I have Jewish friends whom I deeply value and respect, just as I have Palestinian friends whom I equally value and respect. Many of these folks are friends and co-workers with each other, deeply committed to affirming the value of all human beings; regardless of nationality, race, creed, or political convictions.
The events of the past several months have been deeply troubling to my friends, as they have been to me.
They are appalled and deeply troubled by Hamas’s slaughter of innocent Jews and Palestinians in the October 7th attacks. Many of the dead, wounded, and missing are their own friends, families, and co-workers. People they knew. People they loved across the divisions and strife their own leaders and governments continue to nurture in the name of maintaining and expanding their own power.
But equally, they are angered by the Jewish Government & IDF’s response to that attack. Few deny that Israel has the right to defend itself, and that a forceful response to the Hamas attack is reasonable. But many question, as do I, the ferocity and breadth of that response. They are angered, as am I, by Israel’s willingness to sacrifice tens of thousands of innocent lives in its campaign to extinguish Hamas. …A fruitless and self-defeating endeavor I might add, as such violence and contempt will create more new militants and new enemies than it kills. People who will dedicate their lives to making Israel pay for what it has done, just as Israel is punishing all Palestinians for what Hamas has done.
The grievances and pain both sides have experienced both before and since October 7th is real and cannot be denied. I know people on both sides of that fence. They are deeply wounded by the decades of conflicts and injustice they’ve suffered, wounds they will never fully be healed-of.
Continue reading “Thoughts on Gaza and the Israel/Palestine Conflict”
This exercise puts a different spin on to Lent’s theme “putting away of distractions” or the practice of “giving something up for Lent.” The point being made is that Lent’s purpose is to help us to give up to God those the things that we cannot give up on our own. 
There was a young woman I recently encountered through an online forum who had “come out” to her parents, only to have them seemingly reject her in some unhealthy and painful ways. She did not give much detail, but it was clear it was a painful experience for her (as many of my friends and readers have also experienced, or can imagine).
The Here and the Hereafter 