Democracy Now!, de uitstekende Amerikaanse progressieve nieuwszender, brengt een interview met Palestijns dominee Munther Isaac.
I applaud the pope for his courage to say what his position demands
him to say as a leader of faith, as someone we look up to, to speak
truth to power and to call for a vision of peace.
And what we’ve witnessed is actually two versions of Christianity,
one represented by the pope, shaped by the ethics of Christ, shaped even
by Old Testament prophetic tradition that emphasizes justice, care for
the poor, for the oppressed, and, as I said, shaped by the vision, the
ethics of Jesus. “Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are those who are
thirsty for righteousness and peace.” At the other hand, we see another
version, shaped by Christian nationalism, shaped by even a fascination
of returning to the days of the Crusades, that by Pete Hegseth and many
Christian Zionists.
And I’m grateful that the pope is bringing back sanity and trying to
reclaim, as I said, the ethics of Jesus into this conversation. Our God
is not a god of war. And this is really frightening to have this war
framed as a religious war, even as a holy war. And ironically, they
accuse the Iranian regime of invoking religion into their politics, and
now we have the same thing done by the American secretary of war. So I’m
grateful for the voice and courage of Pope Leo on this matter.