"I'd like to ask for prayers for Israel."
Why we're at war with Iran, and constantly at war in the Middle East, among other places.
this is finally part 1 of What to do with a Christian Zionis
David Bagley requested prayers for the people of Israel on Sunday. Another congregant seconded that sentiment and began the Israel-specific prayer himself, on behalf of the entire congregation I guess. I silently asked myself a few questions as we petitioned the Lord for His protection of Our Greatest Ally. (I also answered each question myself- see italics.)
Wait a minute? Which country just got bombed last night and who bombed them? Iran, and the US did.
Who started this war? Israel did, two weeks ago.
While we’re praying for those who are suffering because of this war, is it relevant to ask who is suffering the most? Between Iran and Israel, which country is suffering greater loss of life? 1. Yes, it is relevant. 2. Iran, by about 30 to 1.
Why isn’t David asking for prayers for all the people in the region? Because Ben Shapiro, Mark Levin, Sean Hannity and Glen Beck aren’t programming him for those kinds of prayers/sentiments.
Why aren’t we praying for the tens of thousands of dead and millions displaced and under a starvation blockade in Gaza? #1- Because Hamas! #2- ‘Cause those people are subhuman (Amalek), #3-Because our focus on the Israel/Iran conflict helps to take our focus off of the genocide in Palestine, and #4- because America is Israel’s lap dog, and in any clash between our master and another country, we must side with Israel, because Holocaust n’ stuff.
I stewed in silence for a moment, and just before prayer time ended I blurted out, “And I’d like us to pray for all people in the region, especially all the innocents, and not just the inhabitants of one country.”
You’ll remember that a month and a half ago I wrote the intro to this piece. It was simply a preface that stated why I think the issue is important; the issue being our government’s unconditional support of Israel. Now it appears Trump is taking us to war with Iran, so it is of vital importance to point out how this is possible. So now let’s go back to late March, when first I, and then the entire men’s breakfast group, had a run-in with David Bagley.
I honestly had no expectation that an argument over Israel and the Jews would take place at the last-Sunday-of-the-month church pot luck, and I certainly wasn’t aiming to go there, but it happened. I guess it had to happen. David Bagley was already looking for it, having had a run in with Pastor John the day before at Saturday breakfast. Pastor John is not afraid to broach any subject in the Bible, and the week before he’d been exploring the meaning of Rev 2:9: I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.
This was the last straw for David. He’d already been on edge, contemplating, no doubt, whether this church was a hotbed of Antisemitism. There was an incident a month prior, at Sunday fellowship, when David’s wife Winona mentioned the suffering of the Jews and the sacrosanct 6 million figure from the Holocaust, and Lance Engstrom, in his measured monotone, said something to the tune of, “Actually, the numbers you’ve seen regarding Jewish deaths in WW2 have been highly inflated, and the 6 million number is most assuredly way off the mark. Furthermore…”
As Lance went on, I looked around the congregation to see how they were reacting to Lance’s truth bombs. How many people here have ever seen any revisionist history that contradicts the hallowed/Spielbergian/orthodox and authorized version of the Holocaust, especially the holy 6-million number? Lance did a pretty thorough job, reducing what he could of an entire library’s-worth of Irving, Zundel, Unz, Faurisson, and Red Cross statistics into a punchy 40-second monologue. Winona could only reply with, “Well, how ever many there were…”
The next week after men’s Saturday breakfast David had a heated exchange with Lance in the back of the room.
The Saturday breakfast after that I ran after David in the parking lot to speak to him before he drove off.
Dan- Hey David, can I speak to you a sec?
David- Sure.
Dan- I saw you talking to Lance last week, and I’m pretty sure you guys were discussing Israel and the Jews, correct?
David- Yep.
Dan- I wonder if you and I might discuss the issue, away from the group, over a coffee maybe?
David paused, then said, “Yeah, we could do that.”
Dan- I think there may be some misunderstandings that will be easier to clear up if we discuss them one on one.
David- OK. Sure. We can get together.
My thinking was simply that David, clearly a typical pro-Israel evangelical, was not used to confronting people who had bothered to question our slavish subservience to Israel and the sacrosanct, untouchable (uncriticizeable) nature of Jews. But here in the parking lot he seemed open to dialogue, and willing to hear me out. I was optimistic about our upcoming talk.
But a week went by without a meeting at the coffee shop, and I found myself at the same table as David and Winona at end-of-month, Sunday church potluck. As I stabbed another meatball and sponged up another glob of gravy with the delicious, chewy artisan sourdough, I wasn’t quite ready for David’s probing and subsequent accusations.
My son Kenny was next to me on my left, and David was next to Kenny. David leaned back so we could see each other behind Kenny’s back, and said, “So Dan, who have you interviewed lately?”
The first thing that popped into my head was EMJ. But I knew for certain that a guy with what I assume is David’s pedigree- Boomer, ‘Conservative’, FOX watcher, Prosperity-Theology Evangelical Scofield Christian, Old-Covenant fan (his wife carries a shofar ram’s horn to church)- would be incapable at this early stage of JQ enlightenment of processing E. Michael Jones, and the forbidden-information overload might cause him to quake and foam, so I told him, “I recently interviewed Bart Sibrell.”
-Who’s that?
-He’s the Moon Man! He is the foremost expert on moon hoax history.
David stared at me for a moment. I thought I’d lighten things up with a Moon Man fun fact. “Yeah,” I chuckled, “Sibrell is famous for having been punched in the face by Buzz Aldrin.”
-Buzz Aldrin punched him in the face?
-Yeah, he asked Aldrin to swear on the Bible that he’d actually been to the moon and Aldrin hauled off and socked him.
-And…and so, what is your opinion of the moon landing. Do you think it’s a hoax?
-I’m pretty sure it is. At least 80% sure.
-Really? So you think the media, and government, and textbooks and everyone involved in the Apollo missions are lying to us about that?
-Oh, yeah. They lie to us about everything.
-Really? Like what else?
Go easy, Shumway- baby steps. Gently feed him some strained yam and banana, beginner-level conspiracy pap-give him a little mental Gerber.
Dan-Well, there’s the obvious, like the Kennedy assassination.
He nods! Okay… that went over fine, it seems. Let’s ramp it up a bit.
Dan-Th…en there’s 911.
David (perking up)-You know, I’m also quite curious about 911! Like, how in the world did they decide to not follow the Saudi connection?
Ah. We’re getting somewhere. He’s possibly aware that they secreted away the Bin Laden family while there was a flight moratorium and wants to get to the bottom of that.
-Yes, precisely. They protected the Bin Ladens while simultaneously blaming Osama Bin Laden, and also ending up blaming Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan, so they could start those wars.
-So you think it was the Saudis?
-Well, I think they had a part in it.
-You think our government was involved too. Like an inside job?
-I think the CIA was probably involved, among others.
Gulp. Here we go.
David-What others?
Dan-I’m convinced the Israelis were involved.
David winced at this. He has this affectation. It’s an expression where he squints and scrunches up his face, as if he’s trying hard to understand something you’ve said, and he’s saying, I don’t know man, what you’re saying just doesn’t add up, so you need to explain yourself, because, I mean, c’mon man, good golly!
David-What do you mean the Israelis were involved?