Bibi, Obamney, and a Rebuke

A note from the ESV Study Bible by Marvin R. Wilson:

"Eschatology should never annul justice. If evangelicals believe Israel has an unconditional divine right to the land, it would be unwise to uphold such a claim without first thinking through its implications for justice and compassion toward every inhabitant of the land. For evangelicals to express their 'solidarity' with Israel, however, it need not imply evangelical support for any unjust treatment of Palestinian Arabs... The preservation and return of the Jewish people to their ancestral homeland is, at the very least, evidence of God's ongoing faithfulness and love for them (Rom. 11:1, 28-29). Whatever millennial view evangelicals hold, they must not absolutize the land, nor in any way idolize it. God alone is sovereign; he is Lord of life, Lord of history, and Lord of land."

A short post from Samuel Goldman on the "morally ambiguous realities" that pro-Israel evangelicals ought to consider:

And what about Israel itself? Romney implicitly condemns apartheid as an intolerable violation of human rights. According to a survey released today, however, 58 percent of Israel’s own citizens believe that it practices apartheid policies. What’s more, many Israelis are quite satisfied with that state of affairs. The ultra-Orthodox, in particular, express overwhelming approval for denying votes, jobs, and even public roads to Arabs both within Israel proper and in the territories.

And finally, a rebuke to everyone -- including yours truly -- with a little perspective:

It’s hardly an original observation, but watching the last month of the American presidential contest from Europe really brings home how crackpot Americans are about their elections. From here, there appears to be very, very little difference between Obama and Romney. Obama is generally more conservative than the French conservatives, for crying out loud! Hell, he’s more conservative than Richard Nixon. And for American liberals who think Romney is a right-wing whack job, and that crazy crypto-fascists are steadily advancing, they should be in a country where the National Front is a major political player.

An American friend who lives here with her French husband and kids told me the other day that her folks back home keep sending her alerts warning her that the United States is in maximum peril from four more years of the Kenyan Muslim Marxist in the White House. If Obama is re-elected, the story goes (and I get this same narrative in my e-mail in-box daily), we will LOSE AMERICA! We just looked at each other, shook our heads, and laughed.

After watching a couple of excellent documentaries last night on the Cuban missile crisis (this week being the 50th anniversary of that event), I was reminded that we are nowhere on the brink -- which is why brinkmanship toward Iran or anyone else is completely unnecessary.

It's personally disappointing that our general government has stepped grossly outside its constitutional bounds, that fear-mongering (among Christians!) has led to the build up of a broadly accepted surveillance state, and our economy is forced to swim upstream against monetary policies and regulations that are partial and unjust.

Nevertheless, the fate of civilization does not hinge on this election.