Pres. Biden
is at it again – requesting tens of billions of dollars (that we don’t have) to
spend in support of the wars engaged in by our ‘close allies’ the Ukraine and
Israel. But what if those countries
weren’t really that friendly towards the US and the things we hold dear? Would that change people’s minds about
supporting them?
Let’s have a
look at the Ukraine first. We mentioned
before some of the ways that the Zelensky government is persecuting
Christians there. Now the national
legislature is taking it to another level:
It is nearing the
passage of a bill that would completely outlaw the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church, the largest church in the country.
It was no close vote in the first round, either – 267 For, 5 Against (a
second round is required before final passage):
Without
clearly defining the concept of this “affiliation,” the mentioned bill empowers
the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience, led
by a person who is hostile towards the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, to judge in
each particular case. This body, guided by criteria unknown to anyone, will
conduct a so-called religious study, based on the conclusion of which a
judicial decision will be made. One doesn't need to be a lawyer to understand
that the proposed scheme opens the door to all sorts of abuses…
Initiators
and supporters of the adoption of this bill in Ukraine—senior government
officials, deputies of the Verkhovna Rada, radical politicians, and public
figures—do not hide that the bill is directed against the largest religious
community in Ukraine and aims to eliminate the Ukrainian Orthodox Church as a
centralized structure, as well as all its dioceses, parishes, and monasteries
individually…
The
adoption of this bill was preceded by a whole set of measures directed against
the canonical Church in Ukraine: a slanderous anti-Church campaign in the
national media, seizures of churches with the use of gross violence against
clergy and believers, initiation of numerous fictitious criminal cases,
pressure on the episcopate by special services, attempts to seize the cradle of
Russian monasticism—the Holy Dormition-Kiev Caves Lavra, and other major
monasteries with the forced eviction of their residents, as well as a wave of
forced closures by local authorities of churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church, a ban on its services, the seizure of land plots occupied by its
monasteries, churches, and shrines.
There is
also the Ukrainian Legislature’s proposal to legalize
pornography, Zelensky’s push to
legalize same-sex ‘marriage’, as well as his public support for legalizing
prostitution and gambling and for making abortion a free service for any woman
(the latter three are mentioned in this
article). Such things will only make
life for Christians much more difficult than they are at present in the
Ukraine.
Does this
kind of behavior warrant large-scale financial and moral backing from the
peoples of the States and their federal government?
Things
haven’t been much better in Israel for Christians. The Jerusalem Post reported,
So far in 2023,
there have been dozens of attacks by extremist Jews on Christians or Christian
sites, ranging from the merely unpleasant to vandalism and assault. “Definitely
there has been an increase—in the last year, a very high increase—in all types
of violence, spitting, attacks on sites, provocations,” Farid Jubran, general
counsel of the Catholic Church's Custody of the Holy Land, told The Media Line.
Jubran said the recently created Religious Freedom Data Center lists 20
incidents in July alone, and that he knew of incidents that were not reported,
either because the victims were unaware of the center's hotline or because they
had grown accustomed to such incidents and did not bother reporting them. In
January this year, almost 30 graves at a Protestant cemetery on Mount Zion in
Jerusalem were vandalized. Two Orthodox Jewish teenagers, one aged 18 and the
other 14, were arrested based on surveillance camera footage. Since then, in Jerusalem alone,
further incidents have included: A mob of at least a
dozen Orthodox Jews overturning tables and throwing chairs at the Taboon
Armenian restaurant; a Jewish American tourist toppling a statue of Jesus at
the Church of the Flagellation; two Jewish men attacking a bishop and two
priests during Mass
at the Church of Gethsemane; two Jewish passersby pepper-spraying a young
man outside the Armenian convent; and a window in the Cenacle or Upper Room on
Mount Zion, where Jesus and the apostles are believed to have held the Last
Supper, being smashed by a Jewish man.
Readers can
also watch a parade of Orthodox Jews spitting at Christians carrying a
Cross in Jerusalem.
But one of
the worst incidents happened
on Friday, 20 Oct., when an Israeli bomb hit the ancient St. Porphyrios
Orthodox Church in Gaza:
The Holy Orthodox Order of St. George the Great Martyr
reports:
We
have just received confirmation from multiple sources in Gaza that Saint
Porphyrios Orthodox Church has been bombed today. Archbishop Alexios appears to
have been located and is alive, but we don’t know if he is injured. We have no
word on the condition of any other of the more than 500 people being housed at
the church and monastery, including the person who has been our source for most
of our information.
The
bombs hit the two church halls where the refugees, including children and
babies, were sleeping. Presently, survivors are searching the rubble for other
casualties. Our source at the scene says that they estimate that 150-200 people
are dead, and that number is expected to rise as more people are found in the
wreckage.
Sadly, this
isn’t the first time Israel has bombed something that many in the US would
consider highly valuable. Dr. Paul Craig
Roberts sheds light on the mostly
unheard of Israeli attack on the USS Liberty in an essay of his,
which includes a timely warning on allowing any country to unduly influence US
foreign policy:
. . .
The rest is
at https://identitydixie.com/2023/10/24/the-christian-persecutions-no-one-will-talk-about/.
***
Thanks to
the folks at Katehon for publishing an essay originally carried by The
Hayride on the Gaza war:
https://katehon.com/en/article/bad-theology-leads-bad-foreign-policy
--
Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us
sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!
Anathema to the Union!
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