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Anthony McIntyre  ☠ Israel's Hutu Power-like genocide in Gaza is a deeply emotive issue.


We can sense the raw anger pulsate through our ranks as Drogheda Stands With Palestine gathers every Saturday. It cuts to the bone, making it difficult to reconcile ourselves to the pro-Israel perspective or indifference of others. That feeling is not specific to Drogheda. A recently conducted poll in the UK found that almost half those surveyed would end a friendship over the genocide. 43 per cent of those who support Palestine felt that way while the number was slightly higher for supporters of Israel at 46 per cent. 

I have a friend who insists that friendship is too clean to be ruined by something as dirty as politics. I am not quite sure how well that works when a genocide is taking place.

The evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne observed recently that people are inclined to believe not what is true but what makes them comfortable. Although we try it each time we stand in West Street, moving people out of their comfort zone and having them assume credible positions is not an easy task. The thought has to cross our minds as to how anybody could be comfortable with what Israel is perpetrating in Gaza. 

A couple of days ago something came up on my Facebook feed about one of those pastor types expressing his sense of honour to be officiating at the funeral of one of his congregation. The only thing he revealed about the deceased congregant was that he was a friend of Israel. Obviously the pastor was comfortable stating that on a public forum. To my ear that is like praising somebody for being a friend of Nazi Germany. I imagine that the shame of saying it would make a reasonable person run for cover once the damning words were uttered. But not with this pastor. Silent about genocide but waving his pious fist the minute the horrible Iranian morality police pull a woman up for not wearing a head scarf. Children being massacred in Gaza makes him comfortable. Women being compelled to wear religious attire in Tehran makes him uncomfortable. Both make me uncomfortable but the objective gap that separates the degrees of human suffering between those inconvenienced by morality police and those incapacitated by genocide is as measurable as it is huge.

I guess it helps us better understand the phrases no hate like Christian love or you know god is on your side when he hates the same people you do. The fact that Christian pastors assigned to the SS could accompany the Einsatzgruppen on its murder missions against Jewish men, women and children, should serve to disabuse us of any misconceptions we might have that men of god can not be every bit as monstrous as others in this world, where cruelty before kindness is their pious priority. 

I recently read that the Satanic Temple in the US is providing food to people who are hungry as a result of Trump's withdrawal of the hunger averting SNAP assistance. Having a belief in neither demons or deities, I still found that most instructive about the relationship between religion and morality. If we lack compassion for those suffering cruelty in the world, our morality is seriously warped. 

Love comes not from heaven but from the heart. Nor is that love a hippy type schmaltzy, feel good, fuzzy feeling. It is simply a passion to achieve a world society where people - including those so far removed from us that we could not possibly love them as traditionally understood - are treated justly, are allowed human rights, are not subjected to war and genocide, are not starved and butchered. Asserting that type of love for a world order which protects rather than persecutes, we repudiate those with a mouth full of scripture and a heart full of hate.

⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

Scripture

Anthony McIntyre  ☠ Israel's Hutu Power-like genocide in Gaza is a deeply emotive issue.


We can sense the raw anger pulsate through our ranks as Drogheda Stands With Palestine gathers every Saturday. It cuts to the bone, making it difficult to reconcile ourselves to the pro-Israel perspective or indifference of others. That feeling is not specific to Drogheda. A recently conducted poll in the UK found that almost half those surveyed would end a friendship over the genocide. 43 per cent of those who support Palestine felt that way while the number was slightly higher for supporters of Israel at 46 per cent. 

I have a friend who insists that friendship is too clean to be ruined by something as dirty as politics. I am not quite sure how well that works when a genocide is taking place.

The evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne observed recently that people are inclined to believe not what is true but what makes them comfortable. Although we try it each time we stand in West Street, moving people out of their comfort zone and having them assume credible positions is not an easy task. The thought has to cross our minds as to how anybody could be comfortable with what Israel is perpetrating in Gaza. 

A couple of days ago something came up on my Facebook feed about one of those pastor types expressing his sense of honour to be officiating at the funeral of one of his congregation. The only thing he revealed about the deceased congregant was that he was a friend of Israel. Obviously the pastor was comfortable stating that on a public forum. To my ear that is like praising somebody for being a friend of Nazi Germany. I imagine that the shame of saying it would make a reasonable person run for cover once the damning words were uttered. But not with this pastor. Silent about genocide but waving his pious fist the minute the horrible Iranian morality police pull a woman up for not wearing a head scarf. Children being massacred in Gaza makes him comfortable. Women being compelled to wear religious attire in Tehran makes him uncomfortable. Both make me uncomfortable but the objective gap that separates the degrees of human suffering between those inconvenienced by morality police and those incapacitated by genocide is as measurable as it is huge.

I guess it helps us better understand the phrases no hate like Christian love or you know god is on your side when he hates the same people you do. The fact that Christian pastors assigned to the SS could accompany the Einsatzgruppen on its murder missions against Jewish men, women and children, should serve to disabuse us of any misconceptions we might have that men of god can not be every bit as monstrous as others in this world, where cruelty before kindness is their pious priority. 

I recently read that the Satanic Temple in the US is providing food to people who are hungry as a result of Trump's withdrawal of the hunger averting SNAP assistance. Having a belief in neither demons or deities, I still found that most instructive about the relationship between religion and morality. If we lack compassion for those suffering cruelty in the world, our morality is seriously warped. 

Love comes not from heaven but from the heart. Nor is that love a hippy type schmaltzy, feel good, fuzzy feeling. It is simply a passion to achieve a world society where people - including those so far removed from us that we could not possibly love them as traditionally understood - are treated justly, are allowed human rights, are not subjected to war and genocide, are not starved and butchered. Asserting that type of love for a world order which protects rather than persecutes, we repudiate those with a mouth full of scripture and a heart full of hate.

⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

Anthony McIntyre Hate Theology Israeli Genocide In Gaza

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