Discussion Forums

Japan 2011

2011-03-26T09:05:20Z

It didn’t take too long but YouTube and the blogsphere is now alive with talk of Divine action causing the Japan earthquake and subsequent tsunami. Now, normal people realise it’s unthinking plate techtonics, so how do we counter the John Piper’s of this world who although they can’t explain why it happened, they can explain who caused it - God.

Is there a progressive Christian ‘take’ on events such as this? Is there a more reasonable and compassionate repines? If anyone knows cam you enlighten?

Simon

Kairos Palestine (a plea from Christian Palestinians)

2010-02-23T11:10:05Z

In 1985, when repression of coloured people in South Africa was rife, the South African Kairos document was launched. It rallied support from churches and the wider public for the Africans and so helped to reduce oppression. The Christian Palestinians hope that their cry for help will be heard by their fellow Christians and also help to reduce and ultimately eliminate occupation and oppression.

The 2nd paragraph of Kairos Palestine reads:
“In this historic document, we Palestinian Christians declare that the military occupation of our land is a sin against God and humanity, and that any theology that legitimizes the occupation is far from Christian teachings, because true Christian theology is a theology of love and solidarity with the oppressed, a call to justice and equality among peoples.”

The document is on the website of the World Council of churches and the address is:
http://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/other-ecumenical-bodies/kairos-palestine-document.html

Israel/Palestine Problems

2009-08-18T16:20:39Z

Did you know that there is an organisation called Jews for Justice for Palestinians (JfJfP) ? Well, there is, and it has information that the general media just don’t have or don’t publish. For instance, did you know that

Israel controls all access to water in the occupied territories? This means that settlers in the illegal settlements have all the water they need, incl. having sprinklers on their lawns, while Palestinians have to import water from a distance with considerable expenditure and trouble.

Or, did you know that a French company called Veolia operates internationally and was involved in setting up a light railway to link East (i.e. Palestinian) Jerusalem with Israel and with settlements? However, considerable pressure on the company in other countries has led to their withdrawal from this scheme. But Veolia is still involved in providing public transport to some settlements and for operating a landfill site in the Jordan valley, on Palestinian land, but used to dispose of the rubbish from settlements - not from Palestinian villages.

Veolia operates in quite a number of boroughs in the UK. For instance, they deal with street cleaning in the City of Westminster. This gives us the opportunity to pressurise Veolia still more.

If you want to get more information about this, about the campaign re access to water and a whole host of other topics, go to http://www.jfjfp.org.uk