So, last week, a commentary on a very direct theological issue which arose up through the Trumpian world. This week perhaps less directly: is there a theological issue around Trump and team's approach to Israel (and thus to Palestine and thus to the extraordinary announcement made by Trump that he sees the USA taking over Gaza and Gazan Palestinians should move to Egypt and Jordan (or beyond))?
I was intrigued towards theological rumination by a Tweet I saw which alleged that Calvinism is responsible for thinking that God's "old covenant" (i.e. with Israel = nation/people) is still in force alongside the "new covenant" (i.e. that God now covenants through Jesus Christ with the whole world), and thus such an idea influences thinking which favours Israel in many Christian communities, including many influential communities in the USA. The point of this post is not to attack or defend Calvinism on this allegation.
Before ruminating, let me be quite clear: unless Trump is very cunningly leveraging this moment and his announcement to get (presumably) the wealthier Arab nations to fund the reconstruction of Gaza instaed of the USA doing it, what he has announced is appalling: it amounts to precisely the imperialism of a former age which (at least) the West has been moving away from, ever repentant for the errors of past eras, including that expansion of interest which ethnically cleansed peoples from various regions, as would happen if Palestinians are forced to leave Gaza.
If Ordo Amoris raises the question whether love has limits and gradations depending on factors such as kith and kin (or not) and geographical distance from lover to potential beloved (a question being answered in a very particular way this past few days as USAID is dismantled), then Ordo Trumpis (the Trump approach to ordering the world) raises the question - on the particular matter at hand of Gaza - whether a muddled approach by Christians to the nature of God's covenantal promises is influencing the otherwise well-known Trumpian predilection for a great property development deal.
At great risk of being labelled a supersessionist (the church replaces Israel), I cannot see how we read the Bible from cover to cover and get past the fact that all God's promises find their fulfilment in Jesus Christ, with the consequence that focus on land/promised land for the Israel of the Old Testament/old covenant becomes a non-geographical focus on Jesus Christ and the fulfilment of life found in him. More succinctly, the kingdom of God as taught by Jesus is not a bounded area of land on the surface of the earth.
Note, of course, that in the christocentric kingdom of God, justice and mercy matter for all, and that includes for all Jews ... and for all Palestinians. The new covenant of God through Jesus Christ does not shift the commitment of God to the well-being of the Jews; it extends that commitment to all. They way forward for Gaza, in Christian perspective, is a way forward for justice, mercy and peace; ditto for Israel; ditto for the West Bank; Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon.
In this theology there seems no room for a US led property development; but there is opportunity for a US-led humanitarian effort in reconstruction, generously funded because ordo amoris trumps ordo Trumpis. Please don't tell me ordo amoris doesn't include Gaza for America because this week President Trump has clearly seen some kind of kith and kinship with Gaza!
"More succinctly, the kingdom of God as taught by Jesus is not a bounded area of land on the surface of the earth." (Peter).
ReplyDeleteWell.put! I can't understand how it could be anything other.
My struggle is that the kingdom of God is here and now, is more present than these words I am typing ...and yet (Gaza, Trump numerous etc).
"Ordo Trumpis" - what a brilliant phrase, though can't see anything with that that coming out from Rome in the immediate future.
"More than 150 female prisoners were raped and burned to death during a jailbreak last week when fleeing male inmates set fire to a prison in Goma, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a United Nations spokesperson has said."
ReplyDeleteI think the Kingdom is here because it needs to be.
Peter, how did you get through the whole piece without once mentioning Islam and Hamas? It's like going to a doctor who tells you all your ailments and faults except your Stage IV cancer. Here are the unpalatable facts which "the international community" refuses to face:
ReplyDelete1. Hamas started this war and continued it, leading to the destruction of most of Gaza. At any point, they could have stopped and released the hostages but they continued - to what end? Hoping their allies in the west would pressure Israel into stopping? That Iran would smuggle them a nuclear device or biological weapons?
2. Gaza has never made sense geopolitically or economically. As it is, it could never pay its own way in the world. The United Nations largely created this problem by turning it into a giant welfare dependency with enormous theft and corruption, allowing Iran to use it as base for its insane war against Israel.
3. Thanks to Hamas, whole generations have grown up as jihadi zealots (funded by UNRWA and Iran) instead of achieving something useful in their lives. But hundreds of thousands of other Palestinians have realized their economic and personal future lay in emigration (as people all over the world have done). Realistically, the place cannot support 2 million people on subsistence handouts. That way lies madness.
4. Germany went through immense pain because of its aggression but in the end it was denazified. Gaza needs the same purgation. What has happened to the Christian population in Gaza?
5. The 'two-state solution', as popularly put, makes little sense. A state without integrity of its borders will always be in conflict with Israel and it's absurd to think of Jerusalem being a bi-national capital.
6. Wars (and losing them) have consequences. Germany's borders with France, Poland and then-Czechoslovakia were changed irrevocably. Why should Mandate Palestine be any different?
That's my take on this mess, Peter. When we have finished deriding the snake-handlers of Appalachia, what would you do?
Pax et bonum
William Greenhalgh
Great - more scapegoating and polarization.
DeleteOrdo Trumpis thinking. More projection of blame, aggression, and hate onto one single group - oh, yes, the poorest and most victimized. Most destroyed. Most beheaded.
If there is a Big Love that transcends the Love-and-Hate polarity within us, that drives these endless intergenerational cycles of death, murder, reprisal (on both sides) it must take neither side, treat neither side as a cancer - either the cancer of Islam (William) or of the Jews (endless antisemitism).
The cancer is us, that way of thinking.
Thanks Mark and William
ReplyDeleteThe kingdom is and is not yet!
I share your distaste and desire for complete distance from Hamas.
I suggest that the Saudis rebuild Gaza; destroy Hamas; and be very very clear - they have the security appratus to do it - that there will be no more tunnels - since they do not want their investment destroyed by Israel.
"When the woman of Samaria came out to fetch water at Jacob's Well, the woman reasoned with Christ about worship, and she said 'Our fathers used to worship on this mountain, but others in Jerusalem.' And Christ answered her again, 'The time is coming when God will be worshipped neither in Jerusalem nor on this mountain.' He insisted that these two places of worship could not continue, and having done that then set up another kind of worship, for he said 'God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in the spirit and in the truth, for the hour is coming and has already arrived when God looks for people to worship him like this'...And isn't the spirit inside, and the truth in one's inner being?...And can anyone worship God, who is spirit, if they don't come to the spirit and truth of God in their own hearts?" (George Fox, 1667)
ReplyDeleteMark, you are not reading carefully. The cancer I refer to is not Islam as such but Hamas, a very violent form of Islamic fundamentalism dedicated to destroying Israel. Plenty of Muslim Arabs live happily enough as Israeli citizens within Israel, serve as MPs, judges etc. If they were trying to overthrow the state, things would be different. There is slso a growing number of Christians in Israel and no restrictions on evangelism.
ReplyDeleteThat said, it cannot be denied that one of the principal csuses of social disharmony in Europe has been the creation of Muslim communities through immigration. London and Birmingham are unrecognisable today compared to 40 years ago, and the anger over Pakistani grooming gangs is immense. And the infection of Judenhass has even spread to Australia through the same vector. Yet anyone who questioned the policies that created this world was roundly demounced and silenced.
Pax et bonum
William Greenhalgh
The ins-and-outs of "supersessionist" thinking are beyond me(!) nevertheless I just read something related (about God's "chosen people") and thought I'd share it.. I was somewhat taken aback:
ReplyDeleteChristian nationalism, however, co-mingles the blood of Christ, shed for the sins of all humankind, with the blood that has been shed by those who have defended our sovereign national interests. It fails to recognize, as my colleague David Stratton says, that “Jesus died, not with the sword of government in his hand, but with the spear of government in his side.”
Christian nationalism wraps the Cross in a flag and thereby suggests America has replaced biblical Israel as God’s chosen people. This is poor theology and comes dangerously close to idolatry.
https://baptistnews.com/article/christian-nationalism-a-baptist-evaluation-and-reponse/
Well +Peter Saudi investing in Gaza seems to make more sense than a US owned strip of land in the Middle East : ) …. I guess being a real estate mogul it is along Trump’s line of interest to think of high-rises and resorts…. While I am an advocate of the priesthood of all believers I haven’t done much looking in any depth into the place of the Holy Land in terms of any future prophecy although I know a number of people passionate about the return of Jews to Israel. As a position it definitely does add a strong stance to people who see Israel as having a divine mandate to all the land, notwithstanding Hamas believes they have a divine mandate to destroy all Jews and any other people classed as apostates.
ReplyDeleteA stinging comment you quote Liz… It does seem the mixing of Christianity and politics in the U.S. has gone down an unhealthy path…. Shane Claiborne’s Jesus For President is worth a read, it’s an older book now but has some wry observations on this topic from a non-status quo American Christian perspective.
There does appear to be something ‘evil’ in the ideology of extreme Islam such as that driving Hamas ideology William, ideology also evident in other parts of the world too such as Nigeria. My understanding is Hamas originated as the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Egypt eventually managed to wrangle them out of power, however, they then drifted into Gaza…. In terms of the UN etc creating a dependent welfare area, that’s more nuanced as really it wasn’t impossible for those living in Gaza to truly make a living, given they were the most populated area of land in the world and I think (you can correct me) they weren’t allowed to operate via sea due to Israeli restrictions and many who worked in Israel faced quite a bit of difficulty both in gaining employment and passing the border every day.
Israel also has been dealt bias criticism to the extent they are surrounded by Hamas, Hezbollah & Syrian Rebels all funded it appears by Iran and intent on eradicating them, between a rock and a hard place. Notwithstanding the destruction wrought in Gaza is mind blowing.
I think a challenging question to ask is if 1200 plus people in New Zealand were killed from a surprise attack how would we respond?
GOP ("Grand Old Party" i.e. U.S. Republican Party) Jesus
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/SZ2L-R8NgrA?si=G_igRN1ZthVZ7QHi
"I think a challenging question to ask is if 1200 plus people in New Zealand were killed from a surprise attack how would we respond?" (Jean).
ReplyDeleteGood question, but would the answer be: by killing 48,000 people including 18,000 children?
Re challenging Q: I'd be outraged the military had ignored the female soldiers posted at the Wall - who'd reported on the preparations and practices they could see happening from their outposts. The women's witness was ignored.. where have I heard that before?!
ReplyDeleteGood video link thanks Mark!
David Brooks (centrist, moderate conservative) believes stupidity is a meaningful frame in which Tom understand Trump, and to this end quotes Bonhoeffer:
ReplyDelete"Bonhoeffer notes, “Against stupidity we are defenseless.” Because stupid actions do not make sense, they invariably come as a surprise. Reasonable arguments fall on deaf ears. Counter-evidence is brushed aside. Facts are deemed irrelevant. Bonhoeffer continues, “In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self-satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack...
As time has gone by, I’ve developed more and more sympathy for the goals the populists are trying to achieve. America’s leadership class has spent the last few generations excluding, ignoring, rejecting and insulting a large swath of this country. It’s terrible to be assaulted in this way. It’s worse when you finally seize power and start assaulting yourself — and everyone around you. In fact, it’s stupid."
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/30/opinion/trump-executive-orders.html
The Church of England general synod has just voted to extend independent safeguarding but reject the model that would make all safeguarding independent.
ReplyDeleteMartine Osborne calls it
"A DISAPPOINTING AND DANGEROUS DECISION ON SAFEGUARDING
It seems particularly extraordinary that Synod should choose not to follow the advice of most survivors of abuse, who were campaigning outside for full independence; its own lead bishop on safeguarding, the Rt Revd Joanne Grenfell; the Chair of the recent independent report into child sex abuse that it commissioned, Professor Alexis Jay; and the Second Church Estates Commissioner who represents Parliament at Synod, Marsha de Cordova MP.
For reasons that are hard to comprehend, Synod instead decided to follow the advice of the Bishop of Blackburn, the Rt Revd Philip North - one of about ten bishops who do not accept female clergy, who suggested a sort of halfway house.
...Having said all this, and recognising that some progress has been made with improving safeguarding processes within the Church, Synod has also not yet addressed problems of culture that facilitate abuse. This, I believe, includes not only a culture of deference and power imbalances but also a culture of sexism and discrimination, that make the Church an unsafe environment for those who are expected to accept and cope with discrimination.
As Chair of WATCH, a charity that campaigns for equality for women in the Church of England, I am particularly concerned for women. Currently, all people in the Church are required to accept the status quo, which is that institutional discrimination continues - whereby churches can still say no to a female vicars, no to female bishops and teach that women need to be under the authority of men."
https://www.womenandthechurch.org/blog/a-disappointing-and-dangerous-decision-on-safeguarding
Hi Mark
ReplyDeleteThe difficulty I think is we cannot say we would not respond in such a way, and by the ‘we’ I mean the government representing a country/ies as opposed to individuals : ) ….
After the US went into Iraq post 911 200,000 they estimate 200 000 people were killed (not to defend the Taliban they were effectively killing 300 000 children a year before this by starvation and illness), 60 000 people were killed as a result of Indonesia wanting to own East Timor (on our backyard), and again close to 180 000 people were killed in Syria by the ruling government as a result of parts of the country wanting democracy.
I actually don’t think we can Mark. And when I say ‘we’ I mean the governments representing the country/ies we live in…
ReplyDelete60 000 people were killed in Indonesia’s efforts to take over East Timor (on our back doorstep)…. After the U.S. went into Iraq after 911 they think up to 200 000 causalities came from it (notwithstanding the Taliban caused more than this per year prior due to the starvation/illness of their citizens), the Syrian government cracking down on their people wanting democracy ended up in the death of over 150 000 people….
I find the destruction in Gaza astonishing, and looking at it wonder how on earth only that many people of the 2 million population have been killed….
I did a bit of looking into Hamas history. They became present in Gaza around 1987. After elections and ruling with Fatah (the P.A)… they had some skirmishes and disagreements, one being they wouldn’t honour previous agreements/peace accords that the P.A. Had made with Israel over many years of negotiation and fighting. In 2007 Hamas took over Gaza by force. At that point the US, EU and Israel put sanctions on Gaza, Israel and Egypt closed their borders. Hamas fighters made up about 0.01 % of Gaza’s population before the Oct 7th attacks….
ReplyDeleteThere you go Liz, at least the other disciples came to look when Mary found Jesus was no longer in the tomb!!
ReplyDeleteMark a perceptive quote by Bonhoeffer…
Michael Sandel, How the Left Paved the Way for Trump
ReplyDeleteThis is a long listen but well worthwhile, and easy to understand follow.
Michael Sandel is a Jewish American, left of centre, post-liberal, "communitarian" political philosopher who's been warning about the dangers of "progressive capitalism" for many years.
His books "Liberalism and the Limits of Justice" and "Democracy's Discontect" are classics.
In this interview he comments on Trumpism and how the extreme right in America has, ironically (given their backing of and support by billionaires), become the leading voice for popular discontent with global capitalism and liberal democracy....with a financial system that has benefitted the top 5-10% but where the bottom/middle 50% haven't seen their incomes rise meaningfully for fifty years.
The last part of the interview is very pertinent for churches. In this Sandel talks of the decline of "civil society" in America (and the West). That is, democracy depends on all sorts of people - rich and not so rich, white and brown, carpenters and factory owners - rubbing shoulders with each other, bumping into each other, living humanly with each other every week, if not day. But this has greatly declined to the point where large classes of society live alongside each other, with a significant lack of interaction and a large amount of fear and distrust.
.
One of the core institutions of civil society is religion: churches as places where all sorts of unlikely people meet, interact, develop trust and invest in each other's lives. The outcome of such interactions is a building up, or decline of, "the common good".
https://youtu.be/AtO2L_ydO7A?si=gYZb2pmrI7VFHKnA
Thanks for that link Mark, looks interesting… Ironic isn’t it that Trump’s inheritance and his businesses are built on excessive capital power as our his off-sided Musk’s and yet his rhetoric is appealing to those who have suffered from such disparity between ‘classes’.
ReplyDelete