The Cross, The Resurrection and Gaza

9 snips

Mar 24, 2024

Guest

Jarrod McKenna, an Australian pastor and peace educator; Omar Haramy, a Jerusalemite Palestinian Christian and director of Sabeel; Rev. Dr. Munther Isak, Bethlehem pastor and theology dean; Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb, Palestinian theologian and university founder. They discuss how theology is shaped by context. They explore weaponized scriptures, Palestinian identification with the crucified Christ, creative nonviolent resistance, and Easter as resilient hope.

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ANECDOTE

Conversion From Western Theology To Liberation Sermons

Munther described his shift from Western evangelical seminary training to liberation theologies shaped by Palestinian contexts.
He credits sermons by Mitri Raheb during intifada for bringing the Bible alive amid apartheid and occupation.

INSIGHT

No Contextless Theology Exists

Theology without context is irrelevant: all theology is contextual and must acknowledge its social and political location.
Mitri warns against treating Western theology as universal while dismissing contextual theologies from the Global South.

INSIGHT

Biblical Narratives Are Weaponized Against Palestinians

The Bible has been weaponized against Palestinians when divine promises are read as exclusive land claims for oppressors.
Mitri stresses reclaiming Jesus as a Palestinian brown Jew whose story resonates with local co-existence and suffering.

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This episode comes to you in partnership with Inverse Podcast. The diverse InVerse podcast community explores how the Scriptures can turn the world upside down, or be weaponized to uphold the status quo. So, this episode we’re going to talk the “T” word—theology. Theology is simply how we understand God and our relationship with God. Christian social ethics teaches that our understanding of God forms the basis for everything we do in the world. It impacts everything.

This will we be a very special deep dive into the theo-ethical questions rising in the context of the genocide in Gaza. We will talk with three leading Palestinian Christian theologians as they approach Good Friday and Easter Sunday in the context of genocide.

Rev. Dr Mitri Raheb is Founder and President of Dar al-Kalima University in Bethlehem. The most widely published Palestinian theologian to date, Dr. Raheb is the author and editor of 50 books including: Decolonizing Palestine: The Land, The People, The Bible; In the Eye of the Storm: Middle Eastern Christians in an Age of Empire and Faith in the Face of Empire: The Bible through Palestinian Eyes—among many, many others.

Rev. Dr. Muther Isaac is Pastor of the Christmas Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bethlehem and Dean of Bethlehem Bible College. Rev. Dr. Munther is the author of The Other Side of the Wall: A Palestinian Christian Narrative of Lament and Hope.

Omar Haramy, is an Arab, Palestinian, Jerusalemite, Christian, and Greek Orthodox. Since 2017, Omar has served as the director of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center. Sabeel is a Palestinian ecumenical grassroots liberation theology movement that deepens the faith of Palestinian Christians, promotes unity among them, and guides them to engage for justice and peace. Omar also serves on the Kairos Palestine steering committee.

Our Inverse Podcast cohost today will be Jarrod McKenna, a peace award winning Australian pastor and social change educator who has been described by American Civil Rights legend Rev. Jim Lawson as “an expert in nonviolent social change”. Jarrod is the Founding Director of “Common Grace” that represents over 65,000 Christians in Australia pursuing “Jesus and justice” and serves with Lisa as one of the co-founders of the global GazaCeasefirePilgrimage.com movement that is now found on every continent, including Antarctica, in over 150 cities around the world.

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