Advocacy
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April 15, 2024
Lots of Christians for a Free Palestine activists were jailed in Washington recently, in a blossoming effort to conserve famine-threatened Gaza.
When I spoke with United States Rep. Barbara Lee in September of 2001 about her choice to cast the sole congressional vote versus providing George W. Bush and Dick Cheney a blank check to wage limitless war, she mentioned prayer and discovery:
“I was at the National Cathedral in Washington. I went to the funeral on the Friday after the attacks and I hoped. I stated to myself, ‘You’ve got to figure this one out.’ I was handling all the sorrow and grief and the death, and it was extremely individual since a member of my personnel had actually lost a cousin in the Pennsylvania crash. I was thinking of my obligation as a member of Congress to attempt to guarantee that this never ever takes place once again. I listened to the remarks of the clergy. Much of them made extensive declarations. I was struck by what one of them stated: ‘As we act, let us not end up being the evil that we deplore.’ That was such a smart declaration, and it showed not just what I was feeling however likewise my understanding of the risks we continue to deal with. When I left the cathedral, I was relatively fixed.”
A Catholic in her youth, Lee went to St. Joseph’s Catholic School in El Paso, where the Sisters of Loretto taught that“we need to defend peace and justice.”As an adult, she ended up being a member of the historical Allen Temple Baptist Church. She would becomegrantedan Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the American Baptist Seminary of the West, a historical seminary associated denominationally with the American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A. and the Progressive National Baptist Convention.
It comes as little surprise that Lee typically brings a language of faith and morality to policy arguments. That has actually definitely held true with regard to the Israeli attack on Gaza, which has actually left more than 33,000 Palestinian males, females and kids dead. Lee was among the very first co-sponsors ofyour house resolutionrequiring an instant de-escalation and cease-fire in Israel and inhabited Palestine,and she has actually argued for months that“every day that the United States does not clearly require an instant ceasefire is an ethical failure.”
Lee is not alone because view.
Opposition to United States policy concerning the destruction of Gaza has actually originated from individuals of all faiths considering that Israeli forces targeted the Palestinian enclave in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attack. Muslim Americans have actually taken the lead, in combination with Jewish American groups such as Rabbis for Ceasefire, If Not Now, and Jewish Voice for Peace. There have actually constantly been Christians at rallies and demonstrations as well, which must come as no surprise to those who understand that Palestine is home to one of the world’s earliest Christian neighborhoods.
Much of the domestic argument on United States poli