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An Nahar Articles English Translations The intellect of George Bush and his demeanor
An Nahar Articles English Translations The intellect of George Bush and his demeanor
| The intellect of George Bush and his demeanor |
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| Saturday, 15 March 2003 00:00 |
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The intellect of George Bush and his demeanorBy Metropolitan George (Khodr) of Mount Lebanon
We are in a theological disagreement with George Bush even before we start criticizing his conduct. This disagreement, if you want, is about his ambiguous theory concerning the viability of the divine promise of the Promised Land. The disagreement is about what divine promise of land for a chosen nation, no matter, was it Hebraic or American. The founding fathers of what became to be the United States were saturated with Jewish perceptive of the Old Testament, that is, they took its literal meaning to be perpetual. The Zionist movement did not start yet immigrating to that country, when these founding fathers arrived to the new world; why then this land was called with a biblical name borrowed from the "new earth" of the book of Revelation (Rev 21: 1; Isa 65: 17), despite the fact that for us it symbolically represents the longed-for Kingdom of Heaven? Those fathers, fleeing persecution in their native England, sought for a world of justice similar to the world of the Second Coming of Christ. The founders felt that they were called to live the evangelical purity there, and after the secularization of their society, this purity was called "democracy and freedom" which they, later on, confused with the concept of God by the very indication that their children have inscribed on their currency: "in God we trust"; in a manner that, when dealing in dollars and making a more or less profit, they linked it to God and started believing that He rewards with this money. Max Weber believes, and he might be right, that capitalism flourished first in Calvinist environments, which echoes the subject of "material blessings" rewarded to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in numbers of sheep as symbols of God's contentment for them in the Old Testament, forgetting that the Nazarene poor came and preached that all material belongings are but nothing, and that the poor shall inherit the Kingdom of God. Nothing in common can unite between pursuing more dollars in this country and between the ascetic way that flourished and continue today in old Christian Tradition or in the Muslim Zuhd [ascetic] movement.
Americans kept this spirituality until the appearance of the Zionist movement whatever origin it may have come from. This movement has a characteristic that keeps it seeking after these Old Testament's "material blessings" and after the promise of a land for the offspring of Abraham, although the link of today's Jew to Abraham had become weak in numbers, because nowadays great Jewish numbers are coming mainly from conversion [Khazar] and are not physically descendants of Abraham...
But many of the West's people saw in the founding of the Sate of Israel the fulfillment of the Promised Land in its flourished agriculture etc... Many spiritual leaders led their flock to visit occupied Palestine to show them God's blessings for Abraham fulfilled anew.
We had the occasion, some of my Arab Christian colleagues and myself, to meet and discuss with theologians and biblical interprets in Lebanon, especially those coming from Holland believed that the State of Israel and Ancient Israel are one and the same, and that the proof of the authenticity of the Old Testament is in its accomplishment today in the founding of the State of Israel; later on, this wave passed away, and they understood how to differentiate between the Zionist organization and the Land which God promised to Abraham.
But this movement has awakened today in the United States and its followers believe that all Jews have to gather in Palestine as a staging point of their conversion to Christianity and the Second Coming of the Savior. Jew believers dislike this theory off course because they are enemies with Jesus of Nazareth, but they use this movement because it is serving their political program of violating Palestine.
Here we have then an alteration of the original plan of the founding fathers of the American nation. This alteration enabled the declaration that the Promised Land is Palestine besides that America is still the "Blessed Land". This last statement is Zionist but on a different soil. There is no difference if the Zionism was Americanized in planting it in the new world or if it was Hebraized in planting it in Palestine because the common task between the two plans is nailing God's promises to a land, notwithstanding that Christ freed us from lands, from soils and from everything related to possessions because He has become the King, the Kingdom, the Promised Place and the end of all promises.
In an Orthodox reading of the New Testament you are no more prisoner of the Hebraic reading of the Old Testament because you shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the coming Savior in Heavens. We have then a serious disagreement concerning the very essence of our faith with George Bush and with his fellow members dominating the Republican Party.
In their courses, great American presidents until Eisenhower (included) held fast to the heritage of freedom even if they believed that money played a guarantor of freedom. This course was ruined when the American nation started cooperating with dictatorships and militarized regimes in Africa and Latin America in the very manner taught by Henry Kissinger who also wrote about it. Here we discover a new revelation: instead of calling for freedom, now freedom and democracy are to be imposed upon other nations. This exactly is the definition of an empire. Firstly, America shifted from the phase of preaching freedom, to the phase of destabilizing small nations (they're all small now), in order to finish by creating free "satellite" nations.
I only want to note that the old American calling was replaced with a new system, democratic by appearance, but mandating by essence. This mandate over the earth's nations is not authorized by the U.N., which created this system, but this mandate is directly commissioned from God because America is well pleasing to God as it declares it on its dollar.
In this historic drift from its initial calling, the United States will invade Iraq as it appears. This will involve genocide or mass destruction of an innocent people. I won't, in this case, add to what it has been said over the illegitimacy of this war, because I read the complete reports by both chief weapon inspectors. But the decision to kill Iraq has been taken. We, the genuine children of freedom and real purity, will stand with those led to the slaughter. We will pray with all the nations praying for peace. We are united in solidarity for Iraq, despite our different religious beliefs, and we shall stand united even if the East was hit by a terrible earthquake. Perhaps the choc may enlighten our conscience and for this we shall thank God. Maybe some comforting, we may draw from the fact that crowds in many nations started understanding how much humiliated and mistreated is the Arab world surrounding Iraq. Mayhap this great feeling shall help us curing our sores, and healing us from the hate of foreigners. For it clearly appeared now that all peoples are good and cordial and understand that cooperation and dignity are the spirituality that must bring us together.
And after that we comprehended how bad is the international violence, we understand that violence on Arabic soil must cease and be replaced with clear and quite minds in course of control. I don't mean by this the international relations, because this is ruled by political logic; but I wish for these nations to become mirrors reflecting their peoples yearning for life in peace. There are no warring nations, but rather there are conflicting interests and I pray that wisdom may overcome it.
Moreover, we witness now, in the Arab world, a very strong accord between Muslims and Christians. We should encourage this spirit, as we have done in the past, in general, in Syria, Lebanon and Palestine. Our hope is to transfigure this Middle Eastern land to an example of coexistence. Good intentions alone are not enough; we need to re-establish our mentality on mutual respect and acceptance of the other.
In front of the upcoming crisis we must believe in God and in His inspirations. The secret of the Resurrection is in our souls. If the tragedy befalls on us, we will not lose hope, but shall endure patiently until death is cast out from this East.
After the calamity we shall be renewed to become serious, very serious to participate in the spiritual, cultural and political great renewal. This is conditioned by great repentance of our nations, in order to be laid to the straight way and start drinking from the Truth that springs from the rising of a new morning.
Published Saturday March 15, 2003 in the © An-Nahar, Lebanese news paper. Translated from original Arabic. |
| Last Updated on Tuesday, 25 May 2010 03:06 |
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