Change of heart

Tonight, as I was cleaning up the kitchen after supper, my cellphone rang. It was a call from a fund raiser for an organisation that I used to support a few years ago, Bibles for Israel.

The woman kicked off with offering me prayer for whatever personal burdens I wished to divulge to her. Now, once upon a time, I used to be part of a church community and a bible study group. And we did pray for each other, but only after building some form of familiarity and moreover - confidentiality. Sorry, I do not indulge in public sharing of inner turmoils with some unknown person phoning me to offer prayer and ask for money in the same breath. But I do write this web log. Perhaps it should be made private for the sake of consistency.

Then the woman got to the crux of her call: Do I wish to make a further contribution to her cause? On that point I declined in an adamant tone. Three years of a closer following of Middle Eastern politics had caused a significant shift in my sentiments concerning Israel and Christian support for that oppressive regime.

This particular movement, Bibles for Israel, has its roots in Zionist Christian denominations that believe in the literal re-establishment of an earthly kingdom of Jesus Christ, seated in Jerusalem. It regards the disastrously one-sided formation of the state of Israel as a fulfillment of Biblical prophesy on the return of the Jewish diaspora.

By implication this view condones the partitioning of Palestine into Israel and the rest of it, as well as the inhumane displacement of Palestinians after the formation of the state of Israel. Sorry, I have not voted against Apartheid in South Africa, where some people of European decent wanted to carve up that area into a white South Africa and the rest of it, only now to contribute to a cause that by implication believes that the apartheid regime of Israel is somehow God-sent.

But I spared her my political rant. After ending the call, I thought perhaps I should have asked her and her fellows to pray for the undoing of the Israeli regime and the restoration of peace and justice in Palestine. But then, perhaps it would have been futile to do so.