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By Ray Hanania
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Many of you know I am Palestinian Christian. I’ve written about it a lot because I believe American Christians need to be reminded that their faith comes through my family origins in Bethlehem and Jerusalem.
I’m Orthodox Christian and will celebrate Easter this Sunday, which always comes after the Jewish holiday of Passover, which was celebrated this past week. So, Orthodox Easter, the resurrection of Jesus, can’t be celebrated before Passover. It’s a sign of how close true Christians are to true Jews.
Of course, Christianity in America is more of a ritual of selfish politics than it is a belief in God. Christians are basically Jews who believe in Christ, and that’s difficult for some to accept. Jesus was a rabbi who led a movement to recommit humanity to God’s word.
I always tell people my mother is from Bethlehem, who attended the Church of the Nativity. Jesus is my “cousin.”
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Ray Hanania
That connection to me means more than the empty beliefs many Christians hold today. Those Christians turn their backs on the suffering of others because it doesn’t fit into the politicization of their faith. Christians who lack empathy easily embrace racism to justify brutality against those with whom they fear or hate.
It’s un-Christian-like to hate Jews and it is un-Christian-like to hate Muslims. In fact, a true Christian is someone who embraces both, accepts responsibility for their actions and doesn’t blame others.
People who live in a glass house shouldn’t throw stones, but in fact, many Christians do throw stones because they hate or they despise others on the basis of religion, skin color and even politics.
If America were truly a Christian nation, it would act with Christian faith in response to the violence in the Middle East. Real Christians empathize with the suffering of Jews killed on Oct. 7 and with the Palestinians, who are Christian and Muslim and who have been brutalized by Israel’s government.
What Hamas did on Oct. 7 is a terrorist act and horrendous. They should be punished. But what Israel’s government did and does, before and after Oct. 7, is a war crime. More than 250 Palestinians were killed in 2023 before Oct. 7, and 400 were killed in 2022. Visit the Israeli Center for Human Rights, B’Tselem, and see the truth that contradicts the lies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Netanyahu is facing three Israeli criminal indictments, and he may also soon face war crimes indictments by the International Criminal Court, which is founded on the principles set during the Nuremberg Trials in 1945-46 against the Nazis.
The Gaza conflict is difficult to watch. One of the few places to view videos of the carnage is on TikTok, the reason why fake Christians in Congress want to shut it down.
TikTok videos are having the same impact today that TV videos had in 1968 in exposing the truth and brutality of the Vietnam War.
The so-called Christian Right is driving the anti-TikTok campaign and defends Netanyahu. It is the essence of being anti-Christian.
I pray for the Israeli hostages and the Jewish people, and I also pray for the Palestinians. There is extremism and goodness on both sides. Real Christians see that.
You are not Christian if you only cheer for one side and close your eyes to their crimes against the other.
This Orthodox Easter will be somber and sad, a reminder of what Jesus faced when they threw him to the Romans who crucified him.
Ray Hanania is a former Chicago City Hall reporter and award-winning columnist. Visit hanania.com for more opinions.