Quote of the Day / Quote of the Week

We have a new person working in the art department at Central Market. Until yesterday, I'd only had a few briefs words with her. Yesterday, though, I learned that she had lived in Beirut until only a few years ago. She and her mother live in the U.S., but she has a lot of family and even more friends that are suddenly trapped in a war zone. As you might imagine, it has been increasingly challenging to keep up telephone contact. So far, to her knowledge, everyone is all right, she says. Unexpectedly, she turns around to face me and says in an alarming calm tone,

You know what's so f**ked up about all this? I live over here in the U.S. in safety and prosperity while my taxes are given to Israel so they can bomb the f**k out of my family!

This prompts me to finish reading this week's e-newletter from Sojourner magazine. Here's a rather long quotation they have linked from an online article at Christianity Today's website:

Sunday morning, I woke up to the news that an Israeli air strike hit a residential building used as a shelter in the southern Lebanese town of Qana, killing and wounding more than 65 people, including 30 infants and young children. According to tradition, Qana is the village where Jesus Christ performed his first miracle by turning water into wine (John 2).

Now I hear of fellow Christians who enjoy seeing the turning of water into blood in the name of end-time prophecy. Their call should rather be to turn water into wine of gladness, peace, and life. Are we looking for the presence of Christ in Lebanon and Israel or for the presence of U.S. smart bombs?

I recently received an e-mail from a friend who lives in Washington, D.C., informing me that a sign displayed in front of an independent evangelical church simply states: "Go Israel!" This news came as I learned that the father of one of the six-year-old students at our school had been killed in an air strike as he went to get bread for his family. For the sake of the children's tears, for the sake of the children's blood in this terrible war, for the sake of the children's smiles, please say and write: "Go for peace!" "Go for reconciliation!" "Go for love!" Go for a cease-fire!"

Ms. Rice, I heard recently that you are an ardent evangelical. I have always believed that evangelicals are peacemakers. They are those who hold fast to the gospel of peace and reconciliation. Please answer the above children's prayer. Help me at least not to lose faith in calling myself an evangelical.

Until such prayers and requests are answered, we continue at J.L. Schneller Institute in West Beqaa to pray and to work for peace. We continue providing care to hundreds of displaced people who took shelter at our institution and to others in neighboring areas. Please keep us and all of Lebanon in your prayers.

pictures you don't want to see