Two days after Christmas, the Slaughter of the Innocents continues
Today, I preached a sermon entitled, “Hanging on to Christmas” with a scriptural focus of Matthew 2:16-19. This passage describes Herod’s murderous response to the birth of Jesus. For fear that the Christ Child would push him from his perch as client ruler of Judea, Herod ordered infanticide in Bethlehem and the surrounding area hoping to ensare the baby Jesus and add his corpse to the pile of dead bodies in town. Those in the Catholic Church identify this sorrowful occurrence in scripture as The Slaughter of the Innocents. In my sermon, I remarked on how soon after the birth of Jesus, the scriptural focus centers on Herod and his deadly campaign. The reader can barely get through the giving of gifts by the Magi before spiritual wickedness in high places demands an audience.
The parallel to current events is gravely ironic.
Two days after Christmas 2008 – two days after many purpose to celebrate the birth of the central figure in the Christian Faith, Israel began a murderous military campaign killing hundreds of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The bias of Western media is obvious. They would want you to believe that all of the dead are “militants” or “terrorists.” These days if governments attach that label to someone, it basically justifies them stripping the individual (or group of individuals) of all of their rights as Human Beings. Mainstream media takes the cue and refuses to probe into the situation with more than a sound byte analysis.
What’s truly disturbing to me is when those in the Christian Community – especially those who are leaders – either remain silent to this grave injustice or take an extreme Pro-Israel stance based on an uncontextualized understanding of Psalm 122:6.
A basic understanding of the history of the region would compel all Human Beings of Conscience and Faith to cry out and renounce this injustice. Israel is committing systematic acts of genocide and mass murder toward the Palestinian People under the false pretext of national security with weapons that were “made in the U.S.A.” Despite the so-called truce between Israel and Hamas, Israel continued to severely restrict food, water, medical supplies, and mobilization to the 1.5 million Palestianians within the Gaza Strip.
Though some would have you to believe that all Jews stand in support of the unjust actions of the Israeli Government, there are many that reject being silent partner or active participant to the atrocities, like Jewish Voices for Peace and the Shministim – a group of high school students in Israel who have been imprisoned for refusing to serve in an army that occupies Palestinian Territories.
The Israeli Government is the greatest purveyor of violence in the Middle East and because they wield so much influence on the United States Congress, the United Nations, and other major governmental bodies, they are given a free pass to kill innocent Palestinians at will.
The Slaughter of the Innoncents continues today in Palestine.
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The Gaza Strip is like an open-air prison, so populated that the citizens are like sitting ducks for Israeli bombs and terror. Anyone of color cannot justify the massacre that is going on. I hear some blacks talking like Israel is like the people in the movie “The Ten Commandments”, docile, humble, wronged and the like. Get real!!! They are murderous, vicious and vindictive. This assault on the Palestinians has been planned for a couple of years. And make no mistake, the timing of this assault was perfect. A lame duck president, a new president who is ignoring anything and everything until he takes office, most of the Western world has been on holiday and are not following the news, so this was the right time to strike.
This Gaza Strip bombing is payback for the 2006 abduction of a couple of Israeli officers, when which Israel severely bombed Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. The resolve that Hezbollah showed during that conflict had embarrased Israel and made Hassan Nasrallah a hero in the Muslim world.
Israel had been waiting for revenge since then.
I’m not like most people when it comes to Israel. No one gets a blank check. They were one of, if not the last major country to finally condemn aparthied. They have no love for persons of color, or if they do, they have a hell of a way of showing it. And the Palestinians are people of color. Tyranny and murder are the same, even if you are Jewish, you are commiting the same acts as the so-called “terrorists”.