Balancing the Equation
During, and in the weeks following, the Israeli-Hamas conflict late 2008, we were forced to ingest much disingenuous brouhaha from the media which dishonorably dubbed the former the War of Propaganda. We were also regularly served up editorials and commentaries from the Arab and international community, which predictably accused Israel of war crimes and the slaughter of innocents.
However, sorely missing from the equation was the voice of the Israelis, particularly the denizens of Sderot, the town that had borne the brunt of Hamas' offensive the last eight years before Israel launched a strike-back. It was this voice that counted among the regnant noises of the real propagandists that make up the liberal media and the anti-Israel demonstrators.
During an airing of the programme, This Is Your Day on TTV, the Mayor of Sderot went on the record to attest to the facts of the Hamas aggression. According to him, Sderot with a population of 23,000, had been hit by 9,000 missiles until Israel's ground strike, which translated to an average of 1,100 rockets a year or 3 shellings a day. The munition, smuggled into the Gaza city of tunnels from Egypt, was sponsored by Teheran under the aegis of the Iranian demagogue, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad.
The question the media and the world needed to ask themselves was: why didn't we hear of this deplorable action by Israel's enemies the last eight years? Why didn't the media report on the Hamas' crimes against the Israeli community? Why were there no demonstrations on behalf of the citizens of Sderot by the world's humanitarian and civil rights groups?
Which brings me to this unassailable truth – where Israel is concerned, few care to push the envelope.
The Anti-multiculturalism of the Nationalist Alliance
If I've given the impression that I'm anti-multiculturalism, it's because I am. I simply don't believe that race exists. Race is a Darwinian invention which postulates that some ethnicities are less evolved and therefore less human than others.
On the other hand, the Bible describes only two kinds of people: Jews and Gentiles (Romans 10 &15; Galatians 3). At the same time, it also teaches that all men are equal.
Hence I must distance my brand of anti-multiculturalism, which tries to bleed across imaginary ethnic and cultural borders, from that of Kyle Chapman, which attempts to create an exclusive community of like-minded white Europeans with the goal of expanding the community to all NZ. For these people are doing exactly what I find abhorrent – play the race card and legitimize white supremacy.
Their brand of anti-multiculturalism is more dangerous and anti-Christian than pluralism. It's thinly-veiled neo-fascism in the making.
Faith and Doubt - Not so Strange Bedfellows
However, sorely missing from the equation was the voice of the Israelis, particularly the denizens of Sderot, the town that had borne the brunt of Hamas' offensive the last eight years before Israel launched a strike-back. It was this voice that counted among the regnant noises of the real propagandists that make up the liberal media and the anti-Israel demonstrators.During an airing of the programme, This Is Your Day on TTV, the Mayor of Sderot went on the record to attest to the facts of the Hamas aggression. According to him, Sderot with a population of 23,000, had been hit by 9,000 missiles until Israel's ground strike, which translated to an average of 1,100 rockets a year or 3 shellings a day. The munition, smuggled into the Gaza city of tunnels from Egypt, was sponsored by Teheran under the aegis of the Iranian demagogue, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad.
The question the media and the world needed to ask themselves was: why didn't we hear of this deplorable action by Israel's enemies the last eight years? Why didn't the media report on the Hamas' crimes against the Israeli community? Why were there no demonstrations on behalf of the citizens of Sderot by the world's humanitarian and civil rights groups?
Which brings me to this unassailable truth – where Israel is concerned, few care to push the envelope.
The Anti-multiculturalism of the Nationalist Alliance
If I've given the impression that I'm anti-multiculturalism, it's because I am. I simply don't believe that race exists. Race is a Darwinian invention which postulates that some ethnicities are less evolved and therefore less human than others.On the other hand, the Bible describes only two kinds of people: Jews and Gentiles (Romans 10 &15; Galatians 3). At the same time, it also teaches that all men are equal.
Hence I must distance my brand of anti-multiculturalism, which tries to bleed across imaginary ethnic and cultural borders, from that of Kyle Chapman, which attempts to create an exclusive community of like-minded white Europeans with the goal of expanding the community to all NZ. For these people are doing exactly what I find abhorrent – play the race card and legitimize white supremacy.
Their brand of anti-multiculturalism is more dangerous and anti-Christian than pluralism. It's thinly-veiled neo-fascism in the making.
Faith and Doubt - Not so Strange Bedfellows
At least not from my eyrie as a Christian. I've ruminated on the semantics of faith and doubt for quite some time now, and I've arrived at the conclusion that faith and doubt are not on opposite ends of the theological spectrum. In fact they are complementary.
On the other hand, I believe that faith and unbelief are polar opposites. A person with a faith has a belief. In contrast one who doesn't hold to a faith is an unbeliever or has no belief (thence you get the term 'unbelief').
And what of doubt? Well, a thorough perusal of the lexicon apprises that the word 'doubt' means the lack of certainty or confidence that something is true. Let's speak with some candour here: every believer harbours some kind of doubt at some point in his faith. My assurances are sometimes shaken. I sometimes question God's existence. I sometimes doubt His beneficence – all these doubts ofttimes arise when a prayer to resolve a crisis appears stonewalled.
But here's the difference between doubt and unbelief: my doubts do not nullify my identity or relationship with the Object of my faith – God. And,
On the other hand, unbelief has serious ramifications for one's soul and eternal destination. Not believing God exists; not believing Jesus is who He is – the Son of God; not believing Jesus is the only way to be saved from sin and hell – this is unbelief that impedes one from making the decision to put one's faith in God. This the Bible says is the unpardonable sin.
And so unbelief not only nullifies one's identify with the God of the universe but also condemns one to an eternity without a relationship with Him.
Consequently, doubt is the lack of faith rather than the absence of faith.
The Times are A-changing
Well, that's fine, and I'm Victorian and reactionary. But it sure raises my ire (and eyebrows) to see concessions being made for change at the expense of minding our Ps and Qs.
On the other hand, I believe that faith and unbelief are polar opposites. A person with a faith has a belief. In contrast one who doesn't hold to a faith is an unbeliever or has no belief (thence you get the term 'unbelief').
And what of doubt? Well, a thorough perusal of the lexicon apprises that the word 'doubt' means the lack of certainty or confidence that something is true. Let's speak with some candour here: every believer harbours some kind of doubt at some point in his faith. My assurances are sometimes shaken. I sometimes question God's existence. I sometimes doubt His beneficence – all these doubts ofttimes arise when a prayer to resolve a crisis appears stonewalled.
But here's the difference between doubt and unbelief: my doubts do not nullify my identity or relationship with the Object of my faith – God. And,
"... faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see" (Hebrews 11:1).
On the other hand, unbelief has serious ramifications for one's soul and eternal destination. Not believing God exists; not believing Jesus is who He is – the Son of God; not believing Jesus is the only way to be saved from sin and hell – this is unbelief that impedes one from making the decision to put one's faith in God. This the Bible says is the unpardonable sin.
And so unbelief not only nullifies one's identify with the God of the universe but also condemns one to an eternity without a relationship with Him.
Consequently, doubt is the lack of faith rather than the absence of faith.
The Times are A-changing
Well, that's fine, and I'm Victorian and reactionary. But it sure raises my ire (and eyebrows) to see concessions being made for change at the expense of minding our Ps and Qs.
Take for instance the prevailing ignorance of telephone etiquette in private and in public. In my assessment, many societies are misappropriating exemption of the first-come-first-served rule to telephone calls. There's no denying the coercive nature of a ringing phone. The ring is designed to annoy us into submission – how we drop everything at its behest and how it makes us a vassalage to technology. It also intrudes into our everyday activities, so we leave the muffins burning in the oven, the baby's neck entangled by the curtain cord, the lover's arms wide open and abandoned, often to answer a piddling call.
However, in commerce we shouldn't have to defer to the Johnny-come-lately on the line when we have waited a lot longer in the line for our turn to be served. The ad hoc judgment enterprises make in pronouncing a caller's needs more urgent than the needs of those who make the effort to be physically present at their establishment is the acme of rudeness.
Scripture has this to say about etiquette:
"But all things must be done properly and in an orderly manner" (1 Corinthians 14:40).
