We … grieve with the families of Israelis and Palestinians who have been killed, and we pray for the full and speedy recovery of all who have been wounded. We plead with our coreligionists in Israel and Palestine — and, indeed, around the world — to return to the shared vision of the ancient Hebrew prophets and of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon them all, of a world of inclusion, justice and peace.
We would like to remind you that we provide a News site, where you are presented with a free view on important news facts and religious topics.
Apart from the general news of the day, we bring political and social news there, but are also not shy about how wretchedly bad things are with our natural environment and what we can do about it. But on the religious front (be it Christian, Jewish, Islamic, or other), things are not going so well in this world and it is also necessary to turn an open eye to that now and then.
Our own existence is very important and, in doing so, we have to take into account not only our environment but also our own body, its needs and how to nourish it physically and mentally. This is what we try to pay attention to regularly in “Some View on the World“, as we also try to do here.
We are convinced that “Some Look at the World” can offer you and people around you some food for thought and topics for discussion on a daily basis.
For example, we propose topics such as these:sujets de discussion
Make meals and car rides more engaging when you toss out one of these questions to family members.
2. Your family may have special traditions, especially now as the holidays approach. Whether it’s making cookies, walking around the neighbourhood to enjoy colourful lights, or watching a favourite holiday movie, these traditions can help you feel closer to the people you love. What are some of your favourite family traditions, and what new ones would you like to create?
3. Earlier this year, the US Senate relaxed its dress code—then reversed the decision days later. That got a lot of people talking. Some say it’s fine to dress down, even at work or in other formal situations, while others say that’s not a good look. What do you think? Has casual dressing gone too far?
As we may find you here, we also hope to find you on Some View on the World. You might find it quite wise to subscribe there too so that you will be automatically notified every time a new article appears.
Gender neutrality (adjective form: gender-neutral),= gender-neutralism or the gender neutrality movement > policies, language, + other social institutions (social structures, gender roles, or gender identity) should avoid distinguishing roles according to people’s sex or gender > in order to avoid discrimination arising from the impression that there are social roles one gender more suited than another.
Gender neutrality =/= synonymous with androgyny or anything of the sort.
Sexism = prejudice or discrimination based on a person’s sex or gender.
Sexism = linked to stereotypes + gender roles, => belief one sex or gender intrinsically superior to another.
Extreme sexism may foster sexual harassment, rape, + other forms of sexual violence.
Gender discrimination = encompass sexism = discrimination toward people based on their gender identity or their gender or sex differences => defined in terms of workplace inequality.
different labels tacked to foreheads
God created man in his own image > generic term =/= used to refer to both genders => to man > Book recognises uniqueness of male & female
gender roles and gender discrimination > programmed into us silently + cleverly + as soon as binary is clearly marked => discrimination sets in.
steady erosion of gender roles + stereotypes in society
basic point of feminism, of most gender movements = we are all the same
Someone posted in a WhatsApp group I’m in something he’d seen on Twitter. I could share it here but it is on my phone and I am a lazy human. Transferring is work. Anyway, the basic message of the text was to use gender neutral language in a bid to prevent gender bias. So, instead, for instance, of saying mankind, it would be better to use humankind. Saying thechair is better than saying chairman, etc. You get the idea.
It sparked a conversation. Technically, it wasn’t a conversation. It was one person hating the fact that such a post even existed. Gender neutrality had nothing to do with gender bias and on and on and on. This person didn’t see the need for gender neutrality and my brain didn’t see the need to stop yapping to me about it so it’s nearly two am and I’m…
Do not Worship her as Goddess, She demands emancipation as human!
Referred to as gentle sex, Shackled with constructed lex. A rebel to stumble the sexist hierarchy, A warrior waging war against Patriarchy. I’m a Woman!
Suffered ages of subjugation, Turned too submissive to counter oppression. Rights, opportunities, dignity, identity brutally throttled; My wings slashed and desires bottled.
To dismantle walls confining my world, Kicked up on heels and swirled my sword. Discrimination, suppression, exploitation, physical assault; If suffer any longer it would be my fault.
Crumble the womb if it bears a girl child. Defend the rapists, “red-blooded youngster might have gone wild”. Captivate to the domestic sphere, deprive of public presence, Block all ways to emancipation, snatching books and pens.
Abash if dares to dream and defy the norms, While glorify her sacrificing forms. Rebel to shatter the society’s “ideal woman” paradigm, It…
Think of “culture” as a way of life. It is the sum total of all values, beliefs, and practices making up a communal existence. When God commissions newly formed humanity in Genesis 1 to “fill the earth and subdue it”, he sets men and women into the world with a cultural mandate. His plan was for a human society, united under his rule in the world, ruling with him over the Cosmos as his vice-regents. {What Are The Culture Wars?}
Karl Marx saw how main religion tried to lure people in the ban of the church by false doctrines. It is because the majority of people did not take the time to read the Bible that so many religious groups were able to get people following their false doctrines.
Regularly, people were so prayed for by those doctrines of those churches that they no longer faced the real thing because they preferred to float on those ideas of those churches. It had become so bad that Marx also realised that for many, religion was like an ‘opium for the people’. In lots of Christian and Islamic denominations, their church leaders managed to have their followers, following and worshipping a wrong god and not following the real Christ. since his time still not much has been changed, and there are still lots of false teachers and false prophets around. Marx was disturbed by the knowledge that he saw so many people around him falling for those false human teachings and giving their money away to those churches when there were so many people around them suffering. Marx also noted few dared to question, let alone challenge, church doctrines.
The German revolutionary, sociologist, historian, and economist, Karl Marx and his closest collaborator, the German socialist philosopher Friedrich Engels’ answer to the ills of society was according to some, just the opposite of the utopian dreamers’ answers. Mainly this, because the ideas of utopists (like Mr. Ampe) seem for many too far-fetched and unreachable. Though Marx and Engels found enough people who, like them, believed that one could change the way people lived and could come to a better world with less inequality. They, too, went for a better world.
Since World War I the world has evolved incredibly on all levels. Politically it was a time of trying out several political systems, getting more than once in a lot of problems and crises. The Western world clinched at the industrialisation and experienced mixed economies floating between all kinds of political thoughts. Even as the western world became less religious and the church got less of a grip on its citizens, the rich continued to control everything and did everything they could to maintain their power.
For Jared Stacy we have come into a Culture War Christianity where elections are consistently framed He looks at legislation, movies, businesses, etc. as affecting the survival of Christianity itself. For him such
For him it is clear that Christ should be at the centre of Christianity. But he also expects something for those who call themselves Christian. He writes
When Jesus prayed,
“on earth as it is on heaven”
he was indicating his expectation and desire that the culture of Heaven becomes the culture of Earth by way of his Church. But does Culture War Christianity, the sort launched in the ’70s, contradict the nature of Jesus’ Kingdom? {What Are The Culture Wars?}
So many people had looked forward to the 20th century, hoping that because of all the new inventions, brought forward by the Industrial Revolution, they would be able to create a world where everything would be much easier and giving them more time to relax. The century opened with great hope but also with some apprehension, for the new century marked the final approach to a new millennium. For many, humankind was entering upon an unprecedented era. The English novelist, journalist, sociologist, and historian H.G. Wells’s utopian studies, the aptly titled Anticipations of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress upon Human Life and Thought (1901) and A Modern Utopia (1905), both captured and qualified this optimistic mood and gave expression to a common conviction that science and technology would transform the world in the century ahead.
Already before the seventies of the previous century there was something going wrong in the industrialised world. Even though many countries were allowed to offer independence back to their colonies, they continued to exploit people in their own countries. Even when churches wanted to present God in different ways over the years, people should know That God never changes. He will always be the same and keep to the same Plan He had already from the beginning of times.
The American pastor and current PhD candidate in Theological Ethics at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, Jared Stacy
wants to call our attention to this basic theological ethic:
The work of God’s rule spreading throughout the world in individual lives and communities will never contradict who God is. {What Are The Culture Wars?}
We have the impression that the blog writer who also writes for platforms like NPR, the BBC, Current, and For the Church, does not see (or does not know) the multiple camps in Christendom. He only mentions two of them. He writes
Some accuse conscientious objectors to the Culture Wars of believing that Christianity should have no influence in the public square. They slander these conscientious objectors as faithless & godless, or misrepresent them as conspiratorially hypocritical, secretly harboring a progressive political agenda.
On the other end of the spectrum, some conscientious objectors accuse vocal advocates of conflating Christianity with cultural power. This often leads them to slander vocal advocates as compromising sell-outs, or mischaracterize their advocacy & well-connected influence as grounded in an inherently complicit conservative agenda. No doubt, I believe there are instances of legitimate criticisms from boths sides in Christian spaces. But polarity abounds. {What Are The Culture Wars?}
For him the polarizing gap between vocal advocates and conscientious objectors reveals a vast “no man’s land” in American evangelicalism. This is why he believes his series has pastoral and personal implications for all of us.
Because either you or someone you know is wandering the no man’s land as a refugee from the Culture Wars. {What Are The Culture Wars?}
“The majority of Americans will tell any pollster that they believe in the Ten Commandments. But only a small percentage of those people could even recite the Ten Commandment; and even a smaller percentage have any genuine interest in following them.” {The 10 Commandments in American Culture}
Lots of North Americans should seriously think about their religion and their faith. About that faith Stacy says there is a danger.
On a day of hope, we need a fresh reminder of the danger inherent in an embrace of Christian faith. {The Danger of Faith}
He points out the trap many Americans have fallen into.
It is American consumer Christianity that invites us to “make Jesus Lord of our lives”. This pitch makes Christ a commodity, leaving us—the consumer—with control. The resurrection and ascension is a coronation that happens apart from our consumer choice & control. {The Danger of Faith}
1909 painting The Worship of Mammon, the god of material wealth, by Evelyn De Morgan
The great part of the US population, as well as in other developed countries, is that believers have deviated from Biblical truth as well as become wedded to matter and thus actually honour the god Mammon. Several denominations in the United States make clever use of asking people for money all the time, pretending that they will then have a better life. It has also become so ingrained in people that one can only be successful if one has acquired a lot of money. Consequently, many do everything possible to be as rich as possible (on the material plane) while completely neglecting spiritual wealth. Many have forgotten that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.
Stacy writes
It is hard to deny today that for many, the supposed downfall of America is synonymous with the collapse of Christianity. Jesus confronts this idolatry with his Kingdom. {The Danger of Faith}
Lots of Americans are even not aware of how they participate in idolatry, which they prove by continually clinging to pagan festivals such as Candlemas, Easter, Halloween and Christmas, to name only the main ones, and to cling to money and material gain.
He reigns over a Kingdom that cannot be shaken through the rising and falling empires of this world. {The Danger of Faith}
And throughout history, many kingships or kingdoms and principalities as well as republics have risen and fallen. Never before has man succeeded in creating a nation or empire in which everyone was comfortable and where justice was done to everyone. Several Christians, in imitation of Christ, have tried to make people understand how best to live in unity with fellow human beings, plants and animals.
The 1963 March on Washington participants and leaders marching from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, as mass protest movement against racial segregation and discrimination in the southern United States that came to national prominence during the mid-1950s.
But not many white Americans were really willing to go to preach what was really written in the gospel. They prefer just to take some phrases out of context to repeat them so that people come to believe them.
The forty odd years from this origin point until today witnessed the end of the Cold War and an insurrection at the US Capitol. Between these bookends, Culture War Christianity made itself known & felt in American society through movements. (See, Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne; Stan Gall, Borderlines: Reflections on Sex, War, and the Church; Frances Fitzgerald, The Evangelicals; Tim Gloege, Guaranteed Pure; historical treatments on these movements) {A History Of The Culture Wars}
Stacy reminds his readers:
The arguments and relationships in the antebellum South were transported via Lost Cause theology 100 years into the future, seen in white evangelical responses to the Civil Rights Movement. But these leaders could not ignore the impact of King’s kulturkampf. {A History Of The Culture Wars}
He assures his readers that
Culture War Christianity started after the Civil Rights Movement, not before. It borrows the playbook of the CRM. Ironically, it thrives on a sort of “persecuted minority” mindset, borrowed from the Civil Rights movement, but not actually indicative of the communal experience in its main constituents: white evangelicals. A minority mindset is a prominent characteristic of God’s people in the Scriptures. However, this mindset is not characteristic of evangelical experience in the United States. Race relations and evangelical’s historic participation in the moral establishment offer two historical keys that present a necessary critique of modern Culture War Christianity. {A History Of The Culture Wars}
He believes it is impossible to understand the history behind Culture War Christianity apart from race relations in the United States. So, we begin where we left off, with this statement:
The Culture Wars began when white American evangelicals took the activist playbook from the very Civil Rights leaders they opposed, to advance a moral agenda they could support.
…
Some were overtly political, like the Moral Majority or Christian Coalition. Others would serve the notion of family values, yet retain political influence, like Focus on the Family or Promise Keepers. Local churches and expansive media (books, radio, television) formed the local grassroots communities made these movements possible.
While this all may seem quite familiar, especially if you inhabited spaces within white American Christianity during the last 40 years, a history of the Culture Wars would be best served by going back 2 centuries to look at the phrase “Culture War” itself. {A History Of The Culture Wars}
In his blog he then goes back to the 19th century, across the Atlantic Ocean where the Germans provide us with a glimpse into a framework upstream to both the Civil Rights Movement and “Culture War Christianity” at a time when a new world order was being born. In that era, he recognises the central position of the Catholic Church, facing new threats to its grasp on power.
From the political power of the nation- state to the intellectual frameworks of liberalism and Darwinism, the winds were shifting. In response, the Church produced a flurry of theological statements and denouncements meant to stem the tide of ideas that threatened its hold on the Old World Order. {A History Of The Culture Wars}
Portrait of Pope Pius IX circa 1864
The Holy See under Pope Pius IX on 8 December 1864, brought an appendix to the Quanta curaencyclical, with a syllabus where the church wanted to have the people see that it was with the times and recognised 80 of the
“principal errors of our times.”
As the errors listed had already been condemned in allocutions, encyclicals, and other apostolic letters, the Syllabus said nothing new and so could not be contested. Its importance lay in the fact that it published to the world what had previously been preached in the main only to the bishops, and that it made general what had been previously specific denunciations concerned with particular events. Perhaps the most famous article, the 80th, stigmatising as an error the view that
“the Roman Pontiff can and should reconcile himself to and agree with progress, liberalism, and modern civilisation,”
sought its authority in the pope’s refusal, in Jamdudum Cernimus, to have any dealings with the new Italian kingdom. On both scores, the Syllabus undermined the liberal Catholics’ position, for it destroyed their following among intellectuals and placed their program out of court.
The Church denounced religious liberty, the nation-state, and other consequences stemming from the “threat of liberalism.” {A History Of The Culture Wars}
For some time there had been bumbling or difficulty in having a good relationship with the Catholic Church. More thinkers also came to speak out about the huge profits the Church was making on the backs of the faithful. Increasingly, there was also the idea of going back to the basics of Christ’s teachings where simplicity was preached and people were taught how to stand up for and care for each other. In the gospel, Jesus set a good example of how not only Christians should live, but actually every human being.
In the 1870’s, the German people, specifically within the Kingdom of Prussia, found themselves in conflict with the Catholic Church over their own Reformation roots and a rapidly secularizing order. This conflict had ramifications for both the Church and the separated German states. As a result of this conflict swirling around the German peoples, individual German States united along highly Protestant lines under Otto Von Bismark of Prussia. (See, Helmut Walser Smith, editor, The Oxford Handbook of Modern German History) This period of conflict and change was given a name: Kulturkampf, or “Culture Struggle”. This German kulturkampf shows us how struggles between competing visions for human existence are sparked by complex reactions between religion, politics, and power. {A History Of The Culture Wars}
It is the clash between people of the common people, as well as philosophers and political thinkers, with the church, that caused very animated conversations in several places in the German Empire about faith, church, and the way we as human beings should choose to arrive at a better world.
After World War II several American religious groups tried to have the power over the American people. They tried to convince them that they were the sole church which preached the truth. Some even went so far to tell the people they were chosen by God and that their church is the only one that can bring them in heaven. For those churches, it is certain that one can only be accepted by God if one follows their rules. Of course, such a saying is absurd, but a large majority of Americans follow that false statement. In the life of faith, it is also certain that no particular church by Jesus was ever designated as the only one to follow.
By studying German kulturkampf, we can begin to see the American Culture War’s false claim to exclusivity and authority by claiming itself to be the sole representative and defender of orthodox Christianity. When we realize this — that American Culture War Christianity is not the single defender of the faith — it trains us to adopt a healthy critical filter every time a Christian leader describes the “very survival of Christianity at stake” as a smoke screen for unChristian agreements with power. On the other hand, conscientious objectors to Culture War Christianity would do well to consider how “culture struggle” might be a positive expression of Christian faith. There is space to consider positive “culture struggle”. {A History Of The Culture Wars}
What would come to define and shape Culture War Christianity in 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s in the US is not at all what King and several serious preachers had in mind. The growing conservatism by the Americans brought forward people who are against equality and who find the white man is the pure race. Even Billy Graham came to criticise segregation but also denounced the non-violent demonstrations as contributing to further violence.
Others denounced calls for desegregation entirely. Back in 1960, Bob Jones Sr. took harder lines at Christians supporting an end to segregation by referring to them as “religious infidels”. {A History Of The Culture Wars}
Several pastors of mega-churches, especially in white neighbourhoods, succeeded in shifting all the faults of the system onto the backs of the blacks and refugees who just’ came and invaded America’, without the government doing enough to stop them. One would think the religious leaders would have their moral reasoning to flow from a theological calculus, but it (for sure) did not come from Biblical teaching.
Stacy writes
Charles Ivory’s masterful Proslavery Christianity examines the white evangelical relationship with black evangelicals before the Civil War. He looks at how these interactions between white and black Christians, slave and free, actually came to shape the white evangelical theological defense of slavery. If we want to understand the Culture War Christianity of Falwell, and other white evangelicals, we need to examine their response to the Civil Rights Movement. I believe their response has its source in the theological calculus of white evangelicals in the antebellumSouth. {A History Of The Culture Wars}
Ivory writes it was not uncommon for white and black evangelicals to worship within the same church. Indeed, the revival of the late 18th century did not discriminate on the basis of cultural background. But the theological conflict in evangelical churches pre-Civil War centered around conversion. Namely, does Christian conversion necessitate manumission? Today, Christians would argue chattel slavery is indefensible regardless of a slave’s conversion to Christianity. Humanity is not property. However, the historical context of the time made the question of conversion and manumission the frontline theological conflict regarding chattel slavery within evangelical churches. {A History Of The Culture Wars}
In West Europe the people had gone already through that process, knowing that slavery was something one could not accept in a civilised society. On this, several speakers came to draw attention to a system to bring more equality among all people. The road to socialism and communism was thus promoted by several enthusiasts.
But those white American Christians have come to love themselves more than someone else and consider themselves as the only ones worthy to govern America. They do not have an eye at all for the indigenous people, because they consider themselves as the rightful founders and owners of America.
For 200 years, white evangelicalism has been an insider. No where has the minority mindset been more pervasive in our modern conception of Culture War Christianity than rhetoric. Phrases like “drain the swamp”, “make America great again”, and “take back America for God” in evangelical politics go right next to “that’s too political” and “just preach the gospel” in evangelical churches. {A History Of The Culture Wars}
We can wonder from who those evangelicals have to take back ‘their country’! Those evangelicals seem not to have any idea what the ‘founders’ of America had in mind and why they wanted religion and government separated.
While separation of church and state was federally enshrined in the Constitution, it did not play out in those strict terms in state and local governments. This changed in the early 20th century, when the Scopes trial, New Deal politics, and internal theological warring between fundamentalists and modernists left a vacuum in American society that evangelicalism used to fill in common culture. Neo-evangelicals like Billy Graham emerged in this vacuum. But for the long of American history, Christians have not only been influential, but privileged.
How can a privileged majority come to see itself as a minority? Culture War Christianity accomplishes this in part by dressing itself in the Biblical and theological concept of a remnant. A faithful few of God’s people who remain loyal to God and his ways in a foreign, godless land. But this theological adaptation does not line up with the historical participation of white evangelicals in the moral establishment of the United States. Yet, the drums of Culture War for white American Christians implied a greater enemy beyond its borders. {A History Of The Culture Wars}
Though the big problem of those Tea Party and conservative or fundamentalist evangelicals is that they are not at all remaining “loyal to God and his ways in a foreign, godless land” they even have betrayed God and His son on several levels. They have created some three-headedgod (or three-une being) and political leaders such as Trump as their gods, and consider their American flag as their religious symbol even a Christian symbol. For sure they can not belong to the faithful few of God’s people, because they do not believe in the Only One True God and because they do not act like People of God. They themselves are part of that ‘dark world’ the Bible is talking about. And now in those times that darkness and of gloominess can be seen everywhere, they also do everything to create division and spread hate, instead of spreading the love of Christ and his great message of a world full of peace. Those evangelicals with other name Christians have made it a sport to make fun of, blacken and curse true Christians. They do everything possible to get people away from those true worshippers of God. They also have some sort of paranoia and consider all people from abroad as dangerous suspects. They fear those coming from outside America would destroy their freedom.
Stacy remarks
the drums of Culture War for white American Christians implied a greater enemy beyond its borders. {A History Of The Culture Wars}
and also see what happened under the influence of certain political figures.
The Culture Wars of white American evangelicalism was not the reaction of the minority against the majority, but the majority against a imagined majority. It is hard to avoid this conclusion given overwhelming support for President Trump. {A History Of The Culture Wars}
Stacy continues writing
In the place of Jesus’ active reign today, we find American Christians given to other reigning power structures: nationalism, racism, misogyny, and bigotry. They are discipled by political—not resurrection—power. This is partly the reason why Culture War Christians took greater issue with Kaepernick’s supposed desecration of the flag than they might with his concerns over police brutality against image bearers. They operate in a power structure other than the Kingdom of Jesus. {A Theology of Culture War Christianity}
Stacys wonders
What if Culture War Christianity long ago bowed the knee to a nationalist, secular conservatism? One with its law & order politics, reticence on issues of race, and idolatry of country? {Beyond the Culture Wars}
Ans says that he has argued this in his series.
Long before white evangelicals told MLK to “just preach the gospel”, there has always been a Christianity domesticated by, and deployed in defense of, the status quo in this country. Frederick Douglass called it before any of us. And in this sort of Christianity, “make disciples” has too often been code for “make people like us” not “make us like Jesus”. {Beyond the Culture Wars}
There lies one of the biggest problems in American Christendom. The majority of Americans does not take time enough to seriously study the Scriptures. For most of them the Bible also only means the New Testament. Lots of those evangelicals also do not understand what that sacrificial offering of Jesus, letting himself be nailed at the stake, means. For them it is very difficult to grasp how a man of flesh and blood could give himself as a lamb for whitewashing the sins of many.
Some of those white evangelicals living in the United States of America are convinced they are the only ones who can Make America Great Again and build up the most correct state. They forget how so many people before them have tried already to construct an ideal state. They should know it shall only happen under Jesus Christ that we shall be able to live in a perfect world.
Let us also not forget Niebuhr’s saying,
“any good worth doing takes more than one lifetime.”
According to Jared Stacy
This should give us pause before we entertain pragmatism to bring about change in our lifetime. It was Jesus who said,
“what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and lose his soul?”
This should give us pause as we count the cost of pragmatism to reveal the Kingdom of God. {Beyond the Culture Wars}
He ends his article series by saying
After all, the cross is not a symbol of cultural superiority for white America, but of surrender and sacrifice in the Kingdom of God. We must measure our motivations by the Cross, and our methods. Take it from me. A millennial. The generation who was born in and shaped by the ‘Jesus & John Wayne evangelicalism” in its prime. {Beyond the Culture Wars}
And recognises the problem
Culture War Christianity allows you to have a Christian worldview and reject the Cross. {Beyond the Culture Wars}
It substitutes other, more pragmatic means to really get things done. But in the Kingdom of Jesus the only strategy available for implementing a Christian worldview is the Cross. {Beyond the Culture Wars}
We should recognise the danger of that growing conservative evangelism.
For all it’s posturing about the morality of America, Culture War Christianity has stopped its ear to calls for ethnic & economic justice. Has tied its hands in response to sexual scandal and abuse in its ranks. Yet expresses incredulity when the world fails to take its sexual ethic seriously. Culture War Christianity can only provide more entrenchment, more combat, and more pragmatism. But crucified Christianity is growing the world over, and—as it has always done— turning the world upside down. {Beyond the Culture Wars}
Writing from Scotland, the author of the mentioned articles, wants to suggest a simple but humble invitation to venture into the wilderness as an act of faithfulness. For him,
the wilderness meant stepping out of the American pastorate, and out of America. This was my move made in faith. An attempt to combat the rise of cynicism in my own spirit, channeling it into meaningful, faithful action. {Beyond the Culture Wars}
From Moses, to Elijah, to Christ. Perhaps the wilderness is the place for those disenchanted and disillusioned, those disowned and disinherited from Culture War Christianity, to begin to see the Cross not as a symbol storming the US Capitol, but again as a place where our power grabs go to die. And where there is death to our ability to bring about change, God brings resurrection that changes everything. {Beyond the Culture Wars}
The Austrian philosopher and Roman Catholic priest known for his radical polemics arguing that the benefits of many modern technologies and social arrangements were illusory and that, still further, such developments undermined humans’ self-sufficiency, freedom, and dignity, Ivan Illich illumines what it is to be in the world, but not of it — just like Jesus.
Jared Stacy offers his words as a simple reflection in the conclusion to his series:
It is astonishing what the devil says: I have all power, it has been given to me, and I am the one to hand it on — submit, and it is yours. Jesus of course does not submit…Not for a moment, however, does Jesus contradict the devil. He does not question that the devil holds all power, nor that this power has been given to him, nor that he, the devil, gives it to whom he pleases. This is a point which is easily overlooked. By his silence Jesus recognizes power that is established as “devil” and defines Himself as The Powerless. He who cannot accept this view on power cannot look at establishments through the spectacle of the Gospel. This is what clergy and churches often have difficulty doing. They are so strongly motivated by the image of church as a “helping institution” that they are constantly motivated to hold power, share in it or, at least, influence it. {Beyond the Culture Wars}
There is so much news — and too many voices — competing for your attention today.
Do you know that we provide a site where we present news from all over the world and do not mind going deeper into certain facets of facts everyone should know or should receive attention (according to us) .
“Some view on the World” does just that what the title of the website is called. It wishes to bring a view of world affairs. It wants to be a Journal for you and provides unbiased news and perspective to keep you well-informed and entertained.
As on this overview site, we believe it is important to let diverse voices have their say. Therefore, at that view of the world, you can find reports from several newspapers and writers from all kinds of directions or different political movements.
Today, we would like to invite you to feast your eyes on that website too, pay it a visit and (who knows) also subscribe to it to receive free daily news in your mailbox.
The U. S. Department of the Interior just released a study of the almost 500 “Indian Boarding Schools” that operated from 1819 to 1969, including the Carlisle Indian Industry School here in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Over 7,000 children attended this school; its most famous student was Jim Thorpe, a member of the Sac and Fox Nation, who won two gold medals in the 1912 Olympic games.
Most of the reporters I’ve heard have also mentioned how long it took for Native Americans to be able to vote. Most of them have also given their readers/viewers incomplete information.
So I’ve got atrivia question for you:
Who was President of the United States when all Native Americans were allowed to vote?
A.) Dwight D. Eisenhower
B.) Theodore Roosevelt
C.) Richard M. Nixon
D.) Calvin Coolidge
No peeking now—just give it your best shot! C’mon, you…
The Ampel-Vertrag announces religious policy initiatives. There are empty spaces on the topic of Islam: the fight against anti-Muslim racism and equal rights for Muslim religious communities.
The coalition agreement of the SPD, the Greens and the FDP takes up important demands and initiatives on religious policy of recent years and announces initiatives that take into account a religiously and ideologically diverse society. There are gaps in the equal rights of Muslim religious communities and in the fight against anti-Muslim racism.
…
The coalition wants to examine whether “additions to the legal status of religious communities are necessary” and wants to discuss this “in close consultation with the churches and religious communities concerned”. If this would also happen in cooperation with the religious communities and would result in a legal status with equal rights, this would be welcome.
…
When it comes to implementing the cooperative separation of state and religion – especially the replacement of the state benefit and the abolition of the special church labour law – words must now be followed by deeds. The new government must respect the human right to religious freedom, protect religious minorities from discrimination and launch an initiative for the Bundestag to finally outlaw anti-Muslim racism.
It will be necessary to keep up the pressure for equal rights for Muslim religious communities and other religious and ideological communities with the Christian churches.
Health inequities are systematic differences in the health status of different population groups. These inequities have significant social and economic costs both to individuals and societies.But the term is also commonly used to refer to differences in the care that people receive and the opportunities that they have to lead healthy lives, both of which can contribute to their health status.
Causes of health inequalities
The fundamental causes of health inequalities are an unequal distribution of income, power and wealth. This can lead to poverty and marginalization of individuals and groups.
The wider environment in which people live and work then shapes their individual experiences of low income, poor housing, discrimination and access to health services.
This environment then shapes individual experiences across the population and leads to the inequalities in health outcomes.
Ways to reduce health inequalities
Ways to reduce fundamental causes of health inequalities
Algorithm (“a set of rules a machine follows to achieve a particular goal”) promoting discrimination through widening the historical inequalities
algorithm = by-product of artificial intelligence > big contributor facilitating discriminatory practices in today’s democratic regime.
mobile phones, laptops, televisions, etc. made of very precise algorithms as they run on a computer program which is itself an implemented algorithm
leading to a stage of blatant violation of the fundamental rights of the marginalized and minority fragment of the society.
algorithms which classify personal data + trace them accordingly to generate the subject => classification
filters + criteria for classification
Bias = situation where conditions are less favourable for one group as compared to the other group & when there is no justification available to showcase such differential behavior.
human rights issue > miscategorising >subjugation of disparities between white people and black people => racist algorithm
gender bias
bias in Word-embedding
socio-political hegemony on the roots of historical inequalities
As the dependency on using algorithms has rapidly increased due to its capability of doing a multifarious task with ease, it is necessary to understand that how algorithms are also one of the biggest facilitators of discriminatory practices. In this article, the focus has been laid on how the algorithm is promoting discrimination through widening the historical inequalities. The adequate focus has been given to explain the components of an algorithm such as opacity and automated-decision making capacity, which is mainly showing such discriminatory results thereby, violating the right to equal treatment and non-discrimination.
Understanding the algorithmic divide
An algorithm that is a by-product of artificial intelligence is one such big contributor that is facilitating discriminatory practices in today’s democratic regime. The word algorithm has seen a transitional shift from just being a technical, mathematical terminology exclusively used by computer scientists and mathematicians to a term that is…
Pietro Jun questions why speaking up against unitary idealism/tribalism is important.
We think we all have a responsibility to the world, i.e. nature, animals and other human beings. We can and may not keep silent about certain matters. It is our personal duty to react to certain events. No person should ever allow human rights to be offended.
Pietro Jun writes:
From time immemorable, the will to power of single-mindedly aiming, nations with narrow views of the political normative have sought and acquired power.
There was technical progress, for it made the work and communication easier – but the hurt and separation were and are bigger. China’s Uyghur and Tibet oppression, Russia’s attempt at cultural and geographical annexation of Ukraine, Nazi Germany’s evil, Japan’s imperialism and the ongoing attempts at the revival of army, Great Britain’s fiascos in the middle east. Difficult history is maybe more on the way. But we can do something about it. I think for once so can I. {Speaking up against linguistic totalitarianism/A letter of gratitude.}
In all this, what is important is that each human being should accept the other being equal and/or not being the same like him, everybody having the right to think differently and to have a different culture and language. No matter which language we speak as long as we can find a way to communicate in a friendly supportive way.
We shall not be able to avoid ‘genuine critics’ that would keep many problems at bay. It is worth the risk of being pushed down and downtrodden on, at times ridiculed.
In an other posting he reminds us of the words of The Flower by Kim Chun-soo
We all long to be something.
You, to me, and I, to you,
long to become a gaze that won’t be forgotten. {I am a gesture}
Jun finds that
There are millions of different forms of life in the untraceable edge of universe which makes us seldom think that we are one or none. But what I know for sure is that we are one, to some one, and as long as the rules of universe do not alter themselves, we will keep on gravitating towards those whose existence we had no knowledge about. And eventually die out as one. {Stardust and photographs}
But it is up to us to open ourselves to others. We should allow others to come to know us better, without us imposing our ideas and laws onto them, but willing to get to know them better and to give our love too.
When we find love we have to keep it close and treasure it. We also should treasure the rich cultures around us and see the greatness of all that diversity, it’s giving us the opportunity to enrich ourselves and others.
Catholic and pro-life groups have formed a coalition to lobby for the right of patients to have “reasonable” access to family and clergy during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Health Care Civil Rights Task Force bases its criticism of hard lockdowns on constitutional rights.
The right to religious freedom and the right to visitation intersect in health care when clergy visit patients to provide spiritual care. Denial of visitation from clergy is a violation of both the right to religious freedom and the right of visitation. To prohibit a patient from receiving spiritual healing from clergy and from receiving the sacraments of eternal life during their last moments on this earth is a cruelty completely unjustified by the pandemic and is symptomatic of the radical secularization of modern society.
In its manifesto, the Task Force cites the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of religious exercise. The Attorney-General of the Trump Administration, William Barr, declared in April that: “even in times of emergency, when reasonable and temporary restrictions are placed on rights, the First Amendment and federal statutory law prohibit discrimination against religious institutions and religious believers.”
Catholic discourse about medical ethics has a long history. Based on this experience, the Task Force says: “Morally we are called to use ordinary means and reasonable precautions to preserve our lives without ceasing to fulfill our daily responsibilities. It is vitally important to reiterate this almost self-evident point because a desire to reduce the risk of disease transmission to almost zero has led to fundamental rights being violated.”
In December 2018 Unia pressed in anti-Semitism hearings in the Belgian Senate for the reintroduction of an anti-Semitism watchdog. The organisation asked Minister Kris Peeters, at that time responsible for Equal Opportunities, to take the first steps towards an inter-federal action plan against discrimination and racism. Anti-Semitism remains a persistent problem. The calls being made by Unia in 2018 were in response to a large-scale survey of 16,000 Jews in twelve EU countries by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), a human rights agency of the EU.
The findings of the report make for a sobering read. They underscore that antisemitism remains pervasive across the EU – and has, in many ways, become disturbingly normalised. Already in 2018 an overwhelming majority of survey participants felt that antisemitism was getting worse. They also feared for their own safety, and that of their loved ones. Though we also could notice not only the monotheist Hebrews or Jehudi were targeted. Jeshuaists and Muslims, worshipping the same God were not loved either and felt the pressure. Jeshuaists and Jews belonging to different Judaicdenominations protect themselves by not coming out to much in the open and by leaving their kippa at home, only discreetly displaying mezuzas, avoiding certain areas in their cities or skipping Jewish events.
The many graphs contained in the report reveal a sobering picture of Belgium. Except for France, Jews do not experience anywhere in the EU as much hostility on the streets as they do in Belgium. Among those surveyed, 81 percent mentioned public spaces as the place with the most hatred of Jews. The European average is about 70 percent.
“These are figures that require a structural approach in the form of a vigilance unit and a plan that overarches policy areas,’
stressed Unia director at that time, Els Keytsman.
Already in 2018, a shocking statistic sended a clear message:
in the past five years, across twelve EU Member States where Jews have been living for centuries, more than one third say that they consider emigrating because they no longer feel safe as Jews.
In the meantime, we know about many Jews and Jeshuaists who left Belgium.
Much too many people seem to forget how antisemitic acts can have a profound impact not only on individuals and those close to them, but also on the Jewish community as a whole. Several manifestations may bring forward all sorts of the types of antisemitic acts which we see increasing since a decade and by the growing popularity of two Flemish National parties, the right-wing populistFlemish nationalistVlaams Belang, with a strong anti-immigrant message that succeeded the right-wing Vlaams Block, and the Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie (N-VA – New Flemish Alliance), a movement that self-identifies with the promotion of civic nationalism, which strives for the secession of Flanders from Belgium.
The last few years in Belgium and France we have seen an increase in desecration of Jewish cemeteries, vandalism of Jewish buildings or institutions, expressions of hostility towards Jews and Jeshuaists in the street and other public places, but also an enormous antisemitism in the media. It is incredible what we can find on the internet, including social media, where nobody seems to be willing or able to silence the hate-speech.
In 2018 antisemitism online was already seen as a particularly widespread problem: a large majority of all respondents in the 12 survey countries (89 %) consider this either ‘a very big’ or a ‘fairly big’ problem, and as many (88 %) believed that it had increased over the past five years. The percentage of respondents indicating that antisemitism on the internet is problematic is especially high (at least 90 %) in Belgium, France, Italy, and Poland. In Belgium and France, a majority of respondents rated almost all antisemitic manifestations that the survey asked about as ‘a very big’ or ‘a fairly big’ problem. These are also the countries with the highest proportion of respondents indicating antisemitism in general as a problem.
The majority of respondents of that survey are aware of legislation that forbids discrimination based on ethnic origin or religion – some 64 %–87 %, depending on the area, indicated knowing about it. They are most aware of anti-discrimination legislation in employment and least aware of protection related to housing. Most respondents (71 %) also say they are aware of an organisation in the country that offers advice or support for people who are discriminated against, but we should be aware that out of self-protection most Jews and Jeshuaists do not dare to react or bring the problem into the public. Respondents most often referred to Jewish organisations specialising in the safety and security of the Jewish community and/or antisemitism, and national equal-ity or human rights bodies. Lots of Jews and Jeshuaists lost their trust in the Belgian State and in Belgian politicians.
Fortunatelyserious incidents are today punishable by law. For example, in 2018 Unia was a civil party in the case against the vandal who caused serious damage in the Jewish quarter of Antwerp.
“Unia was also a civil party in the case concerning the attack on the Jewish Museum in Brussels.”
Last November Unia was calling for a more inclusive image for folkloric events and intangible heritage such as the pre-Lent merrymaking and festivity carnival. Unia said local organisers and partners can play an important role in this. That is one of Unia’s recommendations in a report drawn up following the controversy about the anti-Semitic float in the municipality Aalst, on the Dender River, 24 km (15 miles) northwest of Brussels.
Unia feels that dialogue and awareness must be a priority.
“What is offensive to one person is apparently folklore for another. Showing consideration for other people’s sensitivities can never be simply imposed by law. Only through dialogue can we take into account the feelings of others and learn to see things from their point of view. “
That is why Unia organised meetings between Belgium’s Forum of Jewish Organisations and a group of Aalst carnivalists.
“Their float – depicting anti-Semitic stereotypes – was unintentionally reminiscent of Nazi propaganda. We understand that many people were shocked by this connotation, and it led to a highly polarised conflict. We have seen that both parties now have an understanding of each other’s position and context. Talking to each other does not guarantee that stereotypes will never crop up again, but it is a start.”
It could have gone the right way, but this year, it uncovered the hidden agenda more clearly. From what was presented at the cortège was more than just laughing with something that bothered them. It was showing their disgust for another culture and other religion than theirs.
Much too often we hear the excuse
“For carnivalists, freedom of expression means the freedom to make fun of anything and anyone.”
Though, one should question how far one can go with mockery. Unia says
“Conversely, that freedom also means that you are bound to provoke controversy now and then, and you have to be able to deal with criticism.”
People from Aalst seem to have lots of difficulty with the criticism they received over the last twelve months.
Lots of events happening in Aalst real lovers of God would never come to know if they were not shown on television and brought into social media.
Thanks to social media, images of parades and festivities are reaching the general public on an unprecedented scale and are thus amplified and sometimes, or more than once, may be taken out of context. Moreover, while in the past, traditions were not called into question, this questioning has now become appropriate, Unia notes.
“As such, that is a positive thing. Folkloristic events can evolve according to changing attitudes and new insights, allowing them to become celebrations in which no one is left out”,
according to Keytsman.
We do find politicians and organisations for protecting civilians, should recognise historical similarities and see the dangers behind certain events, which, in the beginning may look harmless and childish, but have a very deep and dangerous undertone. Puerile actions may develop into actions out of frustration and dissatisfaction which generates aggression against certain population groups.
This year out of frustration, how they were treated by Unesco, everal people in the parade mocked the specialized agency of the United Nations (UN), using Jewish caricatures as well.
But, from what we came to see and hear in the media, it went much further.
Unia promises to collect all the information and will investigate whether criminal offences were committed. For this, they are in contact with the prosecutor’s office and the police.
We wonder how Unia is going to act or take juridical prosecution against the group who had their float a sign labelled
“regulations for the Jewish party committee,”
and it included a not to misunderstand sarcastic:
“Do not mock Jews”
and a shocking
“Certainly do not tell the truth about the Jew.”
which clearly indicates they have formed an idea about Jews in general and do want others to believe that Jews have something to hide or do not want to have the truth about them told. This means those carnavalists understand the truth about the Jews is not or may not be told!?!
Rudi Roth, a journalist for the Antwerp-based Joods Actueel Jewish paper, said the expressions of anti-Semitism in Aalst this year were more numerous and prominent than last year. He called it a
“backlash effect.”
Coming closer to the event celebrities gave notice not having free time to come to the parade. Several politicians backed out of appearances with Aalst’s mayor, who has defended the parade displays.
According to Christophe D’Haese of the right-wing New Flemish Alliance, carnival is not an anti-Semitic event and should be seen in its context of
“everything is allowed”.
He said the event
“certainly has anti-Semitic elements,”
the likes of which he said had not been on display since the end of the Nazi occupation in 1945.
With good reason Rubinfeld said
“Aalst’s name is now associated with anti-Semitism,and that’s partly because of the mayor’s inaction.”
With questioning eyes, we are very curious to see whether Unia this year will make a real effort to go to court and make it clear that what has been shown this year in Aalst has been far out of proportion in our society and cannot be admitted.
When looking at the recent heathen festival “Carnaval” it looks like for the majority of Belgians antisemitism isn’t always easy to see. Last year there were already anti-Jewish groups in the carnival parade and this year they multiplied like the Coronavirus, where not many spoke about.
Already for a few years now, we can see that in Belgium Anti-Semitism moved quietly through each of the lives of many Belgians — in a tweet, or a joke, or a conspiracy theory — seemingly not having just impact on those it directly touches. It impacts us all.
Strangely enough, it seems that a lot of Belgians do not seem to see or can not recognize anti-Semitic words, phrases, ideas, and caricatures for what they really are — hatred, bigotry, discrimination. I was not present at the carnival parade in Aalst, but what I could see on the Flemish television was something one could expect many years before World War II, but not after that horrible period. On one of the cars hung a pamphlet whit something which shocked me Só Much, that I did not write it down, for being able to repeat it here or to fill in a complaint against the hate message and the anti-Semitic words written on that car!
The call for Jews having to go to Israel and to hide behind the Wall can not be called Jewish-friendly. “Muur” (Wall) may be “Mier” (Ant) in the dialect from Aalst, but to present Jews as ants can only be called “a bit inappropriate”.
The major of Aalst and many people from Aals, saying one has to be able to laugh with and at people and circumstances, may call for questioning how far one may go with mockery with situations and with persons or religious groups.
Certainly, in these times of a horrific rise in anti-Semitism, politicians should point to the fact of such matters to their citizens and should try to bring them to their sense. Though, the major of Aalst always when he was given the word, seemed to put more oil on the fire by just to dismiss it as something that is not understood by many outside Aalst.
Together, we can identify and expose the hate that’s hiding between the lines. Those with any good feeling of ethics and decency should call for a reaction of “Unia”, the centre “For equality, against discrimination”.
What is going on in this country should ring a bell for the democratic parties and should bring the European Union sound the alarm, calling the national government to take action.
In Europe we may find lots of people who say they are a Christian, but in fact are just name Christians. They often do not know much about Christ and his teachings and often go against his teachings, what is worse.
Victor Uyanwanne, who lives in Lagos, Nigeria with his wife and two kids also knows that
There are people around the world who think that they are Christians simply because of the home or geographical location they were born into. {Being A Cultural Christian Is Not Enough}
Many people may think they are the owners of the place where they live and consider it to be for them alone. Some, like the majority of North Americans, forget that their ancestors took away the country from the original indigenous population.
Truths OfALostKid sees Mexican, black, white, Asian, Indian and wonders
Who are we
Mexican, black, white, asian, Indian.
…
The world says who you are and will not let go of that idea until you show what you are and how you are “different”
Why is race important to anything? God made us brother and sisters love one another and do not assume who somebody is just for the flesh God gave them for he has made us all in his image and with the same love. {Lost kid return home writing of 2018/01/23/}
does the racism here play out the same in different parts of the world? What does racism look like other places?
She also often wonders of the races within each country, undergo similar feelings
The world is so big there has to infinite potential of races and mixed races living in different countries. Are they accepted in there own country or are there still barriers and such around? How is the president in other countries ? Are they racist or are they for everyone? Please if you are from a different country explain to me how race all plays out in your country and all the different types of race and mixes there is! {Racism In America V.s The Rest Of The World?}
For her
The value of words and discipline are key! And the realization that this world is at your very finger tips and can be exactly what you’d like it to be. You don’t have to work violently to get results. {Racism In America V.s The Rest Of The World?}
Today many words are spoken by different political groups. also the once from the racist site get stronger and stronger and are not afraid to use any body who can fit in to push their agenda.
In Hong Kong, we have a diverse number of races here so racism is generally frowned upon. Ironically, the greatest targets for racism here are the ones from Mainland China. If someone say that you look like someone from China, it has several negative connotations, e.g. you’re rude, has a bad sense of fashion, ignorant or something like that.
But I can tell you that the average HK people are too busy to care about racism!
Can it be that perhaps too many Europeans are not busy enough with other things that they may look angry at the immigrants which they consider coming to take away their jobs (which they do not have, because many sit on unemployment benefit)? Also we can see several immigrants taking up jobs no European wants to do. As such they are not really taking away jobs from the local population.
Not only the younger immigrants, who look for a better way of life seem to be a problem today. Older people are looked as if they are standing in the way or not giving youngsters the possibility to work. And the retired people seem to take away money from those who are working. (so it looks like when we would believe the sayings of some agitators.)
A prolific writer of Science Fiction, Rock Music and alternative style semi-autobiographical books and fiction, who has written 49 books, also feels the same as many of the Belgian older generation feels. Like many of us here he saw the 1960s counter-culture and got to understand our way of choices was not a fashion statement but a way of life.
It looked at the boring establishment, the old-boys network, the stereotypical attire, the joyless lack of creativity, the conventions, religion, politics, blatant selfish greed, exploitation, inherent racism and sexism and looked to create something better. I was part of it. {Who I am}
He writes, but now is confronted with an other reality.
My intellectual faculties are pretty intact though obviously my short-term memory is not quite as sharp as it used to be but I get there. But three times in the last two days I have found myself on my blog being described as an old man as if being 68 has suddenly made me worthless. It is put in such a derogatory way that indicates that the younger people concerned consider my views worthless, that I am suddenly out of touch, that my life experience is irrelevant and my intelligence has diminished. {Is Ageism the new Racism?}
The views of those born in the 1940ies and 1950ies are considered of no value and looked as if those people can not fit in this world or should not belong to it any more. at the moment there is a movement going on of people who only think about themselves and who want everything also for them alone; Others do not seem to fit in the picture.
Now that racism, homophobia and sexism is heavily frowned upon are these people turning their attention to older people? Is ageism the new racism? Do we put aside all need to listen to what older people have to say, to disregard their experience and views, and simply put them down as irrelevant and worthless? {Is Ageism the new Racism?}
Naturally we must be aware that ageism started long ago. also in the 1950ies we could see a lot of advertisements for anti-aging creams. (To be honest we also used and still use such creams.) Though we do know we cant stop getting older and less performant. But that does not mean we should be considered useless.
Why, they even called Justin Timberlake old (so I heard) on the Superbowl. He’s 38? Someday the tables are going to tip and folks — especially employers — are going to find out experience is a much more valuable tool that youth!
Today experience doe s not count at all. The employers are throwing the baby away with the bathwater. The do away of so much useful knowledge. They do not allow experience to be the seed of their next employees.
According Heather Patterson we reap what we saw.
The big changes occurred in society following the world wars. Started slowly after WW1, then more so after WW2, then Korea, then Vietnam and so forth. Each one with a host of vociferous objectors, conscious writers tapping into the heart of the pulse, all the 1950’s Beat Poets – you should know them.
All venomous complaints aimed at these decrepit old fucks wanton on sending young men to their deaths in the millions for what? Glory? King? Country?
does she mean we did wrong to protest against the War in Vietnam? Where we to active proclaiming peace and a loving world? where too many artists of our ‘after war’ generation to much involved in youth dreams and flower-power business that some of us got carried away in their dreams of a world which is impossible to get?
Heather Patterson finds that
You are upset because a much younger person stole your torch and they said it before you even thought of it. Anybody could see the way you operate a mile away. No credit given with Opher, unless he is always seen in the best light before anybody else.
and looks at Opher’s World saying she thinks that 68 year old writer has
fallen fowl to your inner most fears of being seen as a write off, has been, former self etc. Everything is a threat to your crumbling domain which was really only a house of cards anyway as it was bound to be toppled by the next generation and so forth. What was important to your generation in the 1950’s such as what you liked to read holds not a bit of similar levels of interest today.
That’s just the way it goes.
Isn’t it disappointing to see bitterness creeping in to the winter days of the elderly. {Is Ageism the new Racism?}
Though it is just our generation that wants to tell others how ridiculous worthless war is. It are just we who have seen the tale of world war II and have seen the ‘after wars’, like Vietnam and Balkan war, where the most avoidable atrocities happened and brought human beings to a lower level than animals.
The Baby Boomers are portrayed as having had it easy and perhaps we did. But to call us the cause of what we have now, some saying we reap what we sow, is not correct. We sang about peace and equality, we lived in communes and perhaps we were to easy concerning the matter of ‘love’, but it was always about respectful relationships and with no restriction concerning skin colour or nationality. We strove for equality of classes and taught our kids to be respectful to everybody living on this earth and to act on terms of equal footing. We taught our children not use bad language. We did not like our children to use curse words, not to use to much alcoholic drank, not to smoke or to take drugs (though we had used drugs when we were young). Even when we had certain religious ideas we learned our children to accept that not all people think nor feel like us, and that they should know about gay and transgender people and should respect their choices as well.
As such all that right-wing and nationalist talk is not something we gave our kids. We agree we went against establishment and perhaps some of those today thought that would mean we always should react against order and state, but that was not what we said or hoped for.
Rebecca E. Blanton writes
The internal racism and bi-phobia and sexism in our communities has to be addressed so that we can stand together and fight to make our country a safe place so that anyone can love who they want without threat of harm. {Love in Times of Great Danger}
We may not keep silent and have certain political parties mislead the people and get them to hate others.
Opher says
racism and patriotism has always been the currency of populist rabble-rousing politicians who want to arouse passions and gain power. It’s a shame people still fall for it.
At Victor’s corner it is also recognised that
More than many people are willing to admit, racism (that “prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior”) is still an in issue being grapled with in 21st Century America! . {Racism in America Vs Tribalism in Nigeria}
We must be aware that racism does not affect only the black or coloured people and that it is not alone a matter of black or coloured against whites. Victor Uyanwanne writes that what pepole may refer to as racism in America,
takes a different hegemonic form here in Nigeria.
It is called tribalism, which, just like corruption, manifests itself in all aspects of our collective existence. But unlike racism, tribalism has nothing to do with the colour of one’s skin.
So you can imagine how odd it felt to be referred to as “people of colour” when you know that everyone else around you has the same skin colour as you.
…
racial discrimination and prejudices wear attires in Nigeria different from the ones they wear in America.
In the words of Chimamanda Adichie, award-winning author of Americanah, “In Nigeria race is not a conscious and present means of self-identification. Ethnicity is. Religion is. But not race.”
This response she gave in a Goodreads interview as far back as 2013 aptly captures the differences between race issues in America when compared with same in Nigeria.
Unlike the experiences often reported amongst blacks in the US, no one in Nigeria is identified or should I say discriminated upon on the basis of the colour of his or her skin.
All of us are black! Instead of race, we talk of our ethic origins, religious affiliations and regional bases.
We in Europe do face racism on matters of nationality or origin, i.e;. ethnicity, but also on religion and political stance. Perhaps it also has something to do with a form of ‘tribalism’ and not belonging to a certain ‘tribe’ or ‘certain folks’.
racial discrimination and prejudices wear attires in Nigeria different from the ones they wear in America.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Nigerian writer of novels, short stories, and nonfiction
“In Nigeria race is not a conscious and present means of self-identification. Ethnicity is. Religion is. But not race.”
This response she gave in a Goodreads interview as far back as 2013 aptly captures the differences between race issues in America when compared with same in Nigeria.
Unlike the experiences often reported amongst blacks in the US, no one in Nigeria is identified or should I say discriminated upon on the basis of the colour of his or her skin.
All of us are black! Instead of race, we talk of our ethic origins, religious affiliations and regional bases.
He ends his article with
While racism is the issue in America, tribalism it is in Nigeria. While racism exists as a result of differences in colour of the skin, tribalism hinges on differences in birth-roots. Both are common societal evils that must be dealt a decisive blow in order for us to have a better world.
No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background or his religion. People learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite – Nelson Mandela.
On one article we reblogged over here (and as such did not write it ourselves) and in which there were used popular words by youngsters, somebody felt offended. It looks like she could not feel any empathy with the generation we and the author of the original article were talking about and brought herself calling us stupid people, though missing the whole point of that article and the discussion around it.
Extended Coloured family from South Africa showing some spectrum of human skin colouration
In our world we see still too many people who want to differentiate between skin colour and race. They continue to demand that there would be called or named the differences between people who live at the same place, instead of accepting everybody who lives there for what he is and for how he looks like. They insist that people who live already for many generations in a certain country or area would still have a referral to that long ago place of origin as if that place of origin of so many generations ago brought a blemish on that person. It looks like many do want that lots of people keep running around with the stain of their past and long death ancestors.
Today we see again a movement going on to put on all people labels, like Moroco, Turkish, Arabic, Berber, Afro-American, etc.. Though those people may already live here for the 3rd, 4th or even 5th generation. As we spoke about the trend the Dutch Press requesting not to use the word ‘blank’ (fair) but now to use ‘wit’ (white) opposite ‘zwart’ (black) instead of ‘kleurling (coloured). Whilst certain newspapers still shall continue words as ‘blank’ and ‘kleurling’ (coloured) not looking at the different skin colour as something negative. Clearly the colour of the skin has become again a point of discussion and we are back to the way of return and pre-Martin Luther King-times, or the time of racial segregation with Apartheid.
Iranian-Belgian human rights activist Darya Safai playtoy of the rightwing political parties trying to limit the freedom of expression and freedom of religion
Several politicians are doing their best to come back to such a time and many migrants are helping them without them having a proper knowledge of what is happening. As such we may find the Iranian dentist Darya Safai who is used as a plaything by the Flemish Nationalists and/or right-wing political parties. The Iranian-Belgian human rights activist grew up in the Islamic Republic of Iran after the revolution of 1979. We can clearly see how she got traumatised with her experiences in Iran. There she experienced at first hand how it was to live as an oppressed woman in a religious dictatorship. But now she thinks this would also be so in Belgium or the countries around us. She insist that parents would have no say on the religious education they want to give at home and want to prohibit any person in our country to wear religious symbols or to have traditional attire. She finds the schools must prohibit any religious dress-code. By doing so she wants the freedom of religion, the freedom of expression and the freedom of clothing restricted. By doing so see also endangers our democratic freedom.
After she was temporarily released on bail, she decided to flee Iran together with husband via Turkey to Belgium. Instead of seeing that we want to be a free country where everybody should be able to live next to each other she now wants to create an other Iran where she shall be on the side of the dictators or decision makers. Though she says she wants to fight against discrimination she tries to bring in discriminating measures, having children nor their parents the right to choose their own religion and how they want to be religious.
Last week when a state school was ordered to let 11 young girls (age 12) to wear their hijab to school inspite their ban on all religious symbols Safai went into heavy reaction again helping to have a growing stir in the debate
because when a judge rules that specific people can ignore a rule that counts for everyone, it will cause more division.
It is true that now other Muslim, Sikh, Jewish parents can go to court and achieve the same override for their kid. On the other hand by Safai her actions to forbid head-covering we now have Sikh kids in Sint-Truiden (HaspengouwHesbaye), who cannot go any more to a state- or to a Catholic school because they are not allowed in with their head covering. For them and for those who want to wear a head-covering the only solution is to go to a private school. Safai forgets that this would cost the parents a lot more and that such private schools of a certain religion endangers our society more, because than there is no control by the school directorate and then the way to indoctrination is totally free and would be unnoticed. We also could see what happened already in one of the Antwerp Jewish schools a few weeks ago. We must be very careful with an overprotection and giving the opportunity to have youngsters drifting away.
Safai seems to think the same rules count over here as in her birthplace. She argues that the choice to wear a headscarf is not made by girls themselves. By this she underestimate the strong will of many Belgian girls. She says
“It’s not a free choice, when I see six-year-old girls wearing headscarves, I really wonder how they could decide that for themselves-it’s imposed on you and you live with them.”
For Safai the girls their head-covering is indeed a symbol of oppression.
“Men do not wear headscarves, that’s the best proof,”
Orthodox Christian pilgrim
said Safai, to which Vanhecke replied
“With Jews, only the men wear a yarmulke, and that is not seen as a symbol of oppression,”
Safai also forgets or probably does not know that in West Europe all kids from the 1940ies to 1960ies have had to cover their head as girls and we as boys had to cover (like the girls also) our limbs. No bare arms or are knees where to be seen and women at to sit on the left side of the church. It is all still clear in our head also, how our parents and when we went swimming in the sea we had to cover most of our body. (Later, as hippies we went against those restrictions and ran even naked in nature.) And now a few years later what had to happen then suddenly should not be allowed any more. She also does it as if the head-covering is only a Muslim matter, forgetting that still today many religious Christian groups prescribe head-covering for their members.
Roman Catholic nuns – Roman Catholic nuns singing in choir. – Smith2006
Throughout the centuries of Church history, women have worn head coverings during the meetings of the church – that is, when “praying or prophesying” take place. In Europe the wearing of fabric head coverings in worship was also universally the practice of Christian women until the twentieth century and in several Reformed churches, Baptists, Christadelphian, Brethren and various Mennonites it is still the custom for young and old.In the South of Europe we may find lots of nuns of the Roman Catholic churches with a covering of their heads, whilst many women in the South (like Spain and Italy) still often have the head covering by means of a headscarf.In Eastern Orthodox churches, all women still cover their heads. With the old believers this may only be a headscarf, with the other Eastern Orthodox it may also be a veil.
Vanhecke, with good reason, thinks girls are also oppressed if they are not allowed to wear the headscarf.
“A religion obliges the headscarf, a society forbids it, that is the same principle.”
“You interfere in a fundamental right of parents to make choices for their children,”
says Vanhecke.
That what Safai tries to avoid she helps to create. One should avoid that we get such private religious schools as only possibility for religious people to give their kids an education. When we would have such specific Jewish, Hindu and/or Islam schools we make it much easier to have them a specific religious education or indoctrination and creating a generation which would be less adapted in our culture than those who grow up together with all sorts of kids from different nationalities and different religions. Instead of integrating them in a multicultural society Safai shall help to create a divided society with lots of racism.
So needless to say this situation actually causes the very religious division that the ban on head-covering tries to avoid.
Mieke Vanhecke (CD & V), ex-top woman of Catholic education, pleaded in Terzake for the right to wear a headscarf at school.Darya Safai (N-VA) continues to see it as a symbol of oppression. Vanhecke argues that not only Muslims are victims of the headscarf debate.
“A ban on headgear not only affects Muslims,”
says Vanhecke.
“In Sint-Truiden there were never any problems, the Sikh boys came to school with a turban, because of the ban they no longer have access to our school.”
Safia is convinced that children and young women can not make up their own mind what to wear. For her children nor women who wear the hijab impossibly can do that of their own will and impossibly can be happy clothing themself that way. Many like her she see misogyny and are convinced that they must be under dictation of a male dictator or male bully. Often we hear voices like
‘Her husband must have forced her’
‘Poor girl, she may not dress like she wants’
Safia like many right wing people can only think of suppression, seeing men’s orders and their power over women. Others love to shout
‘Unveil yourself’,
‘Hide not yourself”
‘Let us see your beauty’
Why should they have such a need to see the beauty of that woman? Why can they not respect that woman like she wants to dress herself?
Those people thinking women or girls who like to wear a head scarf of hijab are pushed by their family, do forget that there are enough strong women in Belgium who can make up their mind themselves. They do not need their fathers or their male partner to dictate what they should wear but even less should they have others to dictate what they should wear or may not wear. That last bit is what Darya Safai and many Nationalists and Neo-Nazis love to do.
Lots of those who call themselves Christian but oppose the freedom of other lovers of God, do forget that by doing so they go in against the Law of God. Their strong actions against Muslims and Jews also clearly show that they do not bear Jesus his teachings of love in their heart. Lots of them also do not understand that wearing a covering on the head may represent an ordainment from God and a submitting to the Most High. There are enough places in Scriptures which talk about such covering and reasons why and when to do it.
Those who are an atheist or do not believe in the One True God should not try to put their law above the Laws of God nor should they urge all others to live like them and to dress like them.
Many also do forget the use of a head-covering can just mean those women liberated themselves from the world and its attitudes. For many believers in the One True God it can mean just empowerment, liberation and freedom. Too many underestimate the European female and think they would be like the women in the Middle East used as slaves by the male figures around them. But we can see strong women who have made up their own mind and by their own choice and by their own intentions they dare to show their faith to others and are not afraid to be mocked at or to be looked at as of ‘not of this world’. They do not want to be of this world but of the world of God. For them that is more important than being a slave of this world where every body assumes he or she is free when they can have sex with as many as they can or drink as much as they want to do all the funniest things one can think of.
Mrs. Safai does as if those girls, when they would wear a head dress, never would be able to integrate in our society or would never be able to get work. When they would not get work because they wear a head covering, does that not tell more about the party who does not want to give her work? And does that not show how certain people do not want others to integrate in our community?
By the way, lots of right wing people do as if those Muslim girls who want to cover their head are foreigners, but a lot are girls and ladies who were before ‘white Belgian citizens’ and even belonging to Catholic families.
That many people are so much afraid that there would be so many converts to Mohammedanism tells also a lot about the weakness of most members of that faith. Lots of Roman Catholics and Protestants even not knowing the Name of God and never having read the Bible. If they would be standing strong in the faith we see no reason why they and others should be so afraid. The other way, Christians should come out and proclaim their faith to those who are no Christian. They should show people that Jesus is the way and show that Jesus his teaching is one of love and of comprehension and compassion. But most Belgians, Dutch and French people just show the opposite, showing their hate against immigrants and people who are different than they or who think differently than they.
Lots of people seem to have forgotten how we and our parents had to cover our body a few decades ago. Lots of them also forget that just because their western values don’t fit with a woman covering her hair and beauty, it still could be a personal choice for that person covering herself. Many do forget that their Western values are way out from our Christian Western values and norms.
Today so many oppose people who have an other opinion. We also see the right wing people wanting so much that every body would dance to their will.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said,
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”
These days we are going backwards because several people want to push their will unto others. They want an exclusive white state for themselves with only believers in that what they believe and in that what they call Christian values, but are not at all Christian values.
In Belgium we can find more and more Muslim children in community education, especially with regard to other educational networks we may find a larger influx of students from other cultures in general in the state schools. When these children want to show their own faith in the form of clothing, they often do so out of their own convictions, but because these young people are not yet adults, they often take over the prevailing morality of their immediate environment and of society. If we compare this with the Flemish youths of indigenous origin, we notice a big difference, but according to us that is easy to explain. After all, with many Flemish young people there is a great ignorance of the church, while the Muslim children are more often socialized in their ideology.
The total banning of religious signs would thus be a violation of religious freedom. We should resist such a thing.
That a lot of inhabitants of Belgium, Holland and France do not want to stand open for other cultures we should try to avoid in the next generations by introducing the various cultures from the early years in childhood.
Dyab Abou Jahjah in 2008.
The Belgian-Lebanese Arab political activist and writer Dyab Abou Jahjah, claims that
‘hatred in Flanders is mainstream’
and
‘racism determines the agenda’.
When you follow certain reactions and talks it gives the impression not enough people want to react against that dangerous trend.
Christian people should let others know that all people have the same value because we are created by the same One True God. We all are being allowed to live on this globe and are given talents which can be used to help others. All people in a community have to complement each other.
Each person should know that racism devalues people. Non believers should come to see that Christ has broken down racial doors and overcomes divisive thinking by creating for himself a new nation through his death and resurrection. Every Christian should help to build a loving world by showing his love for others, be them of no believe or any other believe than Christianity.
When the politicians are not doing their job properly to build a multicultural peaceful state, the Christians needs to lead the way.
When you are a Christian do not wait until it is too late!
Let your voice be heard and speak up for the weaker ones in our society and for those who humiliated and shut out.
Though children of children who have felt the terror of some maniac or dictatorial tiran, the present younger generation but also the older one who voted for Mr. Trump seem to have forgotten what happened in Europe from the 1930ies onwards until the disastrous blast of World War II.
Speaking at a fundraiser for a Jewish charity that helps Syrian refugees the Prince of Wales has warned that the world is in danger of “forgetting the lessons of the past” and said it was vital to
“reach across the boundaries of faith and community… particularly at a time when the horrific lessons of the last War seem to be in increasing danger of being forgotten”.
The Prince shared a platform with the Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, who criticised the US President for his “totally unacceptable” travel ban on seven mainly Muslim countries.
The Chief Rabbi said:
“President Trump appears to have signed an executive order which seems to discriminate against individuals based totally on their religion or their nationality.
“We as Jews perhaps more than any others know exactly what it is like to be the victims of such discrimination and it is totally unacceptable.”
*
In his own speech, the Prince did not refer to Mr Trump by name, but said it was “vital to learn lessons from the horrors of the past”.
Clarence House insisted the Prince was merely repeating his long-held views against religious persecution, and was not aiming at Mr Trump.
Prudish people having put away their shame by causing shame to others
Years ago people had to fight hard against the prudish Catholic minds who opposed any naked flesh to be shown. Today the so called Catholic countries in West Europe seem to have chosen to have the women their tits out and finding it not okay to cover them up.
In the previous century there were many French and Belgians who did find it inappropriate to have some natural flesh of certain body parts to be shown in public. It was considered not done to have dresses which did not come under the knees. (We where brought up like that and got penalties when we had dared to show our bare/naked legs or upper arms.) Last century it was said we all had to listen to God and could not run naked in this world because God opposed such a thing.
Today their god must have changed idea and has come to prefer naked flesh, because in the present time the French seem not to look at those who want to cover their body as unworthy believers and even as people who are a danger for society.
Covering up for the Almighty
When we were young our Catholic mothers had to wear headscarf or hats when coming in public. In church they had to sit at the left hand site with their faces hidden behind a veil. In the previous century most people in Europe thought it was appropriate to dress decently and not having too much bare or naked. Mots parts of the body had to be covered with clothing or tissue.
Only around the turn of the century less people came to make objections when some parts of the body were not covered. Today it looks like the world has got upside down. What for centuries was thought to be the moral way and according to Judeo Christian values, suddenly seems to be not acceptable any more.
People, like female Muslims, who now choose to cover up for God, are not allowed to do so by the French governement. Europeans should question such a decision taken by a governement in West Europe and see how human rights (freedomsestablished by custom or internationalagreementthatimposestandards of conduct on allnations) are trespassed. Today we can see in France that many specifichumanrights are ignored. What happened to the theright to personal or individuallibertyandDue Process of Law; to freedom of thought,clothing, expression,religion,organization,andmovement; to freedomfromdiscrimination on thebasis of race,religion,age,language,andsex?
Restrictions imposed
In West Europe we encounter more that certain social groups are confined to menial and despised jobs or even get no opportunity on the work-market. When somebody is called Mohammed he may be sure it will be much more difficult to get a job than when he would be called Jef. Arabic looking people shall find it more difficult to be able to rent a place or to buy property.
In Europe they say there does not exist a cast system (or caste) but if they are not careful it will come in existence or (better said) it will grow (because it is already here but denied). In our 21st century ‘Untouchability‘ and ‘Speciesism‘ have become a reality also in Western Europe. We can clearly see that more and more different values, rights, or special consideration is given to individuals solely on the basis of their species membership, origin and faith. There are many who are not minding positive discrimination and taking it up for one particular religious group (the Roman catholics). Today we may find the atheist caste wanting to direct the Christian-caste, Islamic-caste, and may we find different rejections of castes or groups of people.
which prides itself for liberté, égalité, fraternité, has unfortunately fallen short in recent times, with more social division and social prejudice arising within the country, due to the public suppression and rejection of religion; the consequent of which has led to violent eruptions.
It is also precisely through the social persecution of the wider Islamic community in such acts which aim to strip them of their beliefs, that it seems that the French government are validating individuals’ fears, rather than attempting to diffuse them. {France’s banning of the ‘Burqini’ is the rejection of its founding principles}
Swimwear
Forbidden: a burkini-clad woman on the beach
This iconic image of Peggy Moffitt modelling Gernreich’s monokini, which got a lot of controversy, was initially published in Women’s Wear Daily on June 3, 1964 and shows how one was still afraid to show a naked tummy.
What should people have against a full body swimsuit for any sort of woman, being Catholic or Muslim? (When we were child our parents had to wear full swimsuits or where fined.) Shall people, who went diving, have to take off their wetsuit before they come onto the beach? If they may walk on the beach with a wetsuit why not women in a full swimsuit?
Why are so many against wearing a swimmingcostumewhichcoversthewholebodywiththeexception of theface,hands,andfeet,suitableforwear by Muslim women, which got the name bourkini/burkini/burqini, but has nothing to do with a bourka/burka/burqa or with the rider’sburka/burqa,which is long,thickpiled, nor with the traditional man’s coat made from felt or karakul, or with the Ukrainian traditional garment or Kobeniak, or with a two-piece bathing costume called bikini (or close-fittingbathingsuitworn by men) and even less with a monokini, being just the opposite of it?
Women their freedom taken away
Are so many West Europeans so afraid women cannot stand up for themselves? And certain feminists do they not see there is much more at hand than just sexism?
We must be aware that there is so much more going on in our deranged world where Jihaditerrorist managed to get the fear burning hard over here in our regions that nobody seems to feel at ease when they see something that smells to Islamism. The politicians fell in the trap by creating laws in a hurry which limits the freedom of many women who have nothing to do at all with the faith of those terrorists, because they have chosen the path of God and a religion of peace or salam, hence the name Islam.
The Mayor of Cannes has prohibited access to the beach for those wearing clothing that disrespects secularism Reuters
By prohibiting the burkini the French state limits even more those they say would be oppressed. It is strange that lots of people do not understand those women wearing a burkini get just the freedom to go into the water or to lie on the beach like so many other women do. By banning the burkini those women their freedom to enjoy a good day at the beach is taken away. By the ban also their children are targeted, because they also shall not be able to come to the beach and to go into the water to play with their mother.
The justification for the burkini ban is no longer about ‘liberating’ women, ….. but Arundhati Roy’s remarks about France’s earlier ban on the burka are still apt:
Suzanna Arundhati Roy , Indian author who is best known for her novel The God of Small Things (1997), which won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 1997
When, as happened recently in France, an attempt is made to coerce women out of the burka rather than creating a situation in which a woman can choose what she wishes to do, it’s not about liberating her but about unclothing her. It becomes an act of humiliation and cultural imperialism. Coercing a woman out of her burka is as bad as coercing her into one. It’s not about the burka. It’s about the coercion.
Arundhati Roy Capitalism: A Ghost Story, p. 37.
Armed police forcing women to remove their clothes on the beach is nothing other than an act of humiliation – humiliating women to punish a minority group for the actions of a few individuals. {France and the Burkini}
Huda Jawad, Community Coordinator at Standing Together Against Domestic Violence, wrote
Choosing to conflate a cultural and religiously inspired mode of attire – which women choose to wear to feel safe from the sexual gaze of society while partaking in a very ordinary pastime – with a terrorist group is a convenient ‘othering’ of fellow citizens in times of national crisis. {The burkini ban is misogynistic – and Western feminists are turning a blind eye}
Secularism, good attitude and proper values
You may wonder why those women in burkini would not wear appropriate swimwear and would not “respect good customs and secularism” whilst others with their bare poo and bare bosom would be an example how women should be clothed and are respecting the western values.
There exist already a lot of discriminatory treatment towards physically unattractive people. Now to that ‘Lookism‘ we have the discriminatory view of men who can not see enough naked flesh are can not find enough to look at by a woman.
Today people not only make judgements of others based on their physical appearance that influence how they respond to those people, when their clothes are not liked by French men such men may now demand those clothes to be taken off.
The announcement by David Lisnard, UMP Mayor of Cannes, that he is prohibiting access to the beach to anyone not wearing what the French would consider suitable bathing suits, did not make many French question, what right he had, to decide a woman had to wear on the beach and why he choose the more naked version of the feminine, instead of a more clothed, and what believers in God would call a more decent one.
Victims of ISIS, the scapegoat of the French nation
Lots of people consider themselves victim of ISIS but forget that the worst victims are Islamists or ordinary Muslim people all over the world. Europeans and Americans may not be blind and should see that the greatest causalities of Isis have been Muslims, and the banning of the burkini illustrates the extent to which France’s fundamentalist secularism is singling out the most visible and vulnerable group in society for blame.
The governement is giving in and has found its scapegoat and used the local Muslims to blame for the terror the security forces of the country could not avoid or obstruct. Like the Fascist in the past liked Scapegoating many Europeans and Americans now blame the refugees and Muslims for the many problems they have in their country. In the past Jews and immigrants were prominent among the groups that were demonized. In France the Jews got a sibling now in the Muslim community. Today it is not a “Judeo-Masonic-bolshevik” conspiraciy or left-wing agitation, but the presence of immigrants and the amount of active Muslims.
As in the past the governement points the finger to those ‘outcasts’ and originators of all sin. They go with the people and hope to gain popularity by taking measures against the Ummah or Muslim community, making their life so difficult that they hope those other believers will soon leave. Implication was that depriving these demons of their power and influence would cause the nation’s major problems to go away.
Lots of people are afraid that those Muslims would be able to convert many French and that the nation by those converts would be more and more becoming an Islamic state.
Limiting the liberty of Muslims and other believers
Now by limiting the liberty of the Muslims in their own country the governement hopes to please the rest of the population and to take the attention away from their own weakness and the blame they have it not in control.
The governement, because of all the discussions going on about the burkini’s and religious clothing, decided that when the schools will open again, no religious dress or symbol shall be allowed, and as such no head covering for Jews and Muslims or necklaces with religious symbols.
Education minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, a former government spokesperson who is politically more to the left than former interior minister Valls and disagrees with the burqini ban could not stop the measures.
For the start of the debate, concerning the burqini Huda Jawad also questioned in the Daily Independent
Since when did wearing a burkini, in most cases a loose fitting nylon version of a wetsuit, become an act of allegiance to terrorist movements? Do Marks & Spencer or House of Fraser know that their attempt to raise profits and exploit a gap in the over-saturated clothing market is selling and promoting allegiance to Isis? {The burkini ban is misogynistic – and Western feminists are turning a blind eye}
She also remarks
What is it about French secularism’s blindspot to its own racism and misogyny? The obsession to the point of fetishism with Muslim women’s mode of dress and covering curtails the most basic of human rights – that of self-determination and freedom of expression. As Arundhati Roy so eloquently put it, coercing a woman out of the burka instead of enabling her to choose is an act of violence, humiliation and cultural imperialism. Instead of extending the hand of fraternité, Mr Lisnard and his supporters are excluding Muslims, if not pushing them into the arms of radicalisers. {The burkini ban is misogynistic – and Western feminists are turning a blind eye}
Making the Muslims stigmatised as the bogeyman, that scarecrow seems already frightening lots of French people. They are pushing the golliwog in the corner or throwing in front of the swines that in the end they shall have to defend themselves so strongly and make their faith and stance even stronger, so that a new religious revolt can take place. Perhaps than the French shall get their eyes opened and shall be awakened from their cauchemard (their nightmare) they are afraid of.
Today, Friday 26 August 2016, France’s highest administrative court has suspended a ban on the burkini in a test case brought by human rights groups, pending a definitive ruling.
The ruling from the state council suspends a single ban in the southern town of Villeneuve-Loubet, near Nice, but is likely to set a precedent for other towns that have prohibited the full-body swimwear on their beaches.
According to a senior politician in Norway’s right-wing Progress Party (FrP) Norway also has to follow the lead of a number of French towns and ban the burkini. Third deputy, Aina Stenersen, claims the full-body swimsuits worn by some Muslim women are “a symbol of radical Islam” and is convinced that French cities did right to ban the burqini from their beaches. The Progress Party is in the process of formulating a new party manifesto, and the burkini ban is expected to be included.
The FrP does, however, believe the fine faced by those who wear burkinis in France is too lenient. Ms Stenersen intends to double the charge to around 500 kroner, which is equivalent to £57.
A story to be continued and démarche or kick-off to be followed up .
To welcome women wearing burqini’s and coming into public spaces
Yes, wearing a burkini on the beach, as wearing a burka in town, is an ostentatious sign of religious adherence, as is the wearing of full robes by priests and nuns in public or the traditional garments and hairstyles of orthodox Jews.
Yet a burkini is also a means of emancipation for Muslim women, allowing them to bathe despite the strict, male-dominated, rules under which they have to lead their lives.
As horrible as it is, those living in Europe see lots of things from the Land of hope and glory and of so called Freedom, the U.S.A. they cannot understand.
Anno 2016 the discrimination of people with an other skin colour or with an other faith seems to be again hot topic.
Unbelievable when we hear certain white Christians defend their supremacy over other people, as if they are talking about degraded animals or sort of things. Our mouths often fall open when we see how those you would think should be there to keep law and order can not control themselves and use a weapon as if it is a cloth to take dashes away. After having demobilised a person they still can not control themselves and as if they are taken by lots of fear they shoot and shoot and shoot again, even when the person seems to be without life the police officer still shoots as if it is nothing … when we white people and coloured people in Europe see it nearly daily on our television channels.
To our surprise how many voices from the politicians from that State want to take sites and clearly show their heart?
But also, how many voices of white and coloured people from the Old World are willing to speak up against that continued hate there seems to be in that land where so many are trying to build up their dreams?
That the voice of people of colour, still isn’t heard as loudly as the voice of the White is part a fault of those who live in oppression. It are those who are taken by their own fear of being a respectful human being that is and has to stand that allows “White power” of some to dominate them. Hopefully those black people do not think all whites are the same as those neo-nazis and racists, but come to see that all human beings should unite to act against any form of discrimination.
Therefore we too, bring out a call to all who want to hear and to all who do find they are a decent human person of the human race, that they show that they are different than wild animals and that they all show up to let their voice sound loud and clear over the whole world that all human beings should unite and put their hands and souls together to build up a peaceful world where variety is providing a colourful beautiful world to live in.
Let us, even if may not be some one important or not living in a big state, bring out our voice and show the world that it can be different. that more bloggers come to share the message of peace and equality.
*
To remember
constant talks about how far we as a society have come from the days of slavery + open humiliation of black people, how much we have improved.
Nazia (Naz or Naznaz or Zia or Zakia or Zak or Jakie or Jacks or Chow or Chowy or Chowds or Chowders or even Chowmein) who has have nothing against Bengali and possess only love for her Caucasian friends, the quality of improvement is simply insufficient.
lives still being taken + families still being ripped apart because of skin colour =/= improvement
One life taken away from us = one life too many
we refuse to recognise that protection = only for selective members of our society
She thinks
We should not talk about racism because it makes white people feel uncomfortable. A couple of times I have been told that the only way to end racism is to stop talking about racism. That we need to move away from the days of slavery, of oppression.
How can we move away when you do not let us? How can we move away when you still refuse to let go of your white privilege?
try and tell the mother of Tamir Rice or Micheal Brown that racism is not an issue today
tell the innocent children and beautiful wife of Alton Sterling that his murder should just be forgotten because of the comfortability level of a white person.
racism= horror (of the past) => let it go <+ acts of white ancestors not white people of today
blaming all white people today for the actions of those from over a century ago = preposterous
when actions of these white ancestors = still effecting black children of today => something needs to be done, we cannot just let it go.
If anyone does not want to aid in the prevention of racism, however deluded they may be then so be it but to attempt to stop this movement of exposing racists and to excuse it by saying racism does not exist or black people always make everything a race issue, is absurd. It is made a race issue because it is a race issue.
Dehumanisation of people of colour by the White, allows them to be treated so brutally. They are simply seen as inferior.
no excuse for this brutality
percentage of black crime = statistically higher compared to white crime, in America + in the UK. = majority committed by the poorer + more lower class in society => not skin colour making commit crime <= lack of money + position in society + need of survival
to avoid need of crime = wealth.White privilege = advantages hold due to colour + accepting certain privileges in society because of colour important > production of oppression + dehumanisation of people of colour.
Celebrities = great influence in today’s society + can take movements like these to heights we cannot even imagine
Anita Williams does not mind looking at Blacks and whites being segregated during 1896 up until 1964 and how the friction builds up now again.
She believes that
Times have changed tremendously, yet we still have a long way to go, starting with the current racial injustice going on in today’s society. The popular hashtag of 2015 “BlackLivesMatter” has been spreading all over social media due to the killing of a great amount of black males by white police officers. Many people have argued that there shouldn’t be #blacklivesmatter because all lives matter. Although this is true, it is important to make it very aware that black lives matter because they are losing their lives left and right. There has been so many instances within the last year that I can no longer keep track. {Racial Injustice: Then vs. Now}
In Europe we constantly are bombarded by atrocious pictures of cruelty against blacks in a country which always shouts out loud to be the “Land of the free”.
When we see that police brutality toward people of colour and see how they often get away with it, has us having many questions about that equality in those states. Today it is not only the news media which bring pictures of things gone wrong. People themselves have handy tools by which they can register happenings on the spot. Today it is even possible to send it around on the internet in a few seconds. The whole world can witness it today on the spot.
Those who think they can fiddle with it are mistaken. False pictures soon will be dismantled. Pictures, videos, news articles, etc. are exposing the cruel actions of cops on blacks. However, this isn’t anything new it is now nearly impossible to hide or to deny it. It’s been going on for decades but now that technology has advanced, it’s being presented to us more now than ever before.
There may be lots of controversy between the “Black Lives Matter” movement versus the “All Lives Matter” movement but we all should know that all lives matters always. Always people should come up for others, no matter their skin colour or religion. The weakest should be taken care of first and most.
All who have faith in God should make work of it that what is now on the rise shall not escalate. They also should take care that it shall not become a propaganda that can potentially start a race war and bring martial law into effect.
We also should see that there is the continuing danger in those states that they are trying to push black people to their limit to further the current state of violence and division.
As a Christian, the author wishes for people to understand that race is simply a social construct designed to divide us. She also thinks that
If we truly knew all lives mattered, the hashtag “Black Lives Matter” would not have ever been created. It’s a shame that people have to be reminded that black lives are just as valuable and significant as everyone else’s. {Racial Injustice: Then vs. Now}
That shows how far away those Americans are from the Christian idea, though they proudly say they are a Christian, but often do very un-Christian things and love bearing and using weapons (something against the will of God)
It is also unbelievable that those who claim to be Christians still can take it that so many lives are taken, even in prison be it by electric chair or lethal injection. Which right is given to them or to any other man to take the life of an other human being?
Do those Christians know their Scriptures and are they not aware they should lead the way and show they all want to be “one in Christ Jesus.”
Never was it God’s intention that people would go against each other. Man itself made division and let hate being created in the minds of many.
The presented text may (here and there) have confusing the person of the first century with the Spirit Who was for ever, namely looking at Christ Jesus as if he is God.
It is that attitude of Jesus every Christian should show to others around him or her. Being white or having a dark sin should not matter. Never may the difference in colour of skin trigger a different action than it would do for a person of the same skin.
In the United States of America, I am afraid we still see too much difference in attitude when a person is not white or from the same culture or when showing to be of an other religion (e.g. Islam).
That the media show certain pictures and can be misleading others is very true. But the pictures taken by phones and captured on the spot, place on social media, often speak volumes.
Lately, in the media police brutality toward people of color has been plastered everywhere for the last two to three years more than it ever has been in a long time– pictures, videos, news articles, etc. are exposing the cruel actions of cops on blacks. However, this isn’t anything new. It’s been going on for decades but now that technology has advanced, it’s being presented to us more now than ever before.
The controversy between the “Black Lives Matter” movement versus the “All Lives Matter” movement has been on the rise as well. The whole strategy behind pushing these movements and constantly showing it on media outlets is to push a propaganda that can potentially start a race war and bring martial law into effect. They are trying to push black people to their limit to further the current state of violence and division. Not only is this propaganda in…
Lifestyle and Readers Digest Magazine founded by Marcus Ampe on the 26th of March 2014
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This site does not want to be a specific religious site, though now and then religious articles may be presented. The main interest on this site is about worldly matters, social affairs and the behaviour of human beings in this universe.
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Thoughts by and a Look at the world by Marcus Ampe on: Marcus Ampe's Space
Over the past two weeks I have been trying to get some order again in my office and under a fierce tidying session have thrown all unnecessary papers out the door. This morning, as I sat at the breakfast table and watched the paper collection drive by, I suddenly remembered that I had put all […]
In de afgelopen 2 weken en heb ik geprobeerd weer orde in mijn bureau te krijgen en heb onder een hevige opruimingssessie alle onnodige papieren de deur uitgegooid. Deze ochtend toen ik aan de ontbijttafel zat en de papier ophaling voorbij zag rijden, dacht ik er plotseling aan dat ik al mijn diplomas en certicifaten […]
Britain is a rampantly competitive society. The story goes that Great Britain has evolved from an aristocratic dystopia built on slavery to a civilised democracy with a welfare state. Britain might be more accurately described as a proletarian nation overseen by a cosmopolitan elite. The Big Island is not the only one just looking at […]
JetPack raises a question where I am now putting down something that would belong in a private diary. But I have never maintained a diary. Now, at a more mature age, perhaps we get homesick for certain times or memories come to cloud the mind again.So here is a writing that could have been plucked […]
How has technology changed your job? Modern technology For sure, without modern technology, I would not be here already for a long time. For years I would have been under the sole, having become dust in the earth. After two near deaths, and three heart attacks, I have now once more the opportunity to revalidate […]
Men zou me best kunnen plaatsen onder de overgevoelige types. Al van kleins af was ik erg gevoelig en trok me veel te veel dingen aan. Zelfs als ik een film bekijk kunnen tranen over mijn wangen rollen. Heel wat zaken waar ik geen vat kan op hebben, raken me toch zodanig, dat ik er […]
One could best place me among the hypersensitive types. Since childhood, I was very sensitive and attracted far too many things. Even when I watch a film, tears can roll down my cheeks. A lot of things I can’t control nevertheless affect me to the extent that I sometimes get frustrated. On the other hand, […]
An other look at the world by Marcus Ampe on: Some View on the World
For months now, we have seen the rise of far-right thinking in several countries in Europe. Several politicians are also trying to make people believe that Europe is a bad thing for their countries. The future of the EU is being jeopardised by people stirring up social tensions for short-term political gain, Spain’s environment minister […]
The past 12 months have been extremely dangerous for journalists, from those on the ground in Gaza and Ukraine to others risking everything to share stories of environmental destruction. Last week the Guardian has been marking World Press Freedom Day with a series of reports about journalists working in the face of immense danger. They […]
In de vroegere Sovietgebieden roert het nu en dan redelijk verontrustend. In bepaalde landen, zoals in Georgië wil de regering er op toe zien dat er geen buitenlandse inmenging kan plaats vinden. Men zou kunnen zeggen dat zulks een goede wet is, maar het kan ook bepaalde beperkingen inhouden die de bevolking niet ten goede […]
Shortages and funding cuts are causing a “full-blown crisis” in special needs education for children and young people in England, according to school leaders who say they are struggling to give pupils the support they require. Paul Whiteman, the general secretary of the school leaders’ union the NAHT, accused the government of treating schools as […]
Recent Posts on the other Lifestyle Magazine: Stepping Toes
The Israeli military has established a new mountaineer unit tasked with carrying out operations across the country’s hostile borders with Lebanon and Syria amid worsening tensions over the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip. “We are in a multi-front war—Lebanon, Syria, Judea and Samaria, and Gaza, and also farther away,” IDF Chief of the General […]
The Times, January 24, 2024 Event Two cargo ships sailing close to the Gulf of Aden came under attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Wednesday night, the White House said — forcing the US navy to intervene as the Iran-backed militia intensified its maritime assault on commercial shipping. Houthi forces fired three anti-ship ballistic […]
The Independent, January 19, 2024 Event It is hard to escape the impression of a theatre of military conflict that is inexorably growing – to the east and the south, if not yet to the north and the west. And if you look backwards, rather than forwards, the Hamas massacres of Israelis on 7 October, and Israel’s all-out […]
VOA, January 12, 2024 Event Thursday’s retaliatory attacks by U.S. and British forces on Iranian-backed Houthis inside Yemen have prompted support and condemnation from the international community. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani “strongly slammed the military strikes by the U.S. and Britain,” in a statement, calling it “an arbitrary move” that “clearly breached Yemen’s […]
The Times, January 12, 2024 Event Explosions were heard across Yemen late on Thursday night as British and US forces launched strikes on Houthi targets, after the Iranian-backed group ignored warnings to stop attacking ships in the Red Sea. Rishi Sunak, who had authorised the military action hours earlier and briefed ministers in an emergency […]
Event Guardian, October 20, 2023 Joe Biden has drawn a direct, provocative link between Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Hamas’s attack on Israel as he urged Americans not to walk away from their role as “a beacon to the world”. In only the second Oval Office address of his presidency, Biden said he would ask […]
Hamas launched a surprise attack Saturday morning unprecedented in its scope and deadly impact. The phrase “It’s chaos” was heard repeatedly, from newsreaders, from families and occasionally from people caught in the raids, whispering desperately into their phones. Event The Times of Israel, October 7, 2023 Hezbollah praises the massive Hamas operation against Israel, and […]
One can never reach true self-knowledge without having come to a knowledge of the world. We cannot come to a knowledge of the world without self-knowledge. Neither can we attain self-knowledge without a knowledge of the world. It is like the beating of a pendulum which must swing back and forth. […]
* “Praying together:Two peoples, one land,Three faiths, one root,One earth, one mother,One sky, one beginning, one future, one destiny,One broken heart,One God.We pray to You:Grant us a vision of unity.May we see the many in the one and the one in the many.May you, Life of All the Worlds,Source of All Amazing DifferencesHelp us to […]
Last Sunday we were happy to meet three new brethren who got walking with us on the water laid in front of us. They with us can sing “Teach my your way”. In Newbury, they saw a sort of likeness between brother Marcus and Elija and were pleased to have new brethren and sisters join […]
So that Christ may dwell by faith in your hearts; in love being rendered firm, and the foundation laid, (Eph 3:17) Paul restates the prayer’s central appeal, identifying the presence of Christ with the empowerment of the Spirit (Eph 3:16). Just as the Church is becoming a holy temple for God (2:21–22), so the individual […]
Whaw! What a nice swimming pool! Not for swimming, though, but for the first baptisms in the very young ecclesia in Anderlecht. Before the start of the ceremony, overlooking the program. We were delighted to find those who started to train with members of the Brussels-Leuven ecclesia to become the first members of the recently […]
Na het proper maken van het huis, het programmablad voor morgen klaar te maken, en boodschappen doen, zit ik nu in mijn luie zetel. Ik dacht er nog aan een herinnering te sturen, dat we morgen allen de dienst bijwonen in Anderlecht, in plaats van in Leuven en Mons. Iedereen is uitgenodigd op de doop […]
Each year during May the Mental Health Foundation promotes Mental Health Awareness Week. In the Corona period and after Covid-19 many of us were blessed to have received kindness from others, on countless occasions and in countless ways, and we would all acknowledge the benefits it brings. Beyond the benefits of receiving kindness, research has […]
Recent Posts by the Brethren in Christ: Broeders in Christus
Reuters, April 4, 2024 Event Russia and NATO are now in “direct confrontation”, the Kremlin said as the U.S.-led alliance marked its 75th anniversary on Thursday. NATO‘s successive waves of eastern enlargement are a fixation of President Vladimir Putin, who went to war in Ukraine two years ago with the stated aim of preventing the […]
The Times, February 23 , 2024 Event Israel wants operational freedom throughout Gaza “without a time limit” as part of its postwar plan for the territory, Binyamin Netanyahu has told his war cabinet. In his long-awaited “day after” plan outlining Israel’s post-war intentions for Gaza, the Israeli prime minister also called for a “demilitarised, deradicalised” […]
Jerusalem Post, February 19, 2024 Event Russia has invited Palestinian groups to Moscow, which could bring together Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, and other terrorist groups*. Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said over the weekend that Russia invited Palestinian factions to meet in Moscow at some point in late February, the latest Russian move to […]
Arab News, February 15, 2024 Event Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip has spilled over into neighboring countries and sent shockwaves across the wider region, transforming Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen into battlefields in an escalating proxy war between the US and Iran. This mounting instability has wrought havoc on the economies of the […]
Washington Post, January 27, 2024 Event The International Court of Justice on Friday ordered Israel to do more to prevent the killing of civilians in Gaza but did not call for a cease-fire, disappointing Palestinians who had hoped the court would endorse their pleas for immediate relief from the violence. At a closely watched hearing […]
Gemeenschappen hebben ruimtes nodig om te vertoeven. Als men gezinsleden heeft gaan die uitbreiden en zijn meerdere huizen nodig. Ook voor geloofsgemeenschappen is het zo dat die best uitbreiden en aldus nieuwe plekken vormen om samen te komen. In 2023 werden er enkele mensen in de ecclesia Brussel-Leuven voorbereid om ook tot onze gemeenschap toe […]
Het getuigenis van de apostelen De geschriften van het Nieuwe Testament laten geen ruimte voor het geloof dat niet God maar Christus de Schepper was. De apostel Johannes beschrijft in het boek Openbaring een hoogst symbolisch gezicht dat hij op het eiland Patmos had gezien. “Er stond een troon in de hemel en iemand was […]
Het geloof van de eerste gemeente Het is heilzaam deze ontwikkeling in de gemeenten in de heidenwereld te beschouwen vanuit het gezichtspunt van de eerste volgelingen van Christus in de eerste dagen van zijn gemeente in Israël. Zo filosofisch gezind als de Grieken waren ze helemaal niet. Zij waren gewoon van kindsbeen af zich toe […]
In de Griekse stad Athene, waar de altaren van een menigte góden te be zichtigen waren en een kakofonie van filosofen te beluisteren was, klonk Paulus’ verkondiging van de levende God als een heldere klaroenstoot. “God, die de wereld gemaakt heeft en al wat daarin is, die een Heer is van hemel en aarde… daar […]
What change, big or small, would you like your blog to make in the world? Looking at the world, being sad, noticing that so many people are misled by big institutions that claim to be the only right church, whilst they do not follow at all the Bible teachings, nor Christ his teachings and do […]
Bible prophecies do not deal only with the ancient past. They also accurately foretell events that are taking place in our day. But at the moment we focus at numerous prophecies preserved in the Hebrew Scriptures (commonly called the Old Testament) which long before the man was born told about events which would happen in his time and around him, his betrayal, humiliation, torture, execution, death, and burial. From those writings of the Old and New Testament nobody should have doubts who that man is who is called Immanuel, the son of man and Messiah, born out of the root of Jess in the tribe of king David.
In Scripture, all things are directed towards a man who was a servant of servants, in whom people should come to have faith. First we saw the connection with Eve and her seed, and in this article you may see the connection with Abraham.
Already in the Old Testament we find the focus on a son of man who is called the son of God, who shall be the most pure set apart (holy) servant of God who was been told about in the Garden of Eden, to be the one bruised.
Many Old Testament writers wrote about the prophet to come, about whom is spoke in the book of Moses and who shall be the special “Seed of a woman” given by God and who will bruise Satan’s head whilst his heel would be bruised with nails on the wooden stake.
Recent Posts: Belgian Biblestudents - Belgische Bijbelstudenten
Review Questions on Chapter Five Who became “fishers of men”? What accusation did the Jews bring against Jesus? How was Levi called and what happened? What illustrations does Jesus use? + Preceding Luke 5 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Luke 5:1-11 – Fishermen Follow Jesus Luke 5 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Luke 5:12-16 – Healing a […]
Luke 5:33-39 – The Old and the New || Matthew 9:15, 16;[1] Mark 2:19;[2] John 3:29[3] LK5:33 Now these said to Jesus: “The disciples of John fast often with prayers just as the Pharisees, but your disciples [only] eat and drink.” LK5:34 Jesus asked them: “Can you force the friends of the bridegroom to fast […]
Luke 5:27-32 – Tax-man Levi Called || Matthew 9:9-12;[1] Mark 2:13-17[2] LK5:27 Now later Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office. Jesus said to him: “Follow me.” LK5:28 So Levi rose, and leaving everything behind,[3] he followed Jesus. LK5:29 Then Levi arranged a great banquet for Jesus […]
Luke 5:17-26 – Who Can Forgive Sins? || Matthew 9:1-8;[1] Mark 2:1-12[2] LK5:17 Now it occurred during those days when Jesus was teaching some Pharisees and teachers of the Law were sitting around – for they had arrived from every village in Galilee and Judea, including Jerusalem – and YHWH’s power was with him to […]
Luke 5:12-16 – Healing a Leper and Then Privacy || Matthew 8:1-4;[1] Mark 1:40-45[2] LK5:12 Now it happened while Jesus was visiting one of the villages, look, there was a man full of leprosy.[3] When he saw Jesus he fell on his face before him and begged: “Master, if you are willing and able cleanse […]
Recent Posts by bible Scholars: Bijbelvorser = Bible Researcher
Beth Snider on the Odd News Show writes about a mysterious large green stone discovered at the Temple complex in Hattusa, the capital of the ancient Hittite Empire, standing on a raised platform and measures 215 by 140 feet (65 by 42 metres). The Hattusa Green Stone is a roughly cubic block of nephrite standing […]
Did Lamech kill Cain? What happened to Cain in the Bible? In the Book of Genesis, we are told about Cain’s birth, his violent act of fratricide and his subsequent exile. We learn that he married and had descendants, but the Bible is strangely mute about his death. How did Cain die? If he did […]
Read Elie Wiesel’s essay on Cain and Abel in the Bible as it originally appeared in Bible Review, February 1998. First republished in BHD June 1, 2015. Cain and Abel: The first two brothers of the first family in history. The only brothers in the world. The saddest, the most tragic. Why do they hold […]
Op maandag 22 april zal onze broeder, Marcus Ampe ter operatie in het ziekenhuis Gasthuisberg te Leuven verblijven. Hierdoor zal hij in de ecclesiae van Brussel-Leuven, Anderlecht, Mons-Lille de avonddienst voor 14 Nisan niet kunnen voorgaan. Wij hopen dat onze leden in hun kleine kringen het vergaderen niet zullen nalaten en Jezus laatste avondmaal in […]
“In vain do they worship Me, teaching as teachings the commands of men.” (Matthew 15:9) SPECIALS SPECIALS SPECIALS SPECIALS Every 10 You Order You Will Get 5 Extra Free Copies. Greetings Supporters, If you are not aware of the existence of this book, it would do you service, to all those who sense something not […]
First of all to come to a good relationship with some one, one has to talk with that person and has to listen to what that person has to tell. God talks to the people by the way of His Word, presented to mankind by the many Bible translations, so that most people can read […]
The One Who created everything and Who gave His Word, did all He did with a purpose and out of love. The Bible teaches us that “God is love.” (1 John 4:8) Everything God does is motivated by love. Out of love created man in His image also with the intention to have a good relationship […]
In the previous writings we saw that the Divine Creator gave His Word to the world so that people could come to know Him. The Bible is a gift from God. It gives us information that we can’t find anywhere else. For example, it tells us that God created the heavens, the earth, and the […]
Over the last six months, the Israeli war against Hamas has escalated significantly. In May 2021, violence erupted between Israeli security forces and Palestinian protesters in East Jerusalem, leading to a series of rocket attacks from Hamas militants based in the Gaza Strip. This led to an 11-day conflict in which Israel launched a series […]
Israel News, February 29, 2024 Event The Iranian regime has given Hezbollah the go-ahead to launch a large-scale attack against Israel within certain parameters, fearing that Israel plans to attack Lebanon in the near future, the Arabic Post reported on Wednesday. The Lebanese terror militia and Israel have traded blows since Hezbollah began its daily attacks against […]
Reuters, February 18, 2024 Event Israel on Sunday formalised its opposition to what it called the “unilateral recognition” of Palestinian statehood, and said any such agreement must be reached through direct negotiations. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brought the “declaratory decision” to a vote in cabinet, which unanimously approved the measure, according to a statement. Netanyahu […]
The Telegraph, February 14, 2024 Event Israeli fighter jets launched the deepest airstrikes yet on Lebanon, reigniting fears of regional war. The series of deadly strikes, amid months of cross-border violence, came after rockets from Hezbollah killed a woman in a town in northern Israel not previously affected by daily border clashes. One woman was killed and eight […]
The Times, March 21, 2024 Event Binyamin Netanyahu has told senior US Republicans that Israel “won’t stop” its planned Rafah offensive, even if it lacks American support. The Israeli prime minister spoke to senators at a lunch in Washington via videolink, after earlier admitting “disagreements” with President Biden over the potential military operation in the […]
Daily Telegraph, February 23, 2024 Event A Hezbollah “military compound” in Lebanon has been hit by an Israeli strike amid ongoing cross-border fire as tensions intensify in the Middle East. Hezbollah claimed that two paramedics affiliated with the group and one of their fighters were killed in a “direct” attack on a civil defence centre […]
From older news, which should not have been missed: The Telegraph, January 29, 2024 Event Are we on the brink of a third world war? In the age of “peak apocalypse”, it is easy to laugh off such a question. After all, we already find ourselves on permanent pandemic-watch, are besieged daily by predictions of ecological […]
Israel World News, January 21, 2024 Event Israel is giving Hezbollah ten more days to move away from its border and then its military will significantly escalate its reactions to the terrorists’ rain of rockets on northern Israel, The Washington Post reported Friday. Although the end-of-January deadline isn’t absolute, according to officials cited by the paper, the Israelis […]
Israel News, January 16, 2024 Event In an ominous sign of an expanding regional war, Jordan has been seen moving its army closer to the border with Israel. Israeli towns along the Jordanian border have reported gunfire towards their communities from the Jordanian soldiers. With the Hamas war raging and the potential for Israel’s North becoming […]
Dit jaar zijn er nog 2 sjabbatot tot Soekot en is er voor elke sjabbat een parasja en de sjabbat voorafgaande aan Rosj Hasjana lezen wij nu de de parasja Nitsawiem.
Verwonderlijk kreeg ik vandaag het bericht van WordPress dat ik tegen een jubileum mag aankijken. Gefeliciteerd met je jubileum bij WordPress.com! Je hebt je 5 jaar geleden geregistreerd op WordPress.com.Bedankt voor het gebruiken van onze service! Ga zo door met bloggen. Wat zijn die vijf jaren voorbij gevlogen. Voordat mijn pen al mijn gedachten kon […]
Met Rosj Hasjana denken wij aan de wondere scheppingsdaad van de Allerhoogste. Spijtig genoeg moeten wij toegeven dat de mensheid van die schepping een janboel heeft gemaakt.
Recent Posts: Unmasking anti Jehovah sites and people
What change, big or small, would you like your blog to make in the world? In Christendom there are lots of denominations but oh such a few, keep really to the biblical teachings. A lot of churches claim they are the only right church. In case they would follow all the teachings of Christ Jesus, […]
The apostle Paul wrote about the dispersion, the dispersed House of Israel. They had been “without covenant“, but Paul was sent out to recover them. So they were “grafted in again“ (Romans 11/23). Or, Grafted back in“. If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been […]
Rob Mac wonders when the door to door will return? He wrote this a while back, and went sharing it again. Many Jehovah’s Witnesses hate the door to door ministry, although they won’t readily admit it. Many Jehovah’s Witnesses have developed ‘creative’ ways of counting their time doing this work, and many strategies for avoiding actually […]
Constantine wanted unity in his realm, and his call in 325 C.E. for a council of his bishops at Nicaea, located in the Eastern, Greek-speaking domain of his empire, across the Bosporus from the new city of Constantinople was in a certain way his goal to achieve some agreement by which many could live. Constantine […]
Superstition, misunderstanding and hatred caused the Christians trouble for many generations, and governmental repression they had to suffer occasionally, as a result of popular disturbances. No systematic effort was made by the imperial authorities to put an end to the movement until the reign of the Roman emperor (249–251) who fought the Gothic invasion of […]
When having many questions an interesting blog to look at: their old and more recent Posts: Questiontime - Vragenuurtje
Babies don’t come with instructions. It’s a learn-as-you go game. Trial and error along the way. Babies don’t come with instructions. Childhood scars and sweet memories Layered with guilt, regret and love. Babies don’t come with instructions. It’s a learn-as-you go game. Instruction Manual
God heeft de wereld van Zijn woord en Zijn profeten voorzien, maar niet altijd wensten de mensen van die leiders of profeten weten, waardoor er verscheidene groeperingen ontstonden die elk dachten of denken de juiste aanbiddingswijze te hebben.
Does one need proof to come to a certain belief? We can look at the signs in nature and find out what happened to certain people in the past, such as Noah and Paul. With the Book of Books, Allah has provided the world with His Interpretative Word.
Heeft men bewijzen nodig om tot een bepaald geloof te komen? Wij kunnen naar de tekenen in de natuur kijken en nagaan wat er in het verleden met bepaalde mensen, zoals Noach en Paulus is gebeurd. Met het Boek der boeken heeft Allah de wereld van Zijn Alzeggend Woord voorzien.
When we speak about “Faith” (iman) we look at acceptance of the Belief in the existence and oneness of God (Allah).and the existence of the Book of books of which God is the author, existing of five main parts, the Torah (revealed to Moses),,the Psalms (revealed to David).and the Writings of Kings and prophets as well as the Gospel (revealed to Jesus) with the writings of his apostles,
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Biblestudents – Bijbelstudenten
A Google Site presenting the Biblestudents with articles in English and Dutch – Voorstelling van de Bijbelstudenten met artikelen in het Nederlands en Engels
Christen Focus
Vanuit de Bijbelonderzoekers oogpunt kijkend waarop de mens hoorrt te focussen
Getuigen voor Christus
Tegenover de Getuigen van Jehovah zijn er ook de Getuigen voor Christus die Getuigenis afleggen voor Christus en zijn God Jehovah.
Relating to God wordPress Blog
Proving there is Only One True God which should be honoured and followed and how we can come in a better relationship with Him by following His only begotten son Jesus Christ as the Way to God.
Unmasking anti-Jehovah people
Debunking all the false sayings of those who fight against non-trinitarian groups and people
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Hoop tot leven
Platform van Marcus Ampe voor hulpverlening en hoop geving
Christadelphian
Belgian Christadelphians
Google site with articles in English from the Belgian Brothers in Christ or Christadelphians
C4All
Christ For All – Presenting ways to find Christ in your life
C4U – Christ for you & Christadelphians for you
Site of Brothers and Sisters in Christ, who love the Creator and His creations and want people to show who is the way to Him and to His Kingdom where there shall be peace for ever.
Our World
News and thoughts about what is happening in the world, brought by the Free Christian Marcus Ampe. – Een kijk op het wereldgebeuren vanuit het standpunt van de Vrije Christen Marcus Ampe
Relating to God wordPress Blog
Proving there is Only One True God which should be honoured and followed and how we can come in a better relationship with Him by following His only begotten son Jesus Christ as the Way to God.
Immanuel Verbondskind
A site where issues of Judaism, Christianity, Islamism, their search for continued authenticity and relevance for today are discussed and looked at the position of the Jeshuaist community wrestling with the non- or anti-religious world
Jeshuaisme
Het Jeshuaisme brengt volgers van de Nazareense rebbe Jeshua (door velen beter gekend als Jezus Christus) te samen en verenigd Jehudiem (Jehoediem) of Joden zowel als goyim of niet-Joden en doet een oproep naar alle soort gelovigen en niet-gelovigen om Je
Jeshuaist
Personal pages of a Flemish Jeshua-ist – Persoonlijke paginas van een Vlaamse Jeshuaist
Jeshuaist communities
A community of real followers of Christ, assembling for sharing the Good News of the works of the Moshiach Jeshua and his heavenly Father the Elohim Hashem Jehovah.
Jeshuaist Focus
Uiteenzetting hoe eenieder tot het Volk kan behoren dat het Koninkrijk van god zal mogen binnentreden
Jeshuaisten – Jeshuaists
Een plaats van en voor liefhebbers van de Joodse Nazarener rabbi Jeshua om het bijbelkennis te versterken. – A site of and for lovers of the Nazarene Jewish rabbi Jeshua to strengthen their knowledge of the Scriptures.
Jeshuaists (or Yeshuaists)
Jeshuaists (or Yeshuaists) are followers of the Nazarene rebbe Jeshua who presented himself as a sent one from the Adonai Most High Elohim, Hashem Jehovah.
Jeshuaists for Jehovah
Followers of the Nazarene rebbe Jeshua witnessing for him and his God, the Only True God of Isrrael, the Elohim Hashem Jehovah.
Our World
News and thoughts about what is happening in the world, brought by the Free Christian Marcus Ampe. – Een kijk op het wereldgebeuren vanuit het standpunt van de Vrije Christen Marcus Ampe
Some View on the world
Marcus Ampe presenting general and religious newsitems. – Wereldse en religieuze nieuwsfeiten bekeken onder de loep van Marcus Ampe.
Stepping Toes
A Lifestyle magazine which can be for some a provocative site created by Marcus Ampe
“The majority of Americans will tell any pollster that they believe in the Ten Commandments. But only a small percentage of those people could even recite the Ten Commandment; and even a smaller percentage have any genuine interest in following them.” {The 10 Commandments in American Culture}
From time immemorable, the will to power of single-mindedly aiming, nations with narrow views of the political normative have sought and acquired power.
Much too many people seem to forget how antisemitic acts can have a profound impact not only on individuals and those close to them, but also on the Jewish community as a whole. Several manifestations may bring forward all sorts of the types of antisemitic acts which we see increasing since a decade and by the growing popularity of two Flemish National parties, the right-wing populist Flemish nationalist Vlaams Belang, with a strong anti-immigrant message that succeeded the right-wing Vlaams Block, and the Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie (N-VA – New Flemish Alliance), a movement that self-identifies with the promotion of civic nationalism, which strives for the secession of Flanders from Belgium.
We do find politicians and organisations for protecting civilians, should recognise historical similarities and see the dangers behind certain events, which, in the beginning may look harmless and childish, but have a very deep and dangerous undertone. Puerile actions may develop into actions out of frustration and dissatisfaction which generates aggression against certain population groups.
we should be thankful to the likes of Martin Luther King
alsowritten
Belgian Biblestudents - Belgische Bijbelstudenten
belgischebroedersinchristus
Bijbelvorsers
Christadelphians
Guestspeaker
Immanuel Verbondskind
jeshuaist
Vragensteller - Inquirer
lizaborstlap
Marcus Ampe
Success Inspirers' World
obligingworldviewer
Fan of Pequeña Sudamérica
Relating to God
From guestwriters 