Who would Jesus slaughter? - By Rick Staggenborg, MD

Found here. Our comments in bold.

------------------------------

This is a medical doctor writing this. Yes, an educated man. He's supposed to be smart. 

But smart people do not comment on things they know nothing about, like the Bible. This man is happy to expound at length regarding a book he admits he's never read, for the sole purpose of impugning Christians for supposed hypocrisy. 

In truth, the issue the author brings is actually an excuse for pushing The Narrative. The Narrative is the Leftist talking points issued by Central Command and disseminated across the media landscape. They quickly become common knowledge, assumed but never demonstrated to be true.

In short order those who have another perspective are systematically mocked, denigrated, and attacked. 

This is what the author intends to do with his article.

---------------------

Christian Zionism
(Image by Dave from Washington) Details DMCA


As we approach the two-year mark of Israel's genocidal ethnic cleansing of Gaza, (Actually, the noteworthy event is the October 7th Hamas attack launched against Israel that killed nearly 1,200 people, with another 250 taken hostage. 

This is not to say that Gazan deaths are acceptable, of course. We are simply taking the opportunity to balance the author's bias.)

it is easy to be overwhelmed by the continued slaughter of Palestinians in general and Gazans in particular, (Actually, such people are being overwhelmed by the reports of slaughter of Gazans. From the same article linked above:

The Israeli military campaign that followed has killed more than 64,000 people, including more than 18,000 children, according to Gaza health authorities.

These reports are all sourced from Hamas and its surrogates, so there is no assurance that the numbers are anything other than propaganda.)

despite all the attention we have brought to the genocide. (??? If Israel was really committing genocide, and the Hamas propaganda is instead true, then how is genocide continuing? Why don't we have UN forces sent in to stop Israel? Where is the international outrage? The answer is, there is no proof of any large scale persecution of Gazans. The main purpose of the propaganda is to divert attention from the October 7th Hamas attack and make Israel look like the bad guy.

And of course, we know there is genocide being committed all over the world right now. But those genocides are not politically useful, so they're not important to the Left. Crucially, this is the reason the author writes. He doesn't really care about the Gazans, he cares about the political usefulness of the issue.

We should say, this is our theory. Having experienced years and decades of agendized news reporting, we automatically suspect any media reporting and any Leftist opinion writer.)

Still, the signs of progress in raising awareness are everywhere. The increasing press attention given the flotilla, (What flotilla?)

the shift of tone in traditionally blindly supportive rags like the New York Times, (Blindly supportive of who? Israel? The NYT hates Israel.)

media personalities (i.e., movie actors. You know, really important people.)

from New York to Hollywood finally speaking out, and many more.

Across almost every demographic, support for Israel is falling. Even older Republicans are shoring a noticeable decline in support for the apartheid state. Consistent with the overwhelming support for the Palestinian cause, the shift in younger Republicans is even more significant, despite the influence of Charlie Kirk both before and after his murder. (The author keeps dropping these little factoids as if they were confirmed truth. So, why does the author mention Charlie Kirk? He of course doesn't tell us, because he doesn't intend to explain anything. The purpose of this article is to inflame, not inform.)

The demographic that has shown the least drop in support for Israel is, not surprisingly, Christian Zionists. (There really is no such thing as Christian Zionists. Most Christians support Israel as God's people of promise, not it as a political entity. That does not entitle them to the pejorative Zionist label.)

My most recent guest column in my local paper is a commentary on the phenomenon. (No link.)

I've been with a group protesting Israel's murderous assault on the population of Gaza for over a year now. With the release of the report by the investigative body of the International Court of Justice, (Part of the leftist UN, which itself hates Israel. Hmm.)

there is little doubt that the Court will rule that Israel is committing genocide. However, it typically takes years for the Court to render an opinion. The children dying now of bombs, bullets and starvation cannot wait. We have a moral responsibility to do all we can to stop it. (Who is "we?" And whose morality demands this action? What is the source of this morality, and why does the author want to impose it on the rest of us?)

It is gratifying to see support for our efforts increasing as the number of experts declaring Israel's actions to be genocide grows. Still, while the honks and thumbs up are more frequent, the number of rude gestures and angry shouts has held steady, if not increased. I have experienced this when holding a sign that simply says, Palestine lives matter. Now, I get the same reactions to a sign reading Stop the genocide. (Oh. Now it's about the author's hurt feelings. How awful that people disagree with him and are mean to him! Never mind that he has accused them of supporting genocide and violating their Christian faith. They were mean to him in return.)

I refuse to believe that so many of my neighbors are enthusiasts of genocide. (A ridiculous and hyperbolic characterization.)

I am sure that most have simply never viewed images of the tens of thousands of mutilated and starving children available on the internet. (This is the crux of the matter. For propagandists, it's easy enough to assemble photos from just about any source and say, "these are starving Gazans, and Israel is to blame." Further, it's also easy to claim that Israel is actively causing this. So there are steps the author skips because he has a narrative to bolster. 

But in fact, these advocates for the Palestinians have the burden of demonstrating that the persecution of Gazans is being done by Israel. In actual fact, Hamas is stopping food delivery. They are starving their own people.)

Still, why are they angry at calls to save people being systematically slaughtered? (The author continues to manipulate the situation as he constructs his strawman.)

That much is clear from the daily news. Is it the color of their skin, or their religion? If motivated by racism or religious bigotry, does it not matter that some are as fair skinned as any European, or that some are Christian? (The author now turns to Leftist tropes.)

A clue lies in the fact that occasionally, someone screams at us Read your Bible! While I have not, (!!! The author has been going on and on about the supposed reprehensible actions of Christians, and has even titled his article "Who would Jesus slaughter." But astonishingly, he now admits he has never read the source material. Ignorance combined with arrogant smugness is not a good combination.)

I know that in Deuteronomy Chapter 20, God commands the Israelites to murder every man in Canaan, but not to slaughter women or children, who were only to be enslaved. This inconvenient fact seems to escape Christian Zionists. (This is the voice of intellectual bankruptcy. The author, having admitted he knows nothing of the Bible, proceeds to smugly inform us about it in an effort to denigrate his political enemies. He refers to Deut. 20:13-14 to point out that the eeevil Israelis are killing women and children in violation of God's command, but only a couple of verses later we find this:

De. 20:16-17 However, in the cities of the nations the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. 17 Completely destroy them — the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites — as the LORD your God has commanded you.

The author ought to leave the practice of theology to others.)

I was brought up to respect the religious beliefs of others, but I am astounded that anyone could read the statements attributed to Jesus (Which statements are those? Let's quote some of Jesus' other statements:

Mt. 16:23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”

Mt. 23:31-33 So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers! 33 “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?

Lk. 11:43-14 “Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and greetings in the market-places. 44 “Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which men walk over without knowing it.”

Lk. 17:1-2 Jesus said to his disciples: “Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. 2 It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied round his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin.

Lk. 21:10 Then he said to them: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. 

The "nice guy" image of Jesus the author wants to present is, of course, inaccurate.)

and conclude that he would condone genocide. (Polishing his Straw Man. 

In fact, God has in the past commanded the eradication of entire nations. But that's not what the author is saying. He thinks Christian Zionists are approving of THIS supposed genocide because it is, what, God's will? He will offer no evidence of this, but will persist in characterizing these Straw Man Christians as hypocrites or worse.)

In the story of the Good Samaritan, (The author continues to teach a Bible he has not read. The parable of the Good Samaritan is found in Luke chapter 10.)

Jesus tells a Jewish expert in religious law that he was correct in saying the greatest commandment is that we love God and our neighbor. (Luke 10:27.) 

He then added, Do this, and you shall never know death. (Luke 10:28.)

 

When the lawyer asked, who is my neighbor? (Luke 10:29.)

Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan, (Luke 10:30.)

the moral of which is that everyone is our neighbor, and we show our love for them by how we treat them. (The author wants to apply the violation of Jesus' commands to certain Christians, and is also on the verge of them to our government.)

An earnest pastor recently shared with me why, in his opinion, the current genocide pleases God: In order to save what would be left of humanity after the battle of Armageddon, all Jews have to return to the land where ancient Israel once stood so that God could consign to hell all who did not accept a genocidal version of Jesus as their personal savior, leaving only those who do. (An isolated anecdotal example. We doubt this encounter ever happened.)

I am reminded of the saying that even the Devil would quote scripture if it served his purpose. (The devil actually did.)

If one claims to be a Christian and wants to understand scripture, they must start with the words attributed to Jesus. (The author doesn't believe any of this stuff, yet he wants instruct us as to the proper way to practice our faith, and also apply it to those who fall short of his standard for them. These are hypothetical Christians he makes egregious assumptions about, but he never shows us anything other than accusations and preposterous false equivalencies.)

Anyone commenting on his teachings who contradicts what they believe he said is confused. (Irony Alert.)

If the author of John believed all you need do to be a good Christian is to believe Christ saved you, he did not understand what Jesus quite clearly taught. (?? It's a mystery what this statement means. Did John the Apostle teach this? Where?

It's quite the thing indeed to accuse the Apostle of ignorance when the author himself is so ignorant.)

If I believed in hell, I would argue that this kind of faith will not lead these folks in the direction they think they are going.