Canadians Sued for Building Israeli Settlements in the West Bank

I support this non-violent means of dealing with the issues at hand.

The buildings are illegal according to international law and calling companies to account for their actions just makes sense!

Zondervan and Thomas Nelson sued over "homosexual" in the Bible

Today I ran across this article in USA Today (via).

This man is suing Zondervan and Thomas Nelson for damages regarding their translations' use of the word "homosexual" in the Bible.

I wonder how often these kinds of lawsuits will begin to crop up.

Will major publishers be forced to forgo freedom of speech in the future in order to comply?

I grow angry about the assumption that change and healing are not a possibility for people who wrestle with sexual brokenness and ssa. This event underscores the strength of the assumption where the authority of scripture, as a source for healing, is challenged.

The man's testimony breaks my heart:

Fowler, 39, alleges Zondervan's Bibles referring to homosexuality as a sin have made him an outcast from his family and contributed to physical discomfort and periods of 'demoralization, chaos and bewilderment.'

Without knowing his story in entirety it sounds like his family has failed to uphold the standard of grace in their interactions with him.

I wonder how this story could have turned out differently for this man...

I think the failure here is not in the translation of the word homosexual but rather in the emphasis on the condemnation of sin over the reception of grace for healing and freedom from sin.

Donald Knuth - Cool Name - Cool Dude

I don't know if it's just my middle-child personality or if there's something wrong with me.

I just dislike blindly participating in trends.

I know I do so all the time but as they come to my attention I make choices about trends.

When I ran across this page from Don Knuth (wikipedia entry) I smiled. Here's a guy who has evaluated a trend in light of his personal purpose and made a clear decision. He knows his identity and has removed email because it distracts him from his purpose.

In these days when parents reserve email addresses and domain names for their children even before they are born I find Don Knuth's example refreshing.

I admire Don Knuth.

Olmert vs. the Amish

So...I couldn't help myself.

I read the following headline and my mind just started making all sorts of connections:

"Three killed in Jerusalem bulldozer attack" (link, link, etc)

First I felt saddened. This kind of violence will not heal the hurt of the Palestinian people, especially of those living in Gaza. I don't agree with this kind of action. It's wrong and it doesn't help anyone.

Second, I saw this picture of the bulldozer and this video. And I began to understand a little of what the bulldozer driver might have been thinking...

- The bulldozer is a Caterpillar bulldozer of a similar variety and lineage to those used to destroy Palestinian homes throughout the past 60 years. (1, 2, 3, etc.)
- I wondered if the bulldozer driver thought he was enacting some form of poetic justice by using the same kind of instrument for a similar kind of destruction.

Third, I ran across this headline: "Barak: Israel must respond immediately to Jerusalem attack" with the followup text: "Shortly after the attack, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ordered ministers to examine the possibility of razing the terrorist's home in East Jerusalem."

In this incident we have a microcosm of the conflict. A classic revenge for revenge for revenge situation. A Hamas spokesman is quoted as calling the incident, "the natural result of continuing Israeli aggression and crimes against our people in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem." An Israeli journalist in a section of the Ha'aretz newspaper entitled "A Special Place in Hell" toys with branding Palestinian people as bent on vengeance and exterminating "the Jews".

This is what I don't yet want to admit: that for all these years, in 2008 no less than in 1902, what a critical mass of Palestinians want most, perhaps even more than statehood, may be as simple as the vile thrill of vengeance, as straightforward as nothing more than seeing Jews dead and gone.

Each side strives for revenge out of a sense of righteous indignation.

Fourth, my mind drifted back to the events of October 2, 2006 when "a gunman took hostages and eventually killed five girls (aged 6-13) and then committed suicide at West Nickel Mines School, a one-room schoolhouse in the Old Order Amish community of Nickel Mines, a village in Bart Township of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States." (Quoted from Wikipedia)

I remembered how they dealt with terrorism. They refused to think in terms of the lowest common denominator (revenge). As people of faith, believing in a God both Just ("Vengeance is Mine") and Merciful ("you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity"), they chose to relinquish their right to revenge. As a community, they comforted the hurting family of the killer as well as their own hurting families. They chose, in love, to assume the best of the killer's family. They believed he acted on his own and did not extend hatred to his innocent family.

What a dramatic difference in response!

Ehud Olmert wants to destroy the bulldozer driver's home!

- & -

The Amish choose to comfort the family of the killer!

I recognize the complexity of Israel-Palestine conflict but I still have to wonder...

How would you respond?

7/3 Update: Further discussion of destroying homes and cutting off neighborhoods from Jerusalem. link, link