Middle Tennessee Christian leaders: Advent is a call for justice and peace in Palestine
We, Middle Tennessee Christians, are called by our faith to stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine. Scripture reveals a God whose people cry out against injustice, a God, in Christ, born in Palestine who comes to bring liberation to the oppressed (Luke 4:18) and who calls us to join in that sacred work.
As followers of the Palestinian Jew Jesus, we join millions of other people of faith and conscience around the world in urging an immediate and permanent ceasefire, the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and an end to the occupation of Palestine.
Palestinians have lived under Israeli military occupation for more than 75 years, thanks in large part to the unwavering support of the U.S. government. Even South Africa has called for the United Nations to declare Israel “an apartheid state.”
Since the Hamas-led attacks of October 7 that killed nearly 1,200 people in Israel, Israel has killed more than 20,000 Palestinians in Gaza, nearly half of whom have been children. Nearly 2 million Gazans have been displaced, while tens of thousands remain missing under rubble, severely injured, or at risk of starvation, making the actual death rate far higher than Palestinian authorities are currently reporting. We grieve the deaths of both Palestinian and Israeli civilians and long for the justice of a free Palestine that would make peace possible.
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During this recent season of Advent, as we waited and prepared for the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, we have meditated on hope in the midst of despair, and on the promise that injustice will be transformed.
This Advent in particular, our gaze was fixed on the modern inhabitants of Palestine who are experiencing ethnic cleansing and what Holocaust scholars and a former UN director have called a textbook case of genocide, all while the world looks on. When Mary became pregnant with Jesus, she envisioned a God who lifts the oppressed and fills the hungry. We pray for the justice that Mary envisioned to become a reality for the people of Palestine.
Many Christians feel it is not their place to speak up about the violence taking place in Palestine. But the God we follow does not remain silent in the face of genocide.
Indeed, the God we follow dwells in the ruins of Gaza. As Palestinian Christian theologian and pastor Munther Isaac recently preached to his congregation in Bethlehem: “If Christ were to be born today, he would be born under the rubble.”
Many Christians also fear speaking out against Israel’s violence for fear it would constitute antisemitism. We follow our anti-Zionist Jewish siblings, however, in asserting that it is not antisemitic to critique the state of Israel. As inheritors of a tradition responsible for centuries of antisemitism, including the antisemitism of Christian Zionism that led to the settler colonial creation of the state of Israel, we have a special obligation to speak and act against both antisemitism and the mass violence that Israel continues to perpetrate today.
Supporters of peace in the Middle East must show solidarity
If we do not cry out against and do everything in our power to stop Israel's ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people, it is not the Prince of Peace that we celebrate, but violence.
Because we are Christians, we commit to resisting antisemitism, Islamophobia, and anti-Arab racism everywhere. And because we are Christians, we commit to following the lead of Palestinian communities by joining boycotts against companies that support Israel’s violence, speaking up in our communities and congregations, and supporting local solidarity actions.
Join us in celebrating the birth of Jesus by calling for a permanent ceasefire and an end to the occupation of the land in which he was born, under the rubble.
This is an abbreviated and edited, Advent-themed version of our original public letter, posted November 24, 2023, and signed by the Christians and Christian leaders in Middle Tennessee listed below. To read the original public letter, to see an updated list of signatories, and to add your name, please visit bit.ly/mtc4jp.
Rev. Lindsey Krinks
Rev. Ingrid McIntyre
Rev. John Feldhacker, Edgehill United Methodist Church
Bishop Aaron Marble, MDiv, Jefferson Street Missionary Baptist Church
Rev. Dr. Kevin Riggs, Franklin Community Church
Rev. Flo Paris Oakes, St. Mary of Bethany Nashville
Rev. Dr. Kate Fields, Belmont United Methodist Church
Rev. Shelby Slowey, South End United Methodist Church
Rev. Dr. Forrest E. Harris
Pastor Kelli X, MDiv
Rev. April Baker
Rev. James C. Turner II, MDiv
Rev. Will Compton, MDiv
Rev. Claire McKeever-Burgett, MDiv
Rev. Adrian White
Rev. Keller Hawkins, MDiv
Rev. Dr. Donna K. Whitney
Min. Ristina Gooden, MDiv
Rev. Lauren Plummer, MTS
Rev. Dorothy Gager, M.Div, MSSW
Rev. Luke, MDiv
Rev. Robert Brent Coleman, MDiv
Rev. R. Calvin Kimbrough, Jr., MDiv
Rev. Nelia J. Kimbrough, MDiv
Rev. RJ Robles, MDiv
Rev. Dr. Aaron Stauffer
Rev. Dwight Liles
Rev. Susan Hudson McBride, MDiv
Rev. Wesley King, MDiv
Deaconess Elizabeth Shadbolt
Madeleine Lewis, MTS
Rachel Ternes, MDiv
Andrew Krinks, PhD
Frances Fitzgerald
Madelynn Roche
Ciro Campos
Isabel Draper, MDiv
August Phillippi
Grey Kenna
Michael McRay
Janet Shouse
Hannah Martin
Lauren Kinser
Mike Hodge
Amanda Roche
Maria Michonski, MDiv
Jules Webb, BA, Faith and Social Justice
Miracle Awonuga
Catherine Aisbitt
Seth Gunter
Abby Graham, LMSW
Adrian Chavarria
Eric Dorman
Preston Shipp
Colette Dorman
Betsy Aho
Kelley
Colin Barras
Bobbilyn Negrón
Sabrina Sullenberger
Matthew Vaccaro
Believer Rahim Buford
Erica Joy Johnson, MDiv
Quinn Bacon
Arantxa Pardue
Natalie Sarrett
Peyton Chandler, MDiv
Angela M. Dillon, MDiv
Chandler Meador
Ari Lewis
Dana Chamblee Carpenter, PhD
Gabriela Martinez
Judith Clerjeune, MDiv
Mari Ramler, PhD
Joanna Lampa, MA
Colleen Lampa
Beth Stewert, MTS
Rachel Nelson
Chelsey Scott
Victoria Strayhorn
Melinda Knott
Maria Urias
Nathan Dryden, MDiv
Sarah Oh
Melody Suite
Danielle Marie Urton
Anthony Calzia, MDiv
Caitlin J. Stout, MDiv
Linda M. Edwards, MDiv
Tammie Ruffle
Lindsey Dye, LPC-MHSP
Kathleen Powers
Tamara Coleman
Barbara Ann Cloud
Woodley McEachern
Dan McEachern
Leonard Deen Thompson
Claire Hitchins
Alexis Yates
Ted Parks, PhD
Marian Maxine Taylor, MSSW
Ross Collier
Sagen Eatwell, MA, MEd
Ben Hyder Edwards
Martha Jane Osgerby, MS
David Dark, PhD
Phyllis Brown
Tommy Bugg
Marsha Crownover
Michael Higgins
Bonnie Johnson
Alex Richardson
Indie Pereira, MDiv
Elizabeth Manning
Johnny Sears
Justin Williams
Judy Shank
Julie Coulter
Jared Dorman
Shanda Al-Subaih
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Israel-Hamas war: Advent is a call for justice and peace in Palestine