Confused allegiance

If you have broadband and a strong stomach check out this video. Thanks to Nick Carl for sending it to me.

I know well how the Bible can be used to justify almost any cause but it still stuns me when I see something like this. That anyone could think that Jesus would condone the atomic annihilation of a people boggles my mind. There is a strong Zionist Christian movement in South Africa too, though it often is subtler than what is portrayed in the video.

Many Jewish people including most of the Hasidic community and an international group called Not In My Name refute the equation of the Israeli state with the Jewish people. That God would need the re-establishment of Israel as a nation state as a pre-requisite for creating heaven on earth beggars the imagination – what kind of superficial, anthropomorphic idea of God is that??!!

Of course, nationalism creeps insidiously into the minds of faithful people everywhere, stealing people's loyalty for the state. Our education department here in SA is proposing a pledge that children should say at school. Most people don’t seem to have a problem with that but the chances are that if something like this is adopted that it will become more than a nice idea but rather an obligatory test of belonging to the right crowd. It is inevitable that something created to inspire nationalist fervor will be used to establish the boundaries of belonging. Will parents, teachers or students be allowed to abstain from the pledge – probably – but at what cost to themselves?

Jesus required no pledge: “Let your yes be yes and your no be no.”