CLOSE TO THE EDGE

from Midwest Conservative Journal by The Editor

Certain pejoratives sometimes tend to get used far too frequently. “Racist” probably leads this category although “homophobe,” whatever that might be, is coming hard. These days “sexist,” once a leftist standard, seems to have become “misogynist.”

So I’m reluctant to toss around terms like that. But I couldn’t read this sermon by Katharine Jefferts Schori, apparently delivered in both Bethlehem and Washington, DC, without feeling more than a little queasy:

"I met an Englishwoman this week, and when I mentioned this service, she told me of her visit to Bethlehem several years ago, and her horror when she saw the wall surrounding that city. She said she can no longer see a manger scene without thinking of that wall, complete with bullet holes and graffiti."

Feeling “horror” at the sight of that wall is pretty much a standard reaction among the left. Understanding why that wall was erected in the first place never ever seems to enter the mind of the Presiding Bishop or anyone else on her side. QED, according to Mrs. Schori, murdering Jews is less of a crime than inconveniencing “Palestinians.”

Then Kate actually manages to impress me.

"Could Mary and Joseph even get into Bethlehem today? Their donkey would undoubtedly be stopped, examined for explosives, and probably turned away because of its subversive cargo. Today Mary would likely give birth in another cave beyond the city and outside the wall, once again forbidden home and the shelter of family. Yet that very wall is an enduring reminder of human fear and the frantic quest for safety, not unlike Mary and Joseph’s search for shelter."

For pure, unadulterated stupidity coupled with mind-blowing offensiveness, I can’t remember ever reading anything better. Frank Griswold needed entire sermons to be as idiotic and insulting as that one, single paragraph.

Kate? If Mary and Joseph, who were both Jews last time I checked, approached Bethlehem today, who would be the ones stopping them? Who would examine their donkey for explosives? Who would end up turning them away and forbidding them “home and the shelter of family?”

You guessed it.

I hate having to keep going over this but Mary and Joseph weren’t “forbidden home and the shelter of family” at Bethlehem because they didn’t live in Bethlehem, you dolt. All the hotels were booked up.

And they were only there in the first place because a big, centralized government, the kind you seem enthusiastic about, ordered them to make the trip so that they could be enrolled for tax purposes.

Ironic, isn’t it?

You say “the wall is an enduring reminder of human fear and the frantic quest for safety” like that’s a bad thing, Presiding Bishop. What is wrong with wanting to keep your family or your friends from harm? Don’t you do that yourself? Except that in this case, the people wanting to protect themselves and their families and friends are…

Yup.

Once again, that wall was a last resort. An understandable last resort given the 60 plus years of your neighbors periodically trying to wipe you off the map or kill as many of your citizens as they possibly can as savagely as they possibly can.

Dead Jews don’t matter to you at all, do they, Kate?