Sometimes Wanting A Return To Normal Shows How Out Of Touch One Can Be

 Last month, Bader Mansour (I could not find a bio on him) wrote a short article that appeared in the Exchange on the Christianity Today website (click here for the article). Mansour is the Executive Director for the Association of Baptist Churches In Israel. 

Mansour's article was a humble request for prayer for six requests. Those requests were:

1. Pray for peace for all of Jerusalems residents.
2. Pray that the leaders in the region seek peace so that the Christians there can live 'quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.'
3. Pray for the relationships between Jews and Arabs in the region, especially the relationships of the young people there.
4. Pray for the churches and the communities of the church families who live there.
5. Pray that the Christians there keep their eyes on God
6. Pray for the faithfulness of the Christians there so that they can be a witness to their neighbors.

What prompted the request for prayer was another horrible outbreak in violence between Israel and the Palestinians. We should note that such outbreaks are always asymmetrical because of the disparity in strength between Israel's defense forces and the Palestinian militant groups. The difference in strength between the two sides is made obvious by the huge difference in the number of casualties suffered by each side and by the truth about who controls whom.

In essence, the prayer lists and the article expressed a desire for a return to normal where the violence practice by both sides was at more acceptable levels with more acceptable levels meaning that the violence was not easily noticeable. Because of The Occupation, there is always violence being practiced.

There are at least two distinct characteristics that are a part of the article and the prayer list besides the humility easily seen in the article. First, there is no mention of The Occupation. With the Occupation comes Israeli control and checkpoints, the continual confiscation of Palestinian land by settlers who feel entitled to it and of natural resources by Israeli forces, and the necessary violence needed to maintain the Occupation.

Basically, The Occupation against the Palestinian people exercised by Israel is at the root of most of the immoral terrorist atrocities conducted by Palestinian resistance fighters. So on one hand, we have the international, illegal Occupation of Palestinian lands by Israel vs. terrorist attacks by Palestinians which could have multiple motivations. The purpose of many of those attacks is to resist The Occupation while the purpose of other terrorist attacks is to undo Israel's Zionism. In either case, what prompts the terrorist attacks is the gross inequity forced on some groups of Arabs. 

And the problem with Mansour's article is that the return to normal that Mansour wants restored is a return to a passive response to The Occupation by the Palestinians. For if the Palestinians are passive while the Occupation continues, then the lives of those in the churches under Mansour's care are less interrupted and disturbed by the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

This troublesome call for a return to normal reminds me of how many of my fellow Americans strongly desire as quick a return as possible to normal from the pandemic. The problem here is that for the marginalized people in America, a return to normal does little to better their lot in life. That is because of the suffering they already undergo from being marginalized. To pray for peace between the Palestinians and Israel without praying for the end of The Occupation is like praying for someone to no longer experience the problems from having cancer without praying for them to be healed from cancer.

Also, when one peruses the prayer list, one notices how much the concerns expressed in the pray list revolve around what immediately benefits the Christians there. The raison d'être for prayer request #2 is for the benefit of Christians, it is not for justice. Similarly, prayer requests #4-6 are all about the welfare of the Church in the light of violent and troubled times. While prayer requests #1 and #3 are for Israelis and Arabs in general, the other prayer requests gives one a feeling that Mansour is requesting prayers for peace is more for the comfort of the churches there than for the end of both inequality there and The Occupation against the Palestinians. 

Is being righteously self-absorbed what has become of the Church?