Bishops from the Middle East, summoned by the pope to the Vatican, ended their two-week meeting with a statement that called on Israel to end its “occupation” of Arab lands and to stop using the Bible to defend injustices.
The dwindling numbers of Christians living in the Middle East was to be the principal reason for the meeting called by Pope Benedict XVI, but the joint communiqué also warned Israel about “injustices” against Palestinians.
The synod’s message said that “re course to theological and biblical positions which use the word of God to wrongly justify injustices is not acceptable,” in an apparent reference to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
See my comment in the [url=http://new.kendallharmon.net/wp-content/uploads/index.php/t19/article/32952/]next (and related) thread[/url].
Point 1- No group should use the scriptures to justify violence or injustice.
Point 2- The Israeli’s are using scripture to show prior ownership of the land which is in itself not *necessarily* using the scriptures for injustice. The bible clearly shows a Jewish record of inhabitance of the land. Good liberals usually point to the superiority of indigenous populations, yet they always leave out the Jews.
Point 3- The Palestinians lost their lands when they refused to agree to the 1948 UN decision dividing Palestine and decided, with Arab neighbors, to sneak attack Israel with all their forces and they lost. In 1967 they tried the exact same thing, and lost again, even worse than the first time. Thus Israel has its current borders. (This does not mean I’m in favor of further settlement construction, which I think is counter-productive to everyone’s interest, including the state of Israel.)
Point 4- The reason that the number of Christians in Palestine is shrinking has far more to do with the Muslims than it does the Jews.
Point 5- So far, Land for Peace has only yielded land. I still hope for a two state solution, but only if an honest peace can be negotiated by both sides.