Posted on 11/04/2023 12:04:02 PM PDT by Morgana
AMMAN, Jordan (RNS) — Yasmine Faraa, a Jordanian of Palestinian heritage, was angered when an Israeli missile hit a building belonging to St. Porphyrios Greek Orthodox Church in Gaza, killing 18 and injuring 20.
Faraa, a Muslim, came up with the idea to hold a vigil outside the Orthodox Christian Church, in the Jordanian capital’s Sweifieh neighborhood, to show solidarity. The numbers that turned out for the vigil on Sunday (Oct. 22) surprised even the Jordanian police, who had initially decided that they didn’t need to block the roads leading to the church. The crowd was largely composed of middle- and upper-middle-class Jordanian families, who brought their kids and held signs denouncing the continued attack on Gaza.
After the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City — founded by Baptist missionaries in the 1880s and now run by the Anglican Episcopal Church in Jerusalem — was struck four days later, Mohammad Al-Momani, a former Jordanian deputy prime minister who is secretary general of the new Mithaq Party, quickly organized a small rally again in opposition to the war. (Israel has made claims that the hospital attack was a misfired Palestinian rocket, but this claim has not been confirmed either way according to major world media outlets.)
Christian and Muslim relations in the Mideast have a long history of cooperation, and the pan-Arab nationalist movement has always included Christian intellectuals, writers, poets, political leaders and professionals of all kinds. Faraa noted that in the 1970s her mother studied at the American University in Beirut, one of several leading institutes of higher education in the Middle East founded by Western Christian missionaries.
But these bonds have been strained in recent years by the rise of Islamic radical movements, which have sometimes attempted to create schisms within the Arab world. Radical Islamists discourage their followers from congratulating their Arab Christian neighbors celebrating Christmas or Easter. When Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed by Israeli snipers in May of 2022, some cautioned devout Muslims not to call for mercy on her soul.
But Palestinians who had watched Abu Akleh on Al Jazeera for years, many of whom had no idea she was Christian, were outraged when mourners trying to carry her Palestinian flag-draped coffin to the Christian cemetery in Jerusalem’s Old City were disrupted by Israeli police.
The Israeli action in Gaza has now further cemented the bond between Arab Christians and Muslims. Arab Christians, meanwhile, feel increasingly alienated from their fellow Christians in the West, not least by the United States’ whole-hearted support of Israel from the start of the war. A statement by 12 Palestinian Christian institutions calling on Christian leaders to denounce the violence against Palestinian civilians has since garnered more than 15,600 signatures.
“We deeply mourn the death and suffering of all people because it is our firm conviction that all humans are made in God’s image. We are also profoundly troubled when the name of God is invoked to promote violence and religious national ideologies,” the statement read.
The statement concludes, “We refuse to give in, even when our siblings abandon us. We are steadfast in our hope, resilient in our witness, and continue to be committed to the gospel of faith, hope, and love, in the face of tyranny and darkness.
“In the absence of all hope, we cry out our cry of hope. We believe in God, good and just. We believe that God’s goodness will finally triumph over the evil of hate and of death that still persist in our land.”
I was counting to 10, waiting for you to dart in and attempt to push your lies and other crap. CRAP.
Don’t care.
Nothing brings people together like Jew-Hating.
Another attempt at your lies and deceit. Now you're referring to one of our holiest texts as "satanic"? What else could we expect from a screwed up liar such as you, who attempts to prey upon uneducated Jews and convince them of a pantload of deceit? You're no better than a muzzlime. You have the same goal - to destroy Jews.
Na na na na na. Are you sticking your fingers in your ears?
Boring.
Yes, you sure are.
It was during his run for president in 2016.
He always attacks me when I am n9t commenting to him.
The Arab Christians in Palestinian areas HATE Israel,
Such are false brethren, it is impossible to be a true Christian and hate Israel.
In that case, there was never a "true chrstian" in the world until the Radical Reformation.
There’s only two safe places for Christians in the Middle East, Israel and for Coptic Christian’s the south of Egypt most of the time.
No, Christians showing compassion for Muslims could be because the love of Christ for lost sinners dwells in the hearts of those who have, by His grace, come to know Him. Inviting Muslims or any other lost persons to church doesn’t necessarily mean the message of the gospel is being compromised. Just maybe, it’s being fulfilled.
Not in this scenario.
And guess what kind of “love” the Mahometans would show them if they did not have who they both regard as their common foe?
Not to mention, the Gospel is meant to be a witness against mankind and mankind’s errors. The Mahometans insist that the Injeel (Gospel) that the Christians observe has been corrupted and any “witness” to the contrary is regarded by them as blasphemy punishable by death.
The Lord Jesus: “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?” - - Matthew 5:43-46
Is not Jesus here warning against excluding the ones to whom we would in our fallen natures make exception? To love the unlovely, to carry the gospel to a people groups, to less those who curse us, this is the duty of His church, against which the very gates of Hell shall not prevail.
That is not the case here.
If there were equal outreach to Mahometans and Jews, I might think things were the case.
Your intimidate knowledge of the intentions of the members of this church and the exact extent of their outreach is remarkable. May God open both our hearts to repent of whatever false way or confusion of the truth we may be embracing concerning this and any other matters.
In all cases, that’s a true sentiment.
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