Religious leaders
met on Wednesday in Jerusalem in a united protest against a gay pride
festival planned there in August. From left: Sheik Abed es- Salem
Menasra, deputy mufti of Jerusalem; the Rev. Michel Sabbagh, the Latin
patriarch; the Rev. Aris Shirvanian, the Armenian patriarch; Rabbi
Shlomo Amar, the Sephardic chief rabbi; and Rabbi Yona Metzger, the
Ashkenazi chief rabbi. The man at right was not identified.
Here they are, busy preventing the pollution of Jerusalem. And here's what the various denominations above had to say about the planned gay pride festival this August in the Holy City...
[first from the left, above] Sheik Abed es-Salem Menasra, deputy (Muslim) mufti of Jerusalem: "God destroyed those cities and everyone in them. I'm warning everybody, God will destroy Jerusalem together with the Jews, the Christians and the Muslims."
[fourth from the left, above] Rabbi Shlomo Amar, Sephardic chief rabbi: "They are creating a deep and terrible sorrow that is unbearable. It hurts all religions. We are all against it."
[fifth from the left, above] Rabbi Yona Metzger, Ashkenazi chief rabbi: "Please do not damage the holiness of Jerusalem, preserve its character, preserve its peace...cancel your plans."
[not pictured] Sheik Abdel Aziz Bukhari, a Sufi representative: "We can't permit anybody to come and make the Holy City dirty. This is very ugly and very nasty to have these people come to Jerusalem."
[not pictured] Rabbi Yehuda Levin, of the Rabbinical Alliance of America (claiming to represent more than 1000 American Orthodox rabbis: called the festival "the spiritual rape of the Holy City...This is not the homo land, this is the Holy Land." He's also quoted as saying, "This is not a parade, this is a 10-day radical, militant, anti-family, anti-God celebration of sodomy and pornography. Are we crazy that we need to provoke God again?"
[quotes are from an NYT story by Laurie Goodstein and Greg Myre, an AP dispatch, and an article from Haaretz]
Made in California
What links this post to the previous one about the Middle East roadmap and millenarian dispensationalism is the interesting figure of Pastor Leo Giovinetti. 
Seems the impetus for this highly unusual agreement amongst all the major religions of Jerusalem comes from him and his Mission Valley Christian Fellowship mission. Pastor Leo's ministry has a special relationship with Israel (this is from their website):
Each year a team from Mission Valley Christian Fellowship travels as ambassadors to Israel to share the blessings and hope that come from God. The ambassor group has grown from 20 to 100 travelers and tours the country enjoying the amazing history and fellowship. Mission Valley Christian Fellowship has been blessed with the ability to share financially with this nation in need. Substantial donations have been given to the Ministry of Defense, the Russian Absorption Program of Ariel, and to numerous schools. Most recently, a gift of $100,000 was presented to the Mayor of Jerusalem, to help those who have been directly affected by the campaign of terror.
On their top page, they have a graphic link to a (or perhaps the) gay pride protest site. This site, www.israelblessgod.com, is designed by San Diego Web Concepts, with a number of links at the top back to Pastor Leo stuff. It presents a narrative under the rubric "A Chosen Nation". For example,
I'm not sure if many of you who are Jewish know who you really are and what your Grand heritage is! It began so many years ago and so much has happened since, but if you are curious and you are sensing a call to seek out and know who you really are, please continue to read on and discover the grand pedigree of your family tree.
Is the Modern State of Israel still the same as the original Nation of Israel?
According to the Scriptures, The modern State of Israel is the continuation of all that God began to do. The Scripture foretold of the time when Israel would be scattered throughout the world and of the times when Israel would be re-gathered back into the ancient land of Israel!
Then on to the Abrahamic Covenant:
This Covenant Is So Important that all of the rest of the promises of God are tied into it!
All that God has done throughout history, that which he is doing in our generation, and most importantly, what he is about to do so that we can all finally move onto Heaven is wrapped up in this Covenant!
"what he is about to do so that we can all finally move into Heaven"...this is the critical point where we connect to millenarian dispensation. Although nowhere on the site that I can see is Armaggedon mentioned, if you know your Apocolypse you don't need prompting.
Further evidence of the political orientation of Pastor Leo and his flock is available if you follow the israelblessgod site's "articles" link. At the top you can then go to Benny Elon's Peace Plan site, where the Elon peace plan is outlined. (Benny is in the Sharon Cabinet as Tourism Minister and is head of the Moledet Party.) The main points of this plan are
- Immediate dissolution of the Palestinian Authority
- Uprooting of the Palestinian terror infrastructure via arms collection, dismantling of all refugee camps, and deportation of terrorists and their "direct supporters"
- International recognition that Jordan must be the Palestinian state
- Isreali sovereignty over Judea, Samaria and Gaza, where Arab residents will become citizens of Jordan, with "their connection to the two states and the manner of administration of their communcal lives...decided in an agreement between the governments of Israel and Jordan (Palestine)"
- Allocation of resources by Israel, the US and the international community "for the completion of the exchange of populations that began in 1948"
- Peace and normalization between Israel and "Jordan-Palestine"
In a way that is too amazing to really be surprising, Benny introduces his plan by claiming that the current US roadmap to a two-state solution will only lead to war. But how close to war would we be if Israel and the US immediately dissolved the PA, and attempted to collect Palestinian arms, dismantle their camps, and deport their leadership? And that's only covers points one and two of the Elon "peace" plan.
Just as I previously asked whether DeLay might be trying to hasten the day by blocking the Bushrovers' funding request for the PA, I am wondering whether there is not a devious (and well-understood) confluence of agendas between the Dispensationalist Christians and rejectionist Jews in Israel. Fascist movements don't need to be majority movements to be dangerous if they are tightly focused and well funded. We have seen before this the baptismal use of fire as a political organizing principle. I cannot imagine anything good coming from war in the Middle East, but I have to consider that a mixture of American and Israeli fundamentalists seem to believe, even if for differing reasons, that something much better will emerge from that particular fire. I'm certainly not going to be there bowing down in the Final Days---I'll get fried with the rest of the Jews and other infidels---but are we not also running some risk from these people that we'll be fried well before G-d has anything to do with it?
Comments