VERSE AND VOICE FROM SOJOURNERS 2FEB26

 

Forward this email to someone you know who would like it! Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here to receive this newsletter in your inbox every weekday. Verse of the day For to this end we toil and suffer reproach, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. - 1 Timothy 4:10 Voice of the day God does not require us to achieve any of the good tasks that humanity must pursue. What God requires of us is that we not stop trying. - Bayard Rustin Prayer of the day Eternal Hope, teach us the merits of remaining vigilant toward our efforts, even if they don’t seem to initially bear fruit. Advertisement Our Latest Stories Read This Before You Compare What's Happening in the U.S. to Nazi Germany (by Josiah R. Daniels) Bonhoeffer is great, but Hanna Reichel wants us to draw from a wider pool of Christian resistance movements as we resist authoritarianism. Read more The Bible Character That Most Resembles Trump (by Rubin McClain) In both the Bible and the U.S., when rulers feel that their power is being threatened, they reach for indiscriminate force. Yet Herod did not have the final word. He could not stop God’s purposes. Read more The Chaplain Helping the Timberwolves Stand in Solidarity with Minnesota (by Mitchell Atencio) “God has gifted you with extraordinary abilities, and that’s not a small feat,” Matt Moberg tells NBA players, “but that didn’t remove you from your brother next door or your sister down the road.” Read more How You Can Support Minnesota, According to Local Faith Leaders (by Mitchell Atencio) As the local movement continues to grow, national interest in providing support is growing along with it. You do not have to be in Minneapolis to stand in solidarity with those resisting ICE. Read more Advertisements Seeking Simplicity, Connection, and Repair in a Broken World Feeling burnt out? Light for the Way brings together 50 years of wisdom on how contemplation, rest, and community fuel justice work. With voices like Wendell Berry, Kathleen Norris, Joan Chittister, and Daniel Berrigan, this is your guide to reclaiming spiritual practices during difficult times. Tell Corporations: Stop Collaborating with ICE Every deportation flight, corporate contract, and service agreement that keeps Immigration and Customs Enforcement running sends the same message: corporate America is choosing profit over human lives. Donate Subscribe

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UPDATE ON THE ABRAHAM / IBRAHIMI MOSQUE: Palestine warns of ‘grave repercussions’ from settlers’ control over Ibrahimi Mosque in West Bank 16JUL25

                                         IBRAHIMI MOSQUE, HEBRON, WEST BANK

THIS has been going on for generations, see my earlier post Sermon on walls and hope and the Abraham Mosque 18NOV12

 

More Jewish Holocaust "Never Again" hypocrisy. The only difference in Israel's actions in the West Bank and Gaza and nazi Germany's actions in Poland is Israel has not fired up any ovens. Israelites consider Palestinians sub-human the same as nazi Germans considered Poles. Israelites create Palestinian ghettos in the West Bank and Gaza the same as nazi Germans created Jewish ghettos in Poland. Illegal Israelite settlers are seizing Palestinian land in the West Bank and are finalizing plans for the illegal seizure of most of Gaza employing the same justifications of lebensraum and security nazi Germans used in Poland. And Israelites are apostates of Judaism, are perverting the Jewish religion just as nazi Germans were apostates of Christianity and perverted the Christian religion. Keep e mailing your representative, your senators and the White House demanding weapons and ammunition shipments to Israel are stopped until they stop committing genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in the West Bank and Gaza. Boycott all Israeli goods and businesses and demand disinvestment by all investing in and doing business with Israel. To do nothing against genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity makes one a participant in them.

PALESTINE WARNS OF 'GRAVE REPERCUSSIONS' FROM SETTLERS' CONTROL OVER IBRAHIMI MOSQUE IN WEST BANK

July 16, 2025 at 4:54 pm

Palestine warned of “grave repercussions” on Wednesday from an Israeli decision to transfer the authority over the Ibrahimi Mosque in the West Bank city of Hebron to a settler council, Anadolu reports.

According to Israeli media, Tel Aviv had abolished the authority of the Palestinian-run Hebron Municipality over the mosque, and reassigned it to the religious council of the Kiryat Arba settlement in Hebron in the southern West Bank.

The media report did not specify the scope of powers transferred, but said the move aims to facilitate “structural changes” at the site, calling it “great news for the settlement.”

“This decision represents a flagrant violation of international law and relevant UN resolutions,” the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

It warned of grave repercussions from the move and called for the urgent intervention of UNESCO and the international community to halt the implementation of the Israeli decision.

The Israeli move marks the first major shift in the status of the mosque since the 1994 recommendations of the Shamgar Commission, which divided access, allocating 63% of the site to Jewish worshippers and 37% to Muslims.

That division followed the 1994 massacre by extremist settler Baruch Goldstein, who killed 29 Palestinian worshippers during dawn prayers.

The mosque is located in Hebron’s Old City in an area under full Israeli control where roughly 400 illegal settlers live under the protection of around 1,500 Israeli soldiers.

Since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, nearly 1,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,000 injured in the West Bank by Israeli forces and illegal settlers, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

In a landmark opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

READ: Israel strips Hebron municipality of authority over Ibrahimi Mosque

HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR RUTH ROZANSKI

 

Who Would YOU Have Been in Nazi Germany? The Same Person You Are Now.27JUN18

A well thought piece that can only be appreciated if one honestly considers who they are now. From Benjamin L Corey / Formerly Fundy.....

Who Would YOU Have Been in Nazi Germany? The Same Person You Are Now.

It’s easy to look back on the injustices in history, while shaking your fist and saying, “Well I woulda…!”

This is especially true when we reflect on the WWII era and the rise of Nazi rule that ultimately ushered in the Holocaust and the death of millions. Whether imagining yourself as an American at the time or someone living in Germany during the rise of the Third Reich, most people I know seem to claim they would have been among the brave souls who stood up and said something… who stood up and did something.

My conservative evangelical friends especially seem to love to fantasize about what they would have done, likening themselves to Dietrich Bonhoeffer (the Eric Metaxas version who was a conservative evangelical assassin, not the Bonhoeffer of history who was a Lutheran, an LGBTQ Christian, and wasn’t directly involved in any assassination plot). Yet, until now, the question as to “Who would you have been?” or, “What would you have done if you lived back then?” has been purely hypothetical and imaginary.

But this question is no longer hypothetical. It is no longer imaginary.

And neither is the answer to the question.

In fact, this question has an incredibly easy answer. Who would you have been had you lived during this historical era of evil and injustice? What would you have done?

You’d be the same person you are now.

You would have done what you are doing now.

It’s easy to sit there and push back, saying, “Nope, those two things are not the same.” While I agree that Hitler comparisons and calling people Nazi’s is often overplayed in today’s parlance, the era you find yourself in is eerily similar. And yes– who you would have been during the rise and rule of the Third Reich, and what you would have done to stop the injustices and atrocities committed against the innocent, is exactly who you are today– and exactly what you’re doing now.

You see, Hitler didn’t begin by building gas chambers. Like the old analogy of a frog in a pot that slowly heats up until it’s too late, the road that paved the way to gas chambers was much more incremental, subtle, socially palatable, seemingly justified, or easily ignored– both to those within Germany, and without.

It all started with a nation who felt their glory days were over, and who worried their economy was in trouble. Along came a leader who connected with those who were scared, angry, and nostalgic for the past. This new leader promised to fix the economy; he was determined to rebuild their military, and he convinced the masses that he would Make Germany Great Again.

They caved into their fears, and they bought into his vision– probably never imagining it would one day end in death camps.

Getting to that point happened slowly, and in ways that few seemed to challenge or find too objectionable. He’d call the media “fake news” in a move that would later make it easy to deny what was really happening. He blamed their problems on Jewish immigrants who he called “viruses” and “leeches” and claimed were destroying the economy. Eventually the masses of scared and angry white people, individuals who probably would have objected to the idea of death camps at the onset of his rule, had been subtly convinced that Jews were leeches who were getting in the way of Making Germany Great Again– so they turned a blind eye to some evils, and actively participated in others.

These individuals not only ended up on the wrong side of history, they were lulled into collectively committing one of the most evil acts the world has ever known. And those who stood up at the end, stood up too late– because the battle should not have been waged at death camps– it should have been waged when the foundation was still being laid.

The foundation upon which death camps were built began with unchecked nationalistic pride, nostalgia for the past, promises to Make Germany Great Again, accusations the media was fake news, and speech after speech that blamed Germany’s problems on immigrants who were supposedly killing the economy.

By the time there was an actual building erected on that foundation, it was too late.

So, who would you have been during Nazi Germany?

What would you have done?

Would you have been on the right side of history, or complicit on the road to horrific evil?

I don’t need you to answer that question, because I already know the answer.

Who you would have been, is exactly who you are now.

And what you would have done, is what you’re doing today.

---

Dr. Benjamin L. Corey is a public theologian and cultural anthropologist who is a two-time graduate of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and received his doctorate in Intercultural Studies from Fuller Theological Seminary. He is also the author of the new book, Unafraid: Moving Beyond Fear-Based Faith, which is available wherever good books are sold. www.Unafraid-book.com