{"id":30779,"date":"2023-12-26T11:47:33","date_gmt":"2023-12-26T19:47:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=30779"},"modified":"2023-12-26T13:09:27","modified_gmt":"2023-12-26T21:09:27","slug":"in-christmas-sermon-palestinian-theologian-condemns-enablers-of-gaza-genocide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/12\/26\/in-christmas-sermon-palestinian-theologian-condemns-enablers-of-gaza-genocide\/","title":{"rendered":"In Christmas Sermon, Palestinian Theologian Condemns Enablers of Gaza Genocide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Munther<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Rev. Munther Isaac leads a Christmas carol and prayer event in Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank on December 14, 2023. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Photo: Marcus Yam\/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Gaza today has become the moral compass of the world,” said Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac. “If you fail to call this a genocide, it is on you. It is a sin and a darkness you willingly embrace.”<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

JAKE JOHNSON<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dec 25, 2023 (CommonDreams.org)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an unsparing Christmas sermon delivered from the occupied West Bank over the weekend, Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac decried the complicity of the church and Western governments in Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza, a nearly three-month military campaign that he called an “annihilation” and a “genocide.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Leaders of the so-called ‘free’ lined up one after the other to give the green light for this genocide against a captive population. They gave the cover,” Isaac, a Palestinian Christian theologian, said during a service titled, “Christ in the Rubble: A Liturgy of Lament.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Not only did they make sure to pay the bill in advance, they veiled the truth and context, providing political cover. And, yet another layer has been added: the theological cover with the Western Church stepping into the spotlight,” Isaac added. “Here in Palestine, the Bible is weaponized against us. Our very own sacred text… The theology of the empire becomes a powerful tool to mask oppression under the cloak of divine sanction.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With most of the territory’s population struggling to survive under the intertwined threats of starvation<\/a>, disease<\/a>, and near-constant bombing<\/a>, Isaac said that “Gaza today has become the moral compass of the world.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“If you are not appalled by what is happening, if you are not shaken to your core, there is something wrong with your humanity,” Isaac said from Bethlehem, which Israeli forces\u00a0attacked<\/a>\u00a0on Monday. “And if we, as Christians, are not outraged by this genocide, by the weaponizing of the Bible to justify it, there is something wrong with our Christian witness, and we are compromising the credibility of our Gospel message. If you fail to call this a genocide, it is on you. It is a sin and a darkness you willingly embrace.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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