Post 203--Ruth Eberhart's Lent Meditations

Things don't always work out as planned; Sometimes they get worse; sometimes better.  Things have suddenly taken a twist and are turning out differently from what I announced in Post 202. I am not able to call up that promised follow-up in time before I leave later this morning. So, I'm treating you to an alternative Lenten meditation. I'm also stuck with this present format with its wide spaces that I cannot get rid of.   I've painted the text red, a colour that befits Lent, since it is to remind us, among other things, of Christ's suffering that includes blood.   So, here's this meditation, the first one of what may well become more. I'm off and see you next week--hopefully.  At that time I'll tell you where I went and why.  Make sure you click on the Devotional.   Do you want to become a pilgrim this Lent?

IN 2005 I went on a pilgrimage to Israel and Palestine -- a trip which shook up and deepened my faith. Based on that experience, I wrote a devotional for "Presbyterians Today" which did so well that I procured my first book contract. "Chasing the Divine in the Holy Land" was published by Eerdmans in 2012. THIS YEAR I'm returning to Israel and Palestine for the first time since that milestone. In celebration, I'm re-posting the devotional on my blog each day, and invite you to "come along" with me to the Holy Land. You won't even need a passport! My trip dates are March 5-16, and I look forward to sharing my experiences with you when I return. You will be the first to hear. THANK YOU SO MUCH for your continued support and readership!

Click Here for the Devotional "Ash Wednesday"

Post 197--This Confusing World

The heading of the article I draw to your attention today is CNN.  So, I start with them. I was amazed when I saw the heading of this article and when I read its contents. Here we have CNN praising and defending Israel.  They praise Israel for the many Nobel and other awards its citizens have won, far more than any other nation in proportion to its tiny population, certainly far more than the nations that would like nothing better than to see its people erased from the face of the earth. I am not used to such sounds from CNN. Highly unusual.

I agree with CNN on this one. My response to these facts is that I would love Canada to invite the entire Jewish nation to move over to Canada, live where they themselves please and bless Canada with their amazing talents. I cannot imagine how far they would take Canada into the stratosphere of the arts and sciences. Our country would be transformed totally. And the Jews would finally have peace--no one to molest them anymore.

Not only did CNN praise Israel for their accomplishments, but they also criticized the nations that continually criticize Israel; it criticizes the critics. Now, we all know that Israel is not a perfect nation and deserves critique, but what of the nations that major in this critique within the halls of the UN?  The article asks pointed questions about a number of them. Is Israel really worse than those others?  This is a list of rhetorical questions the answers to which are so obvious, they don't need to be spelled out. Why are those nations not taken to task?  What right do they have to critique Israel? Do they have any sort of higher ground from which to expressed their holier-than-thou hypocrisy? 

What amazes me still more is that  Jake Tapper, the anchor of the above CNN programme, expressed all the above in the context of President Trump's declaring Jerusalem the capital of Israel. Ordinarily, one would expect CNN to castigate the President for this action.  After all, the network specializes in berating Trump. That's about all I hear them do, the reason I am tired of them and no longer listen to them.  For once they were able to restrain themselves with respect to their President. Another highly unusual event.  I can hardly imagine such restraint on their part!  Is this the same CNN I know?  If you do not believe in miracles, perhaps you ought to do a rethink! Can you blame me for being confused?

That said, I now provide you with the opportunity to hear it from the horse's mouth as it comes to us from the Algemeiner of December 22, 2017.  As our own CBC likes to put it, "Have a listen."


Top CNN Host Calls Out Human Rights-Abusing UN Member-States for Hypocrisy on Israel

Jake Tapper. Photo: Screenshot.

CNN news host Jake Tapper on Thursday called out human rights-abusing UN member-states for their hypocritical focus on Israel.

On his “The Lead” program, hours after the UN General Assembly passed— by a 128-9 margin, with 35 abstentions — a resolution calling for the United States to drop its recent recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, Tapper noted, “The United Nations General Assembly, from 2012 to 2015, has adopted 97 resolutions specifically criticizing an individual country, and of those 97, 83 have focused on Israel. That is 86 percent.”

Tapper continued: “Now certainly Israel is not above criticism, but considering the genocide of the Rohingya people in Myanmar, the lack of basic human rights in North Korea, the children starving in the streets of Venezuela, the citizens of Syria targeted for murder by their own leader using the most grotesque and painful of weapons, you have to ask is Israel truly deserving of 86 percent of the world’s condemnation? Or possibly is something else afoot at the United Nations, something that allows the representative of the Assad government to lecture the United States for moving its embassy?”

Watch the segment below:

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