Bartholomew's Notes

Plans are underway to introduce Biblical law in the province of West Papua in Indonesia. Indonesia Matters reported in April that the provincial capital, Manokwari, is to become a “Bible city”:

Specifically there are said to be proposed laws against alcohol and prostitution, regulations on dress and worship, including bans on the display of symbols of a “certain religion”, and bans on the building of houses of worship of another religion near a church.

…On 14th May Radio Netherlands interviewed Erna Mahuse, an MP in the Majelis Rakyat Papua (MRP [the Papuan People’s Council, a coalition of tribal chiefs]). Erna says that Papua wishes to follow the good example of Aceh in implementing religious laws. Papua has special autonomous status, he says, just like Aceh. Sharia has been applied in Aceh satisfactorily because most people there are Muslim. In Papua most people are Christian, and Christianity arrived in Papua before Islam did, so Biblical laws are appropriate.

One local pastor, Sherli Parinusa, is enthusiastic:

Maybe there is a misunderstanding that these kind of laws will create ethnic-religious conflict. The purpose of the laws is to emphasise the uniqueness of an area, like in Aceh, the veranda of Mecca. Here we say that Manokwari is an evangelical city, and peaceful and tolerant.

However, according to a recent editorial in the Jakarta Post, other Christians are less impressed:

The Manokwari council’s plan has met with rejection from the Indonesian Bishops Conference and Communion of Indonesian Churches for obvious reasons…

The Post adds that

…the Manokwari legal draft is just the latest example of how religious extremism combined with political fanaticism is threatening the multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural fabric of this nation…Religious extremism has been flourishing since the fall of strongman Soeharto in 1998, exploiting the weak leadership of his successors

…The central government’s inaction against the politicization of religion is undoubtedly dangerous. The proposed Bible-based bylaw in Manokwari and a host of sharia-inspired ordinances elsewhere are ticking like time bombs amid the simmering sectarian conflicts in Ambon and Poso and smaller-scale tensions in other areas.

Last year, the ABC’s Religion Report ran a programme that discussed Christianity in West Papua. According to one of the speakers:

West Papuans are very deeply religious and are very strongly Christian. Christianity first arrived in the region in 1855, and it was always seen as the point in which people began to think themselves as Papuan people, as united people. Christianity had the impact of bringing people together, and giving them a clear sense of identity…To be Papuan is to be Christian, and to be Christian is to be Papuan, and many of the aspirations the Papuans have are very much embedded in their understanding of Christian faith.

Alas, there is very little information in English about the proposed new Christian laws, and so we’re left guessing as to the plan’s real significance. Is this simply about emulating religiously-inspired laws in other parts of Indonesia? Or is this about avenging Christians forced to live under shariah in other provinces by putting local Muslims under similar restrictions (particularly in Aceh, as I blogged here)? Or perhaps it’s about promoting Papuan nationalism, with a view to separatism, or at least to discouraging Muslim migrants from other parts of the country. Worth keeping an eye on.

(Hat tip: Christianity Today Weblog, which I always read through to the end)

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News from Russia:

Russia’s Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar told President Putin about a plan to set up a Russian Jewish museum, a Museum of Tolerance.

…’For a few years we have discussed the establishment of a Russian Jewish museum, a Museum of Tolerance. Now the need has become ripe. The aim of this museum is to educate the younger generation for tolerance and respect for one another”, Rabbi Lazar said.

Putin was moved to put his hand in his pocket:

“This is a good idea”, Putin replied, “I promise to transfer my monthly salary to the fund for building this museum”.

The Russian president and Lazar are long-time allies, and back in 2005 they rather bizarrely awarded each other medals. Handing over one’s cash for the cause of interreligious understanding is quite the in thing among the wealthy elite of the CIS these days; just last month I noted how “the Kazakh Trio” of oil billionaires had organised a summit on “Peace and Tolerance”.

But how come Lazar has suddenly decided to extoll the virtue of “tolerance”? After all, this is the guy who complained, in April 2004, that

Reports available to us suggest that more than one million Russian citizens are members of various sects. This is a serious threat. We shouldn’t sit back and wait until something bad happens. We don’t need such sects.

Lazar also backed the ban on Jehovah’s Witnesses having even private meetings in Moscow, saying that

there are serious questions about the practice of the Jehovists in Russia; for example, it is completely impermissible that ministers of the faith to force children to cut off relations with their parents if they are not members of the same religious  society.

And, of course, he has also railed against “homosexual propaganda” in the form of gay pride marches:

‘One should see that the only object of this parade is to make a PR action, which is dirty, insulting and indecent,’ Lazar said in his interview to Interfax.

…’They say they hold their parade so that people can understand them. Yet it would be much better if they learn to understand the feelings of other people first and then demand understanding,’ the interviewee is convinced.

This fits in with the Orthodox Church’s new view of “human rights”, in which the human right of religious conservatives not to be offended by homosexuality trumps the right of homosexuals to free expression:

On April 6 [2006], the Tenth World Council of Russian People adopted a “Declaration of Human Dignity and Rights,” a document that appears to challenge the 1948 “Declaration of Human Rights” passed by the United Nations General Assembly. The new Orthodox manifesto openly questions the system of liberal values and effectively calls on Russian society to revise the universally accepted concept of human rights.

…This idea was bluntly expressed at this year’s gathering by none other than Patriarch Alexei II. “To what extent does this [Western] vision of human rights allow an Orthodox people to live in accordance with the faith it professes?” the Russian Church’s spiritual leader asked. Alexei’s personal stance on this issue is crystal clear, as he asserted that the spread of the Western conception of human rights would likely lead to the “revival of neo-paganism.”

But be careful what you say about Alexei, who has just received a miraculous endorsement from God:

Droplets of myrrh came out on the portrait of Patriarch Alexy II on the Trinity Day in the church of St. Alexander Nevsky at the town of Nizhniaya Salda near Yekaterinburg.

‘It is a sign of God! The Lord himself has marked the patriarch’s image to strengthen our faith!’ parishioners say as cited by the Tvoy Den newspaper.

…Having seen the emanation with his own eyes, the archbishop [Vikenty of Yekaterinburg and Verkhoturye] said, ‘The myrrh may mean the tears of joy. It is through the efforts of His Holiness that the Russian Orthodox Church has united, and the Lord is rejoicing in His children’.

Alexei considers that Putin should also be praised for bringing about the re-unification of the two Russian Orthodox churches, and he recently presented the president with an icon of the “Life-giving Trinity” (an ironic choice, given the fate of so many of Putin’s critics). No doubt the kudos that Alexei will garner from the “miracle” near Yekaterinburg will also radiate across to Putin. Also likely to benefit by contamination is Alexander Lukashenko, the ruler of Belarus; Alexei has heaped awards and praises on the dictator.

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A weird story in The Australian:

AN unholy war [irritating journalistic cliché – RB] has erupted between a star of the US evangelical movement and his Australian flock, with claims of bullying and unbiblical behaviour.

…A week after former Queensland science teacher Ken Ham opened the world’s first Creation Museum – a $33 million facility in Petersburg, Kentucky – he is being sued by the Australian evangelical organisation he helped to set up and which served as a springboard for his leap into the US evangelical movement two decades ago.

The two groups concerned are, of course, Ham’s US-based Answers in Genesis, and Creation Ministries International, run by Carl Wieland. CMI is planning to sue AiG, and a retired magistrate named Clarrie Briese has put together a report denouncing Ham and all his works:

…Mr Briese found in his report that Mr Ham and his US organisation had launched a campaign after his leadership was challenged by his US deputy, Brandon Vallorani, who was then sacked, and Australian leader Carl Wieland, who was later allegedly the subject of innuendo about his private life.

According to Mr Briese’s report, the campaign last year also involved John Mackay, a former associate of Mr Ham in Queensland, who was excommunicated in the 1980s after making allegations of witchcraft and necrophilia against a fellow member of the ministry.

…In his report, Mr Briese said Mr Ham and the US organisation responded with sackings, bullying and, in some instances, “unbiblical/unethical/unlawful behaviour” towards the Australian ministry that he suspected was intended to send it into bankruptcy.

…”The report recommends that if CMI is to fulfil its fiduciary responsibilities to protect and safeguard the Australian ministry, CMI, and have a recalcitrant Answers in Genesis-USA brought to account for the serious wrongs it has committed,” he said, “CMI has no option left except to bring AiG-USA before the secular courts, the ‘powers that be ordained by God’ under Romans 13.”

Briese is famous in Australia for an event in 1984, when he gave evidence against John Murphy, a high court judge who he claimed had asked him to influence a trial. However, Briese sees Murphy’s crime as small beer compared to graver sins, as he explains on Wieland’s website:

‘Ever since Christ’s bodily Resurrection…we see the existence of corruption in the church’s activities, especially with regard to the interpretation of the Bible…Tragically, there have always been Christian leaders and teachers with a different attitude. They defer to fallible human opinion and reasoning…What Lionel Murphy tried to do, serious as it was, pales into insignificance by comparison.’

Wieland’s website also explains that Briese went on to write a report for CMI, in the wake of Ian Plimer’s book Telling Lies for God:

The book represented an escalation of his desperate campaign to discredit the ministry. Apart from its mocking, lampooning attitude towards the Bible (especially Genesis), there were horrific ethical/moral allegations against CMI and its personnel. And Plimer had powerful allies, not just in the media, who cheerfully assisted his nationwide promotional ‘blitz’. Joining him in some public promotional appearances was a prominent Anglican Archbishop, who wrote the foreword to Telling Lies for God.

…We knew that Clarrie Briese was sympathetic to CMI and subscribed to Creation magazine. So I approached him to chair a committee to formally investigate Plimer’s charges, with ‘no holds barred’, and publish the findings. He says, ‘When I eventually agreed, I was pleased at the makeup of the panel members. Christians from a wide range of denominations and backgrounds, they each had public prominence independent of CMI. One had a strong science background. I was convinced they would not put their reputations at risk by finding otherwise than in accordance with the evidence.’

…This exposé of the atheistic professor and his churchian allies should have been dynamite to the media, but they suddenly lost interest. So CMI published the committee’s report in nationwide newspaper ads.

Australian sceptics, however, tell the story rather differently:

Curiously, for a committee consisting in the main of ministers of religion, it was not asked to investigate “…CSF’s theological position which, as individuals from evangelical churches of different denominations, we may not share in all respects.”, which theological position, it would appear to the casual observer, would be about the only thing this committee was qualified to investigate. Nor was the committee asked to judge “… the validity of the scientific arguments of creation versus evolution, except in so far as they related to allegations of deliberate scientific fraud.” , which, as only one committee member appears to have any scientific qualifications (and that in agricultural chemistry), is probably just as well.

Now let’s see if we have got this straight. The Creation Science Foundation invited certain people to investigate certain claims made in Telling Lies for God; the CSF set the terms of reference for the inquiry (very narrow terms indeed); specifically excluded from the terms the charges in the book, that the creationist’s ‘scientific’ claims were blatantly absurd, could not withstand even cursory critical scrutiny, were deliberately misleading and had neither scientific nor theological support; and the only evidence considered was that presented by the CSF.

But what of John Mackay, who was excommunicated after making allegations of “witchcraft and necrophilia”? CMI again explains:

Nearly 20 years ago, our ministry prepared a detailed information pack, one which for many years now we did not think we would have much use for again… The pack was originally prepared in response to the aftermath of a horrific attack (February, 1986) on our ministry (then called Creation Science Foundation) by Mr Mackay. The mechanism of attack involved a monstrous series of allegations without evidence—the basis was alleged ‘spiritual discernment’, involving ‘black cats’ and similar. These slanderous allegations concerned Margaret Buchanan, at the time a well-regarded Christian widow working for the ministry as Ken Ham’s personal secretary. John said she had been ‘specially sent by Satan’ to undermine him and the ministry, involved in covens, attending séances, etc.—never was there any eyewitness testimony or other evidence, merely ‘discernment’.

When his attempt to sack her and take over the ministry failed, due to the Board’s refusal to violate biblical principle, Mr Mackay resigned. This was followed by a campaign of widespread innuendo and slander, involving actual fabrications which if accepted would tend to bolster his claim of ‘demonic infiltration’ of our ministry and thus would tend to undermine public confidence in our ministry. This included the bizarre and incredibly offensive claim that Margaret had claimed to have had intercourse with the corpse of her late husband (!).

…Currently, the issue has surfaced again in the context of the recent tensions between the Australian ministry and AiG-USA, with John Mackay’s newsletter suddenly urging supporters to pray for the ‘attack’ the US ministry is allegedly under.

In fact, it appears that new alliances are being forged, and talk of ‘reconciliation’ is being used to rehabilitate Mr Mackay in creationist circles—again the aim appears to be to undermine the Australian ministry, only from a different angle.

Mackay runs Creation Research; according to a British anti-Creationist website, the UK branch is “a very significant player amongst the half dozen or so creationist organisations in the UK.” It is unclear whether Ham and Mackay have put aside their differences in order to unite against Wieland, or whether this is a three-way battle.

PZ Myers, meanwhile, has an unsurprising reaction:

I honestly don’t care who wins. The ideal conclusion will be that of the Kilkenny cats: mutual self-destruction.

(Hat tip to Lippard Blog for one link)

UPDATE: In the comments, Jim Lippard points to the full documentation; it seems that Mackay and Ham have indeed made up. Lippard also notes that even among sceptics, there were complaints against Ian Plimer’s work.

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Aged 57, claimed to have given birth to “miracle baby”

Claim: Political party will make Gilbert Deya Kenya’s High Commissoner to London

I’m a few days late with this:

A Kenyan court has convicted and sentenced three women to two years in jail for stealing a child that they claimed was conceived through miracles performed by a London-based preacher.

The preacher was Gilbert Deya, who was quite an influential figure in the African neo-Pentecostal scene before the scandal broke in 2004, and one of the women now jailed is his wife, Mary. Gilbert claimed his prayers allowed women to conceive and give birth within a matter of weeks; curiously, though, those he pronounced to be pregnant had to be flown out to his special clinic in an impoverished district of Nairobi to give birth. The lack of any DNA match between the babies and their supposed mothers was put down to the fact that these were “miracle babies”. Mary Deya, aged 57, claimed to have given birth to a number of babies herself, and this is what led to her downfall. As was reported in 2005:

THE wife of Archbishop Gilbert Deya, the controversial British-based evangelist who claims he can make women pregnant through the power of prayer, has been arrested hours after claiming to have given birth to a boy in the latest twist in Kenya’s “miracle babies” investigation.

…Yesterday, Archbishop Deya said the baby was proof he was able to help infertile women conceive. His wife arrived at a hospital in Nairobi on Saturday, carrying a new-born baby, a handful of blood-stained clothes and a placenta.

However, doctors said they did not believe she had given birth. James Kiarie, head of obstetrics and gynaecology at Kenyatta National Hospital, said: “I have conducted a thorough check of the birth canal and there are no signs of pregnancy or after-birth.”

Police were then called. Two other women were jailed with Mrs Deya; Kenyan prosecutors say there are “other suspects in Britain, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda”.

Gilbert Deya, meanwhile, has been defending his wife on his website:

My wife Mary who was seen at Kenyatta National hospital at 4:00am and admitted in labour ward dressed in hospital uniform was reported to have not given birth. If the Kenyan authorities are convinced that she did not give birth, why did they admit her to the labour ward in Kenyatta National Hospital? If she went with a baby to the hospital, why did not admitted her and the baby to the normal ward?

It’s very painful the way the Kenyan authorities are handling the matter of my wife Mary and it is totally inhuman, humiliating and violation of our faith and human rights.

Kenya is a police state where police authorities govern the society including the streets, the judiciary courts and the prisons. Kenya Police under the current regime are the arresting officers, the prosecutors and the judges, so I believe that they have intimidated the doctors at Kenyatta National Hospital and forced them to make false report that my wife did not give birth.

…My wife’s solicitors confirmed to me that Mary looked pregnant and Mary herself also confirmed to me that she was pregnant. I was sent a photograph of my wife and she looked very pregnant to me.

Deya has also written a letter to the President of Kenya, with a curse:

Embattled Archbishop Gilbert Deya yesterday wrote a strong-worded bizarre letter to President Kibaki in which he accused him of child abuse and neglect

In a five-page letter written in remarkably bad English and made available to the East African Standard in London, Deya claimed that his wife was being held in a filthy room and that the police had attempted to rape her. “These are all satanic regimes corroborated with hell, connected with the BBC radio and some evil politician in the government. Oh wicked generation!

“The hand of the wrath of God of Israel is upon you. You are so merciless to the infant mothers. You have snatched them on the street of Nairobi, you have brought a curse upon the nation.” warned Deya…”Your wicked, demonic police, who might have been trained by the devil from hell are attempting to rape the holy Woman of God. Your unfaithful government have taken their evil hand, laid it upon my family and disgraced me and my children, Oh Kenya! You are doomed, you are cursed,”

One of those who was jailed with Mary Deya was Miriam Nyeko, from London. A 2006 Guardian report, however, suggests that she may have been a dupe:

She was arrested by Kenyan police in August 2004, a month after supposedly giving birth to Daniel, a boy whose DNA was subsequently found not to match hers.

“It was a miracle pregnancy,” says Nyeko. She is a big woman in a pale lilac suit, and she is crying. “I had pregnancy tests and they were negative. I was due to have a scan later in August but I came over here for a short holiday and to attend a funeral, and I gave birth to Daniel on July 19.

…There is much to suggest that Nyeko may be a victim – albeit a spectacularly gullible one – in the birth of Daniel. Shortly after the baby was “born”, Archbishop Deya gave me a video that he claimed proved Nyeko actually gave birth to the child.

It was filmed in a clinic called Mama Lucy’s and showed a woman, seemingly drugged unconscious, being treated by a man and woman in gowns and masks. The film does not show the actual emergence of a child, but simply cuts to a bloody baby, complete with umbilical cord and placenta, between Nyeko’s legs. The “doctor” can be heard asking if she is awake yet.

Nyeko appears to be a deeply disturbed woman. She now believes she is carrying another miracle baby – which, she says, is four months overdue. “What can I do?” she pleads. “If I allow it to come out, they will take it away from me again.”

Gilbert remains in the UK, where for the past few years he has been fighting an extradition request. The Guardian reported in 2004:

The Guardian understands the Kenyan attorney general will ask for an international warrant from Interpol and that it will seek the extradition of the charismatic pastor who is the leader of a congregation of 36,000 people and has churches in south London, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool and Nottingham. If extradited, the pastor will face charges of child trafficking.

Mr Deya has appointed a human rights and anti-racism lawyer, Aamer Anwar, to defend him. Mr Anwar said: “Our client denies the allegations against him. He says he does not believe he would receive a fair trial within Kenya because of prejudicial publicity.”

Also in 2004, the East African Standard suggested that the story would embarrass some prominent people who had met him:

Deya’s predicament has put some big names in a spot among them Presidents and Queens of nations who had publicly identified with him.

They include Queen Elizabeth and her husband Prince Philip, Kabaka Ronald Mutebi of Uganda and King Mswati of Swaziland.

He has also had a personal encounter with former President Daniel arap Moi and a slew of top Kenyan politicians some of whom went to receive him at the airport during his numerous trips back home.

He also claims to have hosted some government officials in his London home.

Deya’s last known public engagement in Kenya was last year during an interfaith breakfast prayer meeting that was organised by the then Mayor of Nairobi, Joe Aketch.

However, not everyone is now avoiding Deya, and he has involved himself with the forthcoming Kenyan elections. Deya is linked with the “Orange Democratic Movement“, a political party founded in 2006. Commentator Joe Kadhi noted in March:

If there was ever a picture that truly told “a better story than a thousand words”, that which was circulated to thousands of Kenyans through the internet throughout the whole of last week was it. It showed the suspected smuggler of newly born babies, Deya, posing for the camera with Raila Odinga, one of the ODM presidential candidates. Altogether there were more than ten pictures – clear and irrefutable proof that Raila did indeed visit the suspected child smuggler and voodoo miracle performer who claims to be a Christian bishop.

On the night of March 15th Raila categorically denied in a televised interview ever going to “Bishop” Deya’s place; but the NTV On The Spot interviewer, Julie Gichuru, either did not know of the Deya-Raila pictures or simply let the ODM leader off the hook.

…Whether Raila is backed by Deya or not no one will really know the truth. What is known however is the fact that the ODM London meeting of early this month was a total failure because Kalonzo Musyoka, Uhuru Kenyatta, William Ruto, Najib Balala and Julia Ojiambo boycotted it mainly because they suspected Deya was closely connected with the whole arrangement. In a press statement rejecting the London conference five leaders claimed Kenyans had become suspicious of the trip “which was being seen as a begging mission.” According to Daily Nation reporter David Mugonyi, Pastor Deya confirmed that he was one of the organisers and an ODM supporter. He says independent sources iformed him some of the leaders withdrew after they learnt that pastor Gilbert Deya was one of the organisers of the trip.

The African Press has some rather astonishing background on this:

APN has managed to get in touch with Deya through the phone. He has revealed that there is a deal that has been struck between him and the ODM-Kenya leadership…Deya says he has been offered to become Kenya’s High Commissioner to London if ODM-Kenya takes over power in Kenya after the coming elections.

…The man does not lack surprises to tell the Kenyans. When asked about the child trafficking case in Kenya and how he could be given such a high position when Kenya wants to prosecute him, Deya says that the new government of ODM-K has entered into a memorandum of understanding with Deya Ministries that the charges will be dropped if ODM-Kenya takes over, thereafter, his appointment will be made public on the 25th of February 2008.

I blogged on Deya previously, noting some of his ministry’s rather interesting videos for sale: Jesus Healed a Woman with Three Breasts; Ambassador Carrying a Snake in his Belly Delivered in Jesus’ Name; (Witchcraft) 14 Year Missing Baby Born in the Womb (The Mother is 51 Years Old); and the particularly subtle The Walls of Jericho Came Tumbling Down and Killed the Witches.

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Staying with the latest issue of Christian Retailing magazine, page four has an interesting round-up of the latest crop of apocalyptical Christian Zionist and anti-Islamic titles from Christian publishers, under the sub-heading “Geopolitical, apocalyptical books offer ‘perspective’ in forthcoming election campaign”. Highlights (with links to some of my previous blog entries added):

…More than 310,000 units have been presold for Strang Communications’ The Final Move Beyond Iraq…Written by New York Times best-selling author Mike Evans, the book is tied to a one-hour documentary.

…Evans said that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad “is a radical zealot bent on the destruction of the West and installation of a world Islamic system.”

…The title follows another successful [Strang imprint] FrontLine book on the Middle East. Pastor John Hagee’s geopolitical best-seller Jerusalem Countdown has sold more than 1 million units.

…FrontLine also has two other books on the Middle East releasing this fall: Culture Clash: Islam’s War on America by Mark Gabriel and In Defense of Israel: The Biblical Case for Supporting The Jewish State by Hagee.

And if that’s not enough:

Harvest House Publishers recently published Middle East Meltdown: Oil, Israel, and the Religion Behind the Crisis by John Ankerberg and Dillion Burroughs, while Global Warning: Are We on the Brink of World War III? By “Left Behind” series co-author Tim LaHaye is set for release Sept 1.

…titles about the Middle East have done well for Harvest House in the past, including more than 70,000 copies sold for Unholy War by Randall Price (2001) and more than 100,000 in book sales for Islam: What You Need to Know by Ron Rhodes (2000).

Tyndale is also on the scene:

…Joel C. Rosenberg’s Epicenter: Why the Current Rumblings in the Middle East Will Change your Future has sold more than 100,000 copies since it was released last Spetember…This month, Tyndale will release a third edition of Armageddon, Oil and Terror: What the Bible Says About the Future of America, the Middle East, and the End of Western Civilization, written by Bible scholar John F. Walwood.

Some of us might be sceptical of a book of predictions that has been re-edited twice since first publication, but apparently it

…has sold more than 2 million copies and has been translated into 10 languages…

The man from Harvest House told Christian Retailing that

…more people are looking for answers to difficult questions such as ‘why has peace been so elusive’ and ‘why are the conflicts going from bad to worse?’.

Also, with the 2008 election looming,

“Many of those who are buying books want to make a well-informed decision…[Christian books] provide a clear and biblical perspective on what’s really happening–a perspective Christians cannot get from the secular media.”

There’s also input from Mark Hitchcock, author of Iran: The Coming Crisis—Radical Islam, Oil, and the Nuclear Threat.

For some reason, all this fatalism, pessimism, and fear-mongering is not criticised as defeatism by the conservative Christian leaders who are so quick to denounce the media for ignoring all the “good news” from Iraq. However, one sceptical conservative commentator got the measure of it all back in December 2003, in a piece for the National Review:

You thought Saddam was bad? Wait until you see the next guy. You thought life was going to get better? Wait until you experience the coming Tribulation and the rule of The Antichrist. If conditions improve, it’s only so they can become twice as bad in the very near future…And so it goes — and has gone for many decades.

Of course, not all apocalyptic books are religiously-inspired, and back in March the Inter Press Service drew attention to a March Weekly Standard article by Irwin Stelzer, in which Stelzer gives us an account of a “seminar” that George Bush recently led (1). Stelzer tells us that anyone

who likes to regale his friends with references to that illiterate cowboy in the White House is due for some considerable embarrassment when the nonpartisan studies of the Bush years begin to hit the bookshops…Bush has circulated copies of Natan Sharansky’s The Case for Democracy to his staff, and recommended Mark Steyn’s America Alone.

The full title of the latter book is America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It. Inter Press adds a gloss:

Steyn’s book…sees Europe’s demographic trends and its multicultural ‘post-nationalist’ secularism as leading inevitably to the ‘Eurocalypse,’ to the ‘recolonization of Europe by Islam’, to the emergence of a ‘Eurabia’, and to the onset of a ‘new Dark Ages’ in which the United States will find it difficult to survive as the ‘lonely candle of liberty’…Steyn…sees Islam – and not just ‘Islamist radicals’ or ‘jihadis’ such as al-Qaeda – as a unique threat that cannot be reconciled with ‘free societies.’

Dick Armey offered his own views on how Bush relates to the idea of the “End Times” in an interview for the BBC World Service, which I blogged here.

****

(1) The seminar centred on The History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900 by right-wing British historian Andrew Roberts, which is supposedly “the most recent of the many histories [Bush] has read”. Roberts himself was also in attendance, which was a bit of social advancement from 2001, when he spoke at the Springbok Club in London. The Springbok Club is run by a former National Frontist who wants to see a return of white rule in Africa. Roberts, however, was ignorant of the group’s perspective and purpose.

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Some years back, when I was living in Jerusalem, I knew a very amiable Christian fundamentalist from Texas who had a bit of an obsession about not being Jewish. He attended a Messianic Jewish congregation, and had volunteered to serve in the Israeli army to show his support for the Jewish state. Eventually, by poring over his family tree, he found an ancestor who he decided had been Jewish, and that therefore he himself was also Jewish. I was told that later on he converted to Orthodox Judaism with a view to becoming a Messianic Israeli, which I suppose would be OK as long as he didn’t die during the period he didn’t believe in Jesus. At this point, he was shipped out of the country diagnosed with “Jerusalem Syndrome”.

At the time, I just thought of him as an eccentric, but actually there’s a whole subculture of American Christians for whom Judeo-philia goes far beyond simple Christian Zionism. Case in point: New Day Christian Distributors, which has a page-sized industry advert in the latest Christian Retailing magazine (p. 48):

Are You “Grafted In”?

What Does that Really Mean?

…Romans tells us how we as Christians have been grafted into the Jewish faith. We Christians, in reality, recognize the root from which we have sprung, knowing in the words of our Jewish Lord, “Salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22)

Though historical Christendom has chosen to define itself as “not Jewish”, the truth is that the earliest Christianity was Judaism. Jesus was a Jew and He never changed His religion. Despite attempts to sever its Jewish connection, the Church has ever worshiped the God of the Jews, in a faith that is anchored in a Jewish book, and built on the foundation of a Jewish Messiah.

Whether your customers are Messianic Jews, part of the Charismatic movement or just want to be more in touch with their Jewish heritage by searching for their roots, you can better help them in this area by letting New Day help you!

This means selling items associated with Jewish culture to Christians: shofars, mezuzahs, menorahs (engraved with a Star of David merged with a Christian “ichthus” sign), Kiddush cups, tambourines (“mentioned in Psalms”) and, in particular, Tallit prayer shawls:

Worn in symbolic remembrance to Him and his commandments, used in prayer and worship (very popular with John Hagee, Juanita Bynum, Benny Hinn and Judy Jacobs Ministries)

The company’s website explains the shawl in more detail:

Wearing a prayer shawl establishes a special connection to God. A tallits is more than a prayer shawl. It is filled with profound meaning and religious significance. Just as Jesus (who was also a Jew) told us to take communion in remembrance of him, Christians today are wearing the shawls as a symbolic remembrance of Him. They are using it for worship, prayer and as a symbolic act of the covering that Christ gave us when he shed his blood, as a “covering” of our sins.

Of course, in some respects this isn’t all bad, given the unhappy history of Christian anti-Semitism (still in evidence: the head of the Coptic church recently complained about Vatican apologies for past anti-Semitism since the New Testament shows that Jews are Christ-killers), and Messianic Jews need their religious artefacts. However, one also wonders about the wholesale appropriation of the Jewish heritage by non-Jews; it wasn’t just “historical Christendom” that decided to “define itself as ‘not Jewish’” – Judaism also decided that Christianity was not Jewish. This reminds me of the way some New Agers have appropriated Native American customs and objects, leading to controversy.

Philo-semitism has a long history in America and elsewhere, and a desire to assert some sort of connection or identity with the “Chosen People” has been a perennial urge. However, some recent manifestations have tipped over into the morbid; recently we saw a Nigerian Christian leader tell the Jerusalem Post that “African Christians…would love to kiss the feet of a Jew”.

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Row over alleged casting out of demons from Ugandan evangelist

Trinidad PM called “foolish” over prophetess

Further reports are coming in about Benny Hinn’s recent crusade (blogged by me here) in Uganda. The Kampala New Vision gives an interesting account:

RENOWNED pastors including Robert Kayanja were hit by a spiritual force which threw them down flat on the ground during international evangelist Pastor Benny Hinn’s crusade on Saturday.

…Kayanja fell twice in his seat as Hinn approached the row where the pastors were seated. Hinn called him forward and Kayanja approached him swaying, with a stunned look on his face, before falling flat on his back. Hinn instructed his aides to pick up Kayanja, but every time he was lifted he fell until he was left on the ground for some time.

…When Hinn asked him to pray for Uganda, Kayanja, in a shaky, uncharacteristically husky voice said: “When he told us to join our hands, I saw Jesus over our heads.” Kayanja then broke down and cried and said” “Our past has been erased in the mighty name of Jesus. I can hardly stand in this place.”

Other pastors go get the treatment were “Imelda Namutebi, Isaac Kiwewesi, John Michael Mugerwa and a pastor from West Africa”. In the case of Namutebi, Hinn pronounced that:

“God is giving you power over demons. He is giving you power over Satan, when you walk in, Satan will walk out,”

However, according to the Sunday Monitor it seems that Kayanja was not completely satisfied with his religious experience:

Much as our own Pastor Robert Kayanja occupied a front seat at Benny Hinn’s Namboole crusades, sources close to his aides say he left a disappointed man.

Reports say that what disturbed Kayanja (below) most was Hinn’s power to make him fall on the ground unconsciously.

This is said to have embarrassed Kayanja before his followers who thought he was at the same level with Benny Hinn in terms of spiritual prowess. Now his critics are moving around telling people such action by Hinn to Kayanja was to drive demons away from him.

Others are saying these demons must have been the reason why he gave a false prophecy that a presidential candidate in last year’s elections would die before polling day [I blogged on this here]. Kayanja is reportedly wondering what he would tell his followers whom he rid of demons.

One supporter, though, has denied reports that Kayanja had been exorcised (link added):

I was very disappointed to read in the Daily Monitor of May 21 an article on the Benny Hinn crusade, in which you claimed that Pastor Robert Kayanja had demons cast out of him, and that he was cleansed. I attended the crusade on the said day, and at no one time did Pastor Hinn talk of casting demons either out of Pastor Kayanja, Pastor Imelda Kula Namutebi or Pastor Kiwewesi.

…He also said that he could see power around Pastor Namutebi, and prophesied an anointing for chasing demons and breaking witchcraft over her life. He also spoke of a powerful anointing upon Pastor Kiwewesi. At no time did he chase any demons from them and I am still amazed at where your reporter got that story.

Meanwhile, Hinn is also the focus of controversy in Trinidad and Tobago, over an incident involving the Prime Minister. The Trinidad Express reports:

American televangelist Benny Hinn has told millions of TV viewers that he thought Prime Minister Patrick Manning to be a “foolish man”, after an incident which occurred during his last visit here.

This is a bit different from Hinn’s normal modus operandi; in Uganda he lavished praise on the Museveni regime. Hinn made the statement on his TBN programme:

…”Years ago I was in Trinidad…this man was sitting on the platform and I said… you will be the next Prime Minister and he is till now. I was in his (Manning) office a few months ago… he brought with him a very foolish woman who called herself a prophetess.

“He came to the room with this woman and said “I have a gift for you”. So he looked at me, said this is the woman, she has a word for you… I was not happy and when I am not happy people will know it.

“He (Manning) said I want her to pray for you and give her the word, I take her with me everywhere he said (Manning).

“God speaks to me through her. She has been a great blessing to the Government. I’m thinking you foolish man.

“This woman reaches out to touch me and I grab her hand in mid air, ‘don’t touch me’ I said. Shaken, I said Mr Prime Minister, I honour you but I don’t know who this woman is…nobody will lay hands on me and I walked out of the room. Whether it is the Prime Minister or President, nobody lays hands on me. I don’t know what spirit is in her. Don’t let people touch you.”

The mysterious woman is profiled in the local Newsday:

Her identity and address must not be made public. The woman, who is mixed with Chinese and Spanish, spoke for a few minutes outside the gates of her home before inviting me upstairs, into her “counselling room.”

…She spoke with the PM on the telephone when he contacted her and also met with him in person. She did not want to say anymore about the Prime Minister, or the visit to American tele-evangelist Benny Hinn at Crowne Plaza Hotel in Port-of-Spain last May.

Instead she spoke about her conversion from Roman Catholicism to the Full Gospel (Christian) religion in 1982.

…Asked again if she had given Manning any spiritual guidance, the woman replied, “I met with him on five occasions, I told him certain things but he was not obedient, that is why things are the way it is now in the country.”

At this point she cut short the interview, and said to this reporter, “I understand that you have your work to do but if you write any report for the papers the judgement of God shall fall upon you.”

Further:

…Pastor Winston Cuffie of Miracle Ministries, who was a member of the planning committee for Hinn’s visit, sought to clear the air…

…”The whole issue was completely taken out of context, Hinn meant ‘foolish’ in a joking manner because first of all his tone did not come across with anger or vengeance.

“Hinn I know has a high respect for Prime Minister Patrick Manning as the head of the country and I know that he meant no disrespect or offence and if Manning should take offence I know that Hinn would humbly apologise,” Cuffie said. He said Hinn was using the example of the woman to explain the seriousness of the act of the “laying of hands.”

A Hindu writer in the Trinidad Guardian, though, is unimpressed:

The people of T&T have again been shamed by Benny Hinn, the Evangelical pastor from the US. After his first visit he declared that Trinidad was “a voodoo-land” where he cast out “devils.”

…In his last visit to T&T, Pastor Hinn offered to “heal” persons at a mass crusade in the Queen’s Park Savannah. Subsequently, one such person died at the San Fernando General Hospital.

Reports from Hinn’s Uganda visit also contain accounts of the miraculous. Returning to the New Vision:

An emaciated woman was brought in on her death bed but she got up and danced, hugging Hinn and promptly got saved. A crippled boy from Lango called Moses walked and his sister could not contain her excitement.

A woman who was due for an operation for tumours in her abdomen, produced a medical report on the second day of the crusade, showing that her tumors had disappeared. Hundreds came forward to say they were healed and immediately got saved.

The Sunday Monitor, meanwhile, has decided to have a bit of fun:

Angry demons are demanding a commission of inquiry to establish how the pastors “pretended to be possessed” at the event. Demon Temeluchus (the Chief Angel of Torment) known for his calmness was the first to break the silence when the protestors eventually gathered at the town hall in Hell City.

“I must say I was in Gaza and the West Bank the whole time. Anyone who accuses me of being in Uganda is lying. Just turn on the TV and see how much work I have done with these Palestinians and Israelis. I should win an Oscar for that, not some miserable crusade in the middle of nowhere,” he shouted. “And who is Benny Hinn anyway? he added to a round of “hear hear” from the demons.

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SCANDAL: William Dembski shockingly reveals that Hector Avalos, in a blog comment, cited a publication he had had in a popular science journal. Does this mean that Avalos gained promotion through fraud? Or does it mean that Dembski is the Ed Wood of smearers?

William Dembski has a scholar of religion in his sights:

The tenure denial of Guillermo Gonzalez by Iowa State University has been much discussed on this blog of late. The tenure of Hector Avalos, religious studies professor and militant atheist at Iowa State University, however, has yet to be broached here. So let’s do it.

Dembski and the Discovery Institute argue that Gonzalez was denied tenure because of his support for Intelligent Design. They note that Avalos has been one of Gonzalez’s critics, and therefore that Avalos’s continued employment by the university must be evidence of persecution against Christians. The Discovery Institute website is particularly incensed by Avalos’s book Fighting Words: The Origins of Religious Violence, which looks at the sanctioning of genocide in certain Biblical texts. Provocatively, Avalos makes a few comparisons with Mein Kampf, and the DI quote-mines Avalos’s book in order to suggest that he is an anti-Semite as well as a persecutor of the religious. Their “exposé” ends with the sarcastic observation that:

Iowa taxpayers can be relieved to know that ISU is making sure their tax dollars will be spent on worthy scholars like Prof. Avalos rather than disreputable astronomers like Dr. Gonzalez.

An odd ending – I thought that Gonzalez had been denied tenure, not fired.

Avalos responded to the controversy at Pharyngula, where he also addressed the complaint that as a non-scientist he was unqualified to critique ID:

I may not be an astronomer, but my article, “Heavenly Conflicts: The Bible and Astronomy,” passed the editorial review of Mercury: The Journal of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 27 no. 2 (March/April, 1998), pages 20-24. There, I critiqued fine-tuning arguments before I even heard of Gonzalez.

The Astronomical Society of the Pacific is the SAME organization that has published, via a sister publication (Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific), some of the work of Guillermo Gonzalez.

So the irony is that it is the scholar of religion whose work passed the editorial review of a legitimate astronomical organization, and it is the astronomer who has not published a refereed article on ID in an astronomical journal.

Dembski pounces:

A couple of points about Avalos’s article. First, he misstates the name of the journal. It is actually called “Mercury Magazine,” and is not the ASP’s academic journal. It is its membership magazine. In fact, ASP does not list as an academic journal but under the category of magazine: www.astrosociety.org/pubs.html. That’s why Avalos says it passed editorial muster but not peer-review muster. This way he can fudge on the article’s status but have plausible deniability. This is also evident by his placing in the magazine’s subtitle “The Journal of…” even though it is not there in the actual publication.

…Has Avalos puts this on his CV as a peer-reviewed article? Did this help him get tenure or promotion at ISU?… if Avalos has fudged on the status of this article—and has done so in a very public way—his CV may loaded with this type of fluff. Perhaps it’s time to start hunting for the real witch.

So, the fact that Avalos says that he passed “editorial review” for a scientific publication rather than “peer review” is proof that he wants to us to think his paper was peer reviewed and that, therefore, his entire academic standing is suspect. Avalos has responded, leading to a suitably ridiculous argument in the comments section:

Avalos: Amateur researcher that Dembski is, he probably only looked for the journal on-line. The actual hard-copy I have has “The Journal of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific” right underneath the title “Mercury” on the cover of the issue (volume 27, no. 2) March/April 1998 in which I wrote my article.

Mung: Apparently Avalos only researched the cover of the magazine to determine the “actual publication.” Would anyone with an actual hardcopy of the magazine care to share what is inside the magazine wrt to the “actual publication.”

Avalos: Since Dr. Dembski has botched thoroughly this attempt at witch-hunting Avalos, let’s see now how honest he is in admitting his mistakes. Concerning the citation of the article I wrote in Mercury, Dr. Dembski said that the subtitle (Journal of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific) “is not there in the actual publication.” I can prove it is on the issue in which I wrote my article in 1998. It is on the cover. It also is on the masthead inside the cover. So, Dr. Debmski, of the “Newton-of-information-theory” fame, let’s see you issue a plain and honest correction to the MIS-information you have put forth. Will you or will you not issue a public correction for putting forth this misinformation?

Dembski: To Hector Avalos: I’m happy to concede whatever other designations the periodical MERCURY may have. The larger issue is that it is a popular periodical and you cite your piece in it as though it had some leverage against Guillermo Gonzalez and his scholarship. This is patently absurd. Gonzalez is a professional in astrophysics as well as in its larger metaphysical implications. You are an amateur in both. Moreover, the question of just what it took for you to gain tenure at ISU remains. Was your MERCURY piece one of the things you cited as evidence that you should receive tenure? Please answer the question (the timing is right since you were an assistant professor when the piece came out). Was it in fact counted in your favor? If so, why shouldn’t Gonzalez’s PRIVILEGED PLANET count likewise in favor of his tenure? Or do you know in advance (on what grounds? scientific? ideological? philosophical? …) that he’s full of it and you’re not.

Mercury’s style guide includes advice for writers to “keep most sentences short and simple”; another commentator (“Jehu”, who names himself after a particularly sanguinary Israelite king, by the way) hilariously quote-mines this:

So short simple sentences with short paragraphs and lots of active verbs are what you need to get past editorial review at Mercury. Very impressive.

Dembski’s acolytes have also pored over Avalos’s list of publications, and noted some other devestating issues:

“The Ancient Near in Modern Science Fiction: Zechariah Sitchin’s Twelfth Planet as Case Study”

There appears to be a noun missing. Should this be: “The Ancient Near East”?

Another points out that

According to Avalos’s web page, he has not published a journal article since 2003. And he only has 14 listed in his entire career.

This studiously avoids mentioning the eight books and eleven book-chapters on the list (and the fact that ten of the journal articles were published from 1995 onwards). And the Mercury publication, which Dembski uses to suggest that Avalos is dishonest, appears – crucially –  in an extra grouping of “other/invited publications” of a popular nature.

Elsewhere in the comments, Dembski tells us that

…A hundred years from now Gonzalez’s ideas about our place in the cosmos being designed to facilitate scientific discovery will be remembered. Avalos, on the other hand, will be seen as a crank flailing to find justifications for why the evidence of design in the universe is nothing of the sort. A key point to bear in mind: If Avalos is getting promoted for undercutting ID (in popular venues at that), and if ISU denies Gonzalez tenure because of his support of ID, then ISU has not only made up its mind about ID but also undercut academic freedom on this topic.

****

Gonzalez is not the only tenure-track controversy going on in the USA just now. Mike S Adams is currently suing the Univeristy of North Carolina over the failure to get a promotion – his complaint tells us that he was rated as “excellent” for his research , but his actual publications are not listed. And meanwhile, De Paul University is under pressure to deny tenure to Norman Finkelstein, a scholar who is particularly critical of Israel (incidentally, Finkelstein’s work is defended in this very interesting new interview with Holocaust scholar Raul Hilberg in Logos).

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Lord Hameed Becomes “Ambassador for Peace”

From the website of Rev Moon’s Universal Peace Federation:

At the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, people from the world’s largest democracy challenged the United Kingdom to consider ways in which religion can join with civil society in partnership with governments and the UN for the sake of peace. “Religion is kept at arm’s length by the UN and national governments,” India’s former ambassador to Nepal, K.V. Rajan, stated. “Isn’t this good for our world when we consider the contribution religion can make to resolving, or at least diminishing conflict, through applying universally recognized values such as sacrifice and service to others?”

…”The Universal Peace Federation is the forum to address these issues” said Dr. L.M. Singhvi, former High Commissioner of India to the UK…”Peace is too important to be left to diplomats and soldiers alone. Peace will not come unless civil society is at the forefront and pushing interfaith dialogue.”

Singhvi has previously praised Moon as “the steadfast warrior of peace”, and he claims that Indian President AJP Abdul Kalam is also an admirer. Participants all agreed that religion should play a role in public life, and that interfaith dialogue was crucial. Dr. Thomas G. Walsh, secretary general of the UPF, was also present, and

At the conclusion of the session, Lord Khaled Hameed was awarded a certificate as Ambassador for Peace.

The “Ambassador for Peace” status is a crucial part of Rev Moon’s strategy for gaining respectability, and an impressive number of people have been brought on board (according to the Peace Federation website, there are 11,000 “ambassadors”).

Of course, Rev Moon’s perspective on inter-faith dialogue is rather unusual. He has encouraged Christian ministers to throw out the cross, and he has urged Jews to “repent” for killing Jesus, the “King of Israel”. Further, at meetings in the USA Moon recently explained that

In Jerusalem, in 2003, on the foundation of the victory attained through such blood, sweat and tears, I had Jesus proclaimed as the king of kings before heaven and earth with the acknowledgement of Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Following this, in 2004, I was acknowledged as the King of Peace both in a United States Senate Office Building [see here] and at the Korean National Assembly. Subsequently, in June 2006, we held the Coronation Ceremony of the True Parents as the King and Queen of Peace in Heaven and Earth.

I looked at some of the other prominent individuals who have become associated with Moon here.

(Hat tips to a reader, and to Dispatches from the Culture Wars for the above Moon quote)

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UPDATE 

For the benefit of those who are visiting this page as a result of following a link from the sites of either David Duke or Ted Pike (via an article by Pike’s niece), please be aware that I hold both of these individuals in utter contempt. Their inciting of hatred against Jews is an attack on civilised values, and their many lies reveal them to be the enemies of anyone who cares about truth or who believes in human progress through rational discussion. Further, their attempts to hijack the Palestinian cause for their own racist purposes should be rejected utterly by anyone who cares about Palestinian rights. Those who are unaware of what Duke stands for should start educating themselves by reading this.

ORIGINAL BLOG ENTRY

Further signs of tension between Christian Zionists and Israel’s religious establishment:

The Chief Rabbinate upheld a ban Thursday on Jewish participation in a Christian women’s conference in Jerusalem next week that was organized by the Knesset’s Christian Allies Caucus, due to concern that some of the organizations involved are active in missionary work, Rabbinate officials said.

…The decision by a committee of rabbis, which represents a heavy blow to the three-year-old parliamentary lobby, which works with Christian supporters of Israel, follows a long campaign by Jerusalem city councilwoman Mina Fenton (National Religious Party).

Fenton is a prominent anti-missionary activist who has long tried to have the Christian Allies Caucus dismantled.

Fenton’s complaint concerns two of the best-known Christian Zionist outfits in Israel:

[She] insists that she has both direct and indirect evidence of missionary activity by the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem and Bridges for Peace…

[Christian Embassy Spokesman David] Parsons said that the Christian Embassy is now consulting with lawyers and Jewish religious officials on how best to combat what could become a serious setback to growing cooperation between the Evangelical Christian world and the Jewish state.

I’m rather sceptical of Fenton’s claims. While conservative Christian Zionists mostly believe that unconverted Jews will go to hell along with everyone else (although they tend not to put it so bluntly), many also take the view that Jesus will be returning soon anyway, and that many of the Jews will be converted then by supernatural means. In fact, the Christian Allies Caucus is very keen to stress that missionizing is not acceptable – so much so, in fact, that one Christian Zionist speaker backed out of the conference, complaining that Israel was developing an attitude of “We’ll take your aid, your support and your tourist dollars, but we won’t take your Jesus,” and that it had started to “replicate their Islamic neighbors”.

However, one can also see why the rabbinate might be suspicious of the conference’s content:

A special Rabbinate committee, headed by Rabbi Simcha Kook of Rechovot, ruled on Thursday that concentration on “Judeo-Christian values” and the study of “the Jewish foundations of Christianity” are forbidden. The rabbis ruled that these efforts are actually part of a long-running campaign to bring Israeli-Jews to believe in Jesus

Promotional literature for the Woman to Woman conference, to take place in Jerusalem from May 16-19, describes it as “Jewish and Christian women together, studying the Word  [italics added] and working together to build bonds of friendship and bring comfort to the people of Israel.” Each Conference day will begin with “praise and worship… in preparation for an exciting series of visits and speakers, focusing on the roles, experiences, and opportunities for Women in Israel.”

Also on the committee was Beersheba Chief Rabbi Yehuda Deri:

“…They want to help and support us, but they have the same goals as the Messianics. They make tremendous efforts and support us all over, and are even more right-wing than we are in some ways, and they help us with Bush, etc. – this is all true, but in the end, they have one goal, and that is Jesus. We are not on the level of early great Rabbis who were able to take the good and spit out the bad…”

Deri, it should be recalled, took part in anti-Messianic protests in Beersheba in 2005, during which Messianic Jews were assaulted.

The conference itself seems to have been a bit thin:

…The conference, which is expected to be attended by a few hundred Christian women, aims to improve the status of women worldwide on the basis of Judeo-Christian values, and to serve as a bridge between Jewish and Christian supporters of Israel.

An outline of the programme can be seen here. As expected, it seems to have concentrated on problems of women’s rights in the Islamic world, but without offering any kind of feminist critique. The only man slated to speak at the conference was Benny Elon, who is the Christian Allies Caucus chair. Elon was Ariel Sharon’s notorious far-right minister of tourism, and he favours the “transfer” (a euphemism for ethnic cleansing) of Palestinians from the West Bank.

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