Dear Editor,
War is hell regardless of who started it and who is responding to it. There are no winners in war. Warring parties are all losers because innocent people on both sides die in war, and are buried unceremoniously in mass graves. The side with the most weapons of mass destruction, larger forces and support from bigger bully nations, usually inflict more destruction on the other side. Why would you bomb and kill innocent people who have done nothing to you, and you justify that by saying you were looking for “terrorists” and the innocent civilians killed were simply “collateral damage?” War creates widows, widowers, and orphans. Loved ones, including entire families, babies, women and civilians die needlessly on both sides. Terrorism takes over on both sides as each vow to destroy each other as sworn enemies. There are hostages on both sides. Self-defence become offence. It’s not a case of sinners versus saints. Buildings and properties including hospitals, schools, dwelling places, factories that took a lot of time and money to build are bombed to smithereens with no regard to consequences, untold tragedies, and the humanitarian crises that are created by hunger, homelessness and destruction. War diminishes all of us, and affects all of us in some way.
The biggest disappointment in the current war between the Palestinians and Israel are those Evangelical/Pentecostal preachers who misapply and misinterpret scriptures such as Psalm 122:6 to say “pray for the peace of Israel.” My friend, a Full Gospel Pastor who calls himself by the lofty title of “Apostle,” wrote a blog saying, “Israel matters.” The truth is “All Lives Matter” regardless of race, religion, or national origin. So essentially some Christians are taking sides rooting for Israel in this brutal war, and see that as God’s perfect will. But Christians are called to be peacemakers, to seek peace and pursue it (1 Peter 3:8–22). We are called to beat swords into plowshares (Joel 3:10 and Isaiah 2:4). One blogger, a Mr. Mangru said: “… Let The Bombs Rain, Bibi.The Evil Savages!”
When Christians are confronted with verses in the Bible such as 1 Samuel 15:3, “Now go and smite Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass,” the usual response has been “That’s the Old Testament time of Moses law of an eye for an eye which no longer applies.” They say under Jesus we are now under the dispensation of “grace” in the New Testament – Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” As preachers have preached for a long time, Jesus removed the veil and anyone who believes in Jesus is on the same status with Jews. There is not first class and economy class when it comes to being “saved.” Isn’t that true Brother Apostle? Jewish believers remain in the tree but are joined with Gentiles and “made” into a “new body,” the Church (Ephesians 2:11–22). The truth is that it was the Jews who killed Jesus and mocked him that he thinks he was “King of the Jews.” The truth also is that all Jews are not Christians, not saved in the pentecostals’ definition of “saved.”; most follow the religion of Judaism. The triplets regarded as “Abrahamic” religions are Judaism, Christianity and Islam. They are from the same root. Christians cannot be cheerleaders for one side in a war based on some convoluted theology and Christian propaganda. While the whole world demonstrates against the current Israel-Palestine war in large numbers not seen since the Vietnam War, as usual, the Churches in Guyana are silent. They have shown no moral courage to take a stand on anything – whether it be war, a bad oil contract, crime, corruption, sexual deviance ideologies, etc. The Government is to be commended for its denunciation of the war and for its support of a two-state policy where both Israel and the Palestine have the right to exist. When I taught at two campuses of the Abu Dhabi University in the United Arab Emirates, I was fortunate to have students in my class who were from Palestine, Lebanon, Egypt, Iran, Bahrain, Oman, Yemen, Jordan, Morocco, Ethiopia, etc. I found out that people everywhere want the same thing – a peaceful, happy life!
Sincerely,
Dr. Jerry Jailall