This occasional weekend column called ‘Pondering:…’ is where people from within the 'Team of 40,000 Baptists' can share issues they are thinking about in a way that opens up a topic from a particular perspective. Feel free to comment on these pieces on Facebook or our new Mailbox or contribute your own pondering. Opinion pieces are the views of individuals and need to be considered within the context of the diversity of our union of Baptist churches in New Zealand. When commenting or contributing, please follow our Guidelines for articles, opinion pieces and online comments.
In this piece, Graeme Pollock shares a perspective on the war in Gaza. Graeme is an Elder at New Generation Church, a Baptist church in Christchurch. He has worked in education all his life. Graeme spent 15 years working in the Middle East and Central Asia as a Principal/Director and Education Consultant establishing and running schools and Teacher Development Centres. During his time in the Middle East he travelled to Israel and went to Bethlehem and visited the Bethlehem Christmas Church.
Recently, Julian Doorey wrote an article published on Baptist NZ, “Pondering: Dancing in the dragons’ jaws – bringing gospel renewal to New Zealand’s foreign policy.”
He wrote: “New Zealand Baptists speak of ‘bringing gospel renewal to people and places in our local neighbourhoods.’ I love it, but why limit our focus to the personal and local? What might New Zealand’s foreign policy look like if it, too, was influenced by gospel renewal? As voting citizens, we influence how New Zealand will relate to the global community.”
Julian continued saying that, “Jesus’ and other Biblical teachings provide the most basic building blocks for how New Zealand might relate globally. Whether it be feeding the hungry (Matt 25), sharing our tunic and food (Luke 3), selling possessions to give to the poor (Matt 19), inviting the poor, crippled, lame and blind to our feast (Luke 14), or seeking justice for the poor (Prov 29), there is a persistent and nagging call to love and assist our world’s poor and needy. Likewise, there is an insistent and firm call for Jesus’ followers to be peacemakers (Matt 5), love and pray for our enemies (Matt 5), live peaceably with all (Rom 12), and harvest peace (James 3). Poverty alleviation and peace-making are closely related – each assisting the other.”
He felt sure that “Most Christians will agree so far. Theory is easy. Moving into the complex real-world issues raise other questions.”
At this year’s Baptist National Hui, the theme was a very significant one built around Micah – Justice, Mercy and Humility. These words stood on the stage in big, bold capital letters. But were we simply paying lip service to the words? Were there issues that we did not want to talk about? Issues that were not talked about? I wanted us to specifically talk about the war in Gaza – it has dominated news headlines for over a year, but we didn’t dwell on it.[i] Are we selective in our approach to justice? If not, then how should we respond as Christians to the war in Gaza?
There is plenty to guide us. The prophet Zechariah said, “This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’”
In Mark 12: 30 – 31, Christ tells us to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
Leviticus 19:18 states, “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the LORD. (NIV)
And what do the people who live in this situation say? Alex Awad, a Christian pastor living and pastoring in Palestine, comments, “Intentionally or not, too many evangelicals are urging Israel away from righteousness and towards injustice. During my lifetime, global evangelical leaders have actively supported every Israeli and American war against Arabs in the Middle East, regardless of the causes or consequences of such a war. Meanwhile, those of us who live here continue to be collateral damage on the altar of eschatological speculations. If those who pray for the peace of Jerusalem are serious, they should stop their moral passivity and indifference to the suffering of Palestinians. They should call on Israeli leaders to practice justice. They should help us Palestinians resist our oppression righteously and non-violently. They should stand with all who are working for true justice and peace in this land, whether they are Christian, Muslim or Jew. Otherwise, what good are such prayers?”
Awad asks, “When will Christians promote solutions that help to bring about reconciliation and an end to the suffering of both Palestinians and Israelis? May God help the global church if they continue to approach the conflict only through a narrow eschatological prism and refuse to consider issues of legality, morality and justice.”
Zechariah continued 7:11 – 12, “But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and covered their ears. They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the Lord Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the Lord Almighty was very angry.”
Is this us? Are we refusing to pay attention? Are we stubbornly turning our backs and covering our ears? Are our hearts hardened?
Bishara Awad – the founder of the Bethlehem Bible College in Bethlehem, asks, “If the gospel is truly good news, then it must be good news for everyone. I would like to ask the rest of the Christian world: Where is the good news for the Palestinians?”
In his incisive book, “On the Other Side of the Wall,” Munther Isaac challenges Christians in what he observes as an uncritical embrace of the modern State of Israel. Speaking from his unique vantage point as a prominent Christian pastor and theologian (Issac is the pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem), he outlines a truth that is rarely acknowledged in Christian circles that Israel’s campaign to eliminate the Palestinian people did not begin after 7 October 2023. Rather, “the campaign is a continuation of a colonial project with nineteenth-century roots that has, since 1948, established systems of entrenched discrimination and segregation worse than South Africa’s apartheid regime.”
At Christmas last year, Munther Issac, standing in the rubble of destruction caused by the war, said, “We will not accept your apology after the Genocide. What has been done, has been done. I want you to look at the mirror and ask, ‘Where was I when Gaza was going through a genocide?’”
Indifference is one thing; active support of injustice is another. Bishara Awad describes being in a meeting of a missionary group where the leader called for more than just prayer, saying there was a “need to put some actions to our prayers. Tonight, I believe (the leader said) the Lord is calling us to raise the money to buy a tank for the Israeli Defence Forces. Who will give sacrificially to this cause.” Awad writes, “I could not believe what I was hearing. A tank? Like the vehicles that rolled down our streets and terrorised those who did not make it home before curfew?”
Are we simply indifferent, or are we actively siding with injustice? John F Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, frequently quoted the statement attributed to Dante, “The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in time of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.” One Christian leader’s comment to me as we discussed this situation was, “Just call me amoral!” I find such a response not just very disappointing but horrifying coming from one of our leaders.
Albert Einstein famously wrote, “The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.” Is this our Church today?
As you read this piece, you will no doubt be thinking and asking questions about Hamas. If you think what is written here is in support of Hamas and their actions of 7 October 2023, then you would be wrong. However, if you think that this is written as a critique of the historical and current response and actions of the Israeli Government, that would be correct. Some may say what is written is “Anti-Semitism.” If you do, then again, you would be wrong. But if you say this is “Anti-Zionist Nationalism,” yes, you would be correct.
Hamas is labelled a “terrorist group” by the Western world. But what of groups that we may never have heard the names of? Names like Irgun Zvai Leumi, The Stern Gang, The Haganah, The Palmach and The Lehi, a group that focused on the assassination of significant British Officials in Palestine and was responsible for the assassination of Baron Moyne, the British Minister of State for the Middle East, in November 1944. These Jewish “terrorist” groups operated extensively throughout Palestine in the 1930s and 40s, particularly during the period 1947 – 48 driving the Palestinian people off the land where they and their families had lived and farmed for hundreds of years and forcing them into refugee camps where they and their families have had to survive for the past 70+ years.
Let us remember the story that unfolds in 1 King 21 involving the vineyard belonging to Naboth and the fury of Elijah at the injustice of Ahab, who plotted to take land through deception and murder. This is a story around the universal themes of morality and justice. A story about how those in and with power manipulate people and events to do whatever they want. This, of course, is not only happening to the people of Gaza and the West Bank but across the world. Vulnerable people have struggled throughout history to hold on to their own homes and springs of water, their lands, families, and even their very lives. And wherever the rich and powerful disregard or exploit the rights and humanity of the poor, do we just sit by and say that this is the way of human history and nothing can be done? In this story, Elijah shows us that injustice should not be ignored but rather that we should have the courage to challenge and denounce such injustice wherever it happens.
Professor Jason Stanley, a Yale professor, has written about how we seek to erase history and how we rewrite the past to control the future. Understanding and learning about history matters and leads us to a greater understanding of the frustration and anger of the Palestinian people and groups like the PLO and Hamas.
Maybe we simply do not take the time to learn from other stories. Should we learn about the young couple held back at a checkpoint a short distance from the Bethlehem Children’s Hospital they were trying to reach? The young mother had gone into labour and was forced to give birth in their car. Her infant did not survive. Layan Nasir, a 24-year-old Anglican Palestinian woman, was held in Administrative Detention (that is, held with no timeline, no charges and no trial) for 8 months. Layan was released on 5 December after Episcopal and Anglican leaders condemned Israel’s detention policies. Layan is not an isolated case. Since the war in Gaza over 10,200 have been taken in on the West Bank and held, many being teenagers held and families not knowing where they are being incarcerated without charge or trial. Then, there is the book shop, “The Teacher’s Bookshop,” in Gaza City. A Christian Bookshop named after Christ – our teacher, run by the Palestinian Bible Society that the Hamas leadership gave their blessing to. And Baptist pastor Hanna Massad hurrying through an alley in Gaza’s infamously violent Jabaliya refugee camp? Hanna Massad, the pastor of Gaza Baptist Church (which has now been bombed), lugging groceries to needy Muslim families on a chilly weekday morning. Or events like the Palestinian Authority in 2019 officially recognising the Council of Local Evangelical Churches in the Holy Land, allowing Evangelical churches the authority to grant marriage licenses, open bank accounts, and legally purchase land registered in their name. That was not the case for Evangelical churches in Israel. They did not yet have this right. (I have tried to check if anything has changed over the past 4 years without success). Do we mention these stories and many more at all? There are many, many stories that we know nothing of or would prefer not to know about, as they simply do not fit our “worldview.”
And here we are at another Christmas, celebrating the birth of the Saviour. There was no room for Him in the Inn, just like today, no place to come and worship Him as the churches have all been destroyed, blown apart by sophisticated military hardware supplied freely by America and dropped indiscriminately not just on buildings but also on innocent people. And we are reminded that Herod gave the order to kill all the boys under two in response to the idea that a Messiah was born. We don’t know how many lost their lives as a result of Herod’s decree, but we do know that today, Israel has taken the lives of over 44,000 – newborn babies, children, and women among that number, again around an idea, the quest for freedom, for a separate independent state, something agreed in September 1993 in the Oslo Accord. As Christians, we abhor the actions of Herod, but today, well, many Christians are applauding the actions of the Israeli Zionist Government as they invade and not only massacre the citizens of Gaza but engage in the total destruction of the country, bombing schools, hospitals and even refugee camps. As Hanna Massad said, “There is no safe place in Gaza!”
There are many in our churches who support the Israeli Government’s action as a legitimate response to Hamas’ attack and hostage-taking while also knowing that the Israeli Government knew of the planned Hamas attack days before it actually happened and waited and allowed their people to be taken as hostages. This raises an oft-discussed point regarding the Israeli’s seeking an excuse for a full-scale attack on Gaza in an effort to take full control of the area and so be able to access the estimated 122 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves valued at over US$4.5 billion, energy and financial resources, that were guaranteed to Gaza under the Oslo Accord, and that could go a long way in addressing poverty in the region. But the taking of hostages creates a justification for the Israeli Government’s actions, justified revenge, while covering the real truth, wanting the oil and gas reserves supported by the United States in need of further reliable energy resources. However, in this, we ignore the scriptural edict: “Vengeance is mine, says the Lord.” Paul in Romans was clear, “Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord. On the contrary: ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:17 – 21). Are the people of Gaza being feed? Are they being given something to drink? No, but many will no doubt find a way to rewrite this to fit a particular “worldview.”
In February this year, Munther Issac made the following observation, “When churches justify a genocide or are silent watching from distance, making carefully crafted balanced statements – the credibility of the Gospel is at stake.”
This Christmas, is the Gospel of Christ at stake? Do we no longer accept Christ’s teaching of “Love your neighbour as yourself?” Or, “But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also?” (Matthew 5:39).
Where does Gospel renewal fit for us at the final judgement? (Matthew 25:31 – 46) Will we be able to state clearly how our voice was heard when faced with significant moral questions relating to international conflicts, such as in Gaza?
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
(Micah 6: 8)
The message of the prophet Micah is a powerful appeal for Christians to forge the bond between inner principles and outward conduct.
If we accept this, then we, the church, need to be speaking up and challenging our own Government with respect to our foreign policy and our trading relations with Israel. Until there is more than just talk about a ceasefire but the actual withdrawal of troops, the facilitation of aid and a constructive plan for the reconstruction of infrastructure along with the reopening of hospitals and educational institutions throughout the country, we need to continue speaking up and demanding action. And, importantly, to stand alongside the Hanna Massads’ and Bishara Awads’ demanding recognition for Gaza and the West Bank as independent, self-governing nations so that the people do indeed have a safe place to live.
Some suggested reading:
Bishara Awad and Mercy Aiken: Yet In the Dark Streets Shining: A Palestinian Story of Hope and resilience in Bethlehem (Cliffrose Press, 2021, ISBN 9781737945918)
Manfred Kohl and Munther Issac: Christ at the Checkpoint: Blessed are the Peacemakers (Independently Published 2018, ISBN 9781723976070)
Munther Issac: On the Other Side of the Wall: A Palestinian Christian Narrative of Lament and Hope. (IVF, 2020, ISBN 9780830831999
Yohanna Katanacho: The Land of Christ: A Palestinian Cry. (Pickwick Publishers, 2013, ISBN 9781620326640)
Watch on YouTube: A view of Gaza before and after 7 October by Middle East Eye.
Donations in support of humanitarian aid work in Gaza can be made through World Vision or Holy Land Trust.
Image: Supplied by Graeme Pollock, outside the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem.
For other 'Pondering:...' opinion pieces from people in New Zealand churches, click here.
[i] During our Baptist National Hui the following statement was read out by our National Leader, followed by prayer:
The Baptist churches of New Zealand note with sorrow the persistence of intense conflicts and wars across the globe. We acknowledge the natural desire of all human beings to defend themselves, their loved ones, and their homes, but we grieve those moments when self-defence becomes a desire for revenge and resistance morphs into retribution. We confess that Christians have at times been part of the problem, rather than part of the solution but we call all nations of the world to hear Jesus’ call to love our enemies. We declare that love is always the better way and we stand with our Baptist brothers and sisters who seek to live out the gospel in conflict zones, along with all Christians and others who work for a just peace in the face of grim destruction. We pledge to pray and work for the divine transformation of peace among and between all peoples.
