Posted on 09/12/2014 10:16:02 PM PDT by chessplayer
Aggressively supporting Israel is a political winner for conservatives. But when it comes at the expense of persecuted Christians who fear for their lives...
Since the second half of the 20th century, some of my fellow Christians have been the most persecuted religious group in the world. They still are. You probably are surprised to hear this. That's because most of these persecuted Christians don't live in the West. They are, as the awful phrase has it, too foreign for the right and too Christian for the left.
In recent weeks and months, however, the West has heard about the plight of at least one set of these persecuted Christians: those in the Middle East. These communities, many of which date back to the very beginning of Christianity, are now facing outright extinction. And it's happening at the hands of ISIS, the West's Public Enemy No. 1.
A summit was held this week in Washington, D.C., in support of Middle East Christians, and Cruz was supposed to be a keynote speaker. However, right in the second paragraph of his speech, he began exalting Israel. After a while, the assembly started to boo and heckle him. Cruz said, "If you will not stand with Israel and the Jews, then I will not stand with you," and left the podium.
Keep in mind that many Christians in the Middle East are ethnic Arabs who live under Israel's occupation of the West Bank, and therefore have negative feelings about Israel. Of course, there are also many Middle East Christians who are supporters of Israel (indeed, there are even Arab Christians who serve, with distinction, in the Israeli Defense Forces).
As the excellent coverage, transcript, and recording provided by The American Conservative's Jonathan Coppage shows, the audience in Washington applauded Cruz's first lines of support for Israel and the Jews. The crowd turned against him ONLY WHEN IT BECAME CLEAR that he was launching into a rah-rah pro-Israel stump speech that had NOTHING to do with what they were doing there.
Cruz tarred and attacked one of the most powerless and beleaguered minorities in the world, solely for personal political gain. He was strong against the weak.
In the end, what was most striking about Cruz's tirade was the last phrase: "If you will not stand with Israel and the Jews, then I will not stand with you." Cruz was literally standing in a room with his fellow Christians. In the Bible, the idea of the fellowship of Christian believers is a very important one, and to break fellowship is to put oneself outside the community. What Cruz was saying was that agreeing to his views on Israel was more important as a badge of fellowship than believing in Jesus Christ.
Cruz is a Zionist!
That is a good thing.
I love the hell outta some Ted Cruz. I just think his people jacked him up on this and I’m not happy about it. It is not wise to tell people facing genocide who their friends are when they know different. It was boilerplate and he should have known better.
No....I'm speaking about the same ones Ted Cruz was.
Whats the name of the refugee camp for Iraqi Christians in Israel? Jordan? Lebanon? Turkey? Name one!
Should I google that...like you did???
Google can’t find it. You?
It is not wise to tell people facing genocide who their friends are
So you have some obscure information about refuge camps in Israel and this is suppose to prove something....like I said you are clueless. But the fact that there are such camps in Israel does prove one thing...they care more about human life and Christian Arab life in particular than these people you are so fond of does... Thanks for that info!!!
Forget it ...I’ve already made that point to him!
There is no refugee camp. Get it? Cruz was wrong. Eventually you will accept it.
In hindsight, was Cruz wrong on everything else he did that made the news, in your opinion?
Maybe you missed the part about the shocking discovery that 40% of Evangelicals don’t vote, period. If Cruz, by gaining their natural support, turns out 5 million of them in ‘16, resulting in a landslide, will Cruz still be ‘wrong’ on this?
You want Cruz for POTUS but undermine potential GOTV that may well put him there?
Pandering in the face of genocide is unwise. It’s beneath the man and I’m not pleased about it.
Sorry, I failed to answer your question. No, Ted was right on about everything else he said and did.
So this is your big gotha moment.....so the fact that you keep arguing the rights of some people who have no respect for the rights of some others just keeps going over your head means nothing!!
I don’t understand your question. I want to see middle eastern Christians receive the same kind of charity the rest of the world gets when they are massacred. From everyone. Not just France.
If there are no refugee camps in Israel doesn’t mean there is no assistance by Israel, This simple Google search “Israel assisting refugees” shows they are doing plenty!!
You can speak on generalities and lofty platitudes all that you want, but we are talking about this conference and it’s true meaning. It served neither as a defense of Christianity nor about anything to do with Christian values. It was a hive of Hezbollah and sympathizers of various muslim extremists. They used Christianity as a cover story in hopes to mainstream radicalism...similarly to CAIR/Hamas and etc.
This was akin to him being invited to a mosque and finding that it supported and espoused jihad (along with exposing it).
Seperate what you hoped this gathering was about and what it actually was and you will find the truth.
Christians are suffering and most of these people at this conference couldn’t give a damn. They want a caliphate with Christians as their slaves.
Virtually every middle east refugee gets assistance from the world....strangely very little comes from most middle eastern countries.....more than likely because they are the ones responsible for most them being refugees!!
Ted is not PANDERING. His support for Israel is real and committed... just like American Evangelicals. When those Evangelicals learn that Cruz shares their values and beliefs, and is not a mushy mormon RINO, who they refused to vote for, and Cruz ends up with 5+ million more votes than Romney, because they finally feel represented, you will still be complaining.
You are not a Cruz supporter. Good camoflage job, though.
I don’t doubt at all that there were some infiltration at this conference, nor do I think Ted handled them incorrectly. I just think there is some damage control spin going on about the percentages of that to protect him and it’s obvious. I do believe it’s possible the vast majority of attendes were authentic. Even if I’m wrong (don’t have the data) it was an opportunity to speak to the middle eastern Christians from what I hope is our next President and he blew it.
This must be a romney guy who wants Perry. Nothing else fits.
I think maybe you have him pegged too!!!
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