[Dialogue] 6/10/2021, Rev. Dr. Robin R. Meyers: Progressing Spirit: Progressive Christians and Palestine; Spong revisited

Thu Jun 10 06:45:07 PDT 2021

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Progressive Christians and Palestine
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|  Essay by Rev. Dr. Robin R. Meyers
June 10, 2021

Over three weeks before the first rocket was fired from Gaza, and war erupted yet again between Israel and Palestine, something happened that was hardly mentioned in the press, but explains so much of the terror and humiliation that Palestinians face every day from Israel.  It was the first day of the Muslim month of Ramadan when a squad of Israeli soldiers entered the Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, pushed past the attendants, and “cut the cables to the loudspeakers that broadcast prayers to the faithful from four medieval minarets” (as reported in the New York Times).It was also Memorial Day in Israel, and the president was giving a speech at the Western Wall, where it was feared that the Jewish prayers would be drowned out by the amplified prayers coming from the Mosque.  It would be the last straw in a series of provocations that define life for those who live under occupation and de facto imprisonment in the West Bank and Gaza.

As Israel struggles with its own political survival following Netanyahu’s indictments on charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust, another tragically lopsided conflict has exploded.  As of this writing, more than two hundred Palestinians have died, including women and children, while about a dozen Israelis have lost their lives in rocket attacks.  As always, Israel holds an enormous military advantage—with every bomb and bullet made in the U.S. A.  We supplied the Iron Dome defense system that destroys most of the incoming rockets from Hamas.  Palestine has no defense system and no military because, for all practical purposes, it does not exist.

Over the last four years, Trump has given Israel everything he could think of, regardless of the long-term strategic consequences.  He moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem and granted Israel sovereignty over captured territory in the Golan Heights in a bid to win evangelical votes and paint Democrats as anti-Jewish.  Four Arab countries then normalized relationships with Israel so they could do business with them, despite the fact that they had once agreed not to do so until the Palestinian-Israeli conflict was resolved.  Most experts agree that our failures to resolve this issue drives more terrorism than any other single grievance in the Arab world.

Gaza, which has been described as an open-air prison, is so densely populated that there is no place to hide when Israeli F-16s begin dropping bombs or launching artillery strikes.  The Israeli blockade has contributed to over 50% unemployment in Gaza, the highest in the world.  As Palestinians battle a wave of coronavirus infections, Israel destroyed the only health center where testing is done.  They had previously decided that they would not share COVID vaccinations with Palestinians, a move that would surely give the Jewish prophets a reason to wear sackcloth and ashes.  

Following the loudspeaker incident, a decision was made by the Israeli police to close off a popular plaza outside the Damascus Gate which serves as a main entrance to the Old City, where young Palestinians gather during Ramadan.  This led to protests and nightly clashes with police.  Many residents of East Jerusalem cannot vote after Israel occupied and annexed the area in the 1967 war because they chose not to apply for citizenship that would confer legitimacy on an occupying power.  Now they are being gradually pushed out of Jerusalem through restrictions on building permits and demolition orders.  Olive groves have been burned, houses razed by bulldozers, and more and more Israeli settlers have built illegal settlements on occupied land without consequences.  Now, in the worst violence seen since the intifada, Palestinian youth have begun attacking Jews, and Jews in return have attacked Arab citizens inside of Israel.  It has shocked a region long accustomed to war, but not between next door neighbors. 

With the eviction of six families from Sheikh Jarrah, a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem looming, Hamas had begun to flex its muscles again as a resurgent sense of national identity has taken hold among young Palestinians.  Finally, the most dramatic escalation of all came when Israeli police raided the Aqsa Mosque on May 7th.  Armed with tear gas, stun grenades and rubber-tipped bullets, they burst into the mosque and set off clashes with stoned-throwing protestors in which hundreds were injured.  The sight of stun grenades and bullets inside the prayer hall of one of the holiest sites in Islam on the last Friday of Ramadan, one of its holiest nights, was a grievous insult to all Muslims.

Now the region is again in flames, with Palestinians suffering disproportionately.  American politicians rush to microphones to profess their support for Israel and her right to defend herself.  But apparently no one, not even President Biden, seems to think that Palestine has the right to defend herself.  There are indeed terrorists in Hamas who vow the destruction of Israel, but there is officially no such thing as an Israeli terrorist, even when settlers burn down Palestinian homes and kill their occupants.  Of course, no one dared to use the A-word (apartheid) when describing Israel’s treatment of its Arab neighbors.  That is, until Desmond Tutu broke the taboo and compared what was happening at checkpoints and roadblocks to what happened to blacks in South Africa.  Then Jimmy Carter wrote a bestseller, “Palestine:  Peace Not apartheid”, and a wave of condemnation followed as the American Jewish community claimed that the former president was giving aid and comfort to the new anti-Semites.

Meanwhile, one thing has come clear during America’s long “war on terrorism.”  It has increased terrorism ten-fold.  We are an occupying power, an Empire, a colossus astride the planet.  We police the world on behalf of corporations, kick down doors without a shred of cultural understanding, and back our political, strategic, and economic allies regardless of how they treat their enemies.  Progressive Christians love to say that we love “every single other,” but almost no one, not even moderate Democrats, dares to speak up for Palestine, to utter the “P-word”, which was once banned from the Democratic platform.

There are certain moments when history remembers silence and shames it.  We are living through such a moment.  Most churches sat on the sidelines during the civil rights movement, or actively resisted it.  Most churches resisted the inclusion of LBGTQ people into the full sacramental hospitality of the beloved community.  Most Christians said nothing when mass incarceration showed us the demonic side of systemic racism.  As for the role of women in church leadership, the record is obvious.  Now we speak up for all these things.  But when the subject of Palestine comes up, radio silence. 

Chris Hedges, former war correspondent for the New York Times, has seen small boys baited and killed by Israeli soldiers.  They swore at the boys in Arabic over loudspeakers, the boys threw rocks, and then the soldiers opened fire, killing some, wounding others.  Such incidents were reported as children caught in the crossfire.  When Israel drops 1,000- pound fragmentation bombs on overcrowded hovels in Gaza City, it is explained as a surgical strike on a bomb-making factory.  When homes and small businesses are reduced to rubble, and families dig the corpses of their loved ones out by hand, the official explanation is the demolition of the homes of terrorists.  When Israel destroyed the Associated Press and Al Jazeera headquarters, they claimed it was being used to house terrorists.  Secretary of State Antony Blinken has asked for evidence to support this claim but has received none.  Gaza is now a pile of rubble without clean water, schools, hospitals, or safe space for over 70,000 displaced civilians. 

Dear lovers of equality, justice, inclusion, and liberation:  Colonialism and ethnic genocide will always produce resistance.  When you have nothing left to lose and no hope, you turn to the only means of resistance available to you.  Occupiers are the “near enemy” in Arab lexicon.  First, we create terrorists, then we refuse to negotiate with terrorists, and then kill what we have created in the name of keeping the world safe from terrorists. The definition of insanity comes to mind.

Are you an anti-Semite if you criticize Israel?  No more than you are anti-American when you criticize your own country.  We dare to criticize that which means something to us.  The West has the power to wage peace as well as waging war--the peace that Jesus the Jew dreamed of and died for.  He hailed from Nazareth of Palestine.  As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace!” (Lk 19:41-42).

Voices of conscience are needed now to make what John Lewis called “good trouble.”  Who is willing to speak truth to power?  Who is willing to stand up for Palestine and call Israel to account for crimes against humanity?  Who will use the remarkable gift that is a free pulpit or the power of the pen to declare our non-compliance with the principalities and the powers?  Complicity with evil is itself evil.  Proportionality is a central tenet of Just War Theory.  This is not a just war.  This is a crime against humanity.  Either all of us matter or none of us do.

Preach it.
Please.~ Rev. Dr. Robin R. Meyers
Read online here

About the Author
Rev. Dr. Robin R. Meyers is retired senior minister of Mayflower Congregational UCC Church, Oklahoma City, Distinguished Professor of Social Justice Emeritus at Oklahoma City University, and Adjunct Professor of Homiletics at Phillips Theology Seminary.  He is a fellow at Westar, a member of the God Seminar, and his most recent book is Saving God from Religion:  A Minister’s Search for Faith in a Skeptical Age. Visit website here:  RobinRexMeyers.com  |

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Question & Answer

Q: By A Reader

The news and social media are full of the wonderful contributions of people of color, gays and trans.  Why do you think so many individuals still hold prejudiced views about people who are different from them? 

A: By Rev. Brandan Robertson
 Dear Reader,This is a wonderful question. The truth is that while LGBTQ+ and POC representation has dramatically increased in media over the last decade, there are still many places across the U.S. and around the world where LGBTQ+ people are severely underrepresented, and many people still believe that they don’t know an LGBTQ+ person and may have very few interactions with people of color.

In these communities, fear, stereotypes, and religious bigotry still dictate how people think about LGBTQ+ people and communities of color. I have come to believe that the most powerful way to combat prejudice is through the power of proximity- only when these homogenous communities begin to see, hear the stories of, and get to know real queer people and people of color will they be challenged to change their perspectives- and for some communities, this may take quite a while to happen. In the meantime, allies in those kinds of communities have important work to do, speaking up against prejudice beliefs and offering an alternative way to think about LGBTQ+ people and people of color. Sometimes these challenging conversations can provoke people to begin exploring on their own beliefs, providing an opening for the journey of transformation. So yes, while representation is expanding, we still have a long way to go before true equality and justice prevail.~ Rev. Brandan Robertson

Read and share online here

About the Author
Rev. Brandan Robertson is a noted spiritual thought-leader, contemplative activist, and commentator, working at the intersections of spirituality, sexuality, and social renewal and the author of Nomad: A Spirituality For Travelling Light and writes regularly for Patheos, Beliefnet, and The Huffington Post. He has published countless articles in respected outlets such as TIME, NBC, The Washington Post, Religion News Service, and Dallas Morning News. As sought out commentator of faith, culture, and public life, he is a regular contributor to national media outlets and has been interviewed by outlets such as MSNBC, NPR, SiriusXM, TIME Magazine, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Associated Press. He leads Metanoia, a digital spiritual community at MetanoiaCenter.org
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Join Us In Celebrating
Bishop John Shelby Spong
On His 90th Birthday, Wednesday June 16th

Beloved and world-renowned, John Shelby Spong, whose books have sold more than a million copies, was bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark for 24 years before his retirement in 2001. His admirers acclaim him as a teaching bishop who makes contemporary theology accessible to the ordinary layperson — he’s considered the champion of an inclusive faith by many, both inside and outside the Christian church. 

>From 1991 to his retirement in 2017, Bishop Spong wrote a weekly newsletter for a growing global audience calling for a fundamental rethinking of Christian belief away from theism and traditional doctrines. ProgressiveChristianity.org has managed his newsletters and essays since 2011 - now under the Progressing Spirit umbrella, you can find the archive here.

We encourage you to send him your best wishes on this his 90th birthday.  Please address them to admin at progressivechristianity.org and they will all be forwarded to Bishop Spong. 

As a way to acknowledging the contribution Bishop Spong has made in the lives of people all over the globe, we are asking his readers who have been touched by his life and writings, and wish to honor his 90th Birthday, to help keep his books and writings alive on Progressive Christianity.org and Progressing Spirit by making a donation today assuring his teachings are preserved for future generations.
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|  Please continue to send us your feedback… we are listening. We aim to give voice to many different perspectives that are relevant and inspiring along this spiritually progressing path. We are not here to tell you what to believe or how to act. We are here to support your journey, to share and learn together.Thank you for being a part of this community - join us on Facebook!  |

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Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited

An Adventure At A Law School

Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong
December 16, 2010Recently, I spoke at the Law School of Marquette University, a Jesuit institution in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. My topic was “Homosexuality and the Law.” It was in many ways a fascinating experience. I was introduced by an attractive, bright second year law school student, who, I gathered, had worked very hard to have me invited. She was raised in the Roman Catholic Church and is an out of the closet lesbian, who plans to be married next summer in Dubuque, Iowa, where gay marriages are both recognized and legal.

My purpose in this address was to demonstrate how changes in cultural norms occur in all branches of knowledge, certainly including science, law and religion, and that this is what makes it possible to dismiss yesterday’s inadequate understandings and to find both the courage and the ability to embrace new realities. There is no such thing, I asserted, as unchanging truth since truth must always be expressed in ever-changing human propositional statements. Whenever any understanding or perception of reality is put into words, these words are captured by the level of knowledge and even the always subjective words of the one speaking and, thus, inevitably that person’s words share in a time-bound and time warped view of the world. There is no possibility that human propositional statements could ever become eternally true.

People do not seem to recognize that there were many scientists in the 17th century who challenged the new insights of Galileo and who regarded Galileo as a disturber of settled truth. There were also many biologists in the 19th century who challenged the new insights of Charles Darwin. The great Albert Einstein was himself unable to adapt to the idea of quantum weirdness developed by fellow physicist Niels Bohr. Knowledge is always growing and expanding. There are no such things as inerrant formulations of truth, not in the scriptures or in the presumed infallible proclamations of any ecclesiastical figure, despite what people have claimed for both.

I listen today, sometimes with despair sometimes with amusement, to passionate, but naïve politicians who want to defend something they call a “strict constructionist” view of the Constitution of the United States. Both my despair and my amusement come from their apparent inability to understand how time-warped the Constitution is. When politicians hear that statement they react exactly like biblical fundamentalists do when someone says that the Bible is filled with both human and divine negativity. These politicians are not aware that the Constitution defined slaves as three-fifths of a human being. They do not realize that the Constitution refused to allow women the privilege of voting until it was amended in 1920? Another of our sacred national documents, the Declaration of Independence, proclaimed that “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” These powerful words were written, however, by a slave holder who quite obviously used the word “men” as a synonym for “human” and then defined “human” as being both white and male. A “strict constructionist” in political circles is what a biblical fundamentalist is in religious circles. Their words sound good, but they consist of uninformed, empty rhetoric. “Strict constructionism” really means “I want to be assured that the Constitution confirms my present prejudices.” Biblical fundamentalism regards the Bible in the same exact way.

It is this idea of “strict constructionism” in regard to the Bible that has caused that text to be used in the cause of homophobia just as it was previously used in defense of racism and the sexist oppression of women. No biblical scholar today could ever mold the nine obscure passages in the entire Bible that homophobic people quote so regularly into an intelligent and credible argument to oppose today equal rights and justice for the lesbian, gay, transgender and bi-sexual members of our society. Such an argument would simply carry no weight in any court of law. Yet in religious circles of our society these nine texts are still used without embarrassment by religious spokespersons as if they still had some claim to either credibility or respectability. 

The undoubted facts are that all of the objective medical and scientific data available in our world today asserts that no human beings choose their sexual orientation, they simply awaken to it. To discriminate against homosexual people because they are not heterosexual makes about as much rational sense as our culture’s historic discrimination against women because they are not men, our racist discrimination against people of color because they are not white, or our discrimination against left-handed people because they are not right handed. Each of these arguments once employed to sustain each of these long dead prejudices is now simply being recycled to sustain our irrational attitudes toward the homosexual population today. As such they are little more than expressions of prejudice ignorance.

The last stand in the battle against all prejudices is seen in the almost inevitable suggestion by those resisting change, that these issues should be submitted to a referendum of the voters. The hope here is that there is still enough latent homophobia in the culture that a majority can be achieved in opposition to the constitutional rights of this minority. They also know how to manipulate the electorate. Public relations firms will be hired to frame the issue in such a way as to maximize fear. Hate money will pour from wealthy, but uninformed sources and be used to demonize gay people with both weird stories and veiled innuendos about how gay marriage will “weaken traditional marriage.” No one ever quite says just how that weakening will occur, but the seeds of fear are planted. That is why equal protection under the law can never properly be the subject of a popular referendum. No benefit, including the benefits of marriage that has been extended to one citizen can be arbitrarily denied to another. That is the guarantee of the Constitution. People fail to realize that if a vote is allowed on a constitutional right, that vote by itself would transform this nation from a constitutional democracy, which guarantees the rights of the minority, into a “mobocracy” in which the rights of any minority could be submitted to the will of the majority. That is the prescription for tyranny.

To my audience at Marquette’s Law School I stated my conviction that the time has come for religious leaders, from the Pope to Pat Robertson, to take responsibility for the uninformed and uneducated homophobia, which emanates from their lips on a regular basis. Homosexual persons are not deviant, as the Pope continues to state, nor are they sinful as Pat Robertson regularly asserts. There is a huge difference between being a minority and being abnormal! Homosexuals are a minority that is all. So are left handed people, red headed people and at least in the western world, people of color. Yet many religious leaders continue to proclaim them abnormal.

Ignorance is no less ignorant when it is either spoken by religious people or perfumed with pious rhetoric. No one should hesitate to confront any persons who seek to shape public opinion when those persons reveal how hopelessly out of date they are on the subject about which they continue to make public pronouncements.

When I finished this address one person, who identified himself as both a law professor and a Jesuit priest, sought to defend his church’s position that homosexuality is “deviant.” It does not mean, he said, that homosexual people themselves are deviant; it means that they deviate from the norm, which is that the purpose of human life is to reproduce itself. This has been the church’s consistent position, he stated, as it stretches from Aristotle to Thomas Aquinas. Since homosexual persons, he continued, cannot or will not do that they are therefore “deviant.”

It was as weird a line of reasoning as I have ever encountered. First, the idea that because it comes from Aristotle through Aquinas means that it is consistent, does not rule out the possibility that it has been consistently wrong. Second, for anyone to suggest that truth has been captured in the writings of Aristotle who lived some 2400 years ago or in the work of Aquinas, who lived about 700 years ago is patently absurd. Third, I asked by what act of hubris comes the power to define the norm as that which has been bequeathed from Aristotle, to Aquinas and thus to the Roman Catholic Church? Fourth, I pointed out that such an argument would also call childless couples deviant and since most of us will ultimately reach the place in life in which we can no longer reproduce ourselves biologically, such a position would suggest that the end of every human life is to become deviant. Fifth, I wondered out loud how it was that this church, which requires celibacy for the priesthood, could define the norm for non-deviant humanity in such a way as to suggest that celibacy itself participates in deviancy. I read this line of argumentation as that coming from a person embarrassed by his church’s position and seeking a way to make its unacceptable quality palatable.

Once again, it was apparent to me that arguments designed to defend prejudices are never rational. That is why they must be wrapped inside the convoluted language of most “religious reasoning.” That conversation alone was worth the trip to Milwaukee.
Prior to my lecture, I attended a class on the legal issues facing gay and lesbian married couples. It was a “matter of fact class” where the exercise of the day was to develop a prenuptial agreement between a wealthy lesbian and her much poorer potential mate. So while the Jesuit professor defended the definition of homosexual people as “deviant”, the Marquette Law School was quietly preparing its students to live in the world where gay marriage and gay equality before the law are both inevitable. The time has come to say so boldly. This debate is old, tired and increasingly irrelevant. Let’s be done with it.~  John Shelby Spong  |

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