“Little Town of Bethlehem” is a Must See
Last week there was an important meeting held between US President Barak Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. What the future holds for the Israeli and Palestinian conflict is unknown as well as what role the United States will play. Because of the prominence of Israel in the Scriptures, it makes sense for Christians to have much interest in this conflict as well as others in the Middle East. It is also important for our understanding to not be held captive and shaped simply by the political ideologies and divides of the United States. Many evangelicals are only able to see these issues thru the narrow lens of the political ideology of the Republican Party. I’m not suggesting at all that being held captive to the Democratic Party position would be any better.
If you want a different perspective on the Israeli and Palestinian conflict that will drive you to prayer and Scripture as well as provide some hope, I encourage you to see the documentary, Little Town of Bethlehem (WWW.LITTLETOWNOFBETHLEHEM.ORG). This film shows the powerful story of three men committed to non-violent strategies for solving this crisis which is impacting so many families. Speaking of families, that’s what makes this film so powerful to me. The story of the Israeli and Palestinian conflict is told from the vantage point of Christian, Jewish, and Muslim families who desire to see a peaceful solution to the conflict. Too many evangelical leaders are providing heated, uncivil, and biblically misinterpreted rhetoric on this subject. Little Town of Bethlehem will provide a much needed alternative for wrestling thru a very complex issue.
The main characters are Yonatan Shapira (Israeli Jew), Sami Awad (Palestinian Christian), and Ahmad Al’Azzeh (Palestinian Muslim). Based on media and politically driven depictions of the conflict you wouldn’t think that these three individuals would form this needed alliance for peace and reconciliation. The film begins by introducing these three leaders with a hip hop soundtrack in the background. They are taking great risks just to provide a peaceful solution to the crisis of their day. Their solutions should be heard by both Prime Minister Netanyahu and and President Obama.
When I was in college, I was moved greatly by the documentary, Eyes on the Prize. This film series told the story of the Civil Rights Movement and watching it changed my life on many levels. It played a role in my calling to Christ-centered, reconciling, multi-ethnic, and Kingdom-minded ministry. Little Town of Bethlehem has gripped me in the same way Eyes on the Prize did years ago. This film really is a must see for Christian leaders. I even highly recommend this film for small group ministry within local churches as well as forums focused on reconciliation and a global understanding of racial righteousness.
I watched this film and found that the real message was nothing more than another anti-Isreal hit piece disguised as some sort of a ” love for peace” documentary. The recited history of the region was not just misstated, but out and out false. In the Evangelical Covenant, in the last several years, we have seen some pretty pathetic efforts to endorse left wing politics by using “social issues. Please don’t tell me you are now promoting an anti-Isreal movement within our denomination!
Efren, To somehow support the misuse of Dr. King’s Legacy in this “hit piece” is a little bit too far. I don’t know what to tell you to read first: a book about MLK, Jr.’s ministry or a complete history of the modern State of Isreal. You really need to brush up on your history and stop reciting what you hear on NPR.
@Peter. I knew MLK, Jr. and most of his immediate family. I can affirm that this gentleman knows VERY little about Dr. King and his accomplishments. But most importantly, he seems to entirely miss the type of racial and national unity he stood for. He was for a “color blind” society, not one, as this guy promotes, that seems to be eternally tied in knots about constantly mentioning the differences between God’s people. The only purpose behind those types of comments is to divide. Dr. King immediately snuffed out those influences, such as the early Black Panthers, because he knew that their basis was more in a leftist political agenda and not in unifying people’s. (These very purposes were confirmed in both subsequent writings of Bobby Seal and Eldrige Cleaver.). This has no place in the evangelical church.
Actually the nonviolent movement in Israel and Palestine is the most hopeful possibility for peace in the region. It is inspired by King and the Civil Rights Movement. In fact much of the Arab Spring nonviolent protests have been encouraged by reading materials on King … much like the anti-apartheid movement of South Africa in the 1980s. It is important for the leadership in Israel and Palestine to welcome these nonviolent moves toward freedom and democracy. The film that Efrem references was organized by the Holy Land Trust … a group of Christian nonviolent activists. More important than reading the history of the State of Israel established in 1948 or even the history of the Civil Rights movement is listening to the Christians in the Holy Land who are Palestinian and still living in Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Jerusalem as they have since the days of Jesus and the Pentecost of Acts. (Also, several folks from the Civil Rights Movement are in partnership with the Holy Land Trust.)
See this CNN link for more info on the connection of MLK and Civil Rts Movement and nonviolent protests in the Arab world: http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/05/15/freedom.riders.arab/index.html?hpt=C2
Regarding Martin Luther King being “color blind” … Yes he was blind to color when it came to love. King loved everyone, even his enemies. As Lionel no doubt experienced, King was a man of love. But he also was not blind to the effects of the color of one’s skin on people in society. He embraced certain aspects of the black power movement that raised the consciousness of people both black and white. When some people use the term “color blind” they imply that the color of a person’s skin has no power in society and we should ignore it.
In this speech King discusses how color is racialized in our language: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWqeQf135qM&feature=related
Lionel, your comments seem more rooted in political ideology and a limited Eurocentric lens, than a prayerful and biblically based discussion on the Israel and Palestine conflict. In your accusing me of being anti-Israel (which is not the case), you seem not to care about how innocent Christian Palestinians are being impacted by sin on both sides. I stated in my blog post that I have issue with both sides of the political ideologies around this issue. It seems that on a regular basis you attack what I’m saying without really reading what I’m saying. you seem to disagree with everything I’m writing, which makes me wonder two things-
1.) Why do you spend time reading the blog posts of someone you never agree with?
2.) Are ou really reading what I’m really saying or are you reading your own opinions into my writing to the point that you’re actually re-writing what I’m saying?
Would love to have a respectful back and forth with you, but it’s tough when you take all my writing out of context.
In love and respect.
Efrem, Thank you for the response. Yes, those who are interested in peace need to be supported. However, we need to make sure whether this is the case before endorsing their movement. I feel that you have been careless in vetting out the true motivations behind this film. The film is actually a disingenuous attempt to draw moral comparisons between the legitimate demands of Black Americans in the 60′s seeking equality in a segregated United States, with a people whose own institutions have repeatedly denied equality to minorities in the areas under their own governance as well as seeking the destruction of another people.
The Arabs living within the Palestinian Authority and in Gaza, persecute their own minorities while forbidding a Jew the right to build a home, let alone live, in the areas of Judea and Samaria. Arab women are brutalized with next to little means to seek justice, homosexuals live in secret and young couples cannot even be seen kissing in public, let alone holding hands. Arab Christians have been leaving their ancient towns in Judea and Samaria ever since Arafat left Tunisia for Ramallah.
Palestinian children are brainwashed in their schools, summer camps, mosques and through their social media to hate the Jews and to seek their murder, with the hope of obtaining a violent death for themselves in order to acheive eternal bliss in the hereafter. If that’s not child abuse what is?
Scenes in the video of Blacks in the US marching arm in arm to protest for their god given rights to live as a free people, can never be compared to a people who loathe “the other” and refuse to live in co-existence with them. The Palestinians (especially the Hamas and other terror orgs.) resemble the KKK, not civil rights activists that laid down their lives for Blacks during the Civil Rights era, of whom some were Jews. What a disgrace of Martin Luther King’s memory and legacy.
The Rev. Martin Luther King would be appalled at his civil rights movement being connected with a people who are for the most part, supremacists themselves, and who are not fighting for equality with another people, but for their destruction as a people.
The Tundra Tabloids views this propaganda film as a modern day version of what passed for “cinema” during the Nazi years in the Third Reich. Wake up you Evangelicals in the US, don’t let these idiots take you for one as well.
Next, I think it is arrogant on your part to make statements for the entire Black community. There are Black Republicans. There are Black conservatives. There are Blacks who did not vote for Barrack Obama. There are Blacks who agree with Bill Cosby, and are sick and tired of folks like you who make your bread and butter by sowing seeds of discontent among our people, especially our youth. I lived in the South before the Civil Rights movement, did you? I had to drink from a “colored” water fountain, did you? I know what it is like to live in a “sundowner” community, do you? Do you even know what a “sundowner” community even is? Here’ a news flash for you Efrem, America is not like that anymore, because of my generation! If you can tell me that at some point you didn’t get special preference for schooling, a job, or whatever, because of your race, I’ll know you’re not telling the truth. That is good. It is what we fought for! However, sevearl years working as a minister with an innner city church does not make you an expert on the Civil Right Movement. I imagine you post, because you want people to read it. If you don’t want people to disagree with you, you’re in the wrong business. The issue of “black and “White” tension in this country is nothing more than a disguise for “Left vs. Right” tension. Don’t fall for that!
You accuse me of not being “prayerful” and not part of the “Biblical discussion”, because I don’t agree with you? And, you don’t have a “political ideology?”. And, of course the “Eurocentric lens”, is that another way of saying I think like a “white” person. What is wrong with you? You seem just as prejudice as anyone I met in the South before the Civil Rights Movement.
Brother Lionel,
You are actually proving my point. I make a comment about the comments you made (which took my blog post out of context) and you take those comments out of context. I didn’t accuse you of being or thinking white (which seems to be a issue for you that began for you started visiting my website). My issue is not to attack you personally, but to have a healthy conversation with you about issues you disagree with me on.
You don’t seem to want to have healthy conversation, you just want to attack every blog post I put up, which leads me to the question, “why do you read my blog post?” Is it just to attack weekly someone you disagree with?
I don’t mind that you disagree with me. Actually, I think it’s great. But if you just want to attack me cause I’m not as old as you or didn’t know members of the King family personally, I don’t get the fruit of the discussion. Dr. King in his writing and speeches never, ever promoted being colorblind. By saying this, you are re-writing his legacy. This doesn’t make you a “white thinker” it makes you one that is using conservative politics to re-write Dr. Kings’ words and the mission of the Civil RIghts Movement. Conservative ideology, though created by Whites is truly a multiracial movement. But, you are accusing me a calling you white and more importantly you are re-writing the words and leadership platform of Dr. King. By doing this you do a disservice to my generation by passing to us a limited and in some cases untrue history of our African-American heritage.
I guess we can agree to disagree. Blessings to you Brother.
Curtis and Efrem, I think you need to do a better job at deciding whether an organization is a “Christian organization” or not. The Holy Land Trust, like it’s cohort organization, The Holy Land Foundation, shut down by the U.S. government in the last year for money laundering and funneling over $12,000,000.00 to HAMAS terrorist activities, enumerates, to “guests” it brings on “tours” into Israel, a litany of alleged Israeli atrocities while obscuring the truth about the large-scale persecution of Christians living under Palestinian Authority rule. For example, the travelers are not told about such widespread Palestinian transgressions as: the desecration of Christian churches in the region; the forced evictions of monks and nuns from monasteries and convents; the use of Christian homes, hotels, schools and churches as terrorist bases; the kidnapping of Christian clergy and nuns; the vandalism of Christian cemeteries; the burning of Christian businesses; and the targeted raping of Christian women. Rather, Palestinians are depicted as the uniformly peaceful victims of Israeli injustices and aggression. Efrem, if you really are concerned about “Palestinian Christians, you have picked the wrong organization to support.
Joseph Farah, Editor of World Net Daily, has written the following about HLT: ”The lies this group tells in the name of Christianity are big and bold. They include the standard lines about Jews robbing the homes of Arabs, stealing their land and brutalizing them in a repressive state of military occupation. These so-called Christians even rationalize terrorism.”
On its website, HLT features The History of Palestine: a Timeline, which states: “Palestine is the land upon which the Palestinian people were born. It is the land on which they grew and on which they developed as a culture and as a people. Palestine is also a land rich in history. There is evidence that Palestine has been inhabited for nearly two hundred thousand years.” Exhorting readers to cultivate a “respectful acknowledgement of the rights of the indigenous Palestinian people,” the timeline begins with the “Arab conquest of Palestine” in the year 638 A.D. – omitting any mention of the fact that the Jewish presence in the region predated that of the Arabs by some two-and-a-half millennia.
Efrem, if you are familiar with the Old Testament, while the Jews and many other ancient people’s are mentioned, where are the Palestinians mentioned? They are not! There is absolutely no mention of the Palestinians prior to the last 75 years, in order to denote arab migrant workers from other areas in the Middle East who came to the area during the last 80 years and were not included as being defined as citizens of Jordan. Blacks in the South were there for nearly four centuries before the Civil Rights movement. Also Blacks, led by MLK, Jr. were working for full inclusion in American society, not to overthrow the U.S government and start their own country. There is absolutely no similarity between what is going on in modern Israel and what was happening in the American South in the 50′s and 60′s. This is simply propaganda. Lionel correctly pointed out, you need a history lesson concerning both regions. And Curtis, MLK, Jr., did preach for a “color blind” America in his Raleigh, N.C. Speech in May of 1965: “We seek a future color blind when it comes to opportunity for all God’s people.”. And, the greatest inspiration for the Spring uprisings was the first democracy in the Arab world’s history, Iraq in the 21st Century!
It has been my experience that many, many well intentioned Americans are hopelessly naive when it comes to the Arab-Israeli Conflict and have been mislead by decades of oil funded “Palestinian” propaganda. Typically, their confusion begins with the mistaken belief that the designation of “Palestinian” is an ethnic or tribal designation rather than an Arab political identity. Prior to 1917, the entirety of the area belonged to the Ottoman Turkish Empire. Jewish people had begun returning to pre-state Israel in large numbers beginning in the 1880s and purchasing land from the absentee landlords. The influx of these early Zionists (the word “Zion” represents the desire to return to Jerusalem) sparked an agricultural and economic boom that caused a tremendous influx of Arab economic migrants from neighboring Arab countries. In 1923, over 2/3 of the British Mandate of Palestine was barred to Jews, severed and given to a family from Mecca, and re-named “Jordan. In 1929 the Arabs ethnically cleansed all of the Jews from Hebron and Safed. In 1948, after the Arab side rejected peace, compromise and Partition, the combined armies of five Arab armies attacked the newly declared state of Israel. The Jordanian army, lead by British officers, ethnically cleansed part of Jerusalem of all Jews, destroying 56 Synagogues and tearing out the headstones from Jewish cemeteries to pave the streets. That’s when the phrase “East Jerusalem ” was invented. Although Jews had purchased land and had been farming the the historic areas of Judea and Samaria for decades, the invading Arab armies ethnically cleansed all the Jews and then re-named the area the “West Bank.” Jews were barred from the Western Wall,and other Jewish Holy sites from 1948-67. In 1964 the Arab League met and assigned the Arabs that had left pre-state Israel the designation “Palestinians” along with the PLO. At no time was there ever an “Arab Nation of Palestine” nor was Jerusalem ever the capitol of any Arab nation nor was the “West Bank” ever “Palestine”. It is important to learn more about the conflict than that shallow, “politically correct” collection of politically motivated myths called the “Palestinian narrative.”