German Christians protest Christ at the Checkpoint speaker’s racist theology

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Mitri Raheb – pushed racist theology at CATC 2010

The Stonegate Institute reports:

Since 1992, the German concern Media Control has awarded an annual prize, known as “Deutscher Medienpreis.” According to the company website, it is given “to a person who had outstanding importance in the media during the past year.” Remarkably, the list of yearly awardees has mostly lived up to that ambitious description, including many illustrious and deserving personalities. Until this year, that is.

Four awardees were named for the 2011 prize in a press announcement on January 13, 2012. While three seem to be meritorious enough, the fourth is a Palestinian pastor who has devoted all his theological energies to delegitimizing the State of Israel. No, he does not just oppose “the occupation.” He maintains that Israel is a foreign European body that lacks his own DNA connection to the people of the Bible. Moreover, Media Control has lined up a former President of Germany, Prof. Roman Herzog, to come and praise him.

Part of the problem may be that for this year, the twentieth anniversary of the prize, Media Control decided to abandon its previous winning formula. According to that press announcement: “For the jubilee of the Media Prize, this tradition is being broken in order to honor personalities who are quiet peacemakers and whose activity takes place without great media attention.” In other words, people whom we do not know much about and who may not have done anything of note recently.

Lutheran Pastor Mitri Raheb of Bethlehem, however, is by no means an unknown character in Germany. He has published books there and he has given countless speeches in churches and church-related institutions. On February 19 next, he is scheduled to preach in the Berliner Dom, the principal Protestant church in Berlin, and to deliver a keynote lecture in the afternoon at another major church, the French Dom. Very handy for the award ceremony of the Media Prize on February 24.

To give a taste of his theology, we shall give an extract from a speech that he held in Bethlehem in March 2010. For nearly two years, anyone in the world with a computer, including the people of Media Control, has been able to read this speech and even to listen to it.

Said Mitri Raheb: “Actually, Israel represents Rome of the Bible, not the people of the land. And this is not only because I’m a Palestinian. I’m sure if we were to do a DNA test between David, who was a Bethlehemite, and Jesus, born in Bethlehem, and Mitri, born just across the street from where Jesus was born, I’m sure the DNA will show that there is a trace. While, if you put King David, Jesus and Netanyahu, you will get nothing, because Netanyahu comes from an East European tribe who converted to Judaism in the Middle Ages.”

And he continued in this vein. I have written about Raheb’s speech in another article, which is available in German. The article was even published in Germany last December by the official “Circle of Friends” in Baden that promotes good relations between German Protestants and the Jewish people (Freundeskreis Kirche und Israel in Baden e.V.). Media Control and its prize-awarding jury should have known about this major aspect of Raheb. Yet his citation for the prize, according to the press announcement, is for being a “quiet peacemaker” who “stands for understanding between Christian, Muslims and Jews” and is “the alternative to violence and radicalization.”

Let us paraphrase this citation in words that do not disguise the reality. Raheb is a noisy denier of the very legitimacy of the State of Israel, which he seeks to undermine not by physical violence but by a radical theology that awakes enthusiasm among Christians, Muslims and even a handful of Jews who long to see Israel vanish from the map.

Whereas the Nazis spoke of “race” and “blood,” Raheb is modern enough to speak of “DNA,” but what is the difference? It is not just that for the Nazis Jews did not belong in Germany because their blood was non-Aryan, whereas for Raheb they do not belong anywhere near him because he thinks their DNA is European. The difference is also that Prof. Roman Herzog represents the new Germany that arose from the ruins of Nazism, yet he is slated to come along on February 24 and praise such a person. A former German president will be praising the man who delegitimizes an elected prime minister for having the wrong DNA.

Prof. Herzog has been placed in an embarrassing position by the decision of Media Control’s jury. Since he is doubtless asked to deliver such speeches on many occasions, one cannot expect him personally to research everyone he is supposed to talk about. But the embarrassment goes further. He is also the patron of the Roman Herzog Institute in Munich, created by friends who cherish his ideals. Praise of DNA-theologian Raheb will not bring much honor to that institute nor, for that matter, to Media Control itself.

German-speaking Christians have already begun writing to Prof. Herzog to warn him about what he has got into. We await the response of international Jewish organizations.

Christ at the Checkpoint 2012 speaker Labib Madanat: Hezbollah presents a convincing case of Western corruption

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Labib Madanat tells Cross Rhythms

It is no secret that our region is witnessing a shift in the strategy of fundamental Islam. The way it is happening is by creating grassroots support for their idea first and thus gaining public legitimacy. They work towards becoming influential in certain sectors; media, education, social work…etc. Whenever they can they try to establish a virtual rule on whichever territory they can. They do not believe in present political borders; for them these are man-made borders, and even worse, colonially made. Thus you see Hizbolla in south Lebanon, the failing attempt of Fatah Al-Islam in Nahr Al- Bared refugee camp in Lebanon, Gaza, and other areas as well. The Axis of Evil for them is the West, Israel and Western-allied regimes. They have lots of ammunition to use in their strategy; in all honesty they do present a very convincing case for the masses who are tired of tyranny and corruption.:

Are Christ at the Checkpoint 2012 organisers ashamed of answering questions about antisemitism?

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Look at this CATC 2012 defence of their conference:

Notice they do not answer the question: Will Christ at the Checkpoint encourage or combat antisemitism?

See this question answered here.

It is because they know their last Christ at the Checkpoint 2010 conference was full of racist antisemitism, and the Christ at the Checkpoint 2012 is unlikely to be much better, based on the evidence we have seen so far.

Alex Awad, who features prominently in the above video, has previously shared a platform with Holocaust denier Fred Tobin, in order to demonise Israel.

Munther Isaac’s silence on the racist antisemitism surrounding CATC 2012 is very telling.

Church of England Newspaper on Nick Howard and the Bishop of Guildford

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We read in this week’s edition of the Church of England Newspaper:

A Jewish convert to Christianity and to Anglicanism has written as strong attack on the Bishop of Guildford for failing to take speedy action to stop the Rev Stephen Sizer from having a link on his Facebook page to an anti-Semitic site that features images of blood-sucking Jewish vampires and Nazi-style caricatures of Jewish men.
Nick Howard claims in an article appearing in the Jewish Chronicle online on 16 January that it took the Rt Rev Christopher Hill six weeks to take action and that he only acted when he knew the Jewish Chronicle was investigating the matter. Howard argues that Stephen Sizer has a long record of arguably anti-Semitic behaviour so that the Church should not have been encouraged to give him the benefit of the doubt.
“The Macpherson report into Stephen Lawrence’s death defined institutional racism as ‘the collective failure of an organisation’ regarding ‘colour, culture, or ethnic origin’. The Diocese of Guildford has fallen foul of that,” charges Howard.

Political Science professor at Rutgers U. condemns “Christ at the Checkpoint 2012″ conference

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Read Michael Curtis in the American Thinker:

This mainstream clerical criticism, at its worst animosity, regarding Israel has become very visible at the moment because of the upcoming Christ at the Checkpoint (CAC) Conference organized by the Biblical College, Bethlehem (West Bank), in partnership with the Holy Land Trust and the World Council of Churches to be held this March.  [...]

The thrust of these conferences was clear from the outset.  At the first in 2010, Rev. Stephen Sizer, vicar of Christ Church, Virginia Water, Surrey, England, who is to be the main organizer of the 2012 CAC conference, in one of his frequent denunciations of Israel, supported the call of the journalist Helen Thomas for Jews to “get the hell out of Palestine.”  The Lutheran priest, Mitri Raheb, pastor of the Evangelical Christian Church in Bethlehem, acknowledged that a DNA test would show the mutual origin of King David and Jesus, but there was no link with Benjamin Netanyahu, who came from Eastern Europe, not Palestine.  The British Anglican Rev. Colin Chapman asserted that because Muhammad had “bad experiences” with the Jews of Medina, it must seem to Palestinian Muslims as if the Jews of the modern period were simply repeating the hostile behavior of Jews towards the Prophet many centuries earlier.

At the 2011 CAC conference Naim Ateek, former Palestinian head of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem, compared the fate of Jesus on the cross to that of present-day Palestinians.  He saw Palestine as one huge Golgotha in which the Israeli government crucifixion system was operating daily.  Elsewhere, he argued, with curious theology, that “the original sin is the work of the violence of the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.”  In his book Justice, and Only Justice, Ateek, calling for a liberation theology, contended that the Bible is a problem for Palestinian Christians because of its use in the justification of Zionism.

The March 2012 CAC conference is expected to attract a considerable number of U.S. theologians, including well-known individuals such as Samuel Rodriguez, head of the U.S. National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference; Tony Campolo, a sociologist and pastor who was for a time a spiritual adviser to Bill Clinton and founder of the Evangelical Association for Promotion of Education; and the South Korean pastor Sang-Bok David Kim, head of the World Evangelical Alliance, the parent group of the National Association of Evangelicals, and also head of the Asian Evangelical Alliance.

Read it all.

Boteach’s “Kosher Jesus” Met By Chabad Hysteria

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Liberal-secular website Harry’s Place has an important article you should read, written by Alan A, about the new work by Shmuley Boteach about Jesus as kosher.

Alan A concludes:

Why, I wonder, might the Lubavitch feel so strongly about one of their members writing about the deeply Jewish nature of the martyred Jesus: whether or not he regarded himself as the Messiah or indeed divine. Why does this subject elicit such fury from some of the Lubavitch?

I just can’t imagine!

Church’s apathy on antisemitism

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Nick Howard writes in the Jewish Chronicle about Christ at the Checkpoint 2012 organiser, Anglican vicar Stephen Sizer:

In the past fortnight the police and the FA have convinced many that they are facing up to racism with the seriousness it deserves. Yet at the same time the Church of England has given the opposite impression.

In October Reverend Stephen Sizer posted a link on his Facebook page to an antisemitic site called “The Ugly Truth” which featured images of blood-sucking Jewish vampires and Nazi-style caricatures of Jewish men. Three months later, Rev Sizer took down the link.

The Diocese of Guildford claimed, on behalf of Bishop Christopher Hill – Rev Sizer’s local bishop – that the reverend withdrew the link “when the nature of other articles on that site was drawn to his attention”. The particular article that he’d recommended hadn’t itself been antisemitic, so a potentially damaging “racist vicar” story became one of a “naïve vicar”. But the bishop’s statement was untrue.

I emailed Bishop Hill on November 16, expressing my concern, and pointing out that in 2010 a bishop was suspended for inappropriate use of Facebook (posting unpleasant remarks about the royal wedding). Bishop Hill replied that week, promising to speak to Rev Sizer “about his use of Facebook”. But six weeks passed before the link was removed. It was only taken down then because the JC was looking into the story.

Sizer has a track record of such behaviour

 

The Church comes out looking blithely unconcerned about racism. Perhaps Bishop Hill forgot to inform Rev Sizer that his Facebook page was a portal to a Jew-hating website, showing how little he cares about antisemitism. Perhaps he did inform Rev Sizer, but was ignored, in which case the reverend would be confirmed as an antisemite and the bishop would again show himself to be apathetic about racism.

Rev Sizer has a long track record of arguably antisemitic behaviour, so the Church could hardly have been encouraged to give him the benefit of the doubt. He’s described IDF members as “Herod’s soldiers operating in Bethlehem today” (King Herod ordered his troops to kill all the baby boys in and around Bethlehem, in the hope of murdering Christ). He’s promoted boycotts of McDonalds, Coca-Cola, L’Oréal and Nestlé on the basis that they “channel their profits to the Zionist agenda”. He has alleged Israeli complicity in 9/11, and argued that Israel’s actions towards the Palestinians mean “the Holocaust has been perpetuated over the past 40 or 50 years”. His associates include Palestinian activist Raed Salah; Zahra Mostafavi, the Ayatollah Khomeini’s daughter; and Israel Shamir, who warns of “Jewish mind control on a world scale”.

The MacPherson report into Stephen Lawrence’s death defined institutional racism as “the collective failure of an organisation” regarding “colour, culture, or ethnic origin”. The Diocese of Guildford has fallen foul of that.

It’s worth noting the Church’s utterly unethical handling of the media. To stifle a negative story, the Diocese of Guildford issued a deliberately misleading statement. Even if the bishop forgot to speak to Rev Sizer in November, he was certainly informed about the matter on December 27, when an article about it was posted on the blog “Harry’s Place”. Yet Sizer only removed the link a week later, under duress. Not only does this episode raise the question of why the Church wants to protect a man like Rev Sizer, it raises the issue of how the Diocese of Guildford can justify intentionally misleading the media.

One would hope that the Church would set a moral example to organisations like the Met and the FA. Sadly, it seems it’s the other way round.

Rabbi Rafael Zer: Haredim who spit on women should have their beards shaved off!

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Firebrand preacher Rabbi Rafael Zer, the Rosh Yeshiva of Ohr David in Ohr Yehuda, calls for those haredi extremists who spit on women, a disgrace.

He says that every home has a toilet, and every community has its idiots. He is so outraged by those who call themselves Orthodox Jews and spit on women, he would break their bones, pay for someone to shave their beards off and take away their kippah. For Rabbi Rafael Zer these people are committing Hillul HaShem – desecrating the Almighty’s name.

The Yeshiva World New has translated some of what he said into English for those who do not understand the Hebrew – Here 

Ethiopian-Jewish Spring in Israel

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Israel is facing real internal social challenges, one of them is the integration and acceptance of Jews from an Ethiopian background. A recent Israeli New report exposing a secret agreement not to sell property to Jewish Ethiopians triggered a massive response from the Ethiopian Jewish community in Israel.