Baptists and justice for Gaza
My Baptist roots run deep in the Texas soil of my childhood and ministry. From my roots, I see the times we live in call for all Baptists to move beyond doctrinal rightness and choosing sides based on whose theology agrees with ours. We are quibbling about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin instead of being courageous and prophetic.
Across the United States, political leaders are trying to quash outrage over what is happening in Gaza.
A phrase Norman Finkelstein recently spoke at the New Millennial Church in Little Rock, Ark., will haunt me for a long time. Finkelstein is a Jew, and that’s important. To understand what is truly happening in Gaza, we must listen to Jews like him and Peter Beinart.
Finkelstein said: “The strategy of the state of Israel toward Gaza is ‘starve or leave.’”
I recently learned from an eyewitness—a physician who makes regular trips to Gaza to care for the wounded—how that mandate is being implemented. Food aid has been restricted to four stations a day in some parts of Gaza, with two generally closed and two only open for 15 minutes.
Food was thrown on the ground for starving people to rush and get. Some families sent their teenagers because they could run faster and scramble for scraps. The Israeli Defense Force then shot at them. The physician watched teen boys brought in and dumped on the ground because there were no beds. Their wounds were life-threatening.
My Baptist heritage and my fatherhood were appalled.
I do not condone what Hamas has done or the grief they brought to Israeli families. But nothing they have done can excuse the ruthless effort to destroy Gaza. I cannot justify such barbarism and cruelty. No Baptist should.
Michael R. Chancellor
Taylor, Texas
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