Signs of Hope in a Holy Land that has yet to fully live into that name.

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
– Mahatma Monhandas Gandhi

“Here I stand. I can do no other.” Martin Luther

“I’m speaking out against [this] war because I agree with Dante, that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality. There comes a time when silence becomes betrayal.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

Information and understanding help us to avoid seeing things in black and white terms, and to instead recognize and acknowledge the many shades of gray – and the validity and truth of each of those shades:

Back-story of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.   (neutral and peer reviewed)
A primer on the conflict.

Signs of Hope:

Jews and Arabs Refuse to be Enemies

Palestine Loves Israel see also: http://thepeacefactory.org
Israelis For Palestine  see also: http://www.israelisforpalestine.org/
Christians for Palestine
Palestinian Christians †  لمسيحيين الفلسطينيين
Iran Loves Israel & Palestine
The Abrahamic Initiative  see also: http://www.abrahamicinitiative.org
Muslims for Progressive Values  see also:   http://www.mpvusa.org
Jews for Justice for Palestinians see also: http://www.jfjfp.com

Jewish Voice for Peace see also: http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org
Breaking the Silence  see also: http://www.breakingthesilence.org.il
Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions  see also: www.icahduk.org
Muslims and Christians who Promote Peace Together
Christian Peacemaker Teams  http://www.cpt.org/work/palestine

The sun will stand as your best man
and whistle when you have found the courage
To marry forgiveness
when you have found the courage
to marry Love.

– Hafiz of Persia

May retributive justice shift to restorative justice and reconciliation.
May perfectly understandable yearnings for vindictive vengeance give way to deeper longings for forgiveness.
May tendencies to view persons we’ve never met as “the other” evolve into vulnerably admitted recognition of our very selves in all fellow humans who  travel with us ’round the Sun.
And may Peace, Shalom, and Salaam prevail.

Amen and Amin.

xx – Roger

Rev. Roger Wolsey is an ordained United Methodist pastor who directs the Wesley Foundation at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and is author of Kissing Fish: christianity for people who don’t like christianity

Here is the Facebook page for Kissing Fish

Roger’s previous blogs