Shalom for Jerusalem

So Pope Francis has managed to get the President of Israel and Abbas together for a multi faith shindig at the Vatican; I've got to admit whilst people call us the '3 Abrahamic religions', I do struggle with the idea that we all worship the same deity... well we don't actually do we? I don't pray to Jesus or Allah. I say this not to be unecumenical or nasty, it is simply the truth. It does not turn one into a Christophobe or an Islamaphobe to say so. Besides which both Islam and Christianity-with some honourable exceptions, such as those who believe in dual covenant theory- see Judaism as being 'replaced' in some form or another, which is how these religions justified their self creation in the first place and the subsequent and sometimes not so nice treatment of those of us who couldn't see the new world vision of these respective faiths . 

But I guess I'm being a party poop and should applaud such an historic occasion where 3 big world faiths got together and prayed together. I hope this stunt does whatever it was supposed to do, which if it is about bring peace... I applaud. 

What Francis should have prayed at the security wall

Hi All, 

Whilst Pope Francis has made some good gestures on LGBTQ issues, he is clearly biased against Israel.

Pope Francis was in error in his visit and political interfering in middle eastern politics, especially his decision to visit the security wall. But if only the pope had prayed something like this -

"Thank God Israel has got the security wall, that protects Israeli citizens from being murdered by terrorist suicide bombers, because this, dear lord ,is unacceptable and I apologise to you Jesus, as a Jew, that my Church has for centuries persecuted your people in the name of my religion; that boycotts of Israel is nothing other than an evil and wicked thing to do and that whilst we all want peace in the holy land. this can't be achieved when terrorists are throwing bombs on a daily basis toward Israel, may Israel be blessed and loved as you love her. Let us all say, Amen".

UPDATE - Readers will note that this humble prayer of peace, was 'moderated' on the DT blogs, with only the top sentence being allowed to remain in comments.

It's not that bad!!