FACING DOWN PHARAOH-IF EVEN FROM A SAFE DISTANCE!
Your missionary to Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, Rob Schenck, reporting:
I'm blurry-eyed traveling late on a train back to Washington from New York City. If you watched my video blog of this morning you know I asked you to pray about a critically important trip I might make. Well, I made it, but it didn't happen exactly as I planned. Still, it gave me an opportunity to identify in an infinitesimal way with Moses as he confronted the terrifyingly powerful Pharaoh. In my case, it wasn't a confrontation with the 15th Century B.C. potentate, but a contemporary version of him, namely Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran.
The murderously hateful Ahmadinejad was being fetted in New York at an dinner in the breathtakingly exquisite Grand Hyatt Hotel on 42nd Street in Manhattan. Oddly, the hosts were nearly all "Christian" clergy or leaders of various other religious groups. The sponsors included the World Council of Churches, known historically for their affectionate alliance with Fidel Castro and the funding of armed guerrilla revolutionaries in Angola, among other places.
Even stranger, I had received an invitation to the soiree, billed as a "dialogue." I actually accepted because I wanted to hear with my own ears Ahmadinejad's insane and vile pronouncements. What's been reported is so bad I can't process it, so I thought I'd give myself a first-hand experience. I had also planned to engage in my own "dialogue" with the dictator. Of course, I determined I just could not break bread with a man who calls for the total annihilation of a people, jails and tortures anyone that disagrees with him, and is urging passage of a death-penalty bill for anyone who chooses a religion outside of his weird interpretation of Islam. So, had I been there, I would have waived away the food.
More importantly, I planned to send him a visual message. My own dialogue was to have been silent. I had carefully rehearsed so that just as he began speaking, I would've quietly stood and quickly donned a replica of the armband Jews were forced to wear by the Nazis. I would have then remained standing in place at my table, without a word, until I was either removed or the Dictator was done.
But alas, none of this was to be. After a myriad of phone calls, it became apparent the event's organizers had no intention of admitting me. I was disappointed--until a woman I've worked with in Washington E-mailed me. She said she was helping to coordinate a huge opposition rally and news conference directly across the street from the Grand Hyatt and asked if I would speak.
It was just the outlet--and opportunity--I as looking for. Of course, I accepted. The rally was very well attended and executed. While it drew a wide spectrum of speakers and attendees, it seemed predominantly Jewish. The only Evangelicals I was aware of were myself and Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Church's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. (Of course, there were other Christian leaders there, including my friend Andrea Lafferty of Traditional values Coalition, but Evangelical clergy were scant.)
Anyway, I spoke to the very impressive crowd fanned out along 42nd Street. I began with a confession that I intended to be in the meeting they were so ardently condemning. I explained my reasoning, but expressed relief that in the end I didn't have to bear the excruciating burden of being in there and dealing with what I was sure to have heard.
Then I explained what had happened with my "disinvitation." I suggested perhaps someone had learned about my plot to stand and wear the cotton armband with its prominent yellow Star of David, an unmistakable display of solidarity with those who suffered in the Holocaust Ahmadinejad denies ever happened. Then I put it on. The crowd was deeply moved. I spoke about the need for Christians to stand with Jews in resisting the kind of evil the Iranian dictator embodies.
When I left the stage, Rabbi Aryeh Spero, the behind-the-scenes platform director, told me it would be the most memorable image of the night. Feeling that band on my arm, I felt as never before deeply connected to my Jewish roots and to the millions of victims of that terrible episode in human history.
You can read my prepared statement (which always comes out a bit different) at our website, www.faithandaction.org.
I prayed at the end of my talk, "May God help us and take this monster from us, quickly."
Amen.
Rob
Rev. Rob Schenck
Faith and Action in the Nation's Capital
www.faithandaction.org
109 2nd St, NE
Washington, DC 20002
202-546-8329
I'm blurry-eyed traveling late on a train back to Washington from New York City. If you watched my video blog of this morning you know I asked you to pray about a critically important trip I might make. Well, I made it, but it didn't happen exactly as I planned. Still, it gave me an opportunity to identify in an infinitesimal way with Moses as he confronted the terrifyingly powerful Pharaoh. In my case, it wasn't a confrontation with the 15th Century B.C. potentate, but a contemporary version of him, namely Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran.
The murderously hateful Ahmadinejad was being fetted in New York at an dinner in the breathtakingly exquisite Grand Hyatt Hotel on 42nd Street in Manhattan. Oddly, the hosts were nearly all "Christian" clergy or leaders of various other religious groups. The sponsors included the World Council of Churches, known historically for their affectionate alliance with Fidel Castro and the funding of armed guerrilla revolutionaries in Angola, among other places.
Even stranger, I had received an invitation to the soiree, billed as a "dialogue." I actually accepted because I wanted to hear with my own ears Ahmadinejad's insane and vile pronouncements. What's been reported is so bad I can't process it, so I thought I'd give myself a first-hand experience. I had also planned to engage in my own "dialogue" with the dictator. Of course, I determined I just could not break bread with a man who calls for the total annihilation of a people, jails and tortures anyone that disagrees with him, and is urging passage of a death-penalty bill for anyone who chooses a religion outside of his weird interpretation of Islam. So, had I been there, I would have waived away the food.
More importantly, I planned to send him a visual message. My own dialogue was to have been silent. I had carefully rehearsed so that just as he began speaking, I would've quietly stood and quickly donned a replica of the armband Jews were forced to wear by the Nazis. I would have then remained standing in place at my table, without a word, until I was either removed or the Dictator was done.
But alas, none of this was to be. After a myriad of phone calls, it became apparent the event's organizers had no intention of admitting me. I was disappointed--until a woman I've worked with in Washington E-mailed me. She said she was helping to coordinate a huge opposition rally and news conference directly across the street from the Grand Hyatt and asked if I would speak.
It was just the outlet--and opportunity--I as looking for. Of course, I accepted. The rally was very well attended and executed. While it drew a wide spectrum of speakers and attendees, it seemed predominantly Jewish. The only Evangelicals I was aware of were myself and Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Church's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. (Of course, there were other Christian leaders there, including my friend Andrea Lafferty of Traditional values Coalition, but Evangelical clergy were scant.)
Anyway, I spoke to the very impressive crowd fanned out along 42nd Street. I began with a confession that I intended to be in the meeting they were so ardently condemning. I explained my reasoning, but expressed relief that in the end I didn't have to bear the excruciating burden of being in there and dealing with what I was sure to have heard.
Then I explained what had happened with my "disinvitation." I suggested perhaps someone had learned about my plot to stand and wear the cotton armband with its prominent yellow Star of David, an unmistakable display of solidarity with those who suffered in the Holocaust Ahmadinejad denies ever happened. Then I put it on. The crowd was deeply moved. I spoke about the need for Christians to stand with Jews in resisting the kind of evil the Iranian dictator embodies.
When I left the stage, Rabbi Aryeh Spero, the behind-the-scenes platform director, told me it would be the most memorable image of the night. Feeling that band on my arm, I felt as never before deeply connected to my Jewish roots and to the millions of victims of that terrible episode in human history.
You can read my prepared statement (which always comes out a bit different) at our website, www.faithandaction.org.
I prayed at the end of my talk, "May God help us and take this monster from us, quickly."
Amen.
Rob
Rev. Rob Schenck
Faith and Action in the Nation's Capital
www.faithandaction.org
109 2nd St, NE
Washington, DC 20002
202-546-8329
Labels: Ahmedinejad, faith and action, rob schenck, World Council of Churches
posted by Rev. Rob Schenck | 6:47 PM
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