{"id":52081,"date":"2022-08-09T18:18:51","date_gmt":"2022-08-09T18:18:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wagingnonviolence.org\/forusa\/?p=52081"},"modified":"2022-08-30T16:51:51","modified_gmt":"2022-08-30T16:51:51","slug":"communities-of-faith-must-end-new-holy-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wagingnonviolence.org\/forusa\/2022\/08\/communities-of-faith-must-end-new-holy-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Communities of faith must end the new Holy War"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As Jews around the world celebrated Tisha b\u2019Av on Aug. 7 \u2014 the traditional day of mourning for the disasters that have occurred throughout Jewish history \u2014 the state of Israel brutally slaughtered at least 44 people, including 15 children<\/a> in the besieged Gaza Strip. Beyond the horrible irony of this massacre, it is difficult for me not to see it as part of a much larger global Holy War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not in the sense of the Crusades or American and European fears of Islamic Jihad. We don\u2019t have a name yet for this Holy War but its variants stretch far beyond Gaza into the American heartland. We refuse to recognize it because it would require us to look in the mirror. It is a Holy War based on fantasies of power and \u201cchosenness.\u201d Most troubling of all is how these fears and fantasies are grounded in a poisonous distortion of sacred scripture and religious tradition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a veteran peace activist, person of Jewish faith, and the former co-director of CODEPINK, I\u2019ve spent most of my life working to end U.S. wars and militarism and for freedom and justice for Palestinians. As I begin my tenure as the executive director of our nation\u2019s oldest interfaith peace and justice organization, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, or FOR, the dimensions of this Holy War are impossible to ignore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fusing of violence with a blasphemous interpretation of Christianity in the United States has roots in the concept of Christian duty that animated the era of lynchings.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Closer to home, the ideological <\/strong>underpinnings of this conflict were on display just last week at the Conservative Political Action Conference, in Dallas, Texas. Hungarian autocrat Prime Minister Victor Orban, who rails against race mixing and same-sex relationships<\/a>, advocating instead for \u201cChristian Democracy<\/a>,\u201d was the opening speaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the 2020 election, right-wing pro-Trump activists planned and carried out a series of so-called \u201cJericho Marches\u201d<\/a> to invoke the bloody biblical story of the siege of Jericho as a call to action to keep Trump in office. As Jan. 6 neared, Proud Boys members could be seen praying<\/a> near the Washington monument, comparing the \u201csacrifice\u201d they were preparing to make to the crucifixion of Christ. The next evening, they rampaged through town attacking African-American churches and other houses where Black Lives Matter signs were displayed. Tennessee pastor Greg Locke praised the Proud Boys and lauded America as \u201cthe last bastion of Christian freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Jan. 6 itself, the Jericho Marchers traveled<\/a> with shofars<\/a> (Jewish ritual instruments, made from rams\u2019 horns evoking freedom, holiness and a call to be in the service of God) and American flags to Washington D.C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Spike Tactical’s AR-15 style rifle, called the Crusader, with Psalm 144:1 engraved on it. (Spike Tactical)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The fusing of violence with a blasphemous interpretation of Christianity in the United States has roots in the concept of Christian duty<\/a> that animated the era of lynchings. Today it takes the form of simple marketing copy. Florida-based gun manufacturer, Spike\u2019s Tactical, markets AR-15 style rifles with Psalm 144:1<\/a> \u2014 \u201cPraise be to the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.\u201d\u2014 emblazoned on them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The weapon used in the mass murder of 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas was manufactured by the Georgia-based Daniel Defense, whose social media that day included a picture of a toddler<\/a> with a rifle in his lap and the text of Proverbs 22:6, \u201cTrain up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. far-right movement trends older<\/a> but U.S. neo-Nazi groups are making strong efforts to recruit youth<\/a>. The Israeli ultranationalist movement however already contains a large number of teenagers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We call on faith leaders and congregants from every faith tradition and political persuasion to break their silence on this distortion of the divine<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

On the morning of July 20 the Israeli front of this Holy War saw thousands of largely young, Jewish extremists belonging to the Nachala settler movement flock to seven uninhabited sites in the Occupied West Bank. With religious fringes dangling from their waists, blue and white flags in their hands, and M16 rifles slung across their backs, they set up tents, makeshift kitchens and yeshivas. One outpost even included a bouncy castle and cotton candy machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were praised as \u201cinspired,\u201d \u201cdedicated,\u201d and \u201cwonderful,\u201d by Israel\u2019s Justice Minister, Ayelet Shaked, and criticized<\/a> by the ultra-religious Jewish-Israeli Hilltop Youth movement<\/a> for not being militant enough. Israeli soldiers and police ultimately dismantled the encampments but the Nachala group has pledged to return and rebuild. That is neither surprising \u2014 they claim the Jewish people \u201cwere promised the Land of Israel in the Bible\u201d \u2014 nor is it an idle threat given the history of horrific settler attacks<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless of your political or religious outlook or how deep the divisions among us currently are, I have to believe that all people of conscience are sickened by this perversion of sacred texts to justify a white and Christian supremacy, or, in Israel\u2019s case, Jewish supremacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the spirit of those members and leaders of FOR who preceded me \u2014 Martin Luther King Jr., A.J. Muste<\/a>, Jane Addams<\/a> and more \u2014 it is time to engage the full moral force of our combined faith traditions in condemning these forms of supremacy and violence that co-opt and pervert religious scripture. It is time to say clearly and unequivocally that the manipulation of the divine in the service of lethal political goals and human rights abuses, whether orchestrated by Christian, Jewish, Islamic or Hindu fundamentalists is unconscionable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n