{"id":108409,"date":"2024-12-26T13:57:58","date_gmt":"2024-12-26T20:57:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=108409"},"modified":"2024-12-26T19:43:08","modified_gmt":"2024-12-27T02:43:08","slug":"a-christmas-message-from-irans-vice-president-and-his-wife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2024\/12\/a-christmas-message-from-irans-vice-president-and-his-wife.html","title":{"rendered":"A Christmas message from Iran’s vice president and his wife"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Herod's<\/a>
The temple of Jerusalem as it appeared in 66 AD, about three and a half decades after the crucifixion of Jesus and just prior to the Roman destruction of temple and city during the First Jewish Revolt. This wonderful outdoor model of late Second Temple Jerusalem stands on the grounds of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This article has been newly posted on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: \u00a0The Temple: Past, Present and Future<\/em>: \u201cThe Messianic Sacred, Not Secret: The Son as a Hidden Name in the Gospel of Mark,\u201d<\/a> written by Jasmin Gimenez Rappleye<\/a><\/p>\n

Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in The Temple: Past, Present and Future<\/em>, edited by Stephen D. Ricks and Jeffrey M. Bradshaw. For more information, go to https:\/\/interpreterfoundation.org\/books\/the-temple-past-present-and-future\/<\/a>. For video and audio recording of this conference talk, go to https:\/\/interpreterfoundation.org\/conferences\/2020-temple-on-mount-zion-conference\/videos\/rappleye\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe \u201cMessianic Secret\u201d theory proposes that Jesus Christ forbids demons and followers from revealing who he is for an enigmatic reason. While the findings of the original theory have largely been abandoned, the idea of secrecy motifs in Mark has endured. Mark\u2019s use of the \u201cSon\u201d may be an interpretive key for understanding some of Mark\u2019s enigmatic secrecy motifs. The Gospel of Mark casts the \u201cSon\u201d as a sacred and identifying title for Jesus Christ, which he receives at baptism, keeps hidden from the profane, and ultimately reveals at the cross, symbolized by the rending of the temple veil. This name is used as a device to highlight the ironic recognition of demons, the misunderstanding of the disciples, and the ultimate access humanity has to Jesus Christ\u2019s salvific identity.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Please note that the article was posted on a Thursday, and that it isn\u2019t a journal<\/em> article. \u00a0Journal articles appear on Fridays<\/em>. \u00a0One of our readers found this very confusing a while back and, as a result of his confusion, embarrassed himself somewhat. \u00a0It was a bit painful.<\/p>\n

\"In<\/a>
Many people, I expect, will be surprised to see that some areas of Iran \u2014 not all! \u2014 look like this. \u00a0There are many things about Iran that might surprise those who aren\u2019t familiar with it. \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last night, at the end of Christmas Day, my friend Randy Paul<\/a>, the founder and president of the Foundation for Religious Diplomacy<\/a>, with which I myself have been involved since its founding<\/a>, sent me (and others) the following note:<\/p>\n

You are already aware that we have been working for twenty years on building religious diplomacy to compliment other forms of trust-building. \u00a0One of our foundation\u2019s longest efforts began with my friend, Iranian diplomat Javad Zarif, who is now vice president of Iran.<\/p>\n

Today, Christmas Day, he sent this video (see below) to a group of religious diplomats and general citizens as an attempt at trust-building religious diplomacy aimed to help his country\u2019s efforts to stabilize the region more peacefully by changing Iranian internal politics and influencing their external adversaries to change too.<\/p>\n

Of course there are multiple motives for all we do, but this is a sincere statement from him and his wife that signals a real breakthrough. \u00a0In September I met with the President of Iran and several religious diplomat colleagues in NYC to discuss how contention could be ended and honest disagreements faced via \u2018heart and mind\u2019 diplomacy. \u00a0The attached video (download it from the cloud) is one result of that meeting.<\/p>\n

Jann and I have been in the Zarifs\u2019 home talking with them at length. \u00a0We are not naive. \u00a0We choose to trust these people. Of course, yes, trust and then verify., Both sides have little trust, so first someone needs to extend some trust. \u00a0Now is the time to try anew.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You can download the Zarifs\u2019 message here<\/a>. \u00a0It runs about 4.5 minutes long.<\/p>\n

The message becomes overtly political at the end. \u00a0I rather regret that. \u00a0And I would want to point out that Iran itself bears, umm, more than a little bit of responsibility for the instability in the Middle East right now. \u00a0Playing the innocent na\u00eff is hardly convincing. \u00a0Iran has been supporting Hezbollah in Lebanon and arming the Houthis in Yemen, for example, and has been weaponizing other bad actors in the region for years now.<\/p>\n

But I confess to liking Javad Zarif and his wife. \u00a0One evening, a number of years ago, my wife and I spent several hours with the Zarifs in the dining and living rooms of their apartment in New York City, back when he was the ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations. (He later became Iran\u2019s foreign minister.) \u00a0I, too, am not na\u00efve. \u00a0But I was deeply impressed with both of them. \u00a0Our conversation was informal, surprisingly candid, friendly, and sometimes funny. \u00a0I recall, for example, that he was deeply impressed with then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani\u2019s success in lowering New York City crime rates. \u00a0(This, of course, was before Mr. Giuliani\u2019s descent into whatever it is that he has now become.) \u00a0He had, he said, been assigned to the United Nations before, as a junior diplomat, and the area in which he was now living had been very dangerous. \u00a0Now, though, it was safe and pleasant. \u00a0Giuliani was being mentioned as a possible presidential candidate at the time, and Ambassador Zarif joked that he had thought about endorsing him. \u00a0\u201cSomehow, though,\u201d he said, \u201cI don\u2019t think that an endorsement from Iran\u2019s ambassador to the United Nations would help him very much.\u201d<\/p>\n

It seems, incidentally, that Randy Paul and I will be traveling to Samarkand, in Uzbekistan, for an inter-religious dialogue at the end of April. \u00a0Should be interesting.<\/p>\n

\"Guercino's<\/a>
Il Guercino, \u201cChristian Charity\u201d (ca. 1625); Wikimedia Commons public domain image<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today, I share a special retrospective item from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial \u201cHow Religion Poisons Everything\u201d File<\/em>\u2122:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn pictures: Remembering the deadliest tsunami in history\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Twenty years ago, on 26 December 2004, a 9.1-magnitude earthquake triggered massive tsunamis across the Indian Ocean, creating enormous, devastating waves that smashed against the coasts of fourteen countries in the region.<\/p>\n

Altogether, the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami represented one of the deadliest disasters in world history, leaving an estimated 230,000 people dead and grievously impacting millions of others.<\/p>\n

The initial earthquake struck off the western coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, on the morning of Boxing Day, the day after Christmas. Entire towns and villages were swept away and thousands of miles of coastline were destroyed in Indonesia, India, Thailand, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Seychelles, and Somalia.<\/p>\n

When that 2004 tsunami devastated Indonesia\u2019s deeply Muslim Banda Aceh region, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> sent large quantities of material aid, sadly including the body bags requested by the Indonesian government, but also food, bedding, and cooking pots. Church assistance helped to restore the livelihoods of tsunami survivors, particularly farmers and fishermen, and to build community centers, schools, medical centers, and hundreds of houses. (One of the community centers was designed to double as a mosque.)\u00a0 Once physical recovery was underway, though, Church humanitarian aid personnel asked local officials how the Church could help even more. \u00a0Those officials responded that their people were spiritually bereft, demoralized.\u00a0 For example, almost all copies of the Qur\u2019an in the area had been lost, swept out to sea, or destroyed. \u00a0So the Church shipped not only prayer rugs and head scarves to them but hundreds of Indonesian-language copies of the Qur\u2019an.<\/p>\n

Writing that last sentence made me especially proud of my church and my people.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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