Enough is Enough – an Appeal to the UN regarding Israeli Military Aggression against Iran

Posted on July 6, 2025 by Father Dave

The following letter was penned by Professor Saied Reza Ameli of IRAN and was submitted with 135 signatories, including many of my prominent activist friends, such as Miko Peled (52) and Stephen Sizer (54). I was also privileged to be asked (no.99).

Letter to the UN regarding attacks on Iran

To:

His Excellency Mr. António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations

Her Excellency Ms. Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO

Subject: Urgent Appeal for Action Regarding Israeli Regime’s Unlawful Military Aggression Against Iran

Your Excellencies,

The undersigned submits this formal protest regarding the Israeli regime’s sustained unlawful aggressions against Iran since 13 June 2025, constituting severe breaches of international law under the UN Charter. These systematic attacks endanger regional stability, civilian lives, ecological integrity, and global cultural heritage, escalating beyond mere geopolitical conflict into an international existential threat. The deliberate targeting of civilians, residential areas, and sovereign institutions undermines the international legal order, risking irreversible catastrophe. The situation demands urgent intervention before diplomatic and mitigative capacities are exhausted. It is earnestly urged that this appeal be regarded not as a matter of routine procedure, but as a solemn and final urgent call to action—one that necessitates the immediate and coordinated mobilisation of all juridical, diplomatic, and institutional capacities, in order to prevent the onset of an irreversible systemic disintegration of international institutional legitimacy and credibility.

Verified data confirm a systematic and deliberate aggression targeting Iran’s civilian population and critical infrastructure. This is not incidental warfare, but a calculated strategy designed to dismantle the functional pillars of civilian life—most gravely in the domains of healthcare, education, scientific advancement, energy, and cultural preservation.

To date, the Israeli regime’s aggressions across Iran have killed over 415 people and injured around 1,550, with civilians accounting for 90% of the casualties. The majority of the dead are women and children, and the attacks have also intentionally targeted prominent scientists and senior military officials. Strikes on residential zones, hospitals, research centres, and religious sites illustrate a pattern of indiscriminate violence carried out in the absence of legitimate military imperative.

As of the moment of this appeal, the Israeli regime’s forces have carried out 125 strikes across residential areas, civilian, governmental, scientific, industrial, and military sectors. The wide geographic scope and repeated attacks indicate a coordinated escalation that constitutes a grave violation of the principles of “distinction” and “proportionality” under international humanitarian law.

Material losses are extensive as well. Immediate physical damage is estimated at $3.2–4.9 billion, with long-term economic losses surpassing $10 billion due to infrastructure collapse and oil revenue decline. The destruction of key installations—including airports, water treatment facilities, refineries, and nuclear sites—has paralysed essential services and public life.

The Israeli regime’s sustained pattern of aggression observed constitutes a series of grave breaches—not only of the Charter of the United Nations but also of international humanitarian law, the laws of armed conflict, and universally recognised human rights norms. These actions have constituted a serious violation of the principle of national sovereignty and have had catastrophic consequences for civilian life, infrastructure, and international stability.

  • Under Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, such use of force is prohibited unless authorised by the Security Council or justified under Article 51 as self-defence. The acts of the Israeli regime meet the criteria of aggression as defined in UN General Assembly Resolution 3314 (1975), and are further criminalised under the Rome Statute and the 2010 Convention on the Crime of Aggression.
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  • Strikes have consistently breached International Humanitarian Law (IHL), especially the principle of distinction codified in Article 48 of Additional Protocol I (1977) and Customary IHL Rule 1. Attacks on civilian homes, hospitals, schools, and cultural sites violate Articles 51(2) and 52(2) of the Protocol, as well as Rule 14, which prohibits excessive incidental harm. Evidence suggests repeated breaches of Rule 103, prohibiting collective punishment.
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  • The principle of proportionality under Article 51(5)(b) of Additional Protocol I has also been violated. Strikes on critical infrastructure such as water systems and power grids have produced humanitarian crises disproportionate to any military gain. This has led to blackouts, water shortages, and serious medical system disruption, exceeding acceptable collateral damage under IHL.
    .
  • Attacks on nuclear and scientific facilities threaten global security and contravene the IAEA Safeguards Agreements under the NPT, as well as IAEA General Conference Resolutions GC(XXIX)/RES/444 and GC(XXXIV)/RES/533. Such actions violate Article 1 of the 1994 Convention on Nuclear Safety and parallel earlier condemned attacks, notably UN Security Council Resolution 487 (1981) regarding Iraq’s Osirak reactor.
    .
  • Targeted assassinations of scientists and officials constitute extrajudicial killings, violating Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and qualifying as war crimes under the Rome Statute, particularly where due process is absent.
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  • Strikes on sites containing dangerous forces—such as nuclear reactors and chemical facilities—violate Article 56 of Additional Protocol I and Customary IHL Rule 42, which mandate precautions to prevent widespread civilian harm and environmental disaster.
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  • The destruction of universities, cultural heritage, and research institutions breaches Article 15(1)(b) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966), directly undermining national development and global cultural and scientific heritage.

In view of the grave and escalating violations set out above, and in accordance with the legal and moral responsibilities vested in the bodies under your jurisdiction, we urge the immediate implementation of the following measures to uphold international law and avert irreversible harm to global order and the international society:

  1. a formal and unequivocal condemnation of the Israeli regime’s strikes is required, recognising them as breaches of international law, including but not limited to international humanitarian law, human rights norms, and nuclear safety law, and as an affront to the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran and international peace and security.
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  2. we call for the urgent convening of an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council and/or General Assembly, under the Uniting for Peace framework, to address the legal and geopolitical consequences of the Israeli regime’s actions.
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  3. an impartial international fact-finding mission should be established under UN auspices, with input from relevant Special Rapporteurs, to investigate the legality and humanitarian impact of the strikes.
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  4. the aggressions must be referred to the International Criminal Court for preliminary examination under Articles 7 and 8 of the Rome Statute.
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  5. a binding resolution must be adopted demanding cessation of hostilities, reparations, and guarantees of non-repetition.
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  6. UNESCO must dispatch experts to assess damage to educational, scientific, and cultural institutions.
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  7. international safeguards must be issued to protect nuclear facilities from military attack.

This is not a national crisis, nor a regional matter but a grave assault on the legal and moral order underpinning our universal, shared foundations of international and civilisational law. Silence and inaction now ushers in an irreversible deterioration of the international order, endangering peace, knowledge, and the survival of humanity itself — a reality that has united the noble people of Iran in steadfast support for their nation and in profound moral revulsion toward the Zionist regime.

Now is the moment to contain it—decisively, lawfully, and without delay.

We urge Your Excellencies to act.

Respectfully submitted,

21 June 2025

Professor Saied Reza Ameli (IRAN)

Head of the UNESCO Chair on Cyberspace and Culture: Dual-spacisation of the World (UCCC)

(UNESCO No. 2015IR1107), Dean of Faculty of Studies – University of Tehran

Signatories:

  1. Seyed Mohammad Marandi (IRAN)

Professor at the University of Tehran

2. Massoud Shadjareh (IRAN)

Chair of Islamic Human Rights Commission-London, consultative status at the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs

3.  Scott Ritter (USA)

former UN Special Commission weapons inspector

4.  Norman Finkelstein (USA)

Political Scientist and son of Holocaust-survivor parents

5. Richard Falk (USA)

Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University and former UN Special Rapporteur

  1. Jan Kavan (Czech)

President of the UN General Assembly 2002-2003, former Minister of Foreign Affairs

  1. Yanis Varoufakis (Greece)

Former Minister of Finance, economist and professor at the University of London, the University of Sydny and the University of Athens

8.Denis Halliday (Ireland)

Former UNSG deputy and ex-UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq

9. Alberto Bradanini (Italy)

Former director of UN Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute and UN Research Institute on Crime and Drugs, former ambassador in Tehran and Beijing, president of the Centre for Contemporary China Studies in Italy

10. Hans-Christof Graf von Sponeck (Germany)

Former UN Assistant Secretary-General and ex-UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq

11. Cindy Sheehan (USA)

“Peace Mom”, Antiwar Activist and author, 2012 vice-presidential nominee of the Peace and Freedom Party

  1. Raimondo Caria (Italy)

Retired general of the Italian Army

13.Ajamu Baraka (USA)

2016 Green Party nominee for Vice President, Director of Black Alliance for Peace

14. Aiman Athirah Sabu (Malaysia)

Deputy Minister of Housing and Local Government, Former deputy Minister of Women, Family and Community Development, former Member of Parliament

15.  Alain Corvez (France)

Former advisor to the General Commanding the UN Force in South Lebanon

16.Ralph Bosshard (Switzerland)

Former Military Advisor to the Secretary General of Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe

  1. Mick Wallace (Ireland)

former Member of the European Parliament, Politician

  1. Clare Daly (Ireland)

former Member of the European Parliament, Politician

  1. Tommy Sheridan (Scotland)

former Member of the Scottish Parliament, Politician

20. Jean Bricmont (Belgian)

Theoretical Physicist and Philosopher of Science, Professor at the Catholic University of Louvain

21. Michael Springmann (USA)

former Diplomat, Attorney and Counselor at Law

22. David Barsamian (USA)

founder and Director of Alternative Radio (heard on 250 radio stations worldwide), Writer

  1. Art Olivier (USA)

2002 Libertarian Party nominee for Vice President, former Mayor of Bellflower, California, Libertarian Candidate for California Governor in 2006

  1. Pino Cabras (Italy)

former vice-president of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Italian Parliament

  1. Santiago Zabala (Spain)

Philosopher and ICREA Research Professor at the Pompeu Fabra University

  1. Michel Chossudovsky (Canada)
    Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Ottawa, Director of Centre for Research on Globalization
  1. Farid Esack (South Africa)

Appointed by Nelson Mandela as gender-equality commissioner Head of the Department of Religion Studies at the University of Johannesburg and former professor at Harvard University

  1. Hamid Algar (USA)
    Professor Emeritus of Economics at of Persian studies at the University of California, Berkeley 
  1. Imam Suhaib Webb (USA)

Former imam of the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center, Former Resident Scholar of the Islamic Center of New York University 

  1. Iurie Roșca (Moldavia)

Former Deputy Prime Minister and former deputy of parliament for almost 2 decades

  1. Datuk Raja Kamarul Bahrin (Malaysia)

Former Deputy Minister of Housing and Local Government 

  1. Sara Flounders (USA)

Co-director of the International Action Center and Secretariat Member of the Workers World Party

  1. Sheikh Ahmad Awang (Malaysia)

Chairman of the Alliance of World Mosque in Defence of Al Aqsa, former President of the Malaysian Ulama Association

  1. David Swanson (USA)

Executive Director of World Beyond War, Antiwar activist

  1. MP Suhaizan Kayat (Malaysia)

Member of Parliament who represents the National Trust Party, former Political Secretary to the Ministers of Domestic Trade and Living Costs

  1. Mazin B. Qumsiyeh (Palestine)

Director of the Palestine Museum of Natural History and the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability at Bethlehem University

  1. MP Mohd Sany Hamzan (Malaysia)

Member of Parliament, member of National Trust Party 

  1. Ramón Grosfoguel (Puerto Rico)
    Sociologist and Professor Emeritus at the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley 
  1. Zareena A. Grewal (USA)

Historical Anthropologist and Professor of American studies, religious studies, and ethnicity, race, and migration at Yale University, documentary filmmaker

  1. MP Mohd Sany Hamzan (Malaysia)

Member of Parliament, member of National Trust Party

  1. MP Aminolhuda Hassan (Malaysia)

Member of Parliament 

  1. Abbas Edalat(UK-IRAN)

Professor of computer science and mathematics at Imperial College London and founder of Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran (CASMII) and the Science and Arts 

  1. MP Ahmad Tarmizi bin Sulaiman (Malaysia)

Member of Parliament, former Deputy President of the Malaysian Consultative Council of Islamic Organisation

  1. Alice Rothchild (USA)

former professor at Harvard Medical School, author, and filmmaker 

  1. MP Azli Yusof (Malaysia)

Member of Parliament who represents the National Trust Party 

  1. Jodi Dean (USA)

Political Theorist and professor at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, former Erasmus Professor of the Humanities in the Faculty of Philosophy at Erasmus University Rotterdam

  1. Mohd Hatta Ramli (Malaysia)

Senator, physician and former Deputy Minister of Entrepreneur Development 

  1. Haim Bresheeth (UK)

Former Professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), the University of East London, Campaign Against Misrepresentation in Public Affairs, Information and the News 

  1. Mujahid Yusof Rawa (Malaysia)

Senator, former Minister in charge of Religious Affairs Foundation (SAF)

  1. James H. Fetzer (USA)

McKnight Professor Emeritus of the philosophy of science at the University of Minnesota Duluth

  1. Abdul Ghani Samsudin (Malaysia)

Chairman Secretariate for the Ulama Assembly of Asia 

  1. Miko Peled (USA)

Antiwar Activist and Author 

  1. Wan Mohamad Sheikh Abdul Aziz (Malaysia)

 President of the Ulama Association of Malaysia, former Director-General of the Islamic Development Department of Malaysia 

  1. Revd. Stephen Sizer (UK)

former Vicar of Christ Church of Virginia Water in Surrey and director of the Peacemaker Trust 

  1. William O. Beeman (USA)

Professor Emeritus at the Department of Anthropology, the University of Minnesota 

  1. Lauren Booth (UK)

Author, Journalist and Antiwar Activist 

  1. Kevin B. MacDonald (USA)

Professor Emeritus of Evolutionary Psychology at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB)

  1. Lawrence Davidson (USA)

Professor Emeritus of Middle East History at West Chester University

  1. Augusto Sinagra (Italy)

Professor Emeritus of European Law at Sapienza University of Rome

  1. Claudio Mutti (Italy)

Former Professor at the University of Bologna, Director of “Eurasia, Rivista di Studi Geopolitici”

  1. Claudio Moffa (Italy)

Former Professor of History of International Relations at the University of Teramo

  1. Angelo d’Orsi (Italy)

Historian of Philosophy and Professor of History of political doctrines at the University of Turin

  1. David Miller (UK)

Sociologist and former professor at the University of Strathclyde, the University of Bath and the University of Bristo

  1. Jacek Bartyzel (Poland)

Professor of Political Philosophy and Political Theory at Nicolaus Copernicus University

  1. Ali Hassan (UK)

CEO of Muslim Public Affairs Committee in the UK

  1. Laurie King (USA)

Professor at Department of anthropology, Georgetown University  

  1. Maria Poumier (France)

Former Professor at the University of Paris (Sorbonne), Professor at University of Havana

  1. Denis Rancourt (Canada)

former professor at the University of Ottawa, Co-Director of CORRELATION Research in Public Interest

  1. Rodney Shakespeare (UK)

Economist and Visiting professor at Trisakti University

  1. Bruno Drweski (France)

Professor at the National Institute of Oriental Languages ​​and Civilizations (Université Paris-Cité)

  1. Pamela S. Murray (USA)

Historian and Professor Emerita at the University of Alabama at Birmingham

  1. E. Michael Jones (USA)

former Professor at Saint Mary’s College in Indiana, founder of Culture Wars Magazine

  1. Sandew Hira (Netherlands)

Founder of Decolonial International Network known for his decolonial theory, Director of International Institute for Scientific Research

 Denijal Jegić (Lebanon)

Professor of communication in the Department of Communication at Lebanese American University

  1. Konrad Rekas (Poland – Scotland)

Lecturer at Nottingham Trent University 

  1. Ladislav Zemanek (Czech)

Historian and Research Fellow at the China-CEE Institute, former Politician

  1. Marta Araújo (Portugal)

Senior Researcher at the Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra

  1. Daniel Estulin (Lithuania)

Writer and thinker whose main interest is the Bilderberg Group 

  1. Robert Fantina (Canada)

Board Member of Canadian Voices for Palestinian Rights 

  1. Alison Weir (USA)

Investigative journalist, Founder and executive director of If Americans Knew and president of the Council for the National Interest 

  1. David Rovics (USA)

Singer and Songwriter, Antiwar Musician

  1. Jennifer Loewenstein (USA)

Antiwar Activist and Journalist, author at The Journal of Palestine Studies and CounterPunch 

  1. Pepe Escobar (Brazil)

Geopolitical Analyst and Journalist

  1. William Rodriguez (USA)

Antiwar Activist

  1. Rabbi Ahron Cohen (UK)

Spokesperson of the worldwide religious group Neturei Karta 

  1. John Minto (Scotland)

Co-Chair of the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa 

  1. Yvonne Ridley (UK)

Journalist and Author, Antiwar Activist

  1. Valérie Bugault (France)

Geopolitical Analyst and Journalist 

  1. Ahmed Bensaada (Canada)

Academician, author and Winner of Canada’s Primer Minister prize for High Education 

  1. Christian Bouchet (France)

former Politician and Antiwar Activist, PhD anthropology

  1. Jean Michel Vernochet (France)

Former Journalist of Le Figaro Magazine, Writer

  1. Kevin J. Barrett (USA)

Arabist-Islamologist Scholar, former Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

  1. Revd. Andrew Ashdown (UK)

30 years of Interreligious Initiatives and Dialogues in Africa, Middle East and the UK

  1. Youssef Hindi (France)

Writer, Historian of religions and Geopolitologist

  1. Rabbi Dovid Feldman (USA)

Member of the worldwide religious group Neturei Karta

  1. Sander Hicks (USA)

Guitarist and Publisher, Antiwar Activist 

  1. Peter Koenig (Switzerland)

Economist and Geopolitical Analyst with more than 30 years of experience in the World Bank, the World Health Organization and the Swiss Development Cooperation

  1. Imam Muhammad al-Asi (USA)

Former Imam of the Islamic Center in Washington, Research Fellow at the Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought 

  1. Father Dave Smith (Australia)

Social Educator, Antiwar Activist

  1. Jürgen Cain Külbel (Germany)

Investigative Journalist and Author

  1. Greta Berlin (USA)

Co-founder of the Free Gaza movement

  1. Eric Walberg (Canada)

Geopolitical Expert and Author

  1. Merlin Miller (USA)

2012 Presidential Candidate and Independent Film Director

  1. Howard Druan (USA)

Member of Green Party, Retired Member of the State Bar of Arizona 

  1. Adrián Salbuchi (Argentine)

Political Analyst, Writer

  1. Dragana Trifković (Serbia)

Director General of the Center for Geostrategic Studies in Belgrade

  1. Hafsa Kara-Mustapha (UK)

Journalist and Author, Expert of North Africa and UK relationship

  1. Paulina Aroch Fugellie (Mexico)

Professor at the Department of Humanities, Metropolitan Autonomous University 

  1. Lorenzo Maria Pacini (Italy)

Head of the Department of Geopolitics at UniDolomiti of Belluno and professor at Libera Università 

  1. Nina Luxenberg (USA)

Politician and Member of the Green Party 

  1. Lucien Cerise (France)

Author of Governing by Chaos, Antiwar activist

  1. Andrea Meza Torres (Mexico)

Professor at the Department of Anthropology, Metropolitan Autonomous University

  1. Abdullah Sudin Ab Rahman (Malaysia)

President of HALUAN (humanitarian relief, education, and community development), former Chief Executive Officer at Darulnaim College of Technology for 12 years 

  1. Leslie Varenne (France)

Journalist and founder of the Institute for Monitoring and Study of International Relations (Iveris) 

  1. Daniele Trabucco (Italy)

Tenured Professor of Constitutional Law at San Domenico University Institute of Rome

  1. Leonid Savin (Russia)

Geopolitical analyst, Chief editor of Geopolitika.ru (from 2008), founder and chief editor of Journal of Eurasian Affairs 

  1. Jeff Cohen (USA)

Retired professor at Ithaca College and Cofounder of RootsAction Education Fund  

  1. Caleb Maupin (USA)

Founder of Center for Political Innovation, Journalist

  1. Zaher Birawi (UK-Palestine)

Chair of the Palestine Forum of Britain, Journalist

  1. Muhammad Rabbani (UK)

Managing Director CAGE International, Cage Advocacy Group for Empowerment

  1. Margherita Furlan (Italy)
    Journalist and director of     Casa Del Sole TV
  1. Thami Khalid (Belguim)

Co-director of Justice San Frontieres

  1. Jacob Cohen (France)

Academic, Novelist and Antiwar Activist

  1. Richard Ray (USA)

Editor and Antiwar Activist

  1. Ernest H. Wittenbreder Jr. (USA)

President of Power Electronics Innovations Laboratory

  1. Mary Gleysteen (USA)

Member of Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action

  1. Shahridan Faiez (Malaysia)

Director of Think City

  1. Balkhisa Bashir (UK)

Co-founder and director of Barwaqa Relief Organisation

  1. Michael Spath (USA)

Founder of Indiana Center for Middle East Peace

  1. Gordon Duff (USA)

Vietnam War Veteran and Antiwar Activist

  1. Mohd Azmi Abdul Hamid (Malaysia)

President of Malaysia Consultative Council of Islamic Organizations 

  1. Ahmad Fahmi Shamsuddin (Malaysia)

President of the Muslim Youth Movement 

  1. Glen Milner (USA)

Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action

  1. Wording Saidi (Belgium)

Co-spokesperson of Bruxelles Pantheres

  1. Mouhad Reghif (Belgium)

Co-spokesperson of Bruxelles Pantheres

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What was REALLY Behind Trump’s Attack on Iran?

Posted on June 24, 2025 by Father Dave

I woke before dawn this morning in a cold sweat, emerging from a terrible nightmare. This is not something that normally ever happens to me, and then I read US President Trump’s tweet, indicating that he had just unleashed his nightmare on the world, bombing Iranian nuclear facilities! I’ve heard that others woke this morning in similar states. I suspect that the spiritual darkness unleashed today may well have reverberated and effected countless members of the human family across the globe.

What will Iran do now? That’s the question everyone is asking, and it is an important question. The other question though that we also need to ask is, “What on earth drove Donald Trump to initiate this attack?” This is also an important question because, if we’re going to get out of this mess, we need to know how we got in!

Most of the people I’ve been talking to put it down to Mr Trump being mentally unhinged, and that may be correct. Who, after all, would betray their own support base, break all their electoral promises, and risk the annihilation of the entire world except for a madman? The problem with this theory though is that at other times Mr Trump seems quite cogent. Yes, he is always egotistical and arrogant, but he is not normally completely irrational. What if it’s not stupidity? What if he’s being bribed?

Could there be some early video footage of Mr Trump on Jeffrey Epstein’s Island that would land him in jail if it were to be made public? Something like that would explain why the US President is behaving in a way that is completely incompatible with his ‘Make American Great Again’ agenda. It would also help explain why he ended his ridiculous tweet this morning with an ALL CAPS, “NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE!” It’s a statement that makes no sense when delivered right after you’ve dropped thousands of kilograms of explosives on someone, yet it does make sense if he’d never really wanted to drop those bombs but felt he was being forced to.

Musings like this may sound slanderous, yet these questions need to be asked. If Mr Trump is being manipulated, this means that some other person (or persons) control US affairs. It means that some unelected person really has their finger on the doomsday button, and that it’s someone whose face we cannot see. Maybe it doesn’t matter all that much whose human face it is, as we know that behind that face, the principalities and powers are at work –spiritual forces of wickedness!

Forgive me if I’m sounding a bit too mystical today, but I do believe that this is fundamentally a spiritual battle, and that’s why I believe our first response to this evil must be prayer. Further, if we’re going to beat this thing, we’re going to need to draw on all the spiritual weapons that God supplies – like truth and love and forgiveness.

World War III may well have begun, but we can still put an early end to it. It’s not too late to stop things escalating globally. It’s not too late for the west to start showing some respect for the Iranian people. It’s not too late to stop the Gaza genocide, and it’s not even too late to resurrect Syria (I believe), and it’s certainly not too late to shut down Trump.

Forgive me for being a preacher, but we’ve been letting the devil run this show his own way for far too long, and I call on my Christian brothers and sisters everywhere to take a stand for peace and for truth. I likewise call on my Islamic sisters and brothers to allow us to work alongside you so that together we might limit the violence and achieve justice through other avenues. I likewise call on my Jewish sisters and brothers to be true to the Torah and join us in working together for peace.

Spiritual men and women – Christians, Muslims, Jews and other people of faith – need to take the lead in this work because, well … if you put us all together, there are a lot of us, and also because we understand what the politicians fail to understand – namely, that this is, first and foremost, a spiritual battle.

May Almighty God grant us victory – a victory of peace with justice. Amen!

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Why did Elijah feel so ALONE?

Posted on June 23, 2025 by Father Dave

“Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind, and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake, and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire, and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.” (1 Kings 19:11-13)

So many stories in the Bible follow a predictable plotline. This is not one of them. The prophet, Elijah, was depressed. He’d lived an amazing life and seen so many miraculous things happen, and perhaps he’d been thinking that after so much hard work and after so much success, things would settle down for him and for his people. This didn’t happen, and the scene opens with the Queen of Israel – Jezebel – swearing that she’s going to see Elijah dead within 24 hours!

You might think that a warrior of Elijah’s status would laugh at a threat like that. He didn’t. He ran. He left his team behind and headed for the wilderness where he didn’t think anybody could find him. When he reached an isolated spot, he sat down under a solitary tree and asked God to take his life.

“It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” (1 Kings 19:5)

It’s hard to know which of Elijah’s failed ancestors he was referring to, but the message is clear enough, and we’ve all been there. Well … I certainly have, and I suspect that many of us have been there. Indeed, it’s hard not to read out own story into this narrative. Things used to be so great! Everybody loved me! God was working through me! What happened? Why am I suddenly alone?

If I’d been scripting this story, the next scene would have had God coming to Elijah, perhaps in the form of a motherly-looking angel, and give him a long, comforting embrace. If I’d scripted my own story, I would have likewise had graceful motherly angels coming and hugging me at various times when I felt I needed it. This isn’t always how it works though, and it didn’t work that way for Elijah. God sent an angel, but rather than embrace him, we’re told that the angel poked him, woke him up, and told him to have something to eat as he had a long walk ahead of him. Elijah was heading to Mount Horeb for an appointment with the Almighty!

Nothing about this story goes as we might have expected, and least of all Elijah’s climactic encounter with God. Elijah stands in the cleft of the mountain to get a good view of God. He then sees a series of astonishing signs and wonders – wind and earthquakes and fire – but he doesn’t’ see God, and then, after all the commotion has died down, God shows up in a very unexpected way – quietly and unobtrusively.

There has been a history of controversy amongst scholars over how we should translate 1 Kings 19:12. Does God show up as “a still small voice” (King James version), “a gentle whisper” (New International version) or, as translated above, in the “sound of sheer silence”? Perhaps it doesn’t matter. The point is that God shows up in a way that no one expected, and isn’t that so often the way?

We find ourselves at an auspicious time in human history. We are doing our best to read the signs of the times and work out exactly what God is up to amidst all the violence and political power-plays going on amongst our world leaders. Personally, I’ve been waiting for God to do something spectacular – something that will bring freedom to Palestine, resurrect Syria, and put all these pompous dictators in their respective places. I’m waiting for the wind, the earthquake and the fire!

So … should I be looking for God in the silence instead? I don’t think that’s necessarily the lesson here. Yes, in this case, God comes to Elijah in the silence, but there are plenty of other times when God does show up in fiery winds and earthquakes.

I’m reminded of a joke I heard when I was in high school:
Q: Where does a ten-tonne gorilla sit when it comes into a room?
A: Anywhere it likes.

That’s the promise. God will show up … in whatever way God chooses to show up.

I wish I could script my own life-story. I have so many great chapters I could add. What I have to come to terms with though is what Elijah had to come to terms with – namely, that it’s not really my story. God is not trying to squeeze into my narrative. It’s us who are being woven into God’s narrative. God’s is the Kingdom, the Power and the Story, for ever and ever. Amen!

As streamed on The Sunday Eucharist – June 22nd, 2025

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Did World War 3 Just Start?

Posted on June 14, 2025 by Father Dave

We may soon look back on the Israeli attack on Iran of June 13th, 2025, as the opening shots of the Third World War. Indeed, at the moment, I can’t see any way this can now be avoided.

Iran didn’t respond to the last Israeli incursion. I don’t think the Iranian people will allow the government not to respond this time. The question is how they respond, and we need to keep in mind that Israel wants Iran to respond. Indeed, while I’m not sure whether the United States were ever negotiating with Iran in good faith, obviously no such negotiations can continue now, and I assume that this was one of Israel’s key aims – that there should be no alternative to escalating war.

How should Iran respond? Ideally, from an Iranian perspective, they could target Israel’s military infrastructure and hit it hard. The problem, of course, is that Israel has multiple nuclear weapons, and they may be happy for an excuse to use them, and I can’t imagine that the Iranians could disable Israel’s nuclear capacity, even with the most sophisticated military strike.

So … how does Iran respond? If Iran responds in a weak and symbolic way, Israel will most likely continue to attack and humiliate Iran, so this is not an option. If Iran can make a major hit on the Israeli military structure, they may be able to limit the ferocity of the Israeli response, though they would still have deal with the Americans. Alternatively, Iran may hit the civilian infrastructure of Israel in an attempt to demoralise the civilian population of Israel and destroy their will to fight.

From a strategic point of view, I hate to say it, but attacking the civilian infrastructure is probably the best option for Iran, and I hate to say it because I don’t think any war against civilians is ever justifiable. Even so, that red line was crossed by the Israelis some time ago.

Israel cannot win this war on their own. They are already fighting on more than one front, with more belligerents ready to enter the fray. Both Napolean and Hitler made the mistake of overextending their lines to the point where they collapsed, and Israel could easily do the same. Of course, they are depending on unwavering support from the US and its allies, but we should not forget that domestic opposition to any such war is huge in the US and in Europe.

Support for Palestine, globally, has never been greater at a grass-roots level, and with the skyrocketing oil prices that will result from Iran closing off the Straits of Hormuz. will the US and NATO be able to properly wage a massive foreign war when they have to deal with chaos at home?

The great weakness of both Mr Netanyahu and Mr Trump is that they are both horribly narcissistic and over-confident. The flip side of that is that they have probably both radically underestimated the strength of their opponents. They may still be gloating over recent victories, but Iran is not Lebanon. Iran is not Syria. Iran is the seventh largest country in the world, and despite the significant damage that the Zionist government has been able to do, I suspect that Iran has only just begun to show its strength.

It is possible then that both Mr Netanyahu and Mr Trump will be crushed under the weight of their own hubris, after which we may see their respective empires crumble with them.  I hope not. I pray that all this carnage might yet be avoided. Even so, apart from a miraculous intervention from the Almighty, there is not much I can see in the world at the moment that gives me hope.

Rev. David B. Smith14/6/25

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Can You Change Your Beliefs Without Changing Who You Are? (Acts 16:20-22)

Posted on June 4, 2025 by Father Dave

“When they had brought [Paul and Silas] before the magistrates, they said, “These men, these Jews, are disturbing our city and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us, being Romans, to adopt or observe.” The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods.” (Acts 16:20-22)

Paul’s trip to the Roman colony of Philippi began with him having a vision of a man pleading with him to come over there and help them. When he got to Philippi though, the only people Paul could connect with were all women! When he did finally meet the men, things did not go well.

The transition point, bizarrely, was a young slave girl who started following Paul and his friends, crying “These men are slaves of the Most High God who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” (Acts 16:17). We’re told that Paul found this ‘annoying’ (Acts 16:18) which is a poor translation. Paul wasn’t so much pissed off with the girl as disturbed. The young woman was in spiritual distress. We’re told that she (literally) had a ‘Python spirit’ that brought her owners a great deal of money.

In Greek religion, the Python spirit was connected to the oracle at Delphi and to the god, Apollo. The term “Python” comes from the mythological serpent that Apollo supposedly defeated at Delphi. This spirit was associated with fortune-telling and divination and, presumably, it was these special abilities that generated an income for the girl’s owners. When Paul invoked the name of Jesus to liberate the girl, she lost not only the spirit. She lost her income-generating potential. That didn’t go down well with her owners.

When Paul and Silas were dragged before the local authorities they were referred to as ‘these Jews’, and it’s tempting to see this as classic anti-Semitism. The irony though is that the charge against Paul was that he was being anti-Roman by advocating “customs that are not lawful for us” (Acts 16:21). The charge was outrageous, of course. The real issue was money, and they all knew that. Even so, Paul and Silas were beaten up and imprisoned.

This story raises so many questions for me:

  • What was the point of liberating the young girl from her spirit if they couldn’t liberate her from slavery? Weren’t the Apostles making things worse for her?
  • Didn’t the violence Paul encountered suggest to him that his dream about the Philippian man asking for his help might have just been a dream and not a message from God?
  • Did almost being lynched as a foreigner make Paul question his calling as Apostle to the Gentiles (Ephesians 3:8)?

The racial tensions displayed in Philippi highlight what a crazy undertaking it was for Paul, as a Jew, to lob into a Roman colony, and start preaching about a crucified Jewish Messiah. Did he really expect people to respond enthusiastically?

Religion in the first century was entirely tribal. If you were a Roman, your religion was the Roman religion with all its special gods, stories and rituals. If you were Greek, your religion was Greek, and if you were Jewish, your religion was Jewish. People couldn’t change their religion without changing their race. Religion was something you were born into. Did Paul somehow think he could change all that?

We take it as self-evident nowadays that religion is a personal thing – that it’s a matter of belief and, as individuals, we can believe whatever we want. I don’t think this concept of religion even existed prior to the birth of the church. In the first century, your religion was as fixed as your race and your gender. Paul’s belief that Jesus was for everybody was radical. This wasn’t just a new religion. It was a totally new concept of how religion worked!

Paul’s stay in Philippi did end on a positive note. Paul’s jailor ends up taking him and Silas back to his own house where he fed them, washed their wounds, and then asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30)

Paul’s response – “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31) – is as instructive in what it doesn’t say as in what it does. Paul is telling his new Roman brother, ‘You don’t have to stop being Roman. You don’t have to change your culture or racial identity. You just have to embrace the truth. That’s all that is needed!’

Paul’s emphasis on sola fides – by faith alone – was proclaimed as something that could unify all people. Paul’s God wasn’t caught up on race, class, skin colour or gender. All of us who ‘believe in the Lord Jesus’ are one.

It didn’t take long, of course, for the church to codify ‘belief’ into a series of increasingly complex creeds that did just as good a job of excluding people as did the tribal barriers that Paul was familiar with. Even so, even two thousand years of ecclesiastical embellishments can never really dull the Gospel’s clarion call:

“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved – you and your household.” (Acts 16:31)

As broadcast on The Sunday Eucharist – June 1st, 2025

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Does God Really Send Us Messages at Night? (Acts 16:9-10)

Posted on June 4, 2025 by Father Dave

“During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.” (Acts 16:9-10)

Dreams can change your life.

Paul had been in Troas, in modern-day Turkey (about 50 km from Gallipoli) when he had that dream about the Macedonian man, calling for help. No doubt Paul already had plans. He was probably thinking of looping back towards Jerusalem and visiting the churches he’d planted along the way. Even so, he had that dream, and so he told his team to head out and purchase tickets for a voyage to Europe!

My mind goes back to 2012 when I first started hearing news reports about the uprising in Syria. I had no idea where Syria was at that stage, and I didn’t have any Syrian friends but, for some reason, I couldn’t get Syria out of my mind. I’d lie awake at night, thinking about what was going on there, and I remember saying to God, “I’m busy here, Lord”. Even so, six months later I was in Damascus, going to bed each night with the distant glow of mortar fire lighting up the night sky in every direction.

I expect Paul’s stay in Philippi, Macedon’s capital, was at least as risky for him as Syria was for me. Macedon was a Roman city, and it was a town full of vets (and not the kind that look after animals)!

One of the big problems for kings and emperors in those days was what to do with your retired soldiers. This was not a group that the government wanted to get offside, so the Romans pensioned off their veterans very generously. Philippi had been given over entirely to veterans, which meant it was a city full of rough old men with money. Some would have had families. Many would have been single, and I imagine there was a thriving sex industry there and lots of late-night bars. It was an odd place for Paul to launch a Christian mission.

If Paul had been guided by the contemporary wisdom of church-growth strategists, he would have looked for an area with a well-established Jewish community – people who already understood concepts like Messiah and the Kingdom of God. Philippi didn’t have that. Paul couldn’t even find a synagogue there, and while he had dreamt of a local man calling for his help, he didn’t find any men he could connect with once he got there. Instead, he wandered outside the city and found a group of women praying by a river and … the rest is history!

We can’t be sure about much when it comes to the early development of the church in Phillipi though there has been lots of speculation. Was the leader of that prayer group, Lydia, the church’s first pastor? Were Paul and Lydia an item at one point? There is much we can’t be sure about, but one thing does seem clear. Paul looked back at his journey to Macedonia as one of the best things he ever did.

When Paul was in prison some years later, who did he write to? It was his spiritual family in Phillipi. And while so many of Paul’s letters have him exasperated, or frustrated over issues of lust, greed, immorality, and idolatry (e.g. Galatians, 1 and 2 Corinthians), listen to his words to the community at Phillipi:

“I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:3-8)

I love Paul’s frankness about his passion for these people whom he ‘longs for with the affection of Christ Jesus’. I feel the same way about the people of Syria, and it’s breaking my heart to see what is happening to them at the moment.

Dreams can change your life. They can bring you light and love and joy and peace, along with risk, pain, suffering and exhaustion, but … only if you follow them.

As broadcast on The Sunday Eucharist – May 25th, 2025

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Why did the Sea Disappear in the Bible’s Last Chapter? (Revelation 21:1)()

Posted on June 4, 2025 by Father Dave

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.” (Revelation 21:1)

This is the beginning of the final bit of the final book in the Bible, and it’s a vision of final things – of the end of world history as we know it and the beginning of a new age. This is the climax of the Biblical narrative!

Of course, the Bible is made up of a lot of books, and each of those has its own narrative. Even so, when read together they can be seen as a single story, and it’s the story of humanity’s journey from the garden to the city, We start in the Garden of Eden and we end up in the New Jerusalem where ‘the sea will be no more’!

Now, forgive me if I focus today on what may seem like an odd line – that ‘the sea will be no more’ – but this is a vision of Heaven, and if you’re like my partner, Joy, you might be asking, ‘How can it be Heaven if there is no ocean?”

Joy loves the ocean and the beach, and swimming in the waves, and I love to watch her enjoying herself there, but from a distance as I’m actually a little scared of water.

I know that doesn’t sound like me. I perform fearlessly in the boxing ring, and I’ve kept my claim in multiple warzones. Even so, I am a little aquaphobic and have been ever since my eldest daughter had a boating accident when she was very little. I managed to get her out from under the sinking ship (thanks be to God) but then almost drowned myself, and it left me with a dread of the sea, and with a deep awareness of how a fun day on the river can suddenly turn toxic.

There are hidden dangers in the sea. Mysterious things lurk under the water. It may look calm on the surface but there’s violence going on under the waves. Scaly and scary creatures are hunting and killing each other down there, and we never know when Leviathan or Behemoth might emerge from the depths!

If you’re not familiar with those two, Leviathan and Behemoth are sea monsters, mentioned in the book of Job (chapter 40 and 41) and in two of the Psalms (74:14 and 104:26), and they symbolise all that is chaotic and opposed to God’s good order.

The ancient Israelites were never a sea people. It was the Philistines and other unfriendly neighbours who lived on the coast. So often when you see Biblical figures get into a boat things don’t go well. Think of Jonah trying to catch a ship to Tarshish (Jonah 1:3) or of the three times Saint Paul was shipwrecked (Corinthians 11:25).

Of course, many of Jesus’ disciples were men of the sea. They caught fish for a living. Even so, in so many of the Gospel stories where we see the disciples in their boats, they’re about to drown (Matthew 8:23-27, Mark 4:35-41, and Luke 8:22-25)! Jesus could calm storms (Matthew 8:23-27) and walk on water (Matthew 14:22-33) but the rest of the crew seemed to be a bit at sea when on the water (pun intended).

Biblically speaking, the sea symbolises all that is chaotic. If we go back to the start of the Biblical narrative, we’re told that in the beginning “The earth was formless and empty, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” (Genesis 1:2).

It’s the Hebrew phrase ‘tohu wa-bohu’ that’s translated here as ‘formless and empty’. In other versions of the Bible, it’s rendered as “chaos and desolation”. Either way, it’s all water, and the Spirit of God is hovering over it with a view to pushing the water back to create land and life (Genesis 1:9), after which the waters then stay in their place, at least until the time of Noah when they all come flooding back (Genesis 6-9).

Forgive the rambling, which you may see largely as me trying to justify my water phobia. Even so, what I want to leave you with today is not a fear of water but rather an appreciation the great Biblical vision that one day ‘the sea will be no more’. There will be no more chaos, no more monsters lurking in dark places, no more violent men hiding in the shadows, no more death, no more pain.

My mind goes to a short video I saw this week of a father in Gaza, holding his baby daughter who was sobbing as they listened to the sound of warplanes overhead.

“He will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:4)

Hear the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

As broadcast on The Sunday Eucharist – May 18th, 2025

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What Makes Jesus a Good Shepherd? (Psalm 23)

Posted on June 4, 2025 by Father Dave

“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1)

This coming Sunday is ‘Good Shepherd Sunday’. Every year at this time we revisit the 23rd Psalm and read excerpts from the tenth chapter of the Gospel according to Saint John which talk about Jesus as the ‘Good Shepherd’.

It’s also ‘Mother’s Day’ this Sunday, and that might seem like a happy coincidence, as the roles of mothering and shepherding seem to have considerable overlap. Even so, there is an important point of distinction between the Ancient Near Eastern shepherd and your mum. Shepherds smelt terrible!

Christian iconography tends to depict shepherds as genteel figures, nurturing baby lambs or carrying lost sheep on their shoulders. Shepherding was actually a very rough job in Biblical times. It meant sleeping in the fields or in the entrances of caves where you’d use your body as a barrier (John 10:9), keeping predators from the flock

By definition, these shepherds were pastoral figures (‘pastor’ being the Latin word for shepherd) but we shouldn’t let the modern concept of pastoring disguise the fact that Biblical shepherds were uniformly men of blood.

You may recall the dialogue between King Saul and the young shepherd-boy, David (recorded in the first book of Samuel, chapter 17), where the teenager is volunteering to do battle with Goliath, but the king is expressing doubts about the young man’s standing as a warrior. David’s response is, “Hey! I’m a shepherd. I kill lions and bears for a living”. That’s a paraphrase of 1 Samuel 17:34-37, of course, but I think it’s an accurate one. Shepherds knew how to fight and kill.

Ancienty Near Eastern shepherds were rough, hairy men who lived on the outskirts of society. Predictably, they were not highly esteemed by the social elite, which perhaps makes it surprising that the shepherd became the dominant Biblical metaphor for political leadership.  Yes, a mother or a teacher could be a shepherd, but the metaphor was most commonly applied to the king (eg. Ezekiel 34, Psalm 78).

Biblically speaking, our leaders are our shepherds. Does this mean we should be electing warriors who can withstand the heat of battle?  Perhaps, but our Lord Jesus  distinguished between good and bad shepherds, and “the good shepherd”, He says, is the one who “lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:11)

This is the distinguishing mark of the good shepherd. The good shepherd puts their body on the line. The good shepherd has skin in the game. The good shepherd doesn’t have other people do the fighting for them. The good shepherd leads from the front and, if the fight is lost, the good shepherd will be amongst the first to fall!

In Australia, we’ve just re-elected our Prime Minister, and, in Rome, a new Pope has been elected. Will either of these men prove to be good shepherds?

I saw that the Progressive Jewish Council of Australia has called on the Prime Minister to openly condemn the modern state of Israel’s brutality and to cut ties with their genocidal regime! I suspect that would require our shepherd to lay down his life for the sheep!

In truth, I’m not sure how much we can expect from our current crop of shepherds and, indeed, I fear many of them are actually wolves in sheep’s clothing (if you’ll forgive the mixing of metaphors). At any rate, it is Mother’s Day this Sunday, as well as Good Shepherd Sunday, and we may have to be satisfied with seeing in our mums something of the Good Shepherd, while we pray that our shepherds grow to more closely resemble our mothers.

As broadcast on The Sunday Eucharist – May 11th, 2025

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Jesus is not the Only Person to have Died for our Sins! (Revelation 5:11-12)

Posted on June 4, 2025 by Father Dave

“Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, singing with full voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” (Revelation 5:11-12)

Jesus was not the only person to die for our sins (literally speaking)!

That struck home to me for the first time this week. I’d been reading the latest book from Chris Hedges about the war on Gaza, and he made the point that Aaron Bushnell, in a very real sense, also died for our sins. If you don’t recognise the name, Bushnell was the US Airman who set himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington. It was an extreme act of protest against the Gaza genocide and, in a real sense, he did suffer and die for our sins!

Of course, the suffering and death of Jesus, the Christ, was unique. I’m not trying to equate the two. Jesus’ suffering and death was exceptional because of who Jesus was, but, understood as a model of self-immolation – of publicly destroying yourself for the sake of others – Jesus’ death has been emulated by a disturbingly large number of people. For example:

  • Thích Quảng Đức was a Vietnamese monk who destroyed himself by fire in 1963, protesting the persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government.
  • Jan Palach, a Czech student, similarly set himself on fire in 1969 as a protest against the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.
  • Mohamed Bouazizi, the Tunisian street vendor whose self-immolation in 2010 is credited with sparking the Arab Spring uprisings across the Middle East.
  • Malachi Ritscher, the American musician who, similarly, set himself on fire in 2006 to protest the Iraq War.

I don’t believe that public suicide should ever be considered an acceptable form of protest. Even so, the worthiness of the lamb, which is the focus of our Scripture passage, is indeed tied to Jesus’ perceived act of self-sacrifice.

Revelation, chapter 5, opens with a search going on in the Heavenly throne room, looking for someone who has earned the right to ‘open the scroll’ that unlocks the future. Eventually, we’re told that “the lion if Judah” has triumphed (Revelation 5:5) and will open the scroll, yet the candidate who then appears is not a lion but “a lamb, looking as if it had been slain!” (Revelation 5:6)

So much of the imagery in Revelation is obscure, but this seems particularly bizarre. It’s not clear what makes the lamb look as if it had been slain. Was it bleeding? Was it disfigured in some way? However, the connection between the lambs suffering and the lamb’s worthiness is unambiguous, and is chorused by the Heavenly choir:

“You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
because you were slain,” (Revelation 5:9)

Frankly, this all seems very dark to me, and I recoil at the thought that blood and suffering are necessary if we are all to live together in peace. Having said that, I recognise that even Aaron Bushnell’s terrible death did itself achieve something in the way of reconciliation.

From what I have read and heard, Arab and Muslim people around the world see in Bushnell a sobering reminder that it’s not the American people who are their enemies. Indeed, it’s not even the US military that are to blame, as Bushnell himself was a part of that military. Bushnell helped to redirect the focus of those who decry the violence from the American people to specific members of the ruling class.

I’m going to stop here because I find this whole line of thought really disturbing, and yet I think it is something we do need to discuss and think through. The Christian Scriptures themselves repeatedly link suffering and redemption in ways I find very unsettling, and yet there is no denying that, scripturally speaking, the ‘via dolorosa’ (the ‘way of sorrows’) is also the path to abundant life.

There is a mystery in suffering. We have no idea why so much suffering goes on, and we find it very difficult to understand why God allows it all to happen. Even so, today’s Scripture from the book of Revelation is a reminder that God’s response to suffering is not simply to try and stop it, but also to generate life and health and peace through it (Colossians 1:24)! No cry of anguish goes unheard. No tear falls to the ground that cannot ultimately become a part of the river of life.

As broadcast on The Sunday Eucharist – May 4th, 2025

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