Category: American Empire/Foreign Policy

Kairos Palestine Responds to Trump’s Middle East “Peace” Plan

Kairos Palestine is an organization made up of Palestinian Christians living in the West Bank who advocate for peace and justice on behalf of all the Palestinian people.

Some years ago I had the opportunity of visiting their offices and speaking with several of their volunteers. Our time together was delightful as we discussed the ethics of Israel’s military occupation and its consequences.

Today Kairos Palestine released a press statement in response to Trump’s unveiling of his administration’s obscene pretense of a “peace plan.” (You can read a few of my thoughts about Trump’s plan  here.)

Below is an excerpt of Kairos Palestine’s press release. You can read the entire statement here:

“Peace, peace, they say when there is no peace”

(Jeremiah: 6:14)

The position announced by the U.S. administration regarding what they termed as the ‘deal of the century’ was in fact an insult to history, humanity, the Palestinian people, and the American dignity itself.

The American-Israeli proposal is premised on consolidating Israeli control over all of Palestine’s land, making sure that the Palestinian people are subjected to this control, in return for economic promises that are closer to a deal for buying the people and their spirit with money.

This proposal seeks to legitimize the Israeli occupation and revoke the history of the Palestinian people and their legitimate inalienable rights, particularly the right of return for the Palestinian refugees and the right to self-determination in an attempt to eliminate the Palestinian question completely and definitively…

…Through this declaration, the U.S. has proclaimed itself clearly as a party to the conflict rather than a peace broker, as it considered this deal, that has no reference to the international law or the UN resolutions, as the final offer to the Palestinians holding them fully responsible, should they reject it, for all the ensuing repercussions.

Israel and the U.S. are yet to listen to the voice of God commanding them, here in the Holy Land and in the world as a whole: do not steal, do not kill, in order to stop killing the Palestinian people and stealing away their lands.

Israel and the U.S. are yet to listen to God’s voice, to the voice of conscience, and realize the truth that cannot be subdued: the Palestinian people are alive, consistently demanding their rights over the past hundred years till this date. The Palestinian people will continue to demand their rights until they obtain them. The only path to peace is that of full equality between the two peoples. Israel peace is preconditioned by Palestinian peace, in fact, Israeli mere survival is based on the just peace for Palestinians. Otherwise, Israel, despite all its power, will live in fear and anticipation of an unknown future. As we already stated in the Kairos document ‘Moment of Truth’ , “our and their future are but one. Either a cycle of violence whereby we all perish, or peace whereby we all thrive.” 

Observations on the Trump/Netanyahu Apartheid Plan for the Middle East

Trump and Netanyahu unveil the “plan of the century” — remembering, of course, that the century is merely 10 years old.

The Impeached and the Indicted are on the campaign trail together with a shamelessly ridiculous plan for permanent apartheid in Palestine, all under the guise of an Israel-Palestine peace plan producing a viable two-state solution.

Well, attention Mr. Impeached President and Mr. Indicted Israeli Prime Minister — a two-state solution died long, long ago.

Israel’s continuous multiplication of illegal Jewish-only settlements throughout the occupied West Bank put a stake through that two-state dream like a knife cutting through butter.

And the US stood on the sidelines and watched.

Take a look at the map provided with the plan (which you can read for yourself here). By the way, the extremely right-wing Jerusalem Post is thrilled that Trump’s plan comes with a map. They absolutely gush, It is the first plan to come with a map!

Oh joy, I guess the editors at JP like their books to come with big two-tone pictures.

But the map does illustrate one thing clearly. There ain’t no Palestinian state with contiguous borders (as Jared Kushner, the plans’ main presenter, insists there is).

Perhaps someone in the White House needs to explain the meaning of “contiguous” to Mr. Kushner.

The dark blue areas are the holes in the tiny piece of Swiss-cheese that Israel has left for the Palestinians to nibble on. These very non-contiguous dots are what is being called “a Palestinian state.”

They are like tiny Indian reservations linked together by underground tunnels and elevated bridges, all of which will be heavily monitored by the Israel military. So much for freedom of travel and assembly in the new Palestine.

Trump also made it very clear that those ungrateful Palestinian mice ought to be darn thankful for the meager crumbs of cheese left to them by their oh-so generous benefactors, Israel and America.

Take a moment to scan this map tracking the loss of Palestinian land ownership throughout the years of Israel’s settlement expansion and illegal occupation.

A few other details to remember include:

  • The new state of Palestine is prohibited from having any treaties or diplomatic connections with other countries. This is Israel’s idea of Palestinian national sovereignty.
  • Palestine is prohibited from having its own, independent security forces. Whatever forces they have must always support Israeli security interests.
  • None of the Palestinian refugees inhabiting the camps of neighboring nations since their displacement in the wars of 1948 and 1967 may return to Palestine. The Israelis insist, No more of your refugees jumping on the bed!
  • There is a strong likelihood that many Israeli-Palestinians, possessing Israeli passports and citizenship, will be stripped of those possessions and forcibly transported to the new “state.” (Which, by the way, is a violation of International law. But Israel excels at such illegal dealings.)
  • Along with all the other stolen land, Israel has also decided to annex the entire Jordan Valley, displacing all the Palestinian farmers who have owned and cultivated that land for as long as anyone can remember.

And the list could go on.

President Carter called for Palestine, Peace Not Apartheid in his 2006 book by the same name. But I am afraid that forcing brutal apartheid onto the Palestinian people has been the name of the game in Israeli and American politics for decades.

For the one-two punch of ethnic cleansing and apartheid are Israel’s favorite original sin. They just can’t break their national addiction to war crimes, racism and oppression.

And there is no sign of national repentance anytime soon.

Palestinian outrage over the Trump plan is already evident throughout the region, and justly so.  I expect that we may see a Third Intifada on the horizon sometime soon. Frankly, I’d love to be there to join them.

Heck, if I weren’t a Christian and a pacifist, I would be stockpiling rocks and organizing revolutionary resistance right now.

Liars Beat the Drums of War. Part 3 — US Lies About Iran

Dan Kovalik is another person to whom I always pay attention.  He is a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh Law School, as well as an active labor and human rights attorney.

A peace activist and prolific author, his most recent book is The Plot to Attack Iran: How the CIA and the Deep State Have Conspired to Vilify Iran. I have read many of his articles and just ordered the book for myself.

The independent, investigative journalist, Abby Martin, recently interviewed Kovalik to get his perspective on the recent US assassination of Qassam Soleimani.

I strongly encourage you to watch this YouTube video of their conversation.

It is must see viewing for Americans who are in desperate need of a strong antidote to the barrage of Establishment propaganda shoveled out by every corporate news company in the USA.

In a wide-ranging discussion, Kovalik and Martin expose the long history of unprovoked American aggression against the Iranian people.

Beginning with the CIA coup that overthrew Iran’s democratically elected president in 1953, Kovalik shows how the US is continuing to lie about (1) Iran’s “quest” for nuclear weapons, (2) Iran’s fictional role as “the world’s largest exporter of state-sponsored terrorism”, and (3) Iran’s “continued attacks” against “innocent” Americans.

In 2013, the CIA publicly confessed its responsibility for the 1953 overthrow of the Iranian government, which we toppled in order to regain control (together with Great Britain) over Iran’s oil resources.

You can read the CIA confession and all the details  here in the National Security Archives.

Well, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

America continues its efforts to lie, cheat, and steal its way into controlling Iranian resources again.

And our  government, together with all its mindless, media minions, will continue to lie, lie, lie and then lie some more in its efforts to brainwash the public, bedazzling us into stupefied silence — or better yet, heart-felt. patriotic approval — when our bloodthirsty government finally unleashes the savage dogs of war.

DON’T FALL FOR IT!

Christians, you are citizens of the kingdom of God, first! Your membership in the American body politic is nothing compared with this spiritual truth. Your #1 loyalty is to the resurrected Jesus of Nazareth.

He is the Redeemer who calls us to embrace truth not lies, and peace,not war.

If you claim to be a follower of Jesus, then understand that in this moment  every Christian’s motto must be:

No War With Iran!

Liars Beat the Drums of War. Part 2 — The News Media and Establishment Propaganda

A key to successful propaganda is having the appearance of knowledge and authority while disseminating falsehoods and misrepresentations.

A key ingredient to the success of US corporate news broadcasts in their spreading of government-backed lies is their use of “expert” commentators. These talking-heads, periodically trotted out for their supposed expertise on a subject, are typically former members of the US military, the intelligence community, and political leaders waiting for their next government gig.

Invariably these professional commentators provide off-the-cuff “analysis” which, in one way or another, endorses the worldview necessary  for the expansion of American empire.

Whether that requires more bombing, another invasion, a tighter security apparatus, a larger military budget, you name it, these folks make a living by persuading the public that more American aggression is essential to peace and prosperity around the world.

We recently heard Donald Trump say that he bombed Qassam Soleimani, not to start a war, but to prevent a war.

Right.

Just as George W. Bush was forced to start a war in order to prevent the mythical mushroom cloud.

I am old enough to remember the Army’s justification of free-fire zones in the Vietnam war, where soldiers were free to kill anything on sight and destroy entire villages, by saying that “we had to destroy the village in order to save the village.”

Give me a break.

I wasn’t stupid enough to believe the propaganda then. And I’m not stupid enough to swallow it now.

What our TV news networks never disclose to us is that virtually ALL of these so-called expert commentators maintain profession relationships with the military-security-intelligence-industrial complex while working for the corporate news media.

After all, they have invested their entire professional lives into climbing the ladders of power inside the war rooms of the American empire. They are not about to give that up now.

Very few leopards ever change their spots, folks.

Lawrence Wilkerson is a rare breed.

So, it is not surprising that this class of propagandist is invariably are on the payroll of weapons manufacturers, military consulting firms, and surveillance companies, etc. Just as the execution of Gen. Soleimani sent the stock prices of Raytheon and other weapons manufacturers through the roof, so these talking-heads work to further enhance the financial and ideological investments that they have spent their entire lives helping to construct.

Below is a video report by The Intercept explaining only a few of these corrupt financial connections. Of course, none of the networks ever mention these connections to their viewers.

For instance, Fox News hired a retired general who naturally justifies US military strikes, but never mentions that he is a partner at SCP Partners, a venture capital fund that invests in defense contractors.

Similarly CBS hired another retired general who now works for Kohlberg Kravis Robers & Co., an investment firm with major holdings in  some of the largest US defense contractors.

These men and women do offer expert analysis. They are trying to sell us more snake oil at the very high cost of human lives around the globe.

“America Exists to Make War”

My regular readers will remember that I always value the insights of retired Army Col. Lawrence Wilkerson. Col. Wilkerson was the Chief of Staff for Colin Powell when Powell was the Secretary of State under President George

Retired Col. Lawrence Wilkerson

W. Bush.

Col. Wilkerson is also the only official from the Bush administration who has come clean about the consistent stream of lies we were fed by the Bush administration about the non-existent weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

The CIA lied to him and General Powell.

Why in the world should anyone believe what US intelligence spokespeople are telling us today about Iranian General Qassem Soleimani or the Iranian

Soleimani’s burning body lies next to his car

government?

Since the catastrophic war in Iraq, which continues to this day, Col. Wilkerson has devoted himself to speaking out, working to ensure that there won’t be any more US wars based on lies.

Here he explains how the government lie-factory is again working overtime as it promotes war with Iran. As he says, “[American leaders] will lie, cheat, and steal to promote American empire.”

Watch the interview by journalist Amy Goodman discussing the current state of US/Iran relations with Col Wilkerson on the program Democracy Now.  It is 17 minutes long and well worth your time.

 

Liars Beat the Drums of War. Part 1

All governments lie.

That fact is a given and must be accepted by any adult who wants to understand politics and foreign relations in this world of ours.

For Christians who understand that their primary allegiance is to Jesus Christ, and that they are first and foremost citizens of the kingdom of God NOT their temporal country, embracing this truth need not be difficult.

Not only is the government of the United States not an exception to this rule, we in many ways we have perfected the practice of lying, deception and misinformation to a fine art — perhaps a crude, vulgar and vile norm would be a more accurate way to describe it.

The recent release of the Afghanistan Papers by the Washington Post is only one recent demonstration of this age-old truism about government lies. US military leaders, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, our intelligence services, and the vast majority of our elected politicians have all been lying to the American public about the 18 year long war in Afghanistan for….wait for it…the entire 18 years.

When interviewed behind closed doors, over 400 American leaders, both military and civilian, in nearly 700 separate interviews, confessed that the military has never had a coherent strategy for pursuing this wasteful war.  Nor did they have the slightest hope that the US could accomplish anything resembling “victory,” whatever that might look like.

In short, everyone admitted that no one in the US government had any idea what we were doing in Afghanistan.

Yet, when speaking in public we heard lie after lie after lie — “we are moving toward victory,” “our new strategy is working,” “we see light at the end of the tunnel.”

All the lies have been revealed in black and white.

Yet, not long after the publication of these Afghanistan Papers, General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, held a press conference where he deliberately mischaracterized the information contained in these interviews and then glibly dismissed their significance out of hand.

Watch the oh-so noble general continue spinning more public lies in the video below:

The US corporate media perpetuates US government lies by repeating them mindlessly, without challenge or correction. Major developments that indict our government by uncovering the truth are conveniently ignored by the corporate press.

Truth remains unreported because real journalism is dead in this country. The American people may well be the most ideologically narrow, as well as the most thoroughly propagandized population in the “civilized” world.

Of course, the truth is also ignored by the bought-and-paid-for money grubbers in Washington DC whose silence indicts them, too, as co-conspirators in the deception of the American people.

How many major, investigative reports have you seen about the Afghanistan Papers on corporate news programs?

I have not seen any.

Has anyone heard even a hint about a possible Congressional investigation into the negligence, gross malfeasance and moral decay festering at the heart of our military-industrial-security complex laid bare for all to see by the Afghanistan Papers?

I haven’t.

We, the American public, including the Christian church, must share in this  corporate guilt.

We are a major portion of the gullible and/or disinterested public that conveniently believes the government lies, ignores contrary evidence, and cheers patriotically for the endless bloodshed unleashed by America’s selfish addiction to imperial power around the world.

More Wise Analysis from Caitlin Johnstone

For my money, Caitlin Johnstone is one of the sharpest political bloggers working today. Below is an excerpt from her most recent post, “Full Scale War is Avoided and Trump Goes Right Back to Warmongering.”

The United States and Iran entered into a direct military exchange for the first time ever with the drone assassination of General Qassem Soleimani last week

President Trump makes statement on Iran reprisals

and a retaliatory strike from Iran via surface-to-surface missiles upon two US military bases on Wednesday.

As usual it was the less powerful nation who exercised restraint, with Iran skillfully targeting the bases’ military capabilities but taking measures to successfully avoid any casualties. The two nations de-escalated back down to their previous high level of dangerous hostilities with an understanding between them that neither side wants a full-scale war. Both sides played “chicken” and both sides swerved, and they know that about each other now.

So that was a relief. We were all forced to hold our breath and hope against hope that cooler heads would prevail after the senseless assassination of a sovereign nation’s top military official, and they did. A full-scale war that would have dwarfed Iraq and Vietnam in terms of death, destruction and destabilization was averted.

And then Trump immediately went right back to warmongering…

The entire piece is well worth reading. Just click on the title above.

We Are Watching Another Catastrophic Iraq War Plan 3.0: We’ve Seen All This Before

As usual the US corporate media continues to march in lockstep with the atrocious lies currently spewed by the Trump administration in the aftermath of killing the Iranian leader Qassem Suleimani.

In this regard, President Trump is not the deplorable outlier that liberal pundits pretend him to be.  Rather, Trump is the latest in a long line of terrorist presidents whose actions have polished America’s reputation as the world’s greatest perpetrator of state-sponsored terrorism.

No, that title  does not belong to Iran, as the American public is repeatedly told. It actually belongs to the good old US of A, hands down.

Two key players in this latest terrorist outrage, besides Trump himself, are Vice-President Mike Pence and Secretary of Defense Mike Pompeo.

Both men claim to be Christians, evangelicals in fact.

Both men continue to flourish in shameful careers that bring disrepute to the church of Jesus Christ.

Both men make a mockery of the gospel and reveal in living color that they abandoned the Lord Jesus long ago.

Pence and Pompeo are living examples the failed “seed sown among thorns” described by Jesus in his parable of the sower in Mark 4:7, 18-19:

Others, like seed sown among thorns hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.

The arid, war-mongering, anti-Christian lifestyles of these men are openly revealed as they blatantly lie America into another tragic war of American aggression.

Craig Murray has written an important article detailing the inexcusable lies of Trump, Pence and Pompeo. Mr. Murray is a former British diplomat turned human rights advocate.

Craig Murray, former UK diplomat turned human rights advocat

I have posted an excerpt of his article below, but I encourage you to read the entire piece  here:

In one of the series of blatant lies the USA has told to justify the assassination of Soleimani, Mike Pompeo said that Soleimani was killed because he was planning “Imminent attacks” on US citizens. It is a careful choice of word. Pompeo is specifically referring to the Bethlehem Doctrine of Pre-Emptive Self Defence.

Developed by Daniel Bethlehem when Legal Adviser to first Netanyahu’s government and then Blair’s, the Bethlehem Doctrine is that states have a right of “pre-emptive self-defence” against “imminent” attack. That is something most people, and most international law experts and judges, would accept. Including me.

What very few people, and almost no international lawyers, accept is the key to the Bethlehem Doctrine – that here “Imminent” – the word used so carefully by Pompeo – does not need to have its normal meanings of either “soon” or “about to happen”. An attack may be deemed “imminent”, according to the Bethlehem Doctrine, even if you know no details of it or when it might occur. So you may be assassinated by a drone or bomb strike – and the doctrine was specifically developed to justify such strikes – because of “intelligence” you are engaged in a plot, when that intelligence neither says what the plot is nor when it might occur. Or even more tenuous, because there is intelligence you have engaged in a plot before, so it is reasonable to kill you in case you do so again.

I am not inventing the Bethlehem Doctrine. It has been the formal legal justification for drone strikes and targeted assassinations by the Israeli, US and UK governments for a decade. Here it is in academic paper form, published by Bethlehem after he left government service (the form in which it is adopted by the US, UK and Israeli Governments is classified information).

So when Pompeo says attacks by Soleimani were “imminent” he is not using the word in the normal sense in the English language. It is no use asking him what, where or when these “imminent” attacks were planned to be. He is referencing the Bethlehem Doctrine under which you can kill people on the basis of a feeling that they may have been about to do something.

The idea that killing an individual who you have received information is going to attack you, but you do not know when, where or how, can be justified as self-defence, has not gained widespread acceptance – or indeed virtually any acceptance – in legal circles outside the ranks of the most extreme devoted neo-conservatives and zionists…

…Let us now move on to the next lie, which is being widely repeated, this time originated by Donald Trump, that Soleimani was responsible for the “deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, of Americans”. This lie has been parroted by everybody, Republicans and Democrats alike…

..Those [Americans killed] were US troops killed in combat during an invasion. The Iraqi Shia militias – whether Iran backed or not – had every legal right to fight the US invasion. The idea that the killing of invading American troops was somehow illegal or illegitimate is risible. Plainly the US propaganda that Soleimani was “responsible for hundreds of American deaths” is intended, as part of the justification for his murder, to give the impression he was involved in terrorism, not legitimate combat against invading forces. The idea that the US has the right to execute those who fight it when it invades is an absolutely stinking abnegation of the laws of war…

The final, and perhaps silliest lie, is Vice President Mike Pence’s attempt to link Soleimani to 9/11. There is absolutely no link between Soleimani and 9/11, and the most strenuous efforts by the Bush regime to find evidence that would link either Iran or Iraq to 9/11 (and thus take the heat off their pals the al-Saud who were actually responsible) failed. Yes, it is true that some of the hijackers at one point transited Iran to Afghanistan. But there is zero evidence, as the 9/11 report specifically stated, that the Iranians knew what they were planning, or that Soleimani personally was involved. 

Let’s Burn Our Neighbor’s House Down, Then Refuse to Give Him Shelter

In 2009 the Obama administration, led by the full-throated imperialist war-monger, Hillary Clinton, facilitated a military coup against the

Former Honduran president Manuel Zalaya

democratically elected, and wildly popular, Honduran president, Manuel Zalaya (see here, here, here and here).

Since then, Honduras has descended into a horrific maelstrom of drug-trafficking, gang warfare, murder, and economic collapse for the common people.

But little of this matters to the U.S. government because our hand-picked replacement for Zalaya, the current president Juan Orlando Hernandez, has implemented the malicious, neo-liberal economic practices well-suited to the expansion of American multi-national corporations.

Never mind that Hernandez and his family are all up to their eyeballs in the

Current Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez

drug trade. Together with his wife and brother, they have all been indicted by U.S. attorneys for drug trafficking (see here, here, here and here).

Under Hernandez’s watch, Honduran democracy has been crushed and the gates of hell-on-earth opened up.   It is now one of the most violent nations in the western hemisphere with a sky-rocketing murder rate.

The greatest factor driving this scourge of nation-wide violence is the shocking growth of drug-cartel related gang violence.  These brutal gangs literally run the country, at least for the average man and woman in the street.

So, the people literally flee for their lives, especially the lives of their children.

Honduran migrants take part in a caravan heading to the US, on the road linking Ciudad Hidalgo and Tapachula, Chiapas state, Mexico, on October 21, 2018. – Thousands of Honduran migrants resumed their march toward the United States on Sunday from the southern Mexican city of Ciudad Hidalgo, AFP journalists at the scene said. (Photo by Pedro Pardo / AFP) (Photo credit should read PEDRO PARDO/AFP/Getty Images)

And they flee to the United States, NOT as “illegal immigrants” (whatever you think of that label) but as legal asylum seekers.

What does America do — after we have destroyed their homeland?

We refuse to give them the humanitarian assistance that they deserve.

In other words, first we burn their house down, and then we refuse to give them shelter.

Instead, we take away their children, put them in detention camps or foster homes and lose track of where we put them.

Please watch the video links below for more information about the current immigration debate that rarely if ever receives the attention it deserves from the media or our politicians.  Have you ever heard an intelligent conversation or debate about our current immigration policies that included this issue of U.S. interference abroad?

I haven’t.

First, an interview with Pulitzer-Prize winning author/journalist, Sonia Nazario.  She describes her recent investigative visits to Honduras, and what she witnessed there (about 18 min.).

Hondudran gang members. Enforcers for drug cartels propped up by the U..S.

She describes Honduras today as “a narco-state supported by the United States.”

Second, a two-part interview (part 1, part 2) with former president Zalaya where he discusses the U.S. backed coup that forced him to flee the country.

He aptly describes Hillary Clinton as a “mafia boss.”

Everyone seeking refuge in our country after escaping the violent landscape

Clinton, the “mafia boss”

left to them by U.S. interventionism, deserves asylum here.

Christians especially ought to be knowledgeable and filled with empathy over the plight of those refugees who suffer because of American meddling in their homelands.

Include these crucial facts in your next conversation with anyone ignorantly chanting, “Send them back.”

We Have an Empathy Deficiency

I tried listening to a conservative, call-in radio program last night.  Five to ten minutes was all I could take before my bleeding ears forced me to change the station.

The topic of conversation was the “invasion” of immigrants “flooding” across America’s southern border.

The first thing I noticed was the ignorance on display about the average person’s living circumstances in Central American countries where the U.S. has toppled governments in the recent past. The second and most prominent factor was the hard-hearted lack of empathy or compassion voiced by both the bloviating host and his lynch-mob minded callers.

It was painful to listen.

The ability to empathize – that is, feel an impulse for putting ourselves in another person’s place, to understand their pain, to try to feel what they are feeling as they are feeling it – is an important trait for every human being to possess.  Some would say it is part of what makes us human.

Unfortunately, not everyone can do it.  Many don’t ever try.

Both sociopaths and psychopaths can be identified by their inability, or well-practiced disinterest, in feeling empathy.  So, they can skin cats alive and watch other people suffer without experiencing a twinge of concern or human kindness.

I can only hope that a high percentage of psychopaths make evening calls to conservative radio talk shows .  Otherwise, America really is in deep trouble.

Perhaps you have heard the old saying about empathy:  Before you criticize another person first walk a mile in his shoes.  Then when you do criticize him you will be a mile away AND have his shoes.

At least, that seems to be the American, conservative understanding of empathy nowadays.

These children came home from school only to learn that their parents had been arrested by ICE. ICE agents say they are not responsible for the children

The painful lack of public empathy that I witnessed last night is also glaring evidence that many Americans who call themselves Christians do not know Jesus Christ from a hole in the ground, no matter what their “testimony.”

Empathy is THE cardinal Christian virtue.

The incarnation of Jesus Christ was/is the supreme demonstration of divine empathy.  The Father’s empathy for us, lost sinners, motivated him to send

His parents have vanished and ICE made no allowances for what to do with him or dozens of other minor children

his one and only eternal Son into this world. Empathy for humanity moved the Son to become fully human; to experience all that we experience; and to stick with it for an entire lifetime.  He walked in our shoes, carried our burdens, suffered injustice, died our death, and finally experienced resurrection as our Precursor.

To know Jesus is to know empathy.

To be like Jesus is to demonstrate empathy for others, but especially for those who are the most “unlike” us.  The Son of God was UTTERLY unlike sinful humanity in every way. Yet, He set aside all privilege in order to rescue undeserving, ungrateful, self-destructive people like you and me.

The kingdom of God is a kingdom founded on empathy for others unlike ourselves.

It is a kingdom founded upon practical action to meet others in their suffering and to alleviate their distress, to bring practical solutions to human dilemmas, to save life, to make more room for those seeking safety, to share whatever we have with those who have lost everything.

Without empathy there is no such thing as Christianity.

Without empathy there is no discipleship.

Without visible demonstrations of practical empathy there is no Christian Church.

Without empathy there is no hope for the human race or the planet.