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Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Whither Abraham ?

Abraham und 3 Engel

The situation that exists between Israel and the Palestinians is a critical juncture in history; it is a focus of all that has gone before, and that that will ensue; it is the meeting place of paradigms and orthodoxy, for here in this great narrative of more than sixty years - a bit more than two generations - we see the great religions descended from Abraham:  Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, wrestling together to determine whether any true offspring of Abraham will exist in the future.

If Israel expels the Palestinians into their own Islamic diaspora, or whether there are established "Bantu-stans" for their exile, such as existed in South Africa under the apartheid regime, then the Zionist phase of Judaism is dead. It may continue in body, but the soul is dead.
If all Islam embraces terror because of the horror of watching their fellow religionists' oppression and destruction, then it, too, shall pass into spiritual obscurity.
And if Christianity in its form in the United States of America cannot come to grips with this conflict with an understanding reflecting the central tenets of Christianity, but rather would retreat to symbolic charades of End-of-Times and the words of prophets and seers about the Return of Jerusalem to the Jews, then that Christianity will be dead on delivery to the future.

In this conflict lay the future of the Abrahamic tradition. If it goes badly, those religions cannot endure.

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3 comments:

AD said...

Yes, yes. Spoken from the heart. We need such reminders -- and they encourage me, anyway -- in midst of all the ultra-sophisticated but brittle chatter...

Unknown said...

I cannot speak for Judaism or Islam, but from where I sit Christianity has lost its moorings completely in this country. It's mindlessly compliant with the dominant secular culture of global corporatism and aggressive militarism. I think the time for real reformation is done. There are way too many people waiting for Sweet Jesus to rescue them with miracles.

Montag said...

The local and far-range optima for mankind's evolution are entirely consistent with the core of the words of the geniuses of religion...

our way is leading to an Appointment in Samarra.