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THE LEBANON WAR EXPOSES STRANGE RELIGIOUS BEDFELLOWS
CounterPunch, CA
Aug. 7, 2006
A New Kind of Bigotry
By GEORGE BERES
I've not been a target of religious prejudice during my 73 years--
except today, as I identify with growing tragedy in the Middle East.
"Are you Jewish," I'm asked.
No.
"Are you Arabic?"
No.
The questions, natural and obvious, point up the problem: a hidden
religious prejudice. It has less to do with bigotry than with simple
historic and religious illiteracy among Americans. The impact on
me grows because I was born and raised in this country as a Greek
Orthodox Christian. I left the institutional church because of its
patriarchal prejudices. I've come to recognize something even more
destructive common to almost all faith-based sects: the belief they
are god's chosen people-- having a direct line to what "god" tells them
(or that they tell him?) is the truth.
Few in the evangelical church are free of such misconceptions. If
they choose to be what I view as delusional, that's their privilege
in free societies. When it is forced on others, it becomes dangerous
and unjust.
Victims of such attitudes today are vulnerable Christian minorities
in Lebanon and Palestine, where entire societies are being attacked by
Israel armed by the United States. Over the centuries, these minorities
got benign treatment for their religious faith from Ottoman overlords
during a long period of Islamic dominance. There is nothing benign
about their contemporary mistreatment at the hands of what they see
as Western religion: Christianity with a fundamentalist jaundice,
and Judaism colored by Zionist extremism.
It's a misconception to assume Lebanon and Palestine are exclusively
Islamic. More than 30 percent of Lebanon is Christian, virtually
all of the Eastern Orthodox faith. Most of Palestine's four million
people are Islamic. 50,000 are Eastern Orthodox, 25,000 Roman Catholic,
25,000 Protestant and 1,000 Armenian Orthodox.
It has reached the point where the normally uninvolved Archbishop
of Greece's Orthodox Church, Christodoulos, said in early August:
"Israel's actions within its right to self-defense have long exceeded
any rational limit . . . This is not in Israel's interest. Fear
God's wrath."
He failed to acknowledge what makes possible such "excessive" actions
by Israel: unstinting support from the United States. That is what
justifies-- in fact, demands-- I speak out.
The enmity of Arabic peoples toward Judaism dates from antiquity, the
days of the pharaohs. That with Christianity is more recent, inspired
by the Medieval Crusades, when Knights of Christendon used the cross
as a symbol to justify pillage and rape of Muslims defending Jerusalem.
Islam was not the only victim. Eastern Orthodox clergy were slaughtered
and their churches looted by Western armies identified more with
ambitions of war than goals of Christianity. That does not make it
easier for me to understand how avowed Christians from the U.S., with
their Israeli allies, can today freely victimize Orthodox Christians
as if they did not realize they exist in Islamic lands.
The true tragedy is Israeli policy, approved if not fomented by the
United States, that results in death for Lebanese and Palestinian
civilians, and in retaliation, death for innocent Israelis. Myopia of
the U.S., which identifies itself as Christian, is apparent in many
Christians being killed, even if Americans callously assume targets
are exclusively Muslim.
Though I'm of Greek heritage, I've long valued and interacted with
Lebanese, Palestinians and Syrians. They were members of St. George
Anticochian Orthodox Church, which my family attended in Oak Park,
suburb of Chicago. Some of those close friends now face each day with
fear for relatives living in Beirut.
Such fear is not rooted in threats from Muslims, although that
reailty grows as civil war begins to engulf Lebanon and Iraq. Its
true source fuels my identity with the victims, and a sense that I
must speak out against actions of my country. My anger and suspicions
are directed toward leaders of my country and of Israel who devastate
many with preemptive war. Their actions suggest bigotry that threatens
me personally.
Irony of this destructive collaboration is that Israel welcomes support
of Christian fundamentalists for short-term advantages it offers. All
the while, Jews are familiar with historic betrayal at the hands of
Christians who have found various ways to disguise their hatred of
the so-called "Christ-killers."
Most Jews know that in the long term, their evangalist benefactors are
interested only in setting the stage for what they see as the second
coming of Christ. That, they believe, can occur only when Israel gains
full control of Jerusalem. On that day of "rapture" in the Christian
lexicon, the church will offer Jews a choice. As a minister of a church
in Eugene, Ore., was quoted earlier this summer (The Register-Guard):
"Jews will have a chance to convert to Christianity and be saved with
us. If they refuse, they will be condemned with all other unbelievers."
Few in America realizes how the Eastern Church, along with innocent
Muslims, is under attack in Lebanon and Palestine by this rare alliance
between Judaism and fundamentalist Christianity. I also am a target,
and am overdue in speaking out.
George Beres, retired in Eugene, Ore., once was executive director
of the Hellenic Foundation in Chicago in the mid-1970s. He can be
reached at: [email protected]
http://www.counterpunch.org/be res08072006.html
CounterPunch, CA
Aug. 7, 2006
A New Kind of Bigotry
By GEORGE BERES
I've not been a target of religious prejudice during my 73 years--
except today, as I identify with growing tragedy in the Middle East.
"Are you Jewish," I'm asked.
No.
"Are you Arabic?"
No.
The questions, natural and obvious, point up the problem: a hidden
religious prejudice. It has less to do with bigotry than with simple
historic and religious illiteracy among Americans. The impact on
me grows because I was born and raised in this country as a Greek
Orthodox Christian. I left the institutional church because of its
patriarchal prejudices. I've come to recognize something even more
destructive common to almost all faith-based sects: the belief they
are god's chosen people-- having a direct line to what "god" tells them
(or that they tell him?) is the truth.
Few in the evangelical church are free of such misconceptions. If
they choose to be what I view as delusional, that's their privilege
in free societies. When it is forced on others, it becomes dangerous
and unjust.
Victims of such attitudes today are vulnerable Christian minorities
in Lebanon and Palestine, where entire societies are being attacked by
Israel armed by the United States. Over the centuries, these minorities
got benign treatment for their religious faith from Ottoman overlords
during a long period of Islamic dominance. There is nothing benign
about their contemporary mistreatment at the hands of what they see
as Western religion: Christianity with a fundamentalist jaundice,
and Judaism colored by Zionist extremism.
It's a misconception to assume Lebanon and Palestine are exclusively
Islamic. More than 30 percent of Lebanon is Christian, virtually
all of the Eastern Orthodox faith. Most of Palestine's four million
people are Islamic. 50,000 are Eastern Orthodox, 25,000 Roman Catholic,
25,000 Protestant and 1,000 Armenian Orthodox.
It has reached the point where the normally uninvolved Archbishop
of Greece's Orthodox Church, Christodoulos, said in early August:
"Israel's actions within its right to self-defense have long exceeded
any rational limit . . . This is not in Israel's interest. Fear
God's wrath."
He failed to acknowledge what makes possible such "excessive" actions
by Israel: unstinting support from the United States. That is what
justifies-- in fact, demands-- I speak out.
The enmity of Arabic peoples toward Judaism dates from antiquity, the
days of the pharaohs. That with Christianity is more recent, inspired
by the Medieval Crusades, when Knights of Christendon used the cross
as a symbol to justify pillage and rape of Muslims defending Jerusalem.
Islam was not the only victim. Eastern Orthodox clergy were slaughtered
and their churches looted by Western armies identified more with
ambitions of war than goals of Christianity. That does not make it
easier for me to understand how avowed Christians from the U.S., with
their Israeli allies, can today freely victimize Orthodox Christians
as if they did not realize they exist in Islamic lands.
The true tragedy is Israeli policy, approved if not fomented by the
United States, that results in death for Lebanese and Palestinian
civilians, and in retaliation, death for innocent Israelis. Myopia of
the U.S., which identifies itself as Christian, is apparent in many
Christians being killed, even if Americans callously assume targets
are exclusively Muslim.
Though I'm of Greek heritage, I've long valued and interacted with
Lebanese, Palestinians and Syrians. They were members of St. George
Anticochian Orthodox Church, which my family attended in Oak Park,
suburb of Chicago. Some of those close friends now face each day with
fear for relatives living in Beirut.
Such fear is not rooted in threats from Muslims, although that
reailty grows as civil war begins to engulf Lebanon and Iraq. Its
true source fuels my identity with the victims, and a sense that I
must speak out against actions of my country. My anger and suspicions
are directed toward leaders of my country and of Israel who devastate
many with preemptive war. Their actions suggest bigotry that threatens
me personally.
Irony of this destructive collaboration is that Israel welcomes support
of Christian fundamentalists for short-term advantages it offers. All
the while, Jews are familiar with historic betrayal at the hands of
Christians who have found various ways to disguise their hatred of
the so-called "Christ-killers."
Most Jews know that in the long term, their evangalist benefactors are
interested only in setting the stage for what they see as the second
coming of Christ. That, they believe, can occur only when Israel gains
full control of Jerusalem. On that day of "rapture" in the Christian
lexicon, the church will offer Jews a choice. As a minister of a church
in Eugene, Ore., was quoted earlier this summer (The Register-Guard):
"Jews will have a chance to convert to Christianity and be saved with
us. If they refuse, they will be condemned with all other unbelievers."
Few in America realizes how the Eastern Church, along with innocent
Muslims, is under attack in Lebanon and Palestine by this rare alliance
between Judaism and fundamentalist Christianity. I also am a target,
and am overdue in speaking out.
George Beres, retired in Eugene, Ore., once was executive director
of the Hellenic Foundation in Chicago in the mid-1970s. He can be
reached at: [email protected]
http://www.counterpunch.org/be res08072006.html