Hamas Wilfully Misreads

Unfortunately the fundamentalists seem to be reading their texts correctly. It's the moderates who bend over backwards to twist and contort the meaning of their respective texts to sanitize them so they conform to the moral standards of modern society.

Uh, what was the purpose of this empty essay? To add fuel to the fire of anti-Palestine sentiment to somehow justify the Israeli attack on Gaza?

Look, the Israeli action is nothing other than a last minute attempt to inflict more damage on the Palestinians now while they have protection from Bush before he's evicted from the White House. Come January 20, if they try this nonsense again, Obama will cut off aid until they come to their senses. But if they use up their weapons now, then when Obama comes to office they can come to us asking for more money, saying they've depleted their weapons and they need to buy / build more. And he'll have to go along with their request or risk looking anti-semitic. This is the real strategy here, not some "defense" against the silly rockets that haven't killed anyone.

Anonymous preaches the Professor thus:
“The Koran calls for lesser Jihad-armed struggle-only in two specific cases: Self-defense and the alleviation of oppression-”
Which one of those Allah approved jihads apply to the massacre of the Jews of Khaibar by your prophet or his ethnic cleansing of Jews and Christians of Arabia?

Blessed are they who mourn,
for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they shall be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful,
for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called children of God.

Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Oops! So sorry. Wrong religion. Maybe I'll do some perusing of the Koran and Talmud, cherry-pick similar passages and pass THEM off as the religion that should prevail for its strict observance of morality.

Hamas is the end result of exploitation and subjugation. If the occupation and theft of Palestinian lands were to end, overnight Hamas would have no rallying cry. To end the conflict faster, muslim nations which are oil producers need to refuse to sell to the Israelis. A non violent end toward peace. Settlements need to be destroyed financially not with bombs.

Martin,

How are we to interpret to following passage?

The Lord said to Moses,

"Be careful to observe all my statutes and all of my decrees; otherwise the land where I am bringing you to dwell will vomit you out." Leviticus 20:22

It's time for the world community to impose a solution that allows for the right of return and equal voting rights for the Palestinian people.

Professor,
The conflict in and over Palestine is not religious at all:it is about the stolen Palestine by illegal armed hordes of jewish illegal immigrants sumggled by and under the British mandate between ww1 and 1948;the number of jews in PAlestine was 12,000 in 1882 and over 600,000 in 1948!!!!!!!!The indigenous Palestinians were consulted about those illegal jewish immigrants.

Then those illegal jewish immigrants declared a "state" in 1948-and ethnically cleanesed over 70% of the indigenous Palestinian Arabs to make room for those illegal jewish immigrants.

The Koran calls for lesser Jihad-armed struggle-only in two specific cases: Self-defence and the alleviation of oppression-and both situations fully apply to the Palestine Question-the Palestinians are defending themselves from alien jewish aggression and occupation of PAlestine-all of it,every inch and evry iota of its soil-and the rest of Arab and Muslim world is obliged to support the oppressed Palestinians who have languishing for sixty years either in refugees camps or under foreign jewish occupation.

There is absloutely nothing radiacl,extremist or fanatic about any people in the world defending themselves and fighting till the end of times to recover their homeland,in this case,historic Palsetine,from those alien invading jews-that simple.

The French evicted the invading Nazis,the Alegerians evicted colonial France,and the American revolution kicked out colonail Britian.

Those invading jews are not part of the Arab East and will never be-they are alien in every way and the sooner they pack up and leave the better-or they will be evnetually evicted as the Crusaders were. jewish claims based on biblicla myths-are just that-they are myths.

interesting how everyone is coming up ANONYMOUS:

ANONYMOUS:

You said: “Any group that goes to war insists that God is on its side. They don't logically arrive at the conclusion after prolonged study of religious texts. “

Are you implying that God or Allah have never sent their people to war.

If so, you are mistaken.

Mark
Always seek truth.

HOLY BOOKS OR APARTHEID?

Sadly, Israel has two problems to solve:

The first, and perhaps most serious, is the Israeli apartheid government which operates the largest concentration camp in the world at Gaza. The United Nations defines apartheid as a crime against humanity and ranks it with genocide. Israel knows this, but feels it has little choice since it would cease to exist as a state on the principle of one-man, one vote and full legal and political equality for its Arab population. It is simply outnumbered and therefore, if you are not a Jew, you are not equal. It is racial preservation no different than the apartheid policies of the Afrikaner National Party and for essentially the same reasons.

The second problem is the imbalance of weaponry. Israel will never treat seriously with an unarmed population incapable of adequately defending its interests. The political temptation to define Palestinian interests solely in favor Israel is far too great. Simply put, there is no military reason to make any real political concession. Palestine, in Israeli terms, must be dealt with by diktat. A state too weak to defend itself, let alone its interests, commands no bargaining power in the middle east. Israel will take whatever it wants.

Home made rockets, AK47s, suicide bombers, these are all hopeless against the firepower of a modern military state. Israel, if anyone, knows how very hopeless it is because it was not so long ago that roles were reversed and they were the bomb throwers! Israel makes certain that the Palestinians remain unarmed and militarily helpless for if they possessed equal weapons, a frightened Israel would immediately withdraw and destroy Palestine with its very substantial nuclear arsenal.

In the present Gaza conflict, there is no equality, no true test of arms or honor, no resolution of political questions, it is merely a vicious, unconscionable slaughter of civilians in the time honored tradition of Airmarshal (mad bomber) Harris - 4 Israeli dead against thousands of Palestinians - a slaughter to maintain supremacy, to maintain apartheid, to maintain an ancient military theocracy.

Under these conditions, any people is justified in its use of force to fight apartheid - it is a criminal act under international law. Opposition to criminal regimes is not only legitimate, it is the plain duty of any free people and in that struggle, Hamas should be supported by the United Nations and all good people who oppose apartheid regimes.

The end of apartheid is the beginning of peace in the Middle East.

How is the hamas of today different than the Catholic Church's actions of the Dark Ages?

You write: "apocalyptic groups in U. S. Christianity " huh ?

Gee.. I read this reference when people are talking about Hamas, Hezzbollah, Al Qida, or any one the many active Islamic Militant groups.. but darn it.. I can never find one in my neighborhood.. all our Churchs seem pretty tame.

Can someone tell me where these apocalyptic Christians are hiding ?

It seems that we have two different Anonymous here.
That name is always suspect, as are the comments made in that name.

Mr. Marty. Hamas would not be the only one that willfully misreads spiritual text for their own ends and purposes. Old as the hills that practice. You would have a deep history of it in your own tradition. Noone vested in supporting their own more exclusive perception would cop to it. Only those seeking truth might.

The study of religion reveals that there are generally two kinds of believers, those who devote themselves to the spirit of their faith, and those who do not and become "surface" believers. Skimming the surface of Biblical faith allows anyone to pick and choose from the diverse texts in the Hebrew and Christian religion to advance whatever the person wants. These folks, a number of them important leaders, always pervert rather than advance religion. I am always amazed at the leaders who preach fear of God who seem to have no fear of God themselves.

Any group that goes to war insists that God is on its side. They don't logically arrive at the conclusion after prolonged study of religious texts. It comes to them as in a dream. Making war is highly entertaining for some, highly lucrative for others, and horrifying for those too close to the battlegrounds. Leaders are willing to fight to the last drop of somebody else's blood. O! The glory of martyrdom in the name of God.

“Admittedly, a few lines in otherwise-never-paid-attention-to Levitical commands and fewer lines (none from Jesus) in Paul's writings in the New Testament do get cited. Not made clear is why those lines are decisive and so many others are not. For example, Jesus and Paul do unite in opposing remarriage of persons divorced (on grounds other than adultery) and in most congregations such persons are welcomed, honored, and allowed to be heard if they oppose same-sex marriage.”

I’m commenting on your above 12/15/08 post.

Jesus would have no reason to comment on homosexuality specifically. He came to shepherd God’s chosen people: the Jews (Matthew 2:1-6; 10:5-6; 15:21-24) At that time the Jews were still under the Mosaic Law, which was very clear about homosexuality (Leviticus 18:22). Jesus did comment about divorce which the Jews had twisted for their own selfish purposes (Matthew 19:8-9). Paul’s comments regarding homosexuality are directed to “the nations”- gentiles who had become Christian. These were not familiar with the standards set out in the Mosaic Law and came out of a system of things where all manner of fornication was practiced. They needed this specific counsel (1Corinthians 6:9-11). The Bible clearly shows that all fornication goes against God’s standards and practicers of such will have no part in His Kingdom. Tell people otherwise is misleading. To change God’s standards to fit the social norm is something Jesus preached against (Matthew 12:33-37). In this time of the end, those who worship the true God will be clearly identified by their behavior. Those who teach false doctrines will also be clearly identified by their teachings. (2 Peter 2:1-22)
“1 However, there also came to be false prophets among the people, as there will also be false teachers among YOU. These very ones will quietly bring in destructive sects and will disown even the owner that bought them, bringing speedy destruction upon themselves. 2 Furthermore, many will follow their acts of loose conduct, and on account of these the way of the truth will be spoken of abusively.”……” 14 They have eyes full of adultery and unable to desist from sin, and they entice unsteady souls. They have a heart trained in covetousness. They are accursed children. 15 Abandoning the straight path, they have been misled. They have followed the path of Ba´laam, [the son] of Be´or, who loved the reward of wrongdoing,”….
It’s wicked to set yourself up as a teacher and then dismiss the counsel of the Bible (Revelation 18:1-5). Your comments reveal you do not have an accurate understanding of God’s Word.

Using sacred texts to justify secular actions is a slippery slope. While it is reasonable to expect that spiritual beliefs lie at the core of one's view of right and wrong and thus affects political decision making, anything done that is justified by some reward in an afterlife, instead of making people's lives better in the here and now, is sacrilege against the universal, secular role that simple humanism should play in the affairs of government.

Reading Marty's piece of relativism-style twaddle was a waste of 30 seconds of my existence.

The below should read: "Hamas isn't truly a religious organization..."

Hamas is turly a religious organization. It's a nationalist organization no different from the IRA or the Tamil Tigers, both of which were/are nationalist movements first and religious movements second. The inability of people like Mr. Marty and nearly every Western media commentator to understand this is precisely why the US and Israel are completely impotent in their ability to deal with Hamas.

"When any modern religiously-informed nation or national movement claims a monopoly on response to divine commands, they jeopardize all the positive messages in the scriptures and the faiths."

Isn't the justification for Israel that God gave the land to the Jews? Who is using religion here? Who created all these refugees?

Sorry, but the article is nonsense.

After this commentary, they should strip Marty of his 'Distinguished' adjective.

You could replace thw world muslim with jew, Hamas with Israel, and Islam with Judaism and then it would make sense.

Has Islam been distorted around the world to justify murder (note I dont call it terorism)?? Sure it has. Al Queda is proof of that. But Hamas and Al Queda are not equal. Hamas is a resistance and liberation organization.

Israel is the state that was established based on religion. You should try and get your facts right in your old age lest you pass with ignorance and end up having to meet a muslim/hindu/christian god instead of your chosen jewish god.

It is time the world recognizes that these radicals will do anything to kill Jews in an effort to wipe out Israel, including killing their own people. Muslims killed in efforts to kill Jews and any non-Muslim, conveniently called infidels, will be rewarded in the afterlife. Incredible that Muslims will believe they can ignore the basic commandment of all religions, "Thou Shall not Kill".

Genocide is the right word for it. The objective is to kill others unlike themselves. It is mob mentality on a global scale.

Islam has become a convenient excuse for the genocide. People will look back at this period in history someday and wonder how so many Muslims could sit by instead of rising up for what is right and good, the tenets of their religion.

Martin Marty is of course right: Muslims ought to be more reasonable. But Islam is not reasonable. It is a terroristic religion dangerous to all civilized life and must be exterminated. Now, not later.

As always, Marty is right on target. Fundamentalisms (his phrase I believe) of all sorts misread sacred texts to support their agendas. Many of us hope for and seek an interpretive principle grounded in a moral vision that seeks peace with justice for all. That produces a very different approach to the reading of many texts.

Thank you for the reasoned explanation of the misuse of religious texts by people of ill will to justify their actions. The language of text criticism and hermaneutics (currently the province of scholars and specialists) needs to become a greater part of the public discussion of the role of religion in the world. We are too much at the hands of those who are bent on forcing religion through the constrained filter of fundementalism -- be they religious folks or hostile secular humanists, such as those featured regularly in the On Faith blog of the Washington Post.