1. We believe in God as the Creator. This God created all things, visible and invisible.

2. We believe in God as Jesus. Jesus is God. God came to earth in the form of a human and lived among us for some thirty-three years. He did mighty miracles, sided with the poor, and spoke out against oppression and abuse among the clergy. He was well liked by most people of his day. A lot of his friends were people who were looked down on in society: the poor, the sick, outcasts, prostitutes, and even tax collectors. He told great stories with significant truths about people, God, power, love, justice, spirituality, forgiveness, and the like. Sometimes he got in people’s faces and challenged their authority; this would get him in a lot of trouble, and eventually executed. He proclaimed himself to be both the Messiah as well as God in the flesh. He proved all this by dying on the cross and coming back to life three days later in the flesh. He spoke to a lot of people during the next month, and many knew he had come back to life. After that month was over, he elevated into the clouds in front of a crowd of people. In these ways, he proved that he was truly the Messiah and truly God on Earth.

3. We believe in God as Spirit that dwells within us. When we pray, our prayers don’t travel through some time-space continuum; they are heard by God that is already inside of us. God’s spirit in us can be our comforter, our guide, and our supporter throughout life, if we allow God to become these things to us.

4. We believe that God is good. God is nothing but good. God is good all the time, and all the time God is good. God is just and loving, among many other words that describe good characteristics.

5. We believe that every person, throughout their lives, does good things and bad things. In doing bad things, we have turned away from God. We all choose to turn from God in one way or another, which is pretty dumb once you think of it. When we do bad things, we are in line for punishment, as life has prescribed. This punishment comes not only from those who we have harmed, but takes on a spiritual form as well. To make amends with people we have hurt, we must sacrifice ourselves to make things right with them. God, on the other hand, is the one who steps out first and makes the sacrifice so that we might be good with God again. This happened at the death of Jesus. Jesus, God on Earth, suffered and died so that he could be the sacrifice that will reunite people with God. Because of his death, our wrongs are forgiven by God if we choose to follow God.

6. We believe we should all make this choice to follow God. It is the best decision we can make in life. While we are sacrificing up by giving our lives to God, we are receiving something unexpectantly better: God in our life.

7. We believe it is good to praise God, to worship God as the one we submit to. A better life begins the day we give up our own will and begin to submit to God’s will. Praising God lifts up our spirits. It is awesome! We were made to praise God, and we feel fulfilled when we do.

8. We believe that God is still calling us to follow God. God does this primarily through the story of when God came to Earth as Jesus and died so that our wrongs would be forgiven.

9. We believe that God wants Christians to help show others the story of Jesus, so that they too can recognize their wrong doings, repent to God, and have a restored relationship with God.

10. We believe that God loves life. God created life. God created human life. God gave us a sex drive so that we might take part in the creation of life. God is always trying to help people and protect people so they don’t live under persecution, slavery, tyranny, abuse, and neglect. God is always instructing us to do good things for ourselves and for others. Yes, God wants us to grow and mature through our struggles, but God also wants us to experience joy and love and peace and good times. Jesus went to a lot of parties in his day, hung out, and had a good time with his friends. In the Bible, God commands us to have long-ass parties at different times of the year to celebrate the good things God is doing for us.

11. We believe that God hates death. This is why Jesus healed people. This is why he encourages us so much to be fair to each other. When Jesus came back to life, he had conquered death. Yes, he was the sacrifice for our wrongdoings, but the injustices that led to his execution were not strong enough to keep him dead! When he came back to life, it told us that injustice does not have the last say, that God can overcome the death that injustice brings.

12. We believe that all Christians are united as one big group of Christians. No one group of Christians has anything special about them that other Christians don’t have. We are all equally awesome to God!

13. We believe that Jesus will come back to Earth sometime in the future. When he comes again, he will make everything right. He will judge us all at that time, everyone who has ever lived. This will bring on the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine) and will create the afterlife of Heaven and Hell.

14. We believe that the Bible is the story of God and humans and salvation. It is what we base our beliefs and practices on, as we believe that the Bible is from God.

15. We believe God is all about fairness. The Bible uses words like justice and righteousness to describe the idea of fairness. In the Bible, we see God freeing us when we were slaves, then creating a peaceful and prosperous life for us, and staying with us after all that. The prophets, or “messengers” of God, then spoke to us, now a free and prosperous people, when we got cocky and began to oppress one another. God also taught us about economic redistribution, and called it “Jubilee.” Landless people got land back that had been taken from their ancestors, and all debts were cancelled. God envisions a day when “everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid.”

16. We believe God is all about peace. Jesus died so that we might have peace with God. God wants us to have complete peace: free from the fear of bodily harm, a deep spiritual connection to God, good relationships with other people, and the ability to work hard and make a decent living without fear of violence or oppression. Some of us think that God prohibits all acts of violence, while others think that there may be a time and place for the appropriate use of violence; we all agree that part of our mission as Christians is to help create the conditions where violence would be less. This is where the fairness/justice thing comes in.

17. We believe that all humans are created in the image and likeness of God, a God who is loving and just. No matter our gender, race, nationality, physical ability, mental ability, or anything else, we are all equally wonderful and worthy to God. God hates the power inequalities that we have created along the lines of gender, race, nationality, physical ability, mental ability, economic well-being, etc. God is about love, fairness, peace, and equality.

18. We believe that God wants Christians to do good things for other people, especially those that really need it. This could come in the form of medical assistance, gifts of money, job creation and job training, helping people become economically fruitful, or even lending an open ear to someone with a crisis. By serving others, we serve God. God promises us a joy in serving others.

19. We believe that God wants us to get together with other Christians and try to do life together. We call this church. We are to see our church friends like family.

20. We believe that God causes miracles to happen all the time. God can do whatever God wants, so far as it is good. God gives some Christians the ability to speak in human languages they have never known before. God gives other Christians the ability to speak in languages that only angels can understand. God often chooses to heal diseases in people and help people out in other unexpected ways that temporarily change the structure of the physical world.

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“Do not rejoice when your enemies fall,
and do not let your heart be glad when they stumble.”
Proverbs 24:17

We feel compelled to respond today to the killing of Osama bin Laden by the United States and to the jubilant response across the nation.

A nation has a right to defend itself. From the perspective of the fundamental national security of the United States, this action is legitimately viewed as an expression of self-defense.

But as Christians, we believe that there can no celebrating, no dancing in the streets, no joy, in relation to the death of Osama bin Laden. In obedience to scripture, there can be no rejoicing when our enemies fall.

In that sense, President Obama’s sober announcement was far preferable to the happy celebrations outside the White House, in New York, and around the country, however predictable and even cathartic they may be.

For those of us who embrace a version of the just war theory, honed carefully over the centuries of Christian tradition, our response is disciplined by belief that war itself is tragic and that all killing in war, even in self-defense, must be treated with sobriety and even mournfulness. War and all of its killing reflects the brokenness of our world. That is the proper spirit with which to greet this news.

This event does provide new opportunities for our nation.

President Obama’s respectful treatment of Islam in his remarks, and his declaration that Osama bin Laden’s body was treated with respect according to Islamic custom, offers all of us an opportunity to follow that example and turn away from the rising disrespect toward Muslims in our nation.

A second opportunity is for the United States to reconsider the questionable moves we have made in the name of the war on terror. From our perspective, this includes the indefinite detentions of scores of men at Guantanamo Bay, the failure to undertake an official investigation of detainee interrogation practices, the increase in Predator attacks in Pakistan, and the expansion rather than ending of the ten-year-old war in Afghanistan.

We also now have the opportunity for national reflection on how our broader military and foreign policies–including the placement of our troops throughout the largely Muslim Arab world, our posture on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and our regular military interventions around the world, create a steady supply of new enemies.

There can never be any moral justification for terrorist attacks on innocent people, such as the terrible deeds of 9/11. But we must recognize that to the extent that our nation’s policies routinely create enemies, we can kill a Bin Laden on May 1 and face ten more like him on May 2. Might it now be possible for us to have an honest national conversation about these issues?

May we learn the right lessons from the news of this day. For Jesus’ sake.

“The Government Is Drowning Us All”

Uri Avnery attacked by rightist thugs

A disaster was averted yesterday (June 5) at Tel-Aviv’s Museum Square, when rightists threw a smoke grenade into the middle of the protest rally, obviously hoping for a panic to break out and cause the protesters to trample on each other. But the demonstrators remained calm, nobody started to run and just a small space in the middle of the crowd remained empty. The speaker did not stop talking even when the cloud of smoke reached the stage. The audience included many children.

Half an hour later, a dozen rightist thugs attacked Gush Shalom’s 86 year old Uri Avnery, when he was on his way from the rally in the company of his wife, Rachel, Adam Keller and his wife Beate Siversmidt. Avnery had just entered a taxi, when a dozen rightist thugs attacked him and tried to drag him out of the car. At the critical moment, the police arrived and made it possible for the car to leave. Gush spokesman Adam Keller said: “These cowards did not dare to attack us when we were many, but they were heroes when they caught Avnery alone.”

The incident took place when the more than 10 thousand demonstrators were dispersing, after marching through the streets of Tel Aviv in protest against the attack on the Gaza-bound aid flotilla.

Not only was this one of the largest peace demonstrations for a long time, but also the first time that all parts of the Israeli peace camp – from Gush Shalom and Hadash to Peace Now and Meretz – did unite for common action

The main slogan was “The Government Is Drowning All of Us” and “We must Row towards Peace!” – alluding to the attack on the flotilla. The protesters called in unison “Jews and Arabs Refuse to be Enemies!”

The demonstrators assembled at Rabin Square and marched to Museum Square, where the protest rally was held. Originally, this was planned as a demonstration against the occupation on its 43th anniversary, and for peace based on “Two States for Two Peoples” and “Jerusalem – Capital of the Two States”, but recent events turned it mainly into a protest against the attack on the flotilla.

One of the new sights was the great number of national flags, which were flown alongside the red flags of Hadash, the green flags of Meretz and the two-flag emblems of Gush Shalom. Many peace activists have decided that the national flag should no longer be left to the rightists.

“The violence of the rightists is a direct result of the brainwashing, which has been going on throughout the last week,” Avnery commented. “A huge propaganda machine has incited the public in order to cover up the terrible mistakes made by our political and military leadership, mistakes which are becoming worse from day to day.”

Lying About The Gaza Flotilla Disaster

It’s been one lie after another in the US media about the Israeli attack on the Gaza-bound relief flotilla. No matter that the Israeli media views the whole incident as a debacle for Israel, in this country the Israel-can-do-no-wrong crowd is on overdrive defending the operation. As usual, facts don’t matter to them.

Except they do.

The first thing you need to know about the Gaza flotilla disaster is that the intention of the activists on board the ships was to break the Israeli blockade. Delivering the embargoed goods was incidental.

In other words, the activists were like the civil rights demonstrators who sat down at segregated lunch counters throughout the South and refused to leave until they were served. Their goal was not really to get breakfast. It was to end segregation.

That fact is so obvious that it is hard to believe that the “pro-Israel” lobby is using it as an indictment.

Of course the goal of the flotilla was to break the blockade. Of course Martin Luther King provoked the civil authorities of the South to break segregation. Of course the Solidarity movement used workers’ rights as a pretext to break Soviet-imposed Communism.

The bottom line is that the men and women of the flotilla had every right to attempt to destroy an illegal blockade that Israel had no legal standing to impose and which was designed to inflict collective punishment on the people of Gaza. (There is no truth to the story that Israel would have delivered the goods on the ships to Gaza if asked; the Israelis never made that offer and, judging by years of precedent, would have blocked any delivery).

As for the Israeli argument that its soldiers were attacked, that is ridiculous. Israeli commandos were ordered to board a civilian ship in international waters and the government that sent them claims that the resisting passengers attacked them without provocation. This is like a carjacker complaining to the police that the driver bashed him with a crowbar that was under the seat. Neither carjackers nor hijackers should expect their victims to acquiesce peacefully.

Here are the facts about life in Gaza today — facts that only can be changed by breaking the blockade. These data come from the American Near East Relief Association (ANERA), which provides relief to Gazans to the extent permitted by the Israeli (and American) authorities. ANERA is neither “pro-Israel” nor “pro-Palestinian.” It has no political agenda at all. It merely determines what human needs are and tries to respond to them.

8 out of 10 Gazans depend on foreign aid to survive.

The World Food Program says Gaza requires a minimum of 400 trucks a day to meet basic nutritional needs – yet an average of just 171 trucks worth of supplies enters Gaza every week,

Clothes that were held in the port of Ashdod for over a year were released into Gaza but arrived covered with mold and mildew, unusable.

95% of Gaza’s water fails World Health Organization standards leaving thousands of newborns at risk of poisoning.

Anemia for children under the age of 5 is estimated at 48%.

75 million liters of untreated sewage are pumped into the Mediterranean Sea every day – because piping and spare parts are not permitted.

During the 2009 bombing:

More than 120,000 jobs were lost as Gaza’s industrial zone was destroyed… 15,000 homes and apartments were damaged or destroyed… 1/3 of all schools were destroyed.

None of these can be rebuilt, because construction supplies are kept out by the Israeli authorities.

Also, check this out from The Economist. It is a partial list of commodities allowed into Gaza and commodities banned.

So what is the blockade about?

It is not about stopping terrorism. Hamas has repeatedly offered Israel an indefinite cease-fire in exchange for lifting the blockade. And, on a half dozen occasions, Israel accepted the deal but did not live up to its side of it. In fact, the 2009 war began after Israel ignored its commitments under the Gaza cease-fire agreement, continued the blockade, and then provoked the resumption of attacks on Sderot through a series of targeted assassinations of Palestinians (Israel claims that no cease-fire agreement curtails its right to kill any Palestinian it deems to be a terrorist).

Israel asserts that it will not accept any long-term cease-fire agreement with Hamas because Hamas does not recognize its right to exist.

But Israel does not need the permission of anyone — let alone Hamas — to exist. All it needs from Hamas is an end to violence and that is precisely what Hamas is offering, in exchange for lifting the blockade.

This is not to say that Hamas need never recognize Israel. It should. But it is ridiculous to insist on recognition as a precondition for anything. Recognition would be the end result of negotiations, not a precondition for it.

But that is not what Israel wants. It wants to destroy Hamas because it is a terrorist organization. And that makes sense until one realizes that the African National Congress, Sinn Fein, the Israeli Irgun, the Algerian FLN and a host of other resistance movements were called terrorist organizations before negotiations brought them to power. Former Israeli Prime Ministers Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir were both unabashed terrorists prior to their entrance into respectable politics. And so what? If dealing with terrorists — as Israel has repeatedly done with Hezbollah — will help achieve a worthy goal, why not do it? After all, if negotiations fail, one can always walk away.

But Israel will not change its self-defeating policies until we change ours. And there is no evidence that is happening (at least, not until after the November elections, for obvious reasons).

For now, our policies are joined at the hip with Israel’s. We support the blockade of Gaza. We oppose any efforts at reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas. We even back Israel’s opposition to the Arab Peace Initiative, which offers Israel full peace and normalization of relations with every Arab country in exchange for the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem.

Enough is enough. The Obama administration needs to join the rest of the world in demanding an end to the Gaza blockade as a first big step toward the resumption of negotiations.

The attack on the flotilla was one of the most disastrous blunders in Israel’s history. At last, the whole world sees Israel’s policy of collective punishment for what it is — a means to perpetuate the occupation forever. Only the United States government has chosed to close its eyes.

The occupation is killing Israel. And we are on the sidelines letting it happen.

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By Al Kamen
Urgent! This warning just in from the U.S. Capitol Police:

Suspicious Characteristics Mailing (Atomic Fireball Hard Candy)

The Senate Post Office has recently seen an influx of flat envelopes containing “Atomic Fireball Hard Candy.” The candies are addressed to Senate Offices. The flat envelopes have been irradiated, x-rayed, opened and tested by Senate Post Office employees and the contents have been cleared and deemed safe for delivery. However, it is possible some of the envelopes may have loose or broken candies enclosed.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the United States Capitol Police Threats Assessment Section, at 202-224-1495.

Then, they may be safe, but a Senate aide notes: “Don’t try to bite directly into any whole jawbreaker, gobstopper, jolly rancher, or for that matter, atomic fireball, before you soften it up, as it can damage your teeth.”

The candies apparently were sent by The Matthew 5 Project, an Evangelical effort to promote international cooperation and reduce nuclear weapons. The message appeared in Senate e-mail boxes Thursday.

By Al Kamen  |  April 22, 2010; 12:37 PM ET

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Evangelicals Send Atomic Fireballs to Congress

For Immediate Release

April 12, 2010

Evangelical college presidents, denominational executives, pastors, veterans, professors, and missionaries are encouraging the Obama administration and Congress to engage in diplomacy with Iran and North Korea and to reduce US nuclear arsenals.  Citing scripture, Jesus, and foreign policy experts such as George Shultz, they claim “overcoming the nuclear threat requires international cooperation” and “nuclear weapons are a moral threat” that must eventually be eliminated. For emphasis they provided Atomic Fireballs with their statement, saying “Atomic Fireballs are great candy, but terrible foreign policy.”

Their historic Matthew 5 Project statement, which “calls on our nation to be willing to talk with and listen to antagonists,” offers strong support for the “new START” treaty.  The statement was sent to President Obama, Vice President Biden, Secretary of State Clinton, Secretary of Defense Gates, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and all 535 members of Congress.  Arguing that “Jesus is the realist,” the evangelical statement recognizes that even though “The United States has crucial disagreements with Iran, Jesus does not say talks should be refused until we approve of the conduct of the adversary.”

The statement also refers to the policy recommendations of George Shultz, Henry Kissinger, Sam Nunn, and other conservative national security experts who are now recommending the elimination of nuclear weapons.  “Nuclear weapons are a physical threat to the survival of human life on earth. Prominent national security experts have recently called for reducing and abolishing reliance on nuclear weapons, by verifiable international agreement, in order to enhance national security. This cannot be accomplished unilaterally; it requires international cooperation and verification.”  The statement and broad scope of endorsements reveal the growing sentiment among American Evangelicals that the reduction and eventual elimination of nuclear weapons is both theologically necessary and politically possible.

After laying out their biblical, theological, and political cases, the statement culminates in a call to action that encourages American churches to engage in interfaith and international dialogue and to “urge international cooperation in continued step-by-step reductions, working toward ways to verify abolition of nuclear weapons worldwide.”

ABOUT THE MATTHEW 5 PROJECT

The Matthew 5 Project is an Evangelical effort to promote international cooperation and reduce nuclear weapons through careful analysis of political realities and sound biblical and theological arguments (http://www.matthew5project.org/).

CONTACT

Glen Stassen, Ph.D.

Professor of Christian Ethics

Fuller Theological Seminary

135 N. Oakland Avenue

Pasadena, California 91182

626-304-3733 (work)

gstassen@fuller.edu

Rev. Paul Alexander, Ph.D.

Professor of Theology and Ethics

Co-founder, Pentecostals & Charismatics for Peace & Justice

Azusa Pacific University

701 E. Foothill Blvd.

Azusa, California 91702

626-815-5434 (work)

palexander@apu.edu

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Marwan is a friend of mine, we were at two nonviolent protests in the West Bank a couple of weeks ago.  I’m going to be uploading a video soon to YouTube that shows him explaining his commitment to nonviolence and his commitment to resisting the occupation.

Please go to Holy Land Trust’s Facebook page or http://www.holylandtrust.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=548&Itemid=90 and ENGAGE IN ACTIONS.

Peace,

Paul Alexander

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday – March 30^th, 2010

Israel Arrests a Palestine Network Founder in a Non-Violent Protest Against Israel’s Denial of Christian Right to Worship in Jerusalem

Ramallah – March 30^th 2010: The Palestine Network calls for the immediate release of Palestine Network Founding Member Marwan Fararjeh, PLO leader Abbas Zaki and all detainees and calls upon governments of the world for immediate pressure on Israel to suspend all acts of provocation by Israel including denying Palestinian Christians their right to worship in Jerusalem.

On Sunday, March 28^th, 2010, Palestinians, foreigners and Israeli peace supporters went out on a nonviolent protest in teh Holy town of Bethlehem against Israel’s denial of Palestinians from the West Bank to enter Jerusalem to pray at the Holy places of Christianity during Easter.

During the protest, a small group of sixty peaceful demonstrators managed to cross the Separation Wall before they were surrounded by armed Israeli  forces.  At no time were any members of the protest violent or threatening to the soldiers, police and private security contractors, even as they were being forcefully detained. The Israeli security forces arrested sixteen participants of the demonstration, including A Palestine Network Founder and A Holy Land Trust Nonviolence Team member Marwan Fararjeh and his colleague Ahmad Al Azzeh. They also arrested PLO leader Abbas Zaki, a member of the Fateh Central Committee, Fadi Hamad, an Associated Press photographer, seven more Palestinians, four Israelis and an international demonstrator.   While Israeli quickly released five non-Palestinian protesters, the eleven Palestinians were detained.

As of Monday, March 29^th we have received information that the eleven demonstrators are being held at the Ofar detention center near Ramallah, and will be held for four days.  The detained are reportedly in good spirits, and are grateful for the international support that they have received in challenging the occupation and its practices.

We call on the friends of Palestine to voice with their governments an urgent need for immediate steps to end the aggression on the people of Palestine, their land, and property.

Marwan Fararjeh A Palestine Network Founder arrested in a peaceful protest against Israel’s denial of the right of Christians to worship in Jerusalem during Easter.

On Behalf of The Board of Directors of the Palestine Network:

Ramzi E. Khoury
Executive Director

For more information, contact:
Palestine (Arabic or English): Ramzi E. Khoury, Executive Director -  ramziekhoury@yahoo.com
Latin America (Spanish): Mauricio Abu Ghosh, Chairman of the Board of Directors -  Mauro@tsar.cl
Europe (French): Nabil Hajjar. Member of Board of Directors – nabil.el-haggar@univ-lille1.fr
(Danish): Mohammad Ibrahim, Member of Board of Directors – mohamad.ibrahim@live.dk

Press Officer: Diana Al Zeer: +97 (0 or 2) 569590300

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The Palestine Network is an independent network of Palestinians and friends of Palestine from all over the world who are engaged in supporting the Palestinian National Project of an independent and sovereign Palestine with Jerusalem its capital. The Palestine Network was launched during its Founding Conference (Feb. 23rd – Feb. 27th) in Bethlehem, Palestine, with 90 representatives from 23 countries.Pale