Over the weekend, representatives of the Religion of Peace and Tolerance™ attacked a church and Christian school in Gaza, desecrating the church and its religious items.
The appeal came following a series of attacks on a Christian school and church in Gaza City over the past few days.
Father Manuel Musalam, leader of the small Latin community in the Gaza Strip, said masked gunmen torched and looted the Rosary Sisters School and the Latin Church.
“The masked gunmen used rocket-propelled grenades to storm the main entrances of the school and church,” he said. “Then they destroyed almost everything inside, including the Cross, the Holy Book, computers and other equipment.”
Musalam expressed outrage over the burning of copies of the Bible, noting that the gunmen destroyed all the Crosses inside the church and school. “Those who did these awful things have no respect for Christian-Muslim relations,” he said.
The World Council of Churches, which is going to organize a worldwide protest of the “occupation,” has issued no statement in support of their fellow Christians in Gaza and, in fact, will not be visiting Gaza at all during its mission to look into the situation in Israel and the territories. Instead, they’re condemning Israel. As always.
A Geneva-based church body said Monday it would launch a global initiative to have churches worldwide rally for an end to Israel’s “occupation” of Arab lands seized in the Six Day War.
The World Council of Churches said in a statement that it designated Jordan as a venue for its initiative, which would enlist support from ecclesiastical institutions worldwide.
Nope, you won’t find anything on the WCC site about the church desecrations, but you will find this:
After listening to the Middle Eastern experience, churches from other regions will share lessons learned during deeply rooted conflicts in their countries, including South Africa, Sudan, Colombia and Sri Lanka. The emphasis will be on the churches’ role in peace-making and in sustaining peace when conflicts end.
The meeting will conclude with the launch of an international, inter-church advocacy initiative, the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum. The forum will enable churches around the world to cooperate more closely in advocacy for peace with justice in the Middle East, coordinating existing church advocacy work and promoting new joint efforts for peace. The initiative was approved by the WCC central committee in September last year. Two preparatory meeting have been held.
Holding the conference in Jordan allows a global church initiative with a Middle East focus to begin in close contact with the churches of the region.
The meeting takes place during a month when churches and related organizations around the world have been marking 40 years of Israeli occupation in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights.
Way to go, WCC! Way to miss the forest for the trees.
Millions of Copts suffer persection in Egypt and the WCC says nothing. Bethlehem Christians flee, and not because of the IDF–the population has gone from eighty percent Christian to less than fifteen percent Christian. The WCC says nothing. Churches are destroyed in Gaza and Christians beaten or killed. The WCC says nothing.
They organize a protest against Israel’s occupation.
I’m sure there’s some reason for this other than sheer antisemitism. Any ideas what it might be?
Guys, the WCC is widely recognized among serious Christians as a liberal mouthpiece with no authority. They don’t represent Christianity in any meaningfuly way. Just ignore them.
This guy Musalam isn’t exactly a prize though.
John M. – isn’t that what “Moderate Muslims” keep saying about terrorists and firebreathing Imams?
Perversions of a belief must be spoken out against directly and specifically, lest they begin to claim a seat at the table.
Eric J,
Its a little different (for Catholics at least) since it does have a central church authority who is supposed to speak for the Church. Not that they’ve exactly covered themselves in glory in this matter, but there is less leeway for a group like WCC to claim to speak for all Christians.
It helps that Christians also don’t have to deal with the fact that when asked questions like ‘is it okay to kill infidels?’ 50% don’t say yes.
I’ve read more than once that Israel is the only country in the Middle East with a growing Christian population, which certainly seems plausible to me.
Soccer dad,
Good catch. He and his pals are pieces of work aren’t they?
The irony is that the Christians of the Middle East have almost all been good little dhimmis and supported the Arab Muslims in their attempts at destruction of Israel and genocide of the Jews. Soon, if not already, the only state in the ME where Christians can live without fear of persecution will be the Jewish one.
Musalem called Christians in the West filthy because they did not support the Palestinians, moaning about an absence of love. His view of that Christian “love” consisted of supporting the genocidal Arab war on Israel. I don’t think Jesus said anywhere “Kill the Jews.” Maybe Musalem has been reading Gnostic Apocrypha to conclude that such a message constitutes Christian love.
Yeah, but that’s not the point. The point is that Hamas is lying about their tolerance of other religions, and the attack on Gaza Christians proves it.
Not that I thought any differently.
But the world still manages to ignore Muslim atrocities, or to blame Israel, the U.S., or colonialism for them.
I read something recently that these anti-Israel churches aren’t necessarily liberal as much as Replacement Theology — they believe the Christian message supersedes Judaism.
The evangelicals, on the other hand, while they also believe Israel will turn to their messiah eventually, believe that Am Yisrael has an earlier relation to God which stands in parallel to Christian revelation.