Wouldn't you know it, the gays have riled up the Jerusalem Prayer Team by hosting a gay pride parade in that holy city. Now I'm not a big fan of such parades, but this one sounds pretty tame even according to the people opposed to them:
The global homosexual gathering, organized by InterPride, the International Association of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered Pride Coordinators, was last held in 2000 in Rome, where it attracted about a quarter of a million participants. Images of the Rome festivities, featured on various homosexual websites, shows throngs of shirtless men in shorts and bikini briefs congregated on the streets, some of them holding hands.
Egads, shirtless men in shorts holding hands! You can see that at pretty much any college basketball practice as they huddle on the sidelines. But it sure does have the prayer warriors upset:
But the Jerusalem Prayer Team, a Christian group that asks members to pray for and encourage the people of Israel, has called the planned World Pride event a moral abomination and is seeking 1 million signatures on a petition to ask the Jerusalem mayor and the city's municipality to cancel the event."This is a moral outrage," Prayer Team founder Mike Evans told WorldNetDaily. "Jerusalem is where heaven and earth met and will meet again. It is the holiest city. This event will bring to the streets homosexuals in immodest dress, in G-strings, with all kinds of pornographic images. They plan to fill the hotels and restaurants and party like Sodomites, while the world press takes pictures. It is a disgrace to the eternal holiness of Jerusalem and to its people."
So tonight we're gonna party like it's 1599 bc...Evans also says he's organizing his prayer team to pray for God to give the authorities in Jerusalem the "strength and courage" to cancel the event. This always baffles me about praying for someone's mind to change. Either they're going to change their mind anyway, in which case God has nothing to do with it and the prayer is pointless; or God changes their mind for them, which would pretty much make all that talk of God giving us "free will" a bunch of crap. Take your pick, but either way it's quite irrational.
Ironically, Israel is more progressive in terms of gay rights than the US is. Israel recognizes same sex civil unions, and recently extended equal marriage benefits in terms of property, inheritance and taxation to gay couples. Oh wait, here's my favorite quote from the prayer team leader:
Evans thinks his petition will make a difference. "It is very important that whatever the city of Jerusalem does, it takes into consideration the values of 2 billion Christians worldwide."
Uh, yeah. A city in the predominately Jewish state of Israel should first and foremost be concerned about how Christians who don't even live there and won't even see this event feel about it. Mr. Evans takes hubris to a whole new level.
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...the Jerusalem Prayer Team, a Christian group...
Um, I do believe I'm missing something. A Christian group? I know that there are more than a few Christians in the Middle East--indeed, special arrangements made for Christians when Lebanon was formed have caused more than a few political problems over the last 3 decades. But there aren't particularly many indigenous Xians in Jerusalem. Moreover...
"This is a moral outrage," Prayer Team founder Mike Evans told WorldNetDaily.... Odd, Mike Evans doesn't sound like a name that would be associated with someone from the Middle East. One would guess that he's an outside agitator. Probably from the US.
On a serious note (nothing from WorldNutDaily is serious), from what I have read, there have been gay pride parades in Tel Aviv for a number of years, and all have gone well. There was a report of a rather small gay pride parade in Jerusalem a couple of years ago, and a bunch of orthodox Jews grumbled. I guess the one thing that they have in common with Arab Muslims and conservative Xtians is their dislike for gay people.
BTW, I'm not sure about marriage in Israel. From what I read--this is a year or two ago--the Israeli gov't essentially delegated control over marriage to the orthodoxes. Civil unions is another issue--I don't know what if anything the gov't did about that.
Israel also does not have a prohibition on gay or lesbian people serving in the military either. (Although keep in mind military service in Israel is mandatory for everyone)
For Christian Zionists, Jews are puppets rather real people - gay Israelis don't just offend because of their sexuality, but because they fail to play by the script the Christian Zionists want them to. The same goes for Israelis who dare to want to live in peace with the Palestinians rather than kill or die for "Greater Israel". It's just another form of anti-Semitism.
Mike Evans, by the way, is a complete nut. He's a Christian Zionist of Jewish background, based in Texas. He recently wrote a book in which he argues that the existence of Arabs is a mistake, since they only came into being when Abraham disobeyed God using Hagar to bear his son Ishmael. Oh, and God struck Franklin D Roosevelt dead for talking to Saudis. Forgive the self-promotion, but I have more here.
Although keep in mind military service in Israel is mandatory for everyone
I'm not completely sure, but from what I read this is incorrect--at least somewhat. From what I have read, it is mandatory for Jewish Israelies. But from what I have also read, the obigation for non-Jewish Israelies--and the services in which they can serve--is somewhat more restrictive. (I'm being generous.)
For a variety of reasons, I'd love to be proven wrong as to the latter, but I don't believe I'm wrong.
Druze Israelis also serve, but other Arab Israelis do not (although I think they can if they really want to). Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Israelis are also exempt: some of these are fiercy anti-Zionist (For them, Zionism is seen as a secular perversion of God's purposes), while others are pro-Zionist but feel others should fight while they themselves study the Torah all day.
We know that Y. Arafat was a sodomite and an enemy of Israel. The enemy always wants to destroy and it does not matter how can do it. I remember that Balak, king of Moab and enemy of Israel, tried to used Balaam to curse the people of Israel (Numbers 22), but GOD changed the curse in blessing because Israel is the chosen people of the only GOD OF THE UNIVERSE. But the enemy was not satisfy and Balaam changed the strategy: "if the people of Israel goes against the law of his GOD they are in trouble":
Numbers 31:16 Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the LORD.
Now a sodomite enemy is over, Y. Arafat, but saddenly thousands of sodomites enemies want to come to the heart of Israel, JERUSALEM: THE CITY OF THE GREAT KING in august, 2005. This is worst that terrorism. The enemy knows that if Israel once again let the "pride gay" came to Jerusalem you are going to be in trouble with the ONE who protects you. Is really more important for Israel this kind of tourism or democracy than to hurt the heart of GOD?
Please do not let the enemy mislead you. After the gay parade in Jerusalem in 2002, the terrorits atacks were increased, please for your own safe do not let this happen. We, christians, love your country and your people, but this kind of things make feel sorry and sometimes discourage, but WE ARE STILL PRAYING FOR YOUR BELOVED ISRAEL.
Uh, yeah. Gay people having a parade is worse than terrorism. At what point did you lose your mind completely?
It never ceases to amaze me that people who are willing to justify untold horrors on the grounds that the next life is more important than this one can in the same breath declare a city "holy" as if God gives a shit about it. Or even, better, have a scale of holiness. "This week Jericho is riding high at number 4, pushing out Bethlehem."
It never ceases to amaze me that people who are willing to justify untold horrors on the grounds that the next life is more important than this one
This is somewhat tangential, but I've found the little web page Kissing Hank's Ass to be an excellent parody regarding the existence of a "next life" http://www.jhuger.com/kisshank.php
israel, like all other middle eastern countries, does not have a separation of religion and state. this is because the judaeo-islamic civilisation differs from the western one -- notably that the western (christian) one allows for such a division in the temporal world.
thus, personal law courts (for divorce, marriage, birth) have always been divided by religion in israel and the concept of a 'civil one' does not and has not existed. this is no different from how things were under the Ottomans (and in fact, most of the Ottoman laws in this topic are still on the books).
as far as military service, army service is compulsary for most jewish israelis and druzi citizens. however, bedouin arabs usually serve in the army (they make up a Bedouin Tracking Unit for border control). most 'ultra-orthodox' jews (haredim) do not serve, nor do most arabs, although they both can if they individually want to. the reasons for the service exceptions for arabs stem from the period following the 1947-1949 war, when the israeli government sought to avoid forcing its arab citizens to serve in an army where they could potentially end up in a situation where they'd face their own family members on the opposite side. rather than present them with the dilemma of choosing state over family, the israeli government opted to make service optional. the exemption for religious jews (usually those in seminaries or yeshivot) is far more controversial and is the object of intense political debates. the Shinuy Party is a strong opponent of their 'free ride'.