From Winterdarkness into light of Spring

Sometimes we can have the impression we are Living in the Wilderness of the chaotic jungle of the industrial world.

Skulls remaining on the field and trees destroyed at the Battle of the Wilderness, 1864. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The darkness of the Winter-months has been with us for a long time. Week after week we got grey skies, winds which brought the the kill feeling deep in us. Every year in the month of February the undertakers have the busiest period of year. This year it was not so bad. The funeral directors could look so deadly serious having less people than normal, because the weather was not so bad. Notwithstanding we can see many gloomy faces running around.


People have demanding jobs, and are taken by the need to get enough money in the till to have the family living reasonably well. It all seems to be great? We seem to be living in a world full of luxury.  Like we may have a shadow of democracy, a varnish civilization many may be king in their home only in name. The banks own most of what people have. Under the show of pretence many do think to have 'many friends'. Social media may be booming but more and more do we find lonely people. Lots of what people pretend is only on the surface.

Glamour, cosmetics, we can find it everywhere around us in this varnished world where so much is not what it seems to be. In that world many do not mind to be the blind one. When they do not know they do not have to worry. Why would they take notice of others or to be worried about things far away from their own house, when they have already enough on their own mind.

So many people are so concentrated earning their money working on whet they call success, they forget to see where the real treasures lie. They are not feeling happy. They do not know where to look for the real happiness. They go looking at the wrong places. So many try their luck by games and by trying out one person after the other. They think all can be said and measured by the amount and quality of sex they can have.

They are not so much interested in talking or in having real deep going conversations. Reading serious or long articles for them is mostly considered a waste of time. today so much have to be so short and so quick. Everything may be casual. This is the world of cursoriness. Hastiness rules this world.

In our transitory being many forget the deeper values of life. they are blinded by all the materialism and are not interested in the spiritual.

Now Spring has come we should Not hold back and should be getting out of darkness.
Many may have been looking for ways to keep the Darkness Out.
Many are also Afraid of the Dark.

We should not Be Afraid From “Life’s Darkness”.Those wanting to get out of the dark corners of this world, can find a new place on the web, where people are asked to come together and to share their ideas, to bring a positive note in this life. there they understand that there is to much Darkness’s Pain.
Some might think they are in a sinking world…. but I am convinced it should not all be so bad, and we can do a lot to keep all together our heads above water. I am convinced that if more people should join hands they could do so much better and rally could bring some change. But they have to be willing to join hands, to contribute, and to go forwards, with heads up, accepting the diversity in this world.

Sink or Swim (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It is up to us all to chose if we want to Swim or Sink. Each individual has to make a choice: ~ Sink or Swim ~.

What is important is if we want to See the conquest and believe that we can gain the victory.

When you think you have nothing to say or to show the new website wants to show you differently. You may already be connected to many Social networking Web sites, but that new site From Guestwriters does not want to pretend to become an other social network. We do believe you may love to spend time on such social networks. You may love to have short words and do some chit-chat, Putting your feelings into words and sharing them.

Where-ever you may live, be it in Winter or Summer, living in a small village or in a big town or even Living in the Wilderness, you might like to find a place of rest, peacefulness or a place where you can meditate or think about nice things. there is already so much bad news in this world, so why not having a look at better things. But not many sites present those nice things, the little miracles which happen here and there.

As itseirene wrote in a comment:

“Blogs will always come in different shapes and sizes, and with each shape and size is a platform to inspire and touch lives. I hope I have inspired you and I hope you inspire others. Let’s continue to do this together!”

With Spring in sight I also want to bring some positive corner out of the dark. Pleas do find Welcome to “From guestwriters” and have a look if you would not like to become  part of those people who bring positive news in this world.

We need more positive thoughts in this world, to bring more light and colour in this grim places.
Do you not feel like you can help us to achieve some goal of bringing happiness and showing more beauty to many more people?

Please find to read about our aims and aspirations:

1. Welcome to “From guestwriters”
2. Guestwriters for you
3. About Guest-writers
4. We all have to have dreams
5. Spring in sight
6. When you think you have nothing to say or to show
7. Putting your feelings into words and sharing them
8. Helping words
9. Spark of Positivism

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  +
  the less scared I am of my own mind, of myself. The more I visit them, the less power those memories have over me. The more I wander through the darkness, the more I know about what waits there, the more light that is shed on those things that used to frighten me.
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  Nearer at hand, birds and butterflies have come out to play in the sun, finally believing, perhaps, that the earlier daffodils were not such shameless teases after all, and that Spring has finally come.

Unity doesn’t mean uniformity

In "One Unholy Divided Church" Bob on Books writes:

Unity doesn’t mean uniformity. Christians above all others, it seems to me, should be into unity in the midst of our diversity. We worship a God who is Three yet One. It seems that if we focused more on the One who unites us, the One who redeems us, the One who in common we all worship, the One who calls us into mission, the One who has created and redeemed us all and the One who has spoken and shown himself through the prophets and apostles, we could possibly do a bit better at this unity thing than we are at present. What do you think?

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Additional literature:

Disunity in Christ (Part 1)

Disunity in Christ (Part 2)

Mandela the 'Terrorist' (Part 1) - By Their Strange Fruit

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Wanneer de jongere oor kreeg voor Arabische klanken

In Bekeerlingen en omgang keken wij naar diegene die van geloof wenste te veranderen.
 Bij zulk een verandering wordt de familie van die bekeerling ook getroffen. Voor hen doen zich ook vele veranderingen voor. Ofwel kunnen zij zich ook aanpassen en er mee trachten te leven ofwel nemen zij er afstand van en keren zij zich er helemaal van af.

Belangrijk is wel dat de personen er rond willen na gaan waar die bekeerling mee bezig is. Zodra dat er iets speciaals op valt van aandachtswijziging is het misschien neit slecht om een goed gesprek aan te gaan. Omstaanders kunnen eens horen waar de persoon eigenlijk in geïnteresseerd is en waar hij of zij mee bezig is. Of nog beter: de vraag stellen wie hij of zij eigenlijk wil zijn.

Hoe een zuster haar broer zag veranderen en opkeek van zijn blik in de verte, kan u lezen in Dit is mijn broertje, hij werd moslim.

Fotografe Saskia Aukema zag op straat steeds vaker moslims van wie ze vermoedde dat ze 'geen moslim van geboorte' waren.

"Vrouwen met blauwe ogen en een hoofddoek. Ik vroeg me af waarom mensen zich bekeren tot de islam. En hoe dat dan gaat. Het leek me een moeilijke keuze. Want de islam heeft geen goed imago in het nieuws."

 Ze las erover, keek documentaires, bezocht bijeenkomsten van vrouwen die zich wilden bekeren.

"Eerst zonder camera. Toen ik de mannen en vrouwen beter leerde kennen, begon ik met het maken van portretten."

Ze had gelezen dat fotografie binnen de islam moeilijk kon liggen, maar ze ondervond nauwelijks weerstand.

 "Tot mijn verbazing kreeg ik toestemming om een fotostudiootje in te richten op de Nationale Bekeerlingendag. Die wordt ieder jaar georganiseerd, er komen wel vijftienhonderd mensen op af. Veel mensen, mannen en vrouwen, lieten zich die dag fotograferen. Ook degenen die dat niet wilden, waren enthousiast over het project."

"Voordat ik aan het project begon kende ik nauwelijks moslims. Ik snap nu waarom mensen zich bekeren. Het geeft houvast. Als buitenstaander denk je dat je wordt beperkt, maar zo ervaren zij het zelf niet."

Saskia Aukema maakte tijdens haar project kennis met antropologe Vanessa Vroon-Najem. Zij deed jarenlang onderzoek naar bekeerlingen en is afgelopen woensdag aan de UvA op het onderwerp gepromoveerd (zie Bekeerlingen en omgang). Samen hebben ze het boek 'Bekeerd' gemaakt, met teksten van Vanessa en de foto's van Saskia. In het Amsterdam Museum is een tentoonstelling met hun werk vorige vrijdag voor publiek geopend.

Lees verder > Dit is mijn broertje, hij werd moslim.

© Saskia Aukema. Jeroen (de broer van Cathelijn Schilder), bekeerd in 2005

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Catholic church asking for forgiveness and promising to take action against child-abusers

The Roman Catholic Church has received a very bad name in the last few years concerning its treatment of children abusers.

Pope Benedict XVI who heard a lot about the abuse but did not do much (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In February the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child accused the Vatican of systematically turning a blind eye to decades of abuse and attempting to cover up sex crimes.
The scathing report urged the church to immediately hand over its records on the abuse of tens of thousands of children, immediately remove anyone suspected of abuse from their post and refer the matter to civil legal authorities. The Vatican called the report unfair and ideologically slanted.
Francis' words strike a different tone to comments he made in March to an Italian newspaper in which he defended the church's record.

It took many years before a pope was willing to admit there was something strongly wrong in his community of church leaders. But on Friday Pope Francis dared to speak a second time about the "evil" committed by priests who molested children. Now he made the first public plea of the Catholic Church for forgiveness for all that horror which was brought onto so many children.

The Argentine-born pontiff said the Church, which last month named a high-level group on the scandal including an abuse victim, had to take a stronger stand on a scandal that has haunted it for more than two decades, and indicated there would be repercussions for perpetrators.

"I feel compelled to personally take on all the evil that some priests - quite a few in number, (although) obviously not compared to the number of all priests - to personally ask for forgiveness for the damage they have done for having sexually abused children,"

he told members of the International Catholic Child Bureau.

"The church is aware of this ... personal, moral damage carried out by men of the church, and we will not take one step backward with regards to how we will deal with this problem, and to the sanctions that must be imposed.

"On the contrary, we have to be even stronger. Because you cannot interfere with children,"

 Francis said in unscripted comments as he addressed the children's rights body.

The many adults who got some nasty experiences in their life can look forward (perhaps) to a point where the church will not deny such allegations any more, and would sanction those who are still alive. Probably most men and woman damaged by actions done by priests or nuns shall have to come to terms that the person shall have died already. But they will be able to come more at ease knowing that the problem at lsat shall be recognised and handled by the church and that in the future such case will be treated sooner.

It would be wrong to think such things could only happen in the Catholic church or in very closed communities like the Jehovah's Witnesses were elders were overly protected by the organization of their church. The JW and Catholic church the last few years managed to silence all those who wanted to get out what happened in their community. It looked like no "sanctions" were church-enforced and no civil justice authorities were ever involved. Though they all should know that they should follow the legal requirements and bring to court any person who abuses an other person or animal.

Strange to hear the pope saying:

"The Catholic Church is perhaps the only public institution that has moved with transparency and responsibility. No one has done more, and yet the church is the only one that is being attacked,"

In Belgium we have seen none such thing and we only can see that everything is done to make it so impossible to pursue those who went against the rights of children or the weaker ones (invalids).
Criticism that Francis has not taken a bold enough stand on the issue, and did not meet sexual abuse victims in Italy and in a July trip to Brazil, has been a rare black spot in the overwhelmingly positive response to the pontiff in the 13 months he has been in office.
In particular, abuse groups have called on the church to discipline bishops accused of moving known child molesters from parish to parish, allowing abuse to continue.

"It's nice to have expressions of concern. But actions need to happen, and people have been waiting an awfully long time for that to occur,"

 said Terry McKiernan, founder of BishopAccountability.org, which documents abuse cases.

"The best thing he could have done today would have been to step up to the microphone and announce that he is beginning to remove bishops who have behaved criminally in keeping priests in ministries where they don't belong, moving them around so that they continue to be a danger to children."

Lots of Bishops, the one who you would consider to be high in rank and who should give the example,  are left untouched, while certain lower people were set out of the parish.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), which advocates for child protection and urges greater transparency in the church, said Francis' words should be received with caution.

"We beg the world's Catholics: be impressed by deeds, not words. Until the pope takes decisive action that protects kids, be skeptical and vigilant,"

 SNAP Outreach Director Barbara Dorris said.

"This may be the first time a pope has talked of sanctions against complicit bishops. But that is all it is: talk."

Under Francis' direction, the Vatican announced in December the creation of a new dedicated group to help the church deal with the abuse crisis. Its members were named in late March.
The body of clerics and lay people includes Marie Collins, a survivor of abuse in Ireland in the 1960s who has campaigned for the protection of children and for justice for victims.
Collins, a founding trustee of the Irish abuse victims' organization One in Four, has in the past pushed for punishment for bishops who failed to implement church rules on the protection of children.
Child abuse litigation has cost the Catholic Church some $3 billion in settlements in the United States alone, and shaken the moral authority of leaders of the world's largest religious denomination.

It is a pity the church had first come so much under fire before she took appropriate action. The pope had come under fire for taking no action since the commission itself was announced in December. In March Pope Francis named the commission members but still told newspapers that the church had been unfairly attacked for its abuse record. His defensive tone, coupled with the perceived languishing of the commission, led survivors and church commentators to question whether he “got it” on sex abuse.

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Television view (Washington Post): Pope asks for forgiveness for ‘evil’ of priest child abuse
Reuters video: Pope asks for forgiveness for evil of priests

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  Pope Francis made his first public plea for forgiveness on Friday for the "evil" committed by priests who molested children, using some of his strongest words yet on the Roman Catholic Church's sexual abuse crisis.
  +
  The scathing report urged the church to immediately hand over its records on the abuse of tens of thousands of children, immediately remove anyone suspected of abuse from their post and refer the matter to civil legal authorities. The Vatican called the report unfair and ideologically slanted.
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• You: Pope Francis asks victims of clerical sex abuse for forgiveness (latimes.com)
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  The Pope said he had felt compelled to “personally ask for forgiveness for the damage [some priests] have done for having sexually abused children”, the Vatican Radio website reports. He said that the number of priests who had committed abuses were “quite a few in number”, although “obviously not compared to the number of all the priests”.
  “We will not take one step backward with regards to how we will deal with this problem, and the sanctions that must be imposed,” he said, adding: “We have to be even stronger”.
  

Bekeerlingen en omgang

Verscheidene religieuze groepen proberen mensen te bekeren, maar wat gebeurt er wanneer zij overgestapt zijn to die religie. In België kunnen wij verscheidene vlaamse meisjes zien rondlopen in islamitische klederdracht. Ook weten wij dat er moslims tot het Christelijk geloof zijn gebracht, zoals tot de Christadelphians.

Van de Christadelphians weten wij dat zij door mensen van Carelinks gedoopt zijn en dat zij verzocht worden om geen contact te hebben met de andere Christadelphians, zoals mijn kerkgemeenschap. Dit is een zeer betreuren waardig iets en men kan daarbij de vraag stellen in welke mate er voor gezorgd wordt dat er sociaal contact met geloofsgenoten kan zijn en in welke mate deze mensen door hun keuze niet meer afgezonderd geraken in onze maatschappij.

De Amsterdamse antropologe Vanessa Vroon-Najem deed vijf jaar lang onderzoek naar de ervaringen van vrouwelijke bekeerlingen om na te gaan wat er gebeurt met Nederlandse vrouwen die zich bekeren tot de islam. Indien men overstapt naar een ander geloof zal dat vast en zeker gevolgen hebben in het sociale leven van die persoon en in de betrokkenheid met de omgeving.

In vele gevallen en zeker bij een overstap naar de Islam zal de veranderde houding en/of klederdracht bij de omstaanders vragen oproepen. Vooral bij bekeerlingen naar de Islam zal het uiterlijk reacties oproepen.

Deze week promoveerde Vanessa Vroon-Najem aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam op het proefschrift 'Sisters in Islam. Women's Conversion and the Politics of Belonging. A Dutch Case Study'. Voor het grote publiek maakte zij samen met fotografe Saskia Aukema het boek 'Bekeerd'.

"Sommige bekeerlingen zijn eenzaam", zegt Vroon. "Moslims in de moskee zijn blij met hun overgang tot de islam. Ze krijgen knuffels en felicitaties, maar als ze buiten staan komen ze vaak in een gat terecht. De moskee heeft meestal geen draaiboek voor de begeleiding van bekeerlingen."

Dat verhaal komt ons heel bekend voor, ook bij de Christen gemeenschappen in Afrika of Azië. daar zien wij dat die tot het Christendom gebrachte bekeerlingen na hun doopsel dikwijls in de kou achter blijven. In plaats van zich in een broederschap en nieuwe familie opgenomen te voelen, worden zij als het ware meer afgezonderd van de mensen en komen zij dikwijls in eenzaamheid terecht.

Wie kan niet beter spreken over zulk een gevoel dan iemand die het aan de lijve mocht ondervinden. Volgens mij kan Vroon dara wel aanspraak op maken. Zij werd in de jaren negentig zelf moslima. Maar haar persoonlijke ervaringen waren niet de reden voor haar onderzoek. Het had eerder te maken met het felle islamdebat dat rondom de eeuwwisseling begon.
Vroon:

"De vraag werd gesteld of de islam wel bij Nederland past. Moslims kwamen in een spanningsveld terecht. Bekeerlingen zijn een interessante groep om dat spanningsveld te onderzoeken. Zij hebben de vraag of de islam bij Nederland past voor zichzelf al met 'ja' beantwoord."

Iemand die tot een ander geloof komt, heeft eerst de interne strijd te leveren met de eigen familie, zij het ouders, broers en zussen of zelfs echtgenoot, echtgenote en kinderen. Sowieso gata een verandering van geloof spanningsvelden veroorzaken.

Bij een overstap naar het Jodendom of Islam komen er niet enkel de geloofspunten om de hoek kijken maar is er de voedingsnorm die bepaalde eisen zal opleggen welke niet dadelijk door de omgeving zal aanvaard worden. Er is de botsing met de eigen familie, die er soms moeite mee heeft dat er ineens per se halal-eten op tafel moet staan. Vader en moeder maken zich zorgen. Krijgt hun dochter nog wel een baan nu ze een hoofddoek draagt?

Vroon:

"De samenleving reageert vaak afwijzend op blauwe ogen met een hoofddoek. Men ziet het als verraad. Er zijn ook Surinaams-Nederlandse of Antilliaans-Nederlandse bekeerlingen met een hoofddoek maar dat valt minder op."

Bij bekeerlingen moet men ook nog na gaan hoe ver de bekeerde wil gaan en, wat ik veel belangrijker vindt, wat de beweegredenen mogen zijn voor de geloofsverandering.

In mijn woonwijk zie ik wel meisjes die gesluierd zijn gaan lopen en zogezegd tot de Islam zijn bekeerd, maar ik vraag mij af of buiten het uiterlijk wel degelijk iets in de geest veranderd is, buiten de onderwerping aan hun Islamitische man.
Bij sommige heb ik ondervonden dat zij helemaal niet over hun geloof willen praten en/of dat zij helemaal gene kennis hebben van wat er eigenlijk in de Koran staat. De meesten hebben dat heilige boek zelfs nog niet eens gelezen, maar gaan voort op de uitspraken van hun man dat dit of dat er wel zou instaan.

Anderzijds zegt Vroon dat het haar opviel dat velen alleen de voorschriften uit de schriftelijke bronnen zoals de Koran willen overnemen.

Er bestaan veel misvattingen over bekeerde moslima's, zegt Vroon. "Er leeft het idee dat ze meestal vanwege een man bekeerd zijn. Maar van de 47 vrouwen die ik geïnterviewd heb, hadden 21 geen islamitische man. Hun achtergronden weerspiegelen eerder de secularisatie van Nederland. Sommigen waren religieus opgevoed maar deden weinig meer aan godsdienst. Anderen waren zonder religie opgegroeid. Vaak onderzochten vrouwen meerdere religies alvorens voor de islam te kiezen.

Men bekeert zich niet van de ene op de andere dag. Ik kan mij voorstellen dat er zelfs heel wat tijd over gaat. Volgens de doctorandus was de bekering ook meestal een geleidelijk proces, zelfs bij vrouwen die met moslims getrouwd waren.
Vroon:

"Ook dan bleek in mijn onderzoek de man niet de rechtstreekse aanleiding in de zin dat bekering een voorwaarde was voor het huwelijk. Mannen gingen verschillend om met de bekering van hun vrouw. Sommigen praktiseren de islam serieus, de ander doet er weinig of niets aan. In het eerste geval waren mannen er alert op dat het een zelfstandige, religieus geïnspireerde keuze was, in het tweede geval betekende de bekering soms het einde van de relatie."

Men kan zich goed voorstellen dat indien er een chtpaar is en één van de partners van geloof wil veranderen dit ook het huwelijk in gevaar kan brengen. Maar ook bij samenwonenden zal zulk een weiziging van gedachten heel wat spanningen opleveren, vooral als de persoon er bewust van wordt dat volgens het geloof, zij het Islam of Christendom, niet hoort om zo maar met iemand onder hetzelfde dak te wonen en seksuele betrekkingen te hebben.

Spanningen kunnen optreden wanneer een stel ongetrouwd samenwoont en de bekeerde vrouw ontdekt dat dat binnen de islam niet mag en de man voor het blok zet om te trouwen. Dat gaat sommige mannen te ver, en dat betekent einde relatie.

Bij al de nieuwe bekeerlingen kan men zien dat men gelijkgezinden gaat willen opzoeken. Vooral andere bekeerden vinden zal volgens mij een belangrijk gegeven worden om zich goed te gaan voelen met het nieuwe geloof, maar ook om niet vlug te vervallen in oude gebruiken. Volgens mij is een mogelijkheid om met geloofsgenoten regelmatig bijeen te komen een zeer belangrijk gegeven om aan dat nieuwe geloof te kunnen vast houden.

De bekeerden kunnen steun zoeken en zich door elkaar aangemoedigd voelen. Dit zal volgens mij ook de mogelijkheid geven dat zij de moed zullen krijgen om ook hun nieuw verworven geloof verder uit te dragen. Bij de Islam meisjes ziet men dat zij soms kunnen over gaan tot het oprichten van groepjes om samen de islam te bestuderen.

 Ze proberen onderscheid te maken tussen culturele gewoonten van moslims en de voorschriften van de religie.

Vroon:

"Het viel me op dat velen alleen de voorschriften uit de schriftelijke bronnen zoals de Koran willen overnemen."

Bij deze bekeerlingen sluiten zich ook jonge geboren moslima's aan. Ook zij hebben er moeite mee dat de voertaal in moskeeën niet altijd Nederlands is. Soms hebben ze weinig van hun ouders meegekregen en moeten ze net als bekeerde moslima's nog van alles leren, bijvoorbeeld het gebed. 

Volgens mij bestat er een gevaar in dat in bepaalde moskeeën de voertaal geen Nederlands is terwijl deze meisjes niet Arabisch kundig zijn. Van alles kan hen wijs gemaakt worden en volgens mij zal er door het gebrek aan taalkennis  ook onvoldoende inzicht in de geloofsmaterie kunnen verworven worden.

Studies omtrent geloofsverandering kunnen voor omstaanders maar ook voor diegenen die denken aan verandering een licht werpen over het hoe, waarom en waarop te letten.

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• Door: sumela (peterzijnblog.wordpress.com)
  Allah Akbar en halal klinkt steeds meer, massa verzameling van Moslims gaat gewoon door.
  In enkele tientallen jaren zal de moslimbevolking de meerderheid gaan vormen van steeds meer gebieden in Nederland.
   Het zwaard van de Islam rukt op via hun demografische oorlog. De naïviteit al zou er een gematigde Islam zijn, staat haaks op de werkelijkheid van de Koran en de hantering in de praktijk in die landen waar de islam wetgeving, de sharia, steeds meer om zich heen grijpt. In de Islam is geen vrijheid van godsdienst en vrijheid van meningsuiting, zelfs eten onder de controle van de dictators!!.
• Dutchblog Israel: Wijs zijn of gelijk hebben (yonathanbert.blogspot.com)
  
  Alleen al het feit dat wij Joden sinds 1948 een eigen staat hebben, en dat die staat God zij dank beschikt over een van de beste legers ter wereld, maakt dat dergelijke vergelijkingen volkomen mank gaan. Wat erger is, het gebruik van termen en slogans als 'Judenrein' en 'Koop niet bij Joden' (waar overigens geen sprake van is in wat voor EU-voorstel dan ook) in elke context die niet direct met de Shoah te maken heeft, draagt bij aan het bagatelliseren van de Holocaust.
  
  
  Ik kan het niet genoeg zeggen: we hebben elke mogelijke steun hard nodig. Maar die steun moet niet alleen bestaan uit het wijzen naar alles wat er mis is aan 'gene zijde', en het benadrukken van hoe zuiver op de graat wij zelf wel niet zijn. Juist van onze vrienden verwacht ik dat ze ook Israël op zijn fouten en gebreken wijzen, en ons helpen moeilijke maar noodzakelijke beslissingen te nemen.

Debating Darwin

Well worth reading:

In the 19th century, Christians responded to the challenges of Darwinian evolution in many and diverse ways—from hostility to reconciliation. Read about the reactions of theologians, scientists, pastors, authors, bishops, and politicians—and learn how Darwinism eventually became a symbol of warfare between science and Christianity in this issue of Christian History magazine.

Cartoon 'Darwinian Evolution' suggesting that Richard Wagner was from Jewish forbears (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

https://www.christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/issue/debating-darwin/

Issue 107: Debating Darwin | Christian History Magazine     What’s Inside? Did you know?  Read Now the Editors Much more than monkey business. Editor’s note  Read Now Jennifer Woodruff Tait History turns out to be more complicated than we expect. Origin of Conflict  Read Now John Hedley Brooke Darwin’s “staggering” theory would have far-reaching implications Divine designs  Read Now Edwin Woodruff Tait Conservative Christians moved from cautious consideration of Darwin to outright rejection. The church and the soul  Read Now David Mislin Catholics were all over the map in their reactions to Darwin. Theology, reconstructed  Read Now Jon H. Roberts Liberal Protestants hoped to accommodate evolution and Christianity. The great war  Read Now George Marsden How Darwinism led to a battle between science and faith. Survival of the [social] fittest  Read Now Matt Forster Some of the controversy over Darwin came from how his ideas were applied to economics and race Debating Darwin  Read Now The Editors What did they say? Wrestling with doubt  Read Now Ronald L. Numbers How oftten did the encounter with Darwinism cause a spiritual crisis? Chance or the dance?  Read Now Frederick Gregory Many Christians in European countries found Darwin's ideas challenging. “What is Darwinism?”  Read Now Elesha Coffman and the editors A sampling of opinions from various theologians and scientists Darwin on trial?  Read Now David Goetz and the editors The Scopes Trial revealed developing divisions over evolution. Darwin on tour  Read Now David Livingstone and the editors. How you responded to Darwin in many cases depended on where you lived, as David Livingstone explained in an interview with Christian History. What the Bible demands  Read Now John Walton, Jeff Schloss, and the editors CH sat down with Biblical scholar John Walton and scientist Jeff Schloss to talk about science, faith, the Bible, and Darwin. Recommended resources  Read Now the authors and Editors Here are a few books, websites, and past CH issues recommended by CHI staff and this issue’s authors to help you navigate how Christians responded to Darwin between the publication of his books and the Scopes Trial.

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God’s Time is Best

God’s time is best,

The Great All-wise Sees all that in my pathway lies,

 And though each day His children tries, His time is best.

God’s way is best, what ever it be
It may not seem the best to me, But time will prove and I shall see His way is best.

- from the Australian Sunday School Hymn Book

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Katholieke Kerk in België mag nieuwe dopelingen begroeten

185 CATECHUMENEN WORDEN IN PAASNACHT GEDOOPT

BRUSSEL (KerkNet) - De komende maanden worden in de verschillende bisdommen van ons land 185 jongvolwassenen voorbereid op hun doopsel en 51 op hun vormsel. Het doopsel van catechumenen vindt meestal plaats in de Paaswake, op de vooravond van Pasen.

In het aartsbisdom Mechelen-Brussel worden 89 volwassenen gedoopt: 71 in het vicariaat Brussel (64 Franstaligen en 7 in de Nederlandstalige pastoraal), 15 in het vicariaat Waals-Brabant en 3 in het vicariaat Vlaams-Brabant. In het bisdom Antwerpen ontvangen 6 (jong)volwassenen het sacrament van het doopsel en ontvangen 51 jongvolwassenen het sacrament van het vormsel. In het bisdom Doornik worden 37 catechumenen gedoopt, in het bisdom Luik 23 en in het bisdom Namen 17. In het bisdom Hasselt worden 7 volwassenen gedoopt, in het bisdom Gent 4 en in het bisdom Brugge 2.

In Frankrijk worden met Pasen 3.631 volwassenen gedoopt. De catechumenen hebben twee jaar voorbereiding achter de rug. Zij werden van nabij gevolgd door 11.000 begeleiders. Het aantal catechumenen in Frankrijk stijgt sinds tien jaar. In vergelijking met 2004 is er een toename met 43 procent. Bijna de helft van de Franse catechumenen is opgegroeid in een niet godsdienstig milieu.

(Kerknet)

Theo Borgermans

How do we know the coming of Jesus is very near?

There is one simple answer. Look what is happening in the North part of the globe, Russia and Crimea and look at Israel! Scattered through the nations for centuries, they have never died out, as they cannot, if God is to keep His word.

Dormition Church, situated on the modern "Mount Zion" (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In our own generation, they have started to go back to their land. In 1967 they took back Jerusalem, or Zion, their ancient capital. And now their enemies are gathering against them. The scene is set for the Deliverer to come to his throne, for God to set His king upon His holy hill of Zion. The signs are all there to strengthen our faith. The God who keeps His covenants to a thousand generations is unbaring His arm again. 

But let us remember that it was told we would come to a time where  elope would stand up against each other, first in the land of Euphrates and Tigris (war of Iran and Iraq), several natural disasters would become more intence and regular (earthquakes, sunamis) brothers and sisters would get up against each other and religion would fight other religions. Does that not sound familiar with all the Hindus, Muslims, Christians a.o. fighting against each other?
 
Let us finish with a lovely passage, which sums up this great Hope of Israel that we have been thinking about so long. We said it can give us comfort, direction, and courage to face all the storms of life. This is just how the Apostle puts it in the Letter to the Hebrews:

"When God made a promise to Abraham . . . he swore by himself, saying, 'Surely I will bless you and multiply you'"

+++

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