful of non practicing acquaintances notwithstanding
ReplyDeleteWhat kinds of allies do you think the US should have? Are Britain, Australia, Canada, Japan and South Korea okay with you? Is it because they don’t have Jewish identities?
ReplyDeleteThe fact that you would use your tendency to go off-topic to insert mentions of Netanyahu and Israel into a post about an attack on an Egyptian church demonstrates the degree to where ch you heart is poisoned.
ReplyDeleteYou're full of crap. Gazillions get accused of being anti-Semitic every day. Please respond to this where I got my information. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/01/18/palestine-this-land-is-our-land/
ReplyDeleteBringing up Netanyahu was a response to your claim that it takes real courage to be a Christian. And, well, if it does in the Middle East, why not tell HIM that? And if I am anti-Semitic, which I am not, so what?
ReplyDeleteAnd if I'm anti Semitic, so's my Pope. And all Popes before him (Pius X particularly was called that, even complicit with the Nazis).
ReplyDeleteAnd I never said Israel should not be our ally.
ReplyDeleteYou can certainly see a lot about where this Fields guy is coming from way down in Shehadeh's review of his book, when he attempts to draw a parallel with American Indians - American settler situation. What he does in each case is try to argue that the concept of "continuous occupation" outweighs actual law. The land that went to Zionists both before and after the establishment of the state of Israel resulted from perfectly legal sales.
ReplyDeleteThere is a clear general anti-Western bias. That is reinforced by this term he uses, "white space." He is trying to. make a general point that Western nations are land-grabbing bastions of bigotry.
My patience with this guy ran out when he used the term "catastrophe" to describe the 1948 establishment of the modern state of Israel. By definition, he hates the fact that it exists.
Now, your turn:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.dailywire.com/news/11948/breaking-down-israeli-occupation-myth-elliott-hamilton
Has there ever been a legitimate, sovereign state of "Palestine"? The answer is no. Before 1948, the region commonly known as Palestine did not have a sovereign nation controlling the territory. Instead, the British Empire controlled the territory as part of its mandate following the First World War. In 1948, the only sovereign nation that was established in the land was Israel. However, Israel did not possess Judea, Samaria, or Eastern Jerusalem by then and it never had control over the territory until 1967. Instead, that territory was illegally occupied by Jordan, who annexed the territories despite widespread international rejection of its decision. There was no sovereign state of "Palestine" in those lands. In fact, the Palestine Liberation Organization, a terrorist group now masquerading as the representative of the Palestinian-Arab population, was not founded until 1964, three years before Israel captured the disputed territories in a defensive war against Jordan.
Got that? there has never been a sovereign nation-state called Palestine. The Arabs - mostly of Jordanian and Egyptian descent - living in the area were offered one in the late 1940s when the UN looked at how to create Israel, but declined the offer. Have declined it several times since then.
Here's a Sand Diego Tribune op-ed on how your man Fields whitewashes Hamas.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/editorials/sdut-gaza-airbrushing-of-hamas-history-2014jul23-story.html
Sure looks like a catastrophe to me. And it still is. Each side has their arguments. Which is why there has been a 2 decades long hiatus over implementing the Congressional mandate recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. And there's no slicing the shame of America's treatment of the Negro slave and the Native American savages.
ReplyDeleteBingo. You've exposed your real attitude toward Israel. Also America, with your interest in putting the slavery and Indian matters at the top of the list about what is significant about this country.
ReplyDeleteYou never again have any standing to balk at the label "hard leftist."
I turn the other cheek.
ReplyDelete