• OPINION \ Jan 14, 2010
    reads 3828
    This past weekend, an estimated 1,000 Coptic Christians gathered in Los Angeles to protest the killings of fellow Copts in Egypt a few days earlier.

    According to one protester, “there is no protection for Christians in Egypt.”

    Judging by the coverage, the media isn’t helping matters.

    BreakPoint with Chuck Colson, Jan 12, 2010
    Christians in Muslim Lands: Unprotected and Unnoticed
  • OPINION \ Aug 20, 2009
    reads 4879
    It’s one thing to be an Eric Cantor and make vague murmurings about Obama’s Israel policy being insufficiently supportive of Israel. That at least presents a vaguely legitimate political argument.

    But Huckabee is off in wingnut land. He’ll probably be holding hands with Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein and John Hagee and praying for the End Times over the fields of Armageddon. Scary stuff folks. Republicans, if there are any of you out there, do something to avoid making your Party the laughingstock of the democratic world.

    Richard Silverman writes about Huckabee's visit to Israel
    Huckabee Hobnobs with Hilltop Youth at Moskowitz’ Shepherd Hotel
  • OPINION \ Jun 15, 2009
    reads 5243

    How should bible-believing Christians align themselves in the Jewish-Palestinian conflict? There are biblical reasons for treating both sides with compassionate public justice in the same way that disputes should be settled between nations generally. In other words, the Bible does not teach us to be partial today to Israel or to the Palestinians because either has a special divine status. Israel has a unique place in God's plans, but this status does not warrant a claim, at the present time, to divine prerogatives.

    Israel was chosen by God from all the peoples of the world to be the focus of special blessing in the history of redemption which climaxed in Jesus Christ, the Messiah. "The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth" (Deuteronomy 7:6).

    By John Piper, 2002, WorldMagazine

    Land Divine?
  • OPINION \ May 17, 2009
    reads 6917
    The joke, if that's what it is, goes like this: "You'll have to forgive us Jews for being a little nervous. Two thousand years of Christian love have worn down our nerves."

    That says it all, doesn't it? The scars of antisemitism and missionary activity, the pathos-drenched sense of humor, the contempt for Christianity - this is certainly how I regarded our local majority religion as I was growing up. When I was a child, Christianity was like the big, stupid bully: at once idiotic, and overwhelmingly powerful. Couldn't they see how ridiculous their religion was? A virgin birth? Santa Claus? An Easter Bunny? A messiah who got killed, but actually died for our sins? And yet, these were the people running our country, telling us which days we get off from school and which we don't, and playing their insidious music every winter.

    By Jay Michaelson, The Forward, May 13, 2009
  • OPINION \ May 11, 2009
    reads 5335
    David Coffey is president of the Baptist World Alliance. The following is his column as it appeared in the April-June 2009 issue of Baptist World, a quarterly publication of the Baptist World Alliance

    "Sixty years ago, Christians constituted more than 25 percent of the overall Palestinian population in the Holy Land and almost 80 percent of the southern triangle of Bethlehem, Beit Sahour and Beit Jala. Today, those numbers have dwindled alarmingly, due largely, though not exclusively, to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In a nutshell, Christians have lost hope in a land that once witnessed the birth of Jesus – the Hope of the world".

    David Coffey, Baptist World, April 21, 2009
    The Disappearing Christians of the Middle East
  • OPINION \ Jan 15, 2009
    reads 5207
    The world isn't just watching the Israeli government commit a crime in Gaza; we are watching it self-harm. This morning, and tomorrow morning, and every morning until this punishment beating ends, the young people of the Gaza Strip are going to be more filled with hate, and more determined to fight back, with stones or suicide vests or rockets. Israeli leaders have convinced themselves that the harder you beat the Palestinians, the softer they will become. But when this is over, the rage against Israelis will have hardened, and the same old compromises will still be waiting by the roadside of history, untended and unmade.

    To understand how frightening it is to be a Gazan this morning, you need to have stood in that small slab of concrete by the Mediterranean and smelled the claustrophobia. The Gaza Strip is smaller than the Isle of Wight but it is crammed with 1.5 million people who can never leave. They live out their lives on top of each other, jobless and hungry, in vast, sagging tower blocks. From the top floor, you can often see the borders of their world: the Mediterranean, and Israeli barbed wire. When bombs begin to fall – as they are doing now with more deadly force than at any time since 1967 – there is nowhere to hide.

    Johann Hari, The Independent, Dec 29, 2008
  • OPINION \ Jan 12, 2009
    reads 5621
    Jesus knew that His Father loved Him because He always did that which pleased Him. What will it take for God the Father to answer His Beloved Son's prayer?:

    "I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your Word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.

    Howard Bass, Jan 9, 2009, Special For "Come and See"
    The Answer to Jesus' Prayer in John 17
  • OPINION \ Jan 01, 2009
    reads 6490
    "Come and See" continues to bring different prespectives from the Holy Land regarding the Violence between Israel and Hamas.

    Rev. Alex Awad writes his point of view of what is happenning in Gaza: "There is no doubt that the Qassam rockets launched against the western Negev and Ashkelon by Islamic militants linked to Hamas cause great pain and anxiety for many Israelis. Most people agree that Israel has the right to defend itself. However Israel , as usual, has overdone it. Israel has a pattern of being extreme. “An eye for an eye” does not satisfy. It has to be more like one hundred eyes for one eye and one hundred teeth for one tooth.

    Alex Awad, Dec 31, 2008, Special for "Come and See"
    Regarding Gaza: One Hundred Eyes for one eye
  • OPINION \ Dec 29, 2008
    reads 56020
    A Palestinian Evangelical Christian leader, challenges Messianic Jews to consider their responsibility related to the bloody events of Gaza. He asks, “will you look me in the eyes next time we meet and shake my hands while the hands of your army are still wet with the blood of my people!?” He asserts the need for advocating a theology of peace rather than justifying a theology of war.

    Yohanna Katanacho, Special For "Come and See", Dec 29, 2008
    Reflecting on Gaza: An open letter to my Messianic Brothers and Sisters
  • OPINION \ Dec 23, 2008
    reads 5963
    The National Council of Churches has released a brochure castigating Christian Zionism as a dangerous movement that fosters fear and hatred of Muslims and non-Western Christians, as well as endangering peace in the Middle East.

    Jim Sibley, a Southern Baptist leader whose career has focused on Baptist-Jewish relations, set forth an opposite view in assessing the brochure: The NCC resorts to caricature and slander, particularly when accusing evangelicals of regarding Jewish people "as pawns in a cosmic drama of divine vengeance and retribution."

    Tammi Reed Ledbetter, Baptist Press, Dec 18, 2008
    Sibley: NCC wrong on Christian Zionism