Christian Internet Forum

Israel's security barrier

Editor's note: The following commentary is from a guest writer.

The security barrier that Israelis have been building in Jerusalem seems to have reached all the way to Orlando, Florida.

The Associated Press released an article on August 13 that said, "The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America denounced the security barrier Israel is building along the West Bank, saying Saturday that Israeli policy throughout the territories has brought 'extreme hardship' to Palestinians."

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is a denomination with 5 million members. It recently held a convention in Orlando, Florida, where it voted 668-269 to approve a resolution called "Peace Not Wall," which denounced Israel for building the wall.

Some people believe the wall is necessary. They claim it will protect innocent civilians from terrorists who seek to murder unarmed Jewish men, women and children.

Critics claim the wall will cause undue hardship for Arabs living in the area and that the wall is part of an attempt to steal land away from the Arab community.

Regardless of whether you are pro-wall or anti-wall, or undecided, I think we can all agree that reasonable people can at least understand both sides of the issue.

And I believe that it is wrong to accuse people of being anti-Semitic simply because they criticize Israel for one policy or another.

So, in my mind, the problem is not that the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America opted to denounce the wall. Nor is it necessarily a problem that the organization made headlines with its denunciation.

The problem is this: I can't remember a single headline at any time in the past in which the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America also denounced the terrorism that has brought extreme hardship to Jews. The wall is a relatively new event but the terrorism has been going on since at least the 1920s.

That's a serious problem because it gives the appearance that the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is being one-sided in its assessment of hardship in the Holy Land, and rather selective in its target for denunciation.

It becomes more problematic when you consider the timing of the denunciation - a mere few days before the Israeli's historic withdrawal from Gaza. At a time when the Israelis could have been enjoying a honeymoon of positive news coverage, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America was making headlines with its criticism of Israel.

Bad timing. Really bad timing. Like waiting until your anniversary to tell your spouse you want a divorce.

Another point that this denomination could have considered in its criticism is the expressed, written attitudes of Martin Luther himself, the man from whom the word Lutheran is derived. Martin Luther, towards the end of his life, wrote a highly un-Christian, anti-Semitic letter, equating the Hebrew people with dogs and suggesting that they - men, women and children - be set afire.

Given this ungodly blemish on the history of Lutheranism, perhaps the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America could have been a bit more thoughtful and sensitive in the timing and nature of its denunciation.

Signed, a Christian who is a member of a Lutheran denomination.




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Copyright ©1999-2007 George Konig
www.konig.org

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