Archbishop’s snub to Bethlehem Pastor
JVL Introduction
The Archbishop of Canterbury has already enraged many Christians in Palestine and in the UK by failing to condemn Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. Now he has snubbed Lutheran Pastor Munther Isaac from Bethlehem whose passionate appeals for the world to end the slaughter went viral at Christmas.
According to the Guardian report below, Isaac was told Welby could not meet him if he shared a pro-Palestine platform with the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. The report says Welby “is concerned about the huge increase in antisemitism since October in the UK, and it is believed he feared it would have caused huge problems for the Jewish community if the two were to meet.”
Once again, expressing sympathy for Palestinians facing genocide is portrayed as dangerous to British Jews. Apart from the moral imperative that should guide a religious leader confronted with incontrovertible crimes against humanity, can Justin Welby not understand that Jews are endangered by identifying them with Netanyahu’s murderous apartheid regime?
NWI
This article was originally published by The Guardian on Wed 21 Feb 2024. Read the original here.
Pastor says Welby would not meet him if he spoke at Palestine rally with Corbyn
Archbishop said he could not meet Bethlehem Lutheran Munther Isaac if he shared platform with former Labour leader, Isaac says
The archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, cancelled plans to meet the Bethlehem-based Lutheran pastor Munther Isaac, saying he could not meet him if he shared a platform with the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn at a pro-Palestinian rally, the pastor has said.
Isaac, the pastor of the Christmas Evangelical Lutheran church in Bethlehem, who has been highly critical of Israel in Gaza, saw his Christmas sermon go viral when he said if Jesus Christ was born today it would have been under the rubble.
He spoke at a Palestinian Solidarity Campaign rally at the weekend where Corbyn was also a speaker after being invited by the Palestinian ambassador to the UK, Husam Zomlot.
Lambeth Palace said it did not comment on private meetings.
The archbishop is concerned about the huge increase in antisemitism since October in the UK, and it is believed he feared it would have caused huge problems for the Jewish community if the two were to meet.
In an interview with the Guardian, Isaac said he was told by the archbishop’s aides that if he shared a platform with Corbyn, no meeting could happen. Isaac said: “It’s shameful. It’s not my type of Christianity not to be willing to meet another pastor because you don’t want to explain why you met him.
“This sums up the Church of England. They danced around positions, and ended up saying nothing. They lack the courage to say things.”
He added: “The small Christian community in Gaza has discovered what is hell on earth. Most of them have lost their homes: 45 destroyed completely and 55 partially destroyed. There is no life left for them. This war will most likely bring an end to Christian life in Gaza. Everyone wants to leave.
“It is so painful for us to see the Christian church turn a blind eye to what is happening, offering words of concern and compassion, but for so long they have been silent in the face of obvious war crimes. Churches seem paralysed, and they seem willing to sacrifice the Christian presence in Palestine for the sake of avoiding controversy and not criticising Israel. I have had so many difficult conversations with church leaders.
“I know from meeting many church leaders that in private, they say one thing, and then in public, they say another thing. I’ve had the same experience with many politicians and diplomats.”
Isaac, on a visit to the UK to build support for the Palestinians, said an immediate ceasefire was “a moral obligation”. He added: “This is not a time for neutrality or soft diplomacy. Gaza should be your moral compass.”
Welby’s allies would say he has spoken out strongly on what is happening in Gaza and will continue to seek opportunities to stand in solidarity with Palestinians, but has to remain mindful of the impact on other communities.
The House of Bishops, the upper chamber of the Church’s General Synod, issued a sharply worded call for a ceasefire on 13 February, saying Israel must stop its “relentless bombardment” of Gaza, and adding the manner in which the war was taking place “cannot be morally justified”.
Isaac said: “If it has not become clear to the world that this is a war of vengeance aimed at destroying the possibility of life in Gaza, and not a war on Hamas, I am not sure what more proof people need. The destruction of schools, universities and hospitals is everywhere. The Israeli soldiers brag and joke about it. How is the killing of 12,000 children a war on Hamas?”
The war, in its fifth month, was triggered by Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October last year, in which 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage. Health authorities in Gaza say at least 29,000 Palestinians have been killed. About 85% of the territory’s population have been displaced from their homes, according to the UN.
“If what has happened so far cannot convince people that there needs to be an immediate ceasefire, there is something seriously wrong with our humanity. How much more catastrophic can it get?” Isaac said.
“Even as a pastor, my faith was tested in the last three months. It’s hard, it’s hard to pray and not to see results.”
He added: “My answer to the question where God is is that we have to ask where are the good people in this world. In Christianity we say we are God’s agents, we are God’s hands and feet on earth. The Gospel tells us what’s right and what’s wrong. It tells us what needs to be done. It’s on us when we choose to kill.”
Such a dire example of working Christianity in the community that the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, refused to meet Bethlehem-based Lutheran pastor Munther Isaac. The reasons being that Isaac had plans to contaminate himself by getting within a few yards of Jeremy Corbyn, and unbelievably, was prepared to debate Gaza with him. A closed mind is not a good trait in ‘the leader of the C of E community in the UK’, and what used to be known as the ‘Commonwealth’.
Makes you really proud to be Christian…NOT. WELBYafter all is a mouthpiece for the Tory govt. His background of extreme capitalism in the oil industry speaks volumes about his politics. He never cut his teeth in deprived council estates and hasn’t a clue about how people in this country live in poverty, so it’s not surprising he has no humanity for Palestinians.
This is dire. Now a Palestinian freedom fighter is judged beyond the Pale because he appeared at a function with Jeremy Corbyn. He is deemed by this feeble cleric therefore to be tainted by antisemitism. That means probably all of us who support jvl are likewise sullied. Especially those many of us who know, admire and supported Jeremy Corbyn.
This will be shared on Facebook as Justin Welby has yet again walked in a mire of self righteousness & utter pomposity!
This is a racist Archbishop of Canterbury who prefers to side with Rabbi Mirvis & call a man of integrity an antisemite!
Now he refuses to stand with a man from Bethlehem because he knows Mr.Corbyn, Jeremy Corbyn who has fought for justice all his working life & stood up for Palestinians just as long. Welby is a DISGRACE to any religion but especially to humanity where he refuses to engage!
God help us if Church of England policy and the Archbishop of Canterbury’s actions are determined by the Chief Rabbi (the archbishop’s friend) or the Board of Deputies or, indeed, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Welby is in dire dereliction of duty by not meeting Pastor Munther Isaac, who is a representative of the Christians in Israel and who fully understands Christianity, without its message being muddled by political squeamishness. The place of the Church is to speak for peace and the oppressed, in accordance with the Christian duty to love one’s neighbour as one’s self.
Quite frankly, it is not Welby’s job to solve the possible problems of the “Jewish Community” and, based on past experience, I would guess that the “huge increase in anti-semitism” is fabricated. It is quite wrong to conflate anger at the actions of the government of Israel with anti-semitism
People I speak to want peace and the huge demonstrations for Palestine show how appalled the world is by the massacres. which, basically, are part of the settler colonialism that has gone on for so long. They are totally unjustifiable as revenge for October 7th.
I write this comment as a member, if often highly critical, of the Church of England.
For sure, no turbulent priest. But then neither is the chief rabbi.
I’m pretty sure that Jesus Christ would feel very comfortable breaking bread with Jeremy Corbyn, but less certain about his attitude to breaking bread with Justin Welby.
It’s worth recalling that Welby’s friends with Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis who is infamous for supporting applying the Tebbitt test to minorities. What’s interesting is that some of the Black minorities being maligned by Mirvis will be Christians. But Welby would sooner side with somebody white from another faith than actual Black Christians. And this is totally consistent with his failure to support Palestinian Christians too.
It is tragic that after the fight against fascism and the post-war consensus on religious leaders standing up to oppression that Welby drags his office back to the days of Elizabethan power politics.
He is just another politician fronting for another facet of institutional power. Hard to imagine him responding to Martin Luther Kings plea for the support of other Church leaders and Rabbis on the Freedom Rides. And regardless of emotional blackmail, he has no evidence Jeremy Corbyn has ever harmed anyone – which is more than you can say of Israeli state power.
Welby really is a disgrace!
Welby’s god is obviously not the ‘christian’ god, but Mammon!
I always thought Welby was a weak-willed little wimp. But now, as with Starmer, I think we see he’s got a hard right-wing core.
Discussions probably pointless, except as a method to expose him.
The Church of England is a pillar of the Establishment, like the Courts, Parliament, Military Intelligence, Oligarch-owned Media and Politicians. Is it any surprise that the same Church which blesses the soldiers sent to fight until their deaths in imperial wars has the likes of Welby at its head? He is nothing more than an Establishment conduit. He’s a “Christian (?!) Zionist”, no more, no less.
The C of E . Yet another institution I have had to abandon for lack of their integrity. No wonder their church is dying. They even expelled Rev Dr Stephen Sizer for his support for Palestine.
The good in the world is the millions of people demonstrated their humanity on the streets against the genocide taking place
The Arch-hypocrite of Cant is another self-serving establishment politician, who is clearly a Conservative and an extreme Zionist rather than a Christian.
Welby has previously back-stabbed Jeremy on behalf of Mirvis, such as when these false priests together interfered with the 2019 general election. I used to go to my local CoE church; I have been unable to since Welby’s betrayal.
I have observed Welby openly rejecting the teachings of Jesus, in order to justify the prolonged oppression, killing, dispossession and genocide of the indigenous people of the Holy Land, as it is called in Christian hymn sheets.
Just to pick up Keith Russell’s thread above. It is easy to become very despondent about events and establishment responses. I find the only glimmers of hope and ‘humanity’ in listening to independent media interviews with individual protesters out on the streets, who always seem so admirably well-informed, articulate and morally secure, particularly the large numbers of women who participate in these extremely important events. Beacons of light in my view.
As I have said elsewhere, I notice that everything which is to be in the mainstream media has to be accompanied by the misleading fiction that the present Israeli genocide was begun by the October 2023 brutal but brief raid into Israel, whereas this was obviously itself a reprisal for the previous 75 years of Israeli oppression, dispossession, racism, imprisonment and killing.
I didn’t comment but am very moved to see so many heartfelt responses to the Archhypocrite of Cant’s unchristian behaviour yet another time exhibited in public. To see “Labour” politicians who care not at all about actual labourers and now high placed officials in an established “Christian church” who avoid any glimmer of Christian understanding makes us wonder about the future.
Clergy of all sorts tend to use religion to their own ends. What I cannot stand is the sheer hypocrisy manifesting as being ever so pure. I have come across many people who will make it known how often they attend church , but the way they act generally depicts a different picture: that in reality they cannot give a toss about others.
However, I remember that our Lutheran Pastor got his minibus out and took us, a group of 8 young people to a rally in Hannover in 1967. It was held in protest against the murder of Che Guevara.
We live in sad and disturbing times when people, like Starmer and Welby who purport to speak for us, call us dangerous antisemites for supporting peace in Gaza and a Palestinian homeland and speaking out against Netanyahu and the Israeli settlers.
Welby is weak, always has been. Listening to him, is as bad as listening to Starmer, they both do their best never to directly answer a poignant question. He really is lacking emotion, the tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians that have been murdered are just a group of numbers. He should be challenged by the Media but the MSM, including the BBC are happy that he’s weak and shows no emotion, it let’s Israel off the hook.