Thank you for your comment, Carlton. I think I will Bethlehem a wide berth for the moment. In fact, I never got further than East Jerusalem. But I can well believe what you say.

Thank you, Ray. I appreciate your comment. 'Aching for a resolution' sums it up, I think. I love the Christmas story, and I feel desperately sad that the Holy Land is now the setting for so much hate and anger.

Thank you, Uilleam. I understand your view, although I don't think religion (or at least its Earthly manifestation) can be absent from this conflict, given that the likes of Iran are providing so much of the funding. I want a two-state solution, where Israel's existence is fully recognised and where Palestinians can live in dignity.

Thank you, Frederick.

Comment is about Nativity (blog)

Original item by Stephen Gospage

The same scripture that provided the saviour provided the reaper, and what delight mankind has taken in it.

The magnificent enlightenment or the blinkered bliss, either way a child is born and a child dies.

Bethlehem these days is a confusion of righteous Pilgrims looking for a place to park their SUV's, you should go take a look. From there you can hear the gunshots, maybe even the distant thud of God's enablement.

Happy Christmas, a child is born.

Comment is about Nativity (blog)

Original item by Stephen Gospage

A very thoughtful piece aching for a resolution, which of course can never arise due to the perverse nature of man in general and racism in particular which is at the root of much hatred and subversion.

Thanks for always being straight and truthful Stephen.....

Ray

Comment is about Nativity (blog)

Original item by Stephen Gospage

Thank you Stephen.
You clearly express sorrow here, sorrow, which surfaced in me yesterday, as I watched our little ones relate the tale of Jesus’ Nativity at school.

The 75 year long Nakba, and the genocide it has now become is not about religion. It’s about an abuse of power (fascism and apartheid) falsely exercised in this case, in the name of Judaism, a fact which horrifies and angers Jews across the world, and peoples of all and of no religious faith.

If religion were truly at the root of the killings, Jews, including those in the USA and the UK, would not be protesting against Israel’s treament of Palestinians, and against the imprisonment and abuse of Israeli conscientious objectors and of anti-zionist Jews.

The flippant dismissal of the sufferning of innocent humanity, of our fellow poets, artists and journalists and of other cultures as being “all about religion” displays contemptuous ignorance. 💔

Comment is about Nativity (blog)

Original item by Stephen Gospage

Thank you, Manish, Greg and MC for your comments.

This is a poem about sorrow. How has it come to this? Acts of the most despicable violence are presented as justifiable by one side or the other. A warped moral universe of staggering proportions.
We need peacemakers and a two-state solution.

And thanks to K Lynn and Holden.

Comment is about Nativity (blog)

Original item by Stephen Gospage

I find it most unsettling that oddly
Religion is the weapon of the ungodly! 😈

Comment is about Nativity (blog)

Original item by Stephen Gospage

It's certainly not much of a Christmas this year, Steve, for all the marketing.

Comment is about Nativity (blog)

Original item by Stephen Gospage

Another great provocative poem, Stephen. Your poems always leave an essence in my mind, which I later build-up on, through more reads and understanding. Sadly, the last four lines of the poem is the harsh truth and is heartbreaking.
Thank you.

Comment is about Nativity (blog)

Original item by Stephen Gospage