October 10, 2023
Dear Allen Temple Family,
I know you have seen like I have the war that has ensued in Israel. Having visited and studied in Israel and Palestine for three consecutive summers, my heart is deeply grieved by what I am witnessing. I mourn the loss of life and worry about the health and safety of ministry colleagues (Israeli and Palestinian) in the area.
And yet, it is equally important to me that we understand the historical context that has brought us to this place. Rather than rehearse the lengthy and complicated details, I am sharing an article written by Mark Wingfield with Baptist News Global. He has provided a balanced analysis and consulted trusted voices that have preached from our pulpit like Judge Wendell Griffin, Pastor of New Millennium Church in Arkansas. The article is lengthy but necessary. Here is an excerpt:
Ashlee Wiest-Laird, pastor of First Baptist Church of Jamaica Plain, Mass., served four years as the Southern Baptist chaplain at Harvard University and then spent a year working with Sabeel Liberation Theology Center and the Middle East Council of Churches in Jerusalem.Here’s how she explained the situation to me: “What is happening now in Palestine/Israel is a natural outcome of 75 years of colonization and oppression. Of the 2.1 million people living in the Gaza Strip, two-thirds are refugees from areas that were incorporated into the state of Israel in 1948.“Not only have they been denied the right to return to their homes, but since the Oslo Accords they and their Gazan neighbors have effectively been prisoners of war. Trapped on a tiny piece of land, chronically denied water, electricity and economic development, Gazans endure the worst of the Palestinian experience. For the last 15 years, they have additionally suffered repeated attacks and bombings by the Israeli military that have killed and wounded thousands.”“If the atrocities faced by Palestinians in Gaza were happening in the Ukraine, the world would be mortified. And yet, when in desperation, Palestinians fight back, they are labeled terrorists.”And then this: “If the atrocities faced by Palestinians in Gaza were happening in the Ukraine, the world would be mortified. And yet, when in desperation, Palestinians fight back, they are labeled terrorists.”Wiest-Laird said she does not condone killing of any kind and mourns the loss of hundreds of Israeli lives, just as she mourns the perpetual loss of Palestinian lives under Israeli occupation.“Having visited the Gaza Strip, I can certainly understand the despair and hopelessness and rage that leads the oppressed to commit acts of violence in the struggle for their own freedom and existence,” she added. “Israel is a nation-state (that) receives $3.8 billion per year from the United States with the fourth most powerful army on the planet. It seems while everyone is eager to condemn the violence of Hamas, very few are willing to name the state-sanctioned violence that takes place day in and day out to the Palestinian people.“Do their lives not matter? Do they not have a right to resist oppression and seek self-determination? This is not a conflict of equal parties by any stretch of the imagination.”Again, there are no “good guys” in this war.
LET US PRAY - LORD, HAVE MERCY!
Blessings to you,
Dr. Jacqueline A. Thompson
Senior Pastor
