The latest issue of Massah, the six-monthly publication of the New Zealand
Council of Christians and Jews, is now online at:
In this issue:
* Paul – Founder of Christianity, or faithful Jew?
* Is it Possible to Teach the New Testament without being Anti-Semitic?
* Jewish – Christian Relations in Israel
* NZ Women’s Interfaith activities
Happy reading
Dave
2 comments July 24th, 2008
There are two encouraging stories in the media today in which Christians and Muslims are engaging in ever deeper dialogue. In North America, Yale University will be hosting a conference on “A Common Word”, and England’s Archbishop of Canterbury has invited Christian and Muslim leaders to a conference in October to tackle religious violence and freedom of worship.
Both gatherings are important. A Common Word was a groundbreaking invitation by Muslim religious leaders worldwide to engage in wider dialogue with Christians and Jews, and fully deserves a further engagement. The Archbishop of Canterbury’s appeal has a more practical slant in working to stem religious tensions.
As with the Saudi-led interfaith talks in Spain that began today, the real challenges will be (a) translating talk into action, and (b) taking the message from the leadership to the grassroots. The former will enable the latter, as the proof of the sincerity of the participants will be in the outcomes that they are able to achieve once they get home.
Dave
Add comment July 16th, 2008
Gospel Music Bites reports that members of a New Orleans African American church displaced by fire will be temporarily worshiping at a Jewish temple.
After a fire burnt down the Greater St. Stephen Full Gospel Baptist Church, Temple Sinai’s Rabbi Edward Cohn invited the displaced parishioners to worship at the synagogue.
“Christians and Jews, blacks and whites at the temple on Sunday said they hope they can work together in the future and that more unions like this one should be happening around the world.”
Add comment July 15th, 2008
Is interfaith dialogue a waste of time? We Don’t Think So. [digg=http://digg.com/world_news/Is_interfaith_dialogue_a_waste_of_time]
Common Ground highlighted an article in Pakistan’s Daily Times in which Islamic Scholar Genevieve Abdo criticises interfaith dialogue as being “misguided” and “dangerous”, because we are “[m]erely embracing Muslims who are already converted to a Western school of thought … [and] avoiding the fact that there are profound differences between Muslims in the East and non-Muslims in the West.”
She says that a far more effective effort would be to appeal to the disaffected youth in Europe and the Muslim world who “loathe the US and much of what it represents … Despite the overwhelming evidence of a decline in the West’s relationship with the Islamic world, it still has no effective foreign policy strategy for engaging Islamist leaders and Muslim societies in a meaningful way.”
I don’t question that creating positive opportunites for disaffected youth, anywhere, is critical to building a positive future, and I also agree that the “West” has failed miserably in effectively engaging with the Islamic world. This has been mainly due to a bad combination of acting in self-interest rather than for the greater good, paternalism, and bigotry – on both sides.
Progress will be extremely difficult, however, without achieving a better understanding of, and between our faiths and worldviews. Interfaith dialogue is only as good as the distance it’s willing to go – if it is unwilling to go beyond commonalities, then I agree with Abdo that it is pointless. But understanding those commonalities, and building trust are critical first steps that cannot be bypassed.
Some of the groups I’m involved with are starting to discuss the more controversial issues, and that’s fantastic. We are discussing them as close friends, and we have a personal stake in positive outcomes. To us, that’s a lot more meaningful than another government programme with well-intentioned but inexperienced bureaucrats throwing money someone else’s social problems.
Dave
1 comment July 9th, 2008
Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit, ecumenical Christian housing ministry that works against homlessness and poverty. They invite people of all backgrounds, races and religions to build houses together in partnership with families in need.
Recently, an article about a “House of Abraham” project caugh my eye, or rather my newsfeeds. The project to build an affordable Habitat house for a local family was planned, funded, and built by a local group of Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Hartford, Connecticut, USA. A little further web research shows that there are numerous other similar projects both underway and completed throughout the US.
What a fantastic idea, a grand project, a great way to bring people together to work together for something that’s literally constructive.
Dave
Add comment July 8th, 2008
Rachael Kohn recently interviewed Issa Jaber Abu Ghosh, the director of the Education Department for the Abu Gosh local council. The town of Abu Ghosh, outside of Jerusalem, close to pilgrimage sites for all three faiths, is primarily a Muslim settlement which is working actively to promote positive relations with their Jewish and Christian neighbours. The town has a history of abstaining from engaging in war and violence, and while some neighbouring Arabs see them as traitors because of their acceptance of the state of Israel, the Abu Ghosh community sees their struggle as being one of walking the line between living peacefully within the Israeli political system while advocating for equal recognition of all who live there.
You can listen to the interview here for the next week or so, after that you should be able to find a transcript and links to related information here.
Mark
Add comment June 30th, 2008
Recently in Brunswick, Melbourne, two contemplative traditions met (perhaps for the first time) in a shared prayer service that incorporated Zikhr and Taize chanting.
Zikhr, or Dhikr, is an Arabic word meaning “remembrance”. In Islam, Zikhr refers to any practice which leads to greater awareness of God. These practices include repetition of the name of allah (God), uttering short phrases of praise, controlled breathing, movement, and any everyday activity performed with awareness of God’s presence. The Zikhr used in the Prayers for Peace service is based on the form used by the Chisti Order, a sufi (or mystical) tradition within Islam. The Chisti order was founded by Abu Ishaq Shami (“the Syrian”) who brought Sufism to the town of Chist, some 95 miles east of herat in present-day western Afghanistan about 930 C.E. and continues to this day. The Chisti order is known for its emphasis on love, tolerance, and openness.
The Taize tradition of chant takes its name from the town of Taize, in the south of Burgundy, France, the home of an international Christian ecumencial community founded in 1949 by Brother Roger. The community is committed to material and spiritual sharing and to a greater simplicity of life. People from all around the world visit Taize every year to participate in prayer, singing and silence and to share in the life of the community. In Taize style, short songs or chants are sung and repeated again and again, giving them a meditative quality. Using just a few words they express a reality of faith, and our deep longing for the divine.
The shared service arose from two friends, Leesl and Rasheeda, discussing their respective contemplative traditions. Leesl is involved in organising Taize services which take place monthly in the church of the Brunswick Christian Fellowship. Nearby, Rasheeda helps to coordinate a regular Zikhr gathering. The two friends decided to seek a way of allowing the two traditions to meet.
Prayers for Peace opened with Zikhr, led by Ustad Khalil Gudaz. In between chants, verses from the Koran and the Old and New Testaments were read. After a period silence, people joined in Taize chants, interspersed with readings from the Persian Sufi Poet, Hafiz, and Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him). In a long period of quiet contemplation, particpants came and lit candles, placing them upon a map of the world, and offered prayers of intercession, reconciliation and healing. After each prayer, the group offered a chant asking for God’s mercy.
The service closed with a prayer from Pax Christi:
O God, you are the source of life and peace
Muslims, Christians, and jews remember, and profoundly affirm,
that they are followers of the one God,
Children of Abraham, brothers and sisters;
enemies begin to speak to one another;
those who were estranged join hands in friendship;
nations seek the way of peace together.
Strengthen our resolve to give witness to these truths by the way we live.
Give to us:
Understanding that puts an end to strife;
Mercy that quenches hatred, and
Forgiveness that overcomes vengeance.
Empower all people to live in your law of love
Amen.
It was the first time for many of the Muslim and Christian participants to meet one other, and there was a sense of profound respect following the sharing of each others’ traditions and texts.
A similar service, including Jewish and Buddhist traditions, is being held on Friday 11th July 2008 from 1-2 pm at the Pilgrim house of Prayer, St Augustine Church, Bourke St, Melbourne (between Spencer St and King St).
Mark
3 comments June 29th, 2008
Theolog has an excellent post today about violence in scripture.
“Muslim leader Maher Hathout asked rhetorically before a packed sanctuary, ‘if we are so good, why are we so bad?’ … The keys to being good, he said, include justice, compassion and the ability to forgive, adding that doing right or wrong often gets impetus from one’s tendencies toward inclusion or exclusion respectively.”
“Confronting troubling principles in our faith’s teachings is often painful…”
“It is crucial to understand sacred texts in all three traditions through the lens of critical inquiry and contemporary thought…”
Well worth a read, and we’ll be keeping a lookout for the “Abrahamic Peace Initiative” referred to in the article.
Dave
Add comment June 27th, 2008
Today we welcome our first guest blogger, Jenny Chalmers, an Anglican Priest who lives and works in the Wairarapa region of New Zealand. She is a member of the Wellington Council of Christians and Jews and is interested in the various forms of Christian antisemitism. You can contact her on jenny@clear.net.nz.
At the best of times, Zionism is a controversial topic, and guaranteed to stir emotions in anyone who has engaged with the subject There’s no doubt that supporting each others’ religions is generally a good idea, but where do you draw the line, and to what extent does one question the motivations of extra-religious supporters? And how do you react when you feel that others are “supporting” elements within your religion in an inappropriate way?
Jenny explores the history of and ethos of Christian Zionism in her article below, adapted from a chapter in her Ph.D thesis.
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There is a wide range of belief within the term Christian Zionism. In its simplest form Christian Zionism is defined as Christian support for Zionism, the return of Jews to their homeland, Israel. But, the term also describes beliefs referred to as premillenium dispensationalism, a pessimistic view of a time of the second messianic age. Although Christian Zionism, at first glance, seems to consist of Christians supporting the Jewish right to a homeland, a closer inspection reveals that Christians Zionists support Israel as a means to their own redemption at the Apocalypse.
Hal Lindsey’s book The Late Great Planet Earth, a well known work of ‘biblical prophesy’ identifies the ‘restoration of Jews’ to be God’s faithfulness to the covenant God made with Abraham. However, Lindsay says, many Jews will die in Armageddon and the church will replace God’s chosen people as Israel, on earth.
In Tim LaHaye’s prophecies, played out in the Left Behind series of popular apocalyptic novels, those left behind after the rapture will live in what might be described as a ‘one world socialist gulag’.
Using the same eccentric eisegesis as Lindsay and LaHaye, in The Next World War Grant Jeffrey writes that:
Christians and others who are familiar with the Old Testament should not be surprised that extreme Islam is waging all-out war against Israel and the West. God prophesised that there would be irreconcilable hatred in the heart of Ishmael, the son of the Egyptian Hagar, toward his brother, Isaac, the ancestor of the Jewish people.
Support for Israel is not always because Israel is entitled to the promised land. John Hagee in his book Jerusalem Countdown, in a chapter entitled ‘Five Bible reasons Christians should support Israel’ explains in his third reason that ‘Christians are to support Israel because it brings the blessings of God to them personally’.
Many Christian Zionists believe that supporting Israel fulfils Biblical prophesies and accelerates the coming of the second messianic era.
Amongst other Christian Zionist beliefs are:
Christian Zionism is found within most protestant, charismatic, fundamentalist and pentecostal churches. Some support is found in the evangelical wings of the mainline churches; premillenilist dispensationalist themes cross denominational boundaries because of there prevalence in Christian radio and television broadcasting. The National Religious Broadcasters organization which controls almost 90 percent of religious radio and television in the U.S., is dominated by a Christian Zionist orientation.
In the United States, where Christian Zionist beliefs are most prolific, a 1984 Yankelovich poll found that 39% of Americans believed that when the Bible says the earth would be destroyed by fire, this meant that we would destroy the earth in a nuclear Armegedon.
A number of commentators have described the relationship between Christian Zionists and political power. Grace Halsell in the book Burning Issues describe the relationship between Jerry Falwell and the Israeli government.
Halsell describes an incident in 1985 when she took part in a Jerry Falwell sponsored tour: “…I heard Falwell say, in an aside to (Israeli Defence Minister) Moshe Arens, ‘By the way, I want to thank you for that jet plane you gave me’.”
Halsell explains that she had seen the jet on a visit to Lynchburg, Virginia, Falwell’s base, and had been told that the jet was a gift from the Israelis in payment for what he had done for them.
Sixty Minutes journalist, Ted Wagner says that in April 2002 after the Passover bombings, when Israel in retaliation attacked ‘several cities and refugee camps in the West Bank’ the President of the United States, George W Bush, ‘repeatedly appealed to Sharon to withdraw from the West Bank city of Jenin’. The pro-Israel lobby co-ordinated with the Christian right ‘urging the President to avoid restraining Israel’. Jerry Falwell, commenting in a 60 minutes interview said: ‘I really believe when the chips are down Ariel Sharon can trust George Bush to do the right thing every time,’ In the same interview Falwell said ‘It’s my belief that the Bible Belt in America is Israel’s only safety belt right now’.
In Israel, the International Christian Embassy Jersualem, is cross denominational and sponsors a number of activities. The embassy is a good example of a Christian Zionist organisation which the website says ’views both the Jewish people and the Land of Israel as chosen by God long ago for purposes of world redemption’.
According to the website, it was founded in 1980 as an evangelical Christian response to the need to comfort Zion, according to the command of scripture found in Isaiah 40:1-2: ‘Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem…’
The embassy’s website describes the embassy as having a ‘theology, actions and motives…based on ‘biblical principles and promises’, and that it is ‘covenantal’.
The first two chapters of the monograph ‘Swords into Ploughshares’ published on the ICEJ website, states that before the return of the Messiah there will be a final battle of Armageddon when the nations will fight against Israel. This is consistent with traditional dispensationalism‘.
The two largest activities the Embassy promotes are resettling Soviet Jews and holding a feast of the Tabernacles. The embassy also promotes tours of Israel, using Israeli guides.
The ICEJ aliyah programme helps Jews from ‘remote areas of Siberia and other former Soviet republics as well as North and South America, encouraging the Jewish population to return to the land of Israel’. The website boasts that ’52 plane loads of people have been assisted in this way’.
The annual ‘Feast of the Tabernacles’ which the ICEJ hosts, invites ‘thousands of Christians’ from around the world ‘come up to Jerusalem in answer to God’s call to celebrate the ancient biblical festival of Succcot’. This, press reports from the ICEJ say, is the largest single tourist attraction in Israel. Since it’s inception in 1980, successive Israeli Prime ministers have addressed the ‘Feast of the Tabernacles’ gatherings.
It seems that apart from the Israeli political contacts the website informs readers that1 the ICEJ has also jointly formed an organisation which seeks to inform officials and members of the European Parliament and other political leaders across the 25-state European Union about the complex realities of the Middle East conflict by acknowledging Israel’s right to exist in peace within secure borders.
However, in keeping with literal and prophetic Biblical prophecies, the Embassy believes that ‘comfort’ is conditional upon the Jewish people meeting certain conditions. In an statement entitled A Biblical stand on Zionism #2, the authors write in the first conclusion that “Israel’s right of domicile is dependent on her reconciled relationship with God” and in the second they observe that “the Jewish people have returned to Israel a secular people (and) correction and judgement are to be expected…”
The eight points in the conclusion warn that Israel will be judged and “God’s process of dealing with Israel does not legitimize those like the PLO, Hamas, etc, who are actively working for Israel’s destruction… ”
The ICEJ is not however, supported by the indigenous churches of Jerusalem. A statement entitled ‘We Stand for Justice. We can do no other’ and issued by church leaders, representing the Latin and Syrian Orthodox churches and the Episcopal and Evangelical Lutheran Churches, begins with the definition:
Christian Zionism is a modern theological and political movement that embraces the most extreme ideological positions of Zionism, thereby becoming detrimental to a just peace within Palestine and Israel.
The seventh statement clarifies this further holding that “the teachings of Christian Zionism advance racial exclusivity and perpetual war rather than the gospel of love, redemption and reconciliation taught by Jesus Christ.”
Christian Zionism, a cross denominational belief brings strong reactions. It’s not supported by orthodox Christians, and certainly not by those Christians who want to contribute to an authentic Jewish homeland. Jews should also be wary of Christian Zionists, in the end, Christian Zionist support of Israel is only so that Christian Zionists might be ‘saved’ at the end times.
1 comment June 26th, 2008
Paul Walton, minister at the Centenary Uniting Church in Brisbane, wrote a great blog post today highlighting the tensions between our three faiths and outlining a way forward: Whose sword is it?
He reports an incident in which he was encouraging multi-faith use of a hospital prayer room, but was confronted by an angry parishioner who was unhappy about the example being given to Christian youth.
His bottom line: “I am convinced that our best response to the sword is to be people of peace.”
Amen to that!
Dave
Add comment June 23rd, 2008