Called to Be Prophetic? (Apologies for length; for links, please copy and paste on your browser)

Prophecy is a dangerous vocation. The prophets of the Tanakh – the Old Testament ran great risks to speak the truth of God as they surveyed the human situations and experienced the Spirit speaking to their souls. 

The prophet Nathan must have been quaking in his sandals when he went to the palace to confront King David about his rape of Bathsheba, and the conspiracy resulting in the murder of her husband Uriah, to cover the rape-conceived  pregnancy. 2Samuel 11 & 12 tells the story. But Nathan spoke God’s truth!  Lo and behold, the King had enough moral fabric to realize his guilt. He confessed his sin, repented, and chose a more humble righteous path.

There are the later prophets who called Israel to account for its idolatry, its profligacy, it’s breach of the Covenant with God by failing abjectly to observe the Torah – the Commandments. Their disobedience was a de facto nullification of the Covenant.  For the prophets, it called for a high risk role.   But the call of God was compelling, enabling them to confront lies and speak truth, so that justice might abound. Not all of the prophets lived to see their speech transform people.

In our time too, the prophetic voice easily becomes an object of disdain and hate. The mighty don’t like their lies to be confronted by the Word from on high. Truth liberates and the quest for truth is resisted by the powerful, the rich, the autocrats, the military.  Alexei Navalny, Roberta Menchu, Martin Luther- King, Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Oscar Romero, the Argentinian Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and various collectivities of women - all prophets – none perfect, but all embracing the risk and for too many the high cost to counter lies and speak truth to amoral power. The divine Word must be spoken, lived out by faith trusting in the Divine.   God calls us to seek justice and resist evil.

Two UCC Prophets - Apologies Required

In the United Church of Canada, I think of two prophets who spoke truth at great cost. Rev. James G. Endicott (1898 – 1993) spoke of the revolution in China after WWII to liberate the masses from their imposed poverty and their powerlessness maintained by colonialism and autocrats. Endicott was despised and rejected, and was demonized by the “communist” epithet.   In 1982, his prophetic voice was finally understood.  The Church’s General Council was moved to apologize to him for its blindness and unwillingness to hear the truthful prophetic witness of Endicott. He graciously accepted it.                   (visit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Gareth_Endicott)

In the early 1970s, the Rev. A.C. Forrest, editor of the UCC Observer magazine, spent time in Palestine to get close up views and residents’ accounts of what was happening.  He witnessed the State of Israel, supported by western nations, especially USA, accorded impunity while the Zionist government oppressed Palestinians, stole their land by enforced legal fictions and by military-led massacres. All the while the political Zionist lobby spread the lie that tiny Israel was at risk of annihilation by the Palestinians and Arab hordes. (Read the Bresheeth-Zabner book below about that fiction.)

Many Israeli scholars have researched the history of 20th century Israel. They found that the Zionists’ Plan Dalet – essentially, get rid of the Palestinian people by any and all means and take control of the lands for a Jewish state - was steadily being implemented by Israel’s overwhelming power.  Al Forrest saw it, wrote about it, was harassed and persecuted for writing about the unjust realities which then and in the intervening years are still revealed to be truth. He challenged the false narratives the Church was willing to accept as valid from the powerful political Zionist lobby the false narrative that  Israel was at risk.  In fact, Palestinians bore the  burden for the impunity granted to warring Israel..

Read Forrest’s whole book at this link provided by Just Peace Advocates: https://www.justpeaceadvocates.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/The-Unholy-Land-by-AC-Forrest.pdf

Next August, the General Council of the UCC will meet in Calgary.  I hope it will take the opportunity to confess its guilt of being beguiled by political Zionism's false narratives.  Perhaps our Church taking the lead in this may move other Christian churches to do the same. The UCC must apologize posthumously to Al Forrest and to his family for not attending to his prophetic truth and for compromising truth with an appeasement policy in which friendship with the Jewish community was deemed a higher value than truth and justice for the Palestinians - including Christian sisters and brothers.  My Church  urgently needs to repent of its complicity with political Zionism in accepting Israel's ongoing war against Palestinians who have paid a huge blood-soaked price for the ongoing Israeli settler colonial takeover of Palestine during the past 80 years.

May Forrest’s example move the Church into new, more faithful paths by mobilizing its knowledge and acumen for a prophetic witness to truth and the pursuit of justice, and peace in Palestine. (https://catalogue.unitedchurcharchives.ca/forrest-alfred-clinton-1937-1978;isaar?sf_culture=sk) Contact your Region’s General Council commissioners about this urgent action for the soul of the Church and life in Palestine.

Amnesty International Truth - The Spirit Moves ...

On December 5th, 2024, we heard another clear-as-a-bell prophetic voice.  After rigorous research and study – a mark of the integrity of the organization, Amnesty International, which so many United Church members have supported and trust, issued its report on the State of Israel’s genocidal policies and action in Palestine. Israel committed and is still committing genocide – the systematic annihilation of Palestinian people and their nation. 

Read the report and meditate on its truth and write to our political leaders that Canada must end its complicity in the war on Palestine.  Give thanks for Amnesty's great contribution to truth by  writing to Amnesty International’s Canadian CEO Ketty Nivyabandi at [email protected]. 

For the report visit: https://amnesty.ca/gazagenocide/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=engagingnetworks&utm_campaign=utm_gaza_genocide_report&utm_content=Gaza+Genocide+Report+Dec+4+2024

It took no time, of course, for the political Zionist lobby, like CIJA (Canadian Centre for Jewish Affairs) and it allies, to  be heard denouncing the Amnesty conclusions.   Almost any factual report about Israel's crimes, e.g. Francesca Albanese's UC Rapporteur document triggers volleys of denial and abuse.  But with 50,000 known dead Palestinians and many thousands more rotting under the mountains of rubble created mainly by the USA-supplied arms, the countless maimed and damaged bomb and bullet victims, the enforced famine imposed by stopping humanitarian aid and other essentials of life, the continuing Settler violence in the Occupied Territories, and the characteristic Israeli disproportional collective excesses to any Palestinian resistance to colonial domination - for all those reasons the denunciations by Israel’s lobbyists and by the Israeli government itself ring hollow.  They are well-crafted and ably-rehearsed, but they bear the mark of false witness that the Ten Commandments clearly forbid.

I am heartened that the there are growing numbers of Jews directly engaged in negating the political Zionist narrative.  These courageous Jews speak truth.  They uphold humanitarian and religious values and convictions - too often at great personal, family, and professional cost. This past week, fifty Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) organizations in many lands have bravely spoken out, demonstrated, and challenged the falsehoods and injustices of political Zionism.  They help to reduce the stifling effects of Zionism's weaponizing antisemitism.  They and many others reject the Canadian IHRA’s definition of antisemitism as an effort to silence truthful revelations of the state of Israel’s crimes.   

Hear the international prophetic IJV voices at this link: https://www.ijvcanada.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Statement-by-50-Jewish-organizations-in-support-of-UN-Rapporteur-Francesca-Albanese.pdf. 

Truth Is Powerful

The more truth we hear, the more I and others are motivated and given heart to persist in this humanitarian justice cause.  Every Saturday or Sunday since October 2023,  young Palestinians have organized demonstrations against the State of Israel's genocide and Canada's complicity is this war.  The young people persist with resilience and perseverance in the face of ignorant neglect. My partner and I have joined in about half of these demonstrations ranging in numbers from several hundred to over a thousand Palestinians walking side-by-side peaceably with others concerned about Gaza.  They are all voicing  truth publicly to the powerful and the local population.

Remarkably but not surprisingly, local media never report it, unless the police cause a skirmish on the edges of the demonstration. Anti-Palestinian racism is so strong in both federal and municipal  government and in law enforcement.  The pro-Israel bias, against all the evidence, holds sway among media and public authorities.   Every Canadian could call for a more honest, truthful accounting of the Palestinian horror.   Write the Prime Minister at [email protected].

I’m encouraged by our local church’s “Focus on Palestine” team.  We’ve sponsored several events that share knowledge, including two “ask me anything” evenings involving a diaspora Palestinian and a co-founder of the Canadian Independent Jewish Voices. They helped us remember that there are real people engaged in and experiencing the horror and sharing truth. On other evenings, we watched and discussed dramatically revealing films: “The Law and the Prophets” and “Where Olive Trees Weep,” both moving our hearts with the reality of oppression experienced by Palestinians under the brutal yoke of Israel’s politicians and its terrorizing military.

This past week some of us attended an Education for Liberation event at the St.Paul’s (Roman Catholic) University in the U of Ottawa. It was organized by students committed to naming and resisting Israel’s genocidal operations. These young leaders and the many “encamping” students in other university settings are the hope for a more truthful and ethically-based future after the disappointing political, social, and religious leadership we have experienced in both church and state.

I am also encouraged by all the people who are able to say:  we’ll donate Doug Ford’s and Justin Trudeau’s bribe money ($200 and $250) to UNWRA as the one United Nations organization that serves the immense range of Palestinians humanitarian and educational needs. It must be effective because it helps Palestinians and that infuriates Netanyahu.  Let both Ontario’s Premier and the Prime Minister’s politicized stewardship result in strengthening the UN agency’s crucial humanitarian work among Palestinians.   

What are you doing with the political bribes? (Visit: https://donate.unrwa.org/-landing-page/en_EN )

Perhaps all these and so many other actions are generating the prophetic cohort needed to end the horrors in Palestine.

But Truth Resistance Is Also Strong

We are not heartened by our political leaders, especially Trudeau’s Liberals and Poilievre’s Conservatives; and the other parties. All could do so much more, but do next to nothing or nothing at all. All should obey the ICC and the ICJ legal advisories and they should especially cancel all permits and embargo all war materiel to and from Israel including that shipped via the USA. It is obvious to the “least of these” our children and anyone thinking that saturation bombing won’t bring peace.  It also brings more death and rubble,  augurs more repetitive cycles of violence and growing hate.

The “legitimacy façade” and the phony pillar that  “security justifies” any and all of Israel’s  demonization and murder of the Palestinian people – this is crumbling. The International Criminal Court may be under threat by bully US politicians and rejected by Israel’s regime, but the warrants for arrest of Netanyahu and Gallant are out there and countries refusing to do their duty by them are complicit in their crimes and guilty of undermining the rule of international law and order. The International Court of Justice – 15 judges from diverse lands committed to international law and order - is clear about Israel unlawfully controlling the Occupied Territories and demands removal of Jewish settlers and return of lands to Palestinians. Even the USA has sanctioned violent settlers in the Occupied Territories, while sending a  $17 Billion package of bombs and war planes!!   The USA send them to Israel in part to test on Palestinians about how effective these killing tools can be.

Will the State of Israel hear and confess its guilt as oppressor and transform its ways?  Will negotiation ever happen with the state of Palestine as equals seeking a new way together?  For sure not with the current Zionist regime. The virus of settler colonial domination is too strong, and the antibiotic of truth is both unheard and aggressively stifled by both Israelis and its western allies.  Prophetic voices are not raised loudly enough yet!

I cannot gloat over this tragedy. My own church has been responding tepidly, still too influenced by the “soft Zionist” narrative along with pangs of Holocaust guilt.  Like Canada itself, it is still not able to recognize how anti-Palestinianism has hardened its heart. The church has had 15 months to mobilize the collective voice of faith to this human tragedy, but the outputs are minimal.  I agree with scholars Jan Porter of the University of Winnipeg and Michel Andraos of St. Paul University in Ottawa that Christian churches must confess their complicity and repent seeking the Spirit's leading to new, more faithful ways in and for Palestine. 

Visit:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEpRVhQNR1k  (Published in the Toronto Journal of Theology, 2024, pp. 222-233, as The Genocide of the Palestinian People and the Churches' Silence.)

Epiphany Moments of Truth Happen

My eyes too were too long unable / unmoved to hear and see the truth. The falsehood that Muslim Arabs and Palestinians were somehow more dangerous, less human, more prone to unjustified violence, and hostile to Christians (even though a substantial proportion of Palestinians are Christians) had crept into my soul and I hadn’t taken the time or the trouble to research the matter enough to be freed of my ignorance, prejudice, and the anti-Palestinian racism underlying my neglect.

A couple of books and various articles removed my blinders and personal conversation with Palestinians opened the doors to let the light of truth into my mind and gradually into my heart. 

I commend three books (among many others) as very helpful: 

- Ilan Pappe, “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine” (and several other Pappe books)

- Metri Raheb, “Decolonizing Palestine – The Land, The People, The Bible” Maryknoll, Orbis Books

- Haim Bresheeth-Zabner, “An Army Like No Other – How the Israel Defense Forces Made a Nation."

(check your local library, ask them to order the books; or invest personally by buying them in a local bookstore (avoiding Indigo since it funds Israel’s military with Cdn charitable dollars).

Pray that a generation of prophets anchored in truth of Gospel and fundamental commitments to the value of human life and to miracle of God’s Creation may arise to call humanity to account.  Let truth and justice open doors to peace and paths to reconciliation, so that the children of Sarah & Hagar & Abraham may walk the paths that Jesus walked for the sake of the reign of God, Allah, the Holy One and Peace.