Agora Café | Konflik tussen Israel en Hamas: Is hulle stryd ons stryd? 

Dit is goed om hierdie gesprekke in Afrikaans te hoor

The challenges of being peacemakers... I listened to this and I will put a DISCLAIMER here at the beginning of my comment. I am NOT pro Hamas nor am I pro Zionism. I am pro the 1139 Israelis killed and their families on October 7th. I am pro the 28775 people killed amd their families in Israel's genocidal actions. So... How do we get both sides who are both guilty to sit together and make peace? We are told its important to turn the other cheek. And I do believe I'm the power of that. Is it still a good idea say to to turn the other cheek when your enemy has no conscience? Does it still work? Unfortunately bad theology is big stumbling block towards developing a conscience. I know it sounds rough to say. But unfortunately, when religion (Christianity including) is practiced in a pathological way, it corrupts people's morality. It corrupts their spirit. When bad theology in any religion is practiced it defiles the God's holy purpose of religion. When religion is practiced in line with God's plan for us then it does the opposite of that. It builds. It makes peace. It saves us from the part of us that is fallen. I liked it when Karen Armstrong said that when religion is done right, it's moral alchemy. It frees us from sin. How do we combat the bad theology that justifies the Hamas jihad against Israel? How do we combat the bad theology that justifies the genocide of Palestinians? Especially when we have no skin in the game? How do we do this knowing full well that it's extremely easy to slip into the fallen part of our nature to live a sinful life and practice sinful theology when we have been traumatised by the sins of others? No one leaves this life untraumatised. And it's this trauma that drives us into the hands of sinful theology that squashes critical thinking. That squashes our conscience. That squashes our humanity. It's easier to get two sides with a conscience to talk to each other. But when one or both sides have had their humanity extinguished through trauma. How do we as the peacemakers work with that? Especially considering we are neither Muslim nor Jewish? I think there's enough material on the topic of how we are supposed to be peacemakers in this world. Looking forward to a discussion on that seemingly impossible task. Thank you so much for this discussion. I really appreciated it.