Israel/Palestine
Related: About this forumTed Cruz Booed Off Stage by Christians For Supporting Israel
US Senator Ted Cruz was booed offstage this week while speaking at a conference for Middle Eastern Christians.
Cruz, the keynote speaker at the dinner gala of the non-profit In Defense of Christians (IDC), caused an uproar amongst the audience when he said that Christians have no greater ally than Israel.
The senator began his speech by saying tonight, we are all united in defense of Christians. Tonight, we are all united in defense of Jews. Tonight, we are all united in defense of people of good faith, who are standing together against those who would persecute and murder those who dare disagree with their religious teachings.
Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/21481/ted-cruz-booed-stage-christians-supporting-israel-video/#f2MjfC3qCT640FJ8.99
King_David
(14,851 posts)They not fond of Israel and Jews either.
And extremist left wing meet up where it comes to Israel and Jews.
djean111
(14,255 posts)DinahMoeHum
(21,815 posts)(snip)
There are three reasons for this invisibility. The political left in the West associates Christian faith with dead white male imperialism and does not come naturally to the recognition that Christianity is now the globes most persecuted religion. And in the Middle East the Israel-Palestine question, with its colonial overtones, has been the lefts great obsession, whereas the less ideologically convenient plight of Christians under Islamic rule is often left untouched.
To Americas strategic class, meanwhile, the Middle Easts Christians simply dont have the kind of influence required to matter. A minority like the Kurds, geographically concentrated and well-armed, can be a player in the great game, a potential United States ally. But except in Lebanon, the regions Christians are too scattered and impotent to offer much quid for the superpowers quo. So whether were pursuing stability by backing the anti-Christian Saudis or pursuing transformation by toppling Saddam Hussein (and unleashing the furies on Iraqs religious minorities), our policy makers have rarely given Christian interests any kind of due.
Then, finally, there is the American right, where one would expect those interests to find a greater hearing. But the ancient churches of the Middle East (Eastern Orthodox, Chaldean, Maronites, Copt, Assyrian) are theologically and culturally alien to many American Catholics and evangelicals. And the great cause of many conservative Christians in the United States is the state of Israel, toward which many Arab Christians harbor feelings that range from the complicated to the hostile.
(snip)
Cruz's mistake is that while he is looking at Middle Eastern Christians, he is seeing (in his mind) fellow evangelists and Xtian Zionists; and Christians in the Middle East are simply not that kind. Most of them don't give a rat's ass about Revelation and "Rapture", two prevailing obsessions of the RW Xtians in the US.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)With some video of the incident included as well:
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/ted-cruz-booed-the-stage-christian-event-dc
King_David
(14,851 posts)I was looking for a better source.
BillZBubb
(10,650 posts)His statements were more than an expression of his support for Israel, which by itself would have been fine. To claim the "Christians have no greater ally than Israel" is either willful ignorance, plain ignorance, or knowing dishonesty. Some of Cruz's other BS statements were even more offensive.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)Some might say that this actually works out well for Cruz - and may have even been his plan from the start.