Promised land? What promised land? Chosen people? Not anymore.
So sayeth the Synod of Middle Eastern Bishops.
In the closing statement of the Synod on the Middle East, the Bishops issued a statement. That statement said (among other things)…
n a separate part of the document — a section on cooperation with Jews — the synod fathers took issue with Jews who use the Bible to justify settlements in the West Bank, which Israel captured in 1967.
“Recourse to theological and biblical positions which use the Word of God to wrongly justify injustices is not acceptable,” the document said.
Many Jewish settlers and right-wing Israelis claim a biblical birthright to the occupied West Bank, which they call Judea and Samaria and regard as a part of historical, ancient Israel given to the Jews by God.
NO PROMISED LAND
Asked about the passage at a news conference, Greek-Melchite Archbishop Cyrille Salim Bustros, said:
“We Christians cannot speak about the promised land for the Jewish people. There is no longer a chosen people. All men and women of all countries have become the chosen people.
“The concept of the promised land cannot be used as a base for the justification of the return of Jews to Israel and the displacement of Palestinians,” he added. “The justification of Israel’s occupation of the land of Palestine cannot be based on sacred scriptures.”
Discuss.
November 1, 2010 at 1:07 am
The modern State of Israel bases it's right to exist on the Balfour Declaration (1948). The UN was on board and the UK gave up its protectorate, withdrew, and the violence started.
Correct me if I misunderstand but wasn't statehood granted because the civilized world agreed that it owed Jews a homeland after its moral failure to protect Jews from the Nazis – and for centuries of pogroms in Russia and elsewhere.
Hitler's thinking can be found here: http://bigpeace.com/amarcus/2010/10/31/president-obamas-peace-partner-jews-are-hated-because-of-their-love-of-money/
American Thinker has a singularly uninformed, unthinking hit piece. entitled Stunning on the Catholic Church over Archbishop Butros comment.
November 12, 2010 at 4:18 pm
Jeremiah 31:35-37
This is what the LORD says, he who appoints the sun to shine by day, who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar–the LORD Almighty is his name: "Only if these decrees vanish from my sight," declares the LORD, "will the descendants of Israel ever cease to be a nation before me." This is what the LORD says: "Only if the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth below be searched out will I reject all the descendants of Israel because of all they have done," declares the LORD.