Would Melanie Phillips, whose article I honestly believe that the Spectator has only published for a laugh, care to explain how “Christian values” are protected by banning the proclamation of Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah with everything that that entails, described by Phillips as “the ancient Christian canard of supercessionism” and “ancient theological bigotry”?
And would she care to explain why Christians should care more for a viciously anti-Christian country than for one in which the Constitution requires that the President be a Christian (Lebanon)? Or one in which there are Christian-majority provinces, and Christian festivals as public holidays (Syria)? Or one in which there are three reserved parliamentary seats for Christians (Iran, where there is also a reserved seat for a Jew)?
Does the President of Israel have to be a Christian (or is one of Israel’s official languages a European language, as one of allegedly less Western Lebanon’s is)? Are there Christian-majority provinces, or Christian festivals as public holidays, in Israel? Are there reserved parliamentary seats for Christians in Israel, which certainly contains all-Christian villages?
President Obama clearly suffers from none of Phillips’s delusions. Even Hillary Clinton has been ordered to snap out of them, or at least to go through the motions of having done so.
So I say again that the Spectator, always paleocon at heart in spite of recent deviations, is just having a laugh. A laugh at someone still living in the mercifully vanished world of George W Bush.
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Of course, David, it is better to be a Christian in Israel proper than a Christian in Lebanon or, most assuredly, in any country ruled by Muslims.
ReplyDeleteAs for Ms. Phillip's discussion, it was directed to a what amounts to a neo-Marcionism version of supercessionism. And, by my recollection, neo-Marcionism is a pretty nasty doctrine.
Ah Mad Mel and David Aaronovitch..I remember them when they were as sane as I am
ReplyDeleteIt seems that Melanie Philips is again pretending to know about a subject when in fact it's clear she is a sampler who fits her story to paradigm. Here she is way out of her depth, and if she had either read any of Stephen Sizer's books or attended one of his lectures she would not have so cheaply damned a man who in fact is standing up for Christian Orthodoxy. Sizer's position is supported by the Revd. John Stott, perhaps the most widely respected Bible teacher and church leader of our time. His view, like Sizer's, is balanced. Her view is one sided, and niether anchored in Biblical Christianity or scholarship. It is tawdry sensationalist journalism.
ReplyDeleteShe had the same problem when it came to Iran and the Mojahadeen. She went to one of their suppers and wrote they were the best hope for Iran. Anyone can go and buy Masood, a terrifying insiders account of this fascist movement. She did not bother.
For such a gifted communicator, it's a pity she doesn't research her articles more thoroughly.
Neal, I realise that no one criticism of Israel ever appears in the American media and that most Americans do not know that there are Christians in Palestine, but I really don't know what your excuse is.
ReplyDeleteAnd Phillips was just trotting out, as she has done repeatedly in the past, her objection to exactly that which I descibed. The last thing of which those of us who believe the Old Testament of Jesus Christ to be precisely that can be accused is Marcionism.
John, when was that? Aaronovitch was a member of the Communist Party from childhood until right up until it dissolved itself.
And well said, Thomas. I do wish that she would stick to domestic policy. She is good on that.
It seems that Melanie Philips is again pretending to know about a subject when in fact it's clear she is a sampler who fits her story to paradigm
ReplyDeleteYeah, I hate it when people do that.
Don't try and be clever, Jon, it doesn't suit you. It never did.
ReplyDeleteBring back grammar schools, and then universities will be no longer be afflicted by your filthy kind.
Now run along and eat some Iraqi babies or whatever it is that you do. I hope you choke to death on them, not least because, since there is never now going to be your nuclear war against Iran, there is no longer any reason for you to be alive.
David,
ReplyDeleteRead this article
The author of the article, Andrew Bostom, who has written two mega-volumes on Islam, is rather well informed about developments related to interaction between Islam and Christianity, disagrees with your interpretation of Sizer. He places Sizer in the neo-Marcion camp. According to the author:
Another speaker was the Anglican Rev. Stephen Sizer. At his website Sizer openly and unapologetically exhorts Christians to accept replacement theology and, on its basis, to repudiate Israel. He advocates:
1) a Marcionite separation of the Gospel from the Old Testament;
He simply doesn't advocate any such thing.
ReplyDeleteWho cares what these people think any more? America now has a President confortably elected with no "Christian Zionist" votes at all, or as good as.
Well I cannot recall any precise incident when Mad Mel demonstrated OVERT sanity.
ReplyDeleteThe normally dependable Joshua Rosenberg did actually marry her so I suppose if she had been insane at the time, he would have used that loophole to get out of the deal.
Aaronovitch? well yes but he was a middle class Communist which does not really count.
I quite like the fact that he was on the Manchester (???) University Challenge Team which annoyed Bamber Gasgoigne.