I did not die so that you could defeat, steal from, kill and destroy your enemies. I died so that you would love them as I loved you while you were My enemies.
What do you want, My children?
Do you want Me and My kingdom or do you want Barabbas and what he fought and killed for? You cannot have both.
Woe! Woe! Woe! My people are choosing Barabbas, following him, and teaching his ways! They reject Me for another ‘Jesus’!
Turn, My people! Turn from your ways and be saved! For the path you are choosing leads only to death!
I give life through the Cross —not through the sword! If you live by the sword, you will die by the sword.
*****
Ramone Romero is an artist based in Osaka, Japan.
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Pentecostals & Charismatics for Peace & Justice is a multicultural, gender inclusive, and ecumenical organization that promotes peace, justice, and reconciliation work among Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians around the world. If you like what we do, please become a member!
(art: “The Release of Barabbas” and “Follow the Lamb”, by Ramone Romero)
This advent, Matthew 21 will be read in churches all over the globe, telling the story of when Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey. Let us imagine Jesus instead approaching Gaza City… The Prince of Peace has heard the cries from over two million people, completely without future and hope. What happens when he rides into war-torn Gaza?
A gigantic humanitarian disaster is already a fact. Jesus knows this and therefore chooses to see reality with his own eyes during a few days of temporary ceasefire.
The disciples have rushed ahead to arrange permission through the now only possible border crossing at Rafah, a place that Jesus passed with his parents during their flight to Egypt. The disciples present Jesus as the supreme leader of the approximately 300 Christians remaining. They want to celebrate the advent of hope with Jesus’s radical message of peace at the center.
The stir is great at Rafah during the temporary ceasefire, with both prisoner exchanges and queues of long-haul trucks with aid. Like everyone else – diplomats, healthcare, and aid workers, truck drivers – Jesus must go through security procedures. Even his sandals are x-rayed. However, he is completely unarmed. Jesus and three of his disciples are allowed in.
Inside the Gaza Strip, which is no larger than Las Vegas, some young boys offer Jesus a donkey to ride on. Cars exist, but gasoline is now lacking. Lamps exist, but there is no longer electricity. Water exists in springs, but it is not drinkable.
Jesus’s path goes through a moonscape. Old monasteries and Christian memorials from desert fathers and mothers are now just grains of sand. Israeli military operations in 2008, 2012, 2014, and now 2023 have dropped tens of thousands of bombs, causing devastation of unimaginable proportions. Every teenager in Gaza has been traumatized multiple times.
The closer Jesus gets to Gaza City, the stronger the sewage stench from the Mediterranean. There are no longer any functioning purification plants. All sewage is flushed into the sea. Even the once beautiful beaches with fishing boats are now a ticking bomb.
Jesus rides slowly into Gaza City, which has become a “ghost town”. He recites aloud the old prophetic words: “Prepare the way for the Lord in the wilderness, make a straight path in the desert for our God…” Then Jesus begins to pronounce names of places where violence has triumphed in modern times: Guernica, Oradour, Babij Jar, Katyń, Lidice, Sharpeville, Treblinka, Hanoi, Rwanda… “And in advent 2023, we must add Gaza,” says Jesus with sorrow in his voice.
The remaining people in Gaza City have heard about the unusual visit and come running. In the absence of anything else, they lay their t-shirts on the ground. Some have made palm leaves out of bomb scrap. Some young men dance dabke in front of the donkey ride, and children sing along the way “Biladi, ya ardi” (“My homeland, my earth”). Jesus is hailed as a prophet, a liberator.
The disciples start to get worried. Surely Jesus shouldn’t be this political? He could be killed as a supporter of Hamas. Silence the children! They are singing the national anthem. But Jesus calms the anxious:
“Strangely enough, there is currently a unique space for action for all involved parties. I want to talk to the leaders of Israel and the Palestinians about their responsibility, and offer a vision of Gaza as a thriving free trade area in the Mediterranean – like Singapore in Asia. I want to meet with Netanyahu, and as a Jew, plead for the peace talks to be resumed for the sake of Israel’s own best.”
Jesus reminds that he has already delivered a speech to humanity known as the “Sermon on the Mount”. A message of bold kindness and radical mercy. It is now the mission of his disciples to turn this manifesto into socio-politics and broad popular movements. Violence must not obliterate politics! The Jewish philosopher Hannah Arendt argued that “only through politics does real power and freedom develop.”
Nativity scene in the Lutheran Church in Bethlehem, Palestine, Christmas 2023
We, who in thought accompany Jesus into Gaza, probably find it hard to see a solution to the war that is now raging. But still, it is not only the violence and nationalism of the warring parties that prevent a just peace, but the self-absorption of many at political or at “biblical” and other religious positions. My question is therefore: Where are the broad alliances, built on respect for each other, where we dare to seek out the core of the conflict?
Gaza is a microcosm of evil and barbarity in our time, but also of simple people’s distress, courage, and resilience. To imagine Jesus riding into Gaza highlights the horrors of war: the arrogance of power, the ongoing displacement, and the vulnerable situation of civilians.
Sune Fahlgren is associate professor of practical theology at the University College Stockholm, Sweden. This is a modified translation of an article he wrote for the Swedish newspaper Dagen.
God, you are the light that darkness cannot overcome. You are the Prince of Peace and the Reconciler, you make the impossible possible.
Protect all those affected by the war between Hamas and Israel. May the horrific acts of terror be stopped, may those taken hostage be freed, may those seeking refuge from rockets and bombs be spared, and may this terrible conflict come to an end.
I pray especially for the children on both sides who are the most vulnerable—hold your hand over them, God, and give them a peaceful future. Amen.
Two things that should be self-evident:
Murdering, raping, and kidnapping civilians is not a “fight for liberation”; these are horrific acts of terror that Hamas has committed against Israel and cannot be excused.
Stopping the import of food and water to the entire population of Gaza is the wrong way for Israel to respond to these acts of terror; it is a life-threatening collective punishment that violates international humanitarian law.
Half of the population of the Gaza Strip is children. A million children who bear no responsibility for Hamas’s rule and their horrific terror attacks. They are some of the most vulnerable right now in the war.
Doctors Without Borders are on the ground in Gaza and report that most of their patients are children between the ages of 10 and 14. They have called for humanitarian corridors so that food and medicine can reach the most vulnerable.
They also write that they have offered medical support to Israeli hospitals where a very high number of injured are being cared for after Hamas’s terror attacks. So far, the Israeli healthcare system has managed without their support, but they are ready to help there too if needed.
All people are created by God, and all suffering on both sides must be prevented. As missionary Heidi Baker wrote the other day on site in Jerusalem: “Pray for peace and for the innocent, no matter their nation or creed.”
Micael Grenholm is a Swedish church historian, author and an editor for PCPJ.
Pentecostals & Charismatics for Peace & Justice is a multicultural, gender inclusive, and ecumenical organization that promotes peace, justice, and reconciliation work among Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians around the world. If you like what we do, please become a member!
It’s been 22 years since the September 11th attacks. It’s an important day to remember how precious life is… and to stand against violence in every form.
On the 10th anniversary I teamed up with my pal Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, and we did an event called “Jesus, Bombs, and Ice Cream” which featured Terry Rockefeller from September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows. She, and so many other victims of 9/11 are heroes of mine. These survivors of 9/11 declared:
“Our Grief Is NOT a Cry for War” — and became some of the most credible, passionate voices against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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I often wonder how the world might be different if our response to the tragedy of 9/11 had not been more violence — war and retaliation. Nearly 3000 lives were lost here in the US. And it is now estimated that over 1,455,000 lives have been lost in the aftermath of 9/11. Not many of us feel any safer. And it is quite clear that our violence has done more to fuel the fire of extremism than to stop it.
We now know that 15 of the 19 terrorists on 9/11 were from Saudi Arabia… yet Iraq and Afghanistan have now been decimated by our response to 9/11. And the US continues to sell weapons to Saudi Arabia.
Lord, help us.
I hope that September 11 becomes a day when we lament all violence, and move forward with a renewed conviction that violence will not rid the world of violence. Violence is the disease, not the cure.
Lord, guide us in the path of peace.
“Don’t repay anyone evil for evil… but overcome evil with good.” –The Bible, Romans 12
“Would you like to come to Germany?” I asked my communal brother Jacob when I had been invited to speak about peace theology in Nuremberg. “Jawohl!” he answered. So then we went to Kirchentag, Europe’s largest Christian conference, which is estimated to gather around 100,000 people.
And of course, we took the train there! The best way to travel with consideration to the climate, the view, and opportunities for evangelism!
Once there, we visited the museum for the Nuremberg Trials – the place where several Nazis were convicted of crimes against humanity after World War II was over. They were not perfect trials, and they led to several death penalties, which in themselves are crimes against human rights, but despite their shortcomings, Nuremberg paved the way for the International Criminal Court and that politicians, like everyone else, can be held accountable for their actions.
Something that is really striking is how all the Nazis claimed to be innocent. They argued, partly, that the Holocaust was a war action parallel to how the Allied armies also massacred German civilians by bombing cities, and partly that they could not be held accountable for the genocide because they were just following orders.
But neither the “yes, but what about you” argument nor the “I was just doing my job” argument absolves us from moral responsibility for how we treat our fellow humans. Yet these arguments are often used by us non-Nazis to justify all kinds of bad behavior. Instead of taking responsibility for not living at the expense of the poor, overusing the Earth’s resources, or endangering refugees, we often reason that someone else is worse, and we are just doing our job. But how will the world ever become a better place if we only shift the blame?
The Bible emphasizes that everyone is responsible for their deeds (Rom. 2:5-6). And thankfully, God offers forgiveness when we fall short and power through His Spirit to take greater responsibility to do good towards others (Eph. 2:8-10). It was powerful to see how the courtroom where the Nazis were tried was adorned with a crucifix. We truly need God’s help in these dark times to ensure that their terrible ideas disappear once and for all.
Now, comparing the Nazi excuse “I was just doing my job” and today’s similar excuses for various bad behaviors could be seen as unfair and in violation of Godwin’s Law. But there is no literal law against drawing parallels with Nazism and contemporary phenomena online, especially when the comparison starts from a museum about Nazism and includes the writer himself (I write us non-Nazis above). It is not forbidden to have such a conversation in real life, so why should it be forbidden on the Internet?
Godwin observed how absurd it was that almost every forum thread on the Internet in the 90s, no matter what it was about, led to people calling their opponent Hitler. There is no prohibition against discussing parallels between World War II and our time – on the contrary, the absence of such comparisons would be extremely dangerous!
At the museum, I was struck by how bureaucratic and mundane the crimes of Nazism were, what Hannah Arendt called “the banality of evil”, where not only soldiers but also cleaners, drivers, factory workers, etc. were “just doing their job”. I think this is a very thoughtful comparison to how almost the whole society actively contributes to the climate crisis when too few are making changes – and the climate crisis risks killing not just six million people but several billion.
Knowing that what one is doing could contribute to several million or billion deaths, and not trying to change it but instead continuing, I absolutely think is parallel to contributing to genocide. But just as the Nuremberg Trials focused on those at the top of the hierarchy, the politicians and businessmen causing the largest emissions also bear the greatest responsibility. And we must never forget that whatever harm we cause, there is always forgiveness and transformation available in Jesus Christ!
Micael Grenholm is a Swedish church historian, author and an editor for PCPJ.
Pentecostals & Charismatics for Peace & Justice is a multicultural, gender inclusive, and ecumenical organization that promotes peace, justice, and reconciliation work among Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians around the world. If you like what we do, please become a member!
Donald Trump has now been found liable by a jury for sexual assault and must pay over five million dollars for assaulting E. Jean Carroll in a clothing store in 1996. However, she is far from the only one who has testified that Trump has committed assaults:
Jessica Leeds has recounted that Trump touched her breasts and ran his hand up under her skirt in the early 1980s.
Kristin Anderson has said that Trump reached under her skirt and touched her genitals in the early 1990s.
Jill Harth told how Trump repeatedly sexually harassed her and groped her under a table in 1993.
Temple Taggart McDowell, former Miss Utah, said that Trump kissed her directly on the lips the first time she met him in 1997.
Cathy Heller said Trump grabbed her and tried to kiss her at Trump’s luxury resort Mar-a-Lago in 1997.
Karena Virginia recounted that Trump groped her during the US Open golf tournament in 1998.
Mindy McGillivray said Trump groped her while she was at a concert at Mar-a-Lago in 2003.
Rachel Crooks said she was assaulted by Trump in an elevator at Trump Tower in 2005.
Natasha Stoynoff recounted that Trump pushed her against a wall and stuck his tongue far down her throat at Mar-a-Lago in 2005.
Jennifer Murphy, a participant in Trump’s TV show The Apprentice, said Trump kissed her on the lips after a job interview in 2005.
Ninni Laaksonen, former Miss Finland, told how “Trump was standing right next to me and suddenly squeezed my buttocks” in July 2006 when they were backstage to appear on The Late Show.
Jessica Drake told how Trump grabbed her and kissed her without consent, and then offered her $10,000 for sex in 2006.
Summer Zervos, another participant in The Apprentice, told how Trump started kissing her, touched her breasts, and pressed his groin against her in 2007.
Cassandra Searles, a model who participated in Miss USA, which Trump owned, told how he grabbed her buttocks and invited her to his hotel room in 2013.
Last but not least:
Donald Trump himself boasted in 2005 to his friend Billy Bush about how he usually assaults women by “grabbing them by the pussy” and getting away with it because he is so famous, and how he, for the same reason, usually has sex with married women.
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Isn’t Trump innocent until proven guilty? Legally, absolutely – he cannot be punished solely based on accusations – but that is not the same as saying that all these women are liars until proven otherwise. Especially not when Trump is a proven liar with this verdict (and according to his own words when he thought no one but Billy Bush could hear him).
The fact that many Americans, including many Christians, now openly express their continued support and defense for the sex offender Trump after the guilty verdict is sheer madness.
It was only 25 years ago when the Souther Baptist Convention passed their “Resolution on Moral Character of Public Officials”, which states: “Some journalists report that many Americans are willing to excuse or overlook immoral or illegal conduct by unrepentant public officials so long as economic prosperity prevails. […] Tolerance of serious wrong by leaders sears the conscience of the culture, spawns unrestrained immorality and lawlessness in the society, and surely results in God’s judgment.”
If white evangelicals in the US want to be viewed as anything else than immoral, misogynistic hypocrites, they need to abandon the Trump train immediately. The fact that they’ve been on it for seven years is disastrous in and of itself, but to save whatever integrity they have left, now is the time to repent.
Micael Grenholm is a Swedish church historian, author and an editor for PCPJ.
Pentecostals & Charismatics for Peace & Justice is a multicultural, gender inclusive, and ecumenical organization that promotes peace, justice, and reconciliation work among Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians around the world. If you like what we do, please become a member!
We have two years to start reducing emissions – but instead, we increased them last year. Three billion people are threatened with losing access to clean drinking water in the coming decades, yet wealthy countries are reducing aid to the world’s poor. Research clearly shows that we must quickly stop driving gasoline cars and significantly reduce consumption of products like meat and new electronics – but many politicians lie about not needing to change any of this.
The report shows that the climate crisis is already here and causing conflicts, refugee crises, extinction of species, and famine. The longer the crisis continues, the more severe it becomes – to the extent that more and more researchers believe that most civilizations will collapse if the climate crisis is not quickly avoided through major lifestyle changes.
It may seem like an impossible task. But nothing is impossible for God. While the climate crisis is something all people – believers and non-believers – need to cooperate to overcome, I am convinced that the Holy Spirit wants to help us transition to sustainable homes, sustainable congregations, and sustainable societies.
Already two millennia ago, long before we came up with the idea of releasing millions of tons of gases into the air, the authors of the Bible wrote about the importance of contentment, simplicity, and guarding against the temptations of wealth (see, for example, 1 Cor 8:13-15 and 1 Tim 6:7-10). Now more than ever, the world needs a church that not only believes in these values but demonstrates in practical action how beautiful they are.
I never thought I would live in a time when the UN and thousands of researchers would proclaim that the lives of three billion people are at stake in the coming decades, only to be met with a shrug from many.
Is the lack of interest in this due to people thinking they themselves will not be affected, even though it would naturally lead to economic and civilizational collapse if a third of humanity dies or is driven to flee? Or do they find it too difficult to think about how their own lifestyle and living standards contribute to the problem, preferring to bury their heads in the sand rather than seriously changing that lifestyle?
Perhaps they simply lack hope for change, and think that the impending disaster is as inevitable as a giant asteroid. How important it is then for the church to proclaim a message of hope for both this world and the next!
As Paul writes in Romans 8:
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed to us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.” 🌱
Micael Grenholm is a Swedish church historian, author and an editor for PCPJ.
Pentecostals & Charismatics for Peace & Justice is a multicultural, gender inclusive, and ecumenical organization that promotes peace, justice, and reconciliation work among Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians around the world. If you like what we do, please become a member!
Yesterday, Donald Trump was indicted for having paid over a hundred thousand dollars to the porn star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about their sexual encounter shortly after his wife Melania gave birth to their son Barron. Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen admitted to the crime, calling it a “sex scandal of biblical proportions” and admitting that it was done on Trump’s orders.
The millions of (white) evangelical Christians who still support Trump also do not seem to care about his infidelity with porn stars and other women. In fact, after the infamous video where Trump boasted about committing sexual assault (“grab them by the pussy”) and sleeping with married women was released, he became more popular among white evangelicals.
This is largely due to the fact that many white evangelicals value traditional patriarchal masculinity, as historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez shows in her book Jesus and John Wayne. While they verbally condemn sexual assault and infidelity, it is something many evangelical men engage in themselves and are quite impressed by, and women are taught to accept sexual assault and rape in popular evangelical books about marriage and relationships. The book The Great Sex Rescue goes through this in detail and shows that evangelicals who have a so-called “complementarian” view of women and men have significantly worse marriages that often lead to divorce.
These statistics show beyond any reasonable doubt that the white evangelical endorsement of Trump has radically changed their values. In 2011, over 60 percent of them said that an elected official who commits an immoral act in their private life cannot behave ethically in their public life. In the Trump era, this conviction remains among less than 20 percent. Falwell Jr. and other evangelical leaders have convinced millions of Christians that a good character simply isn’t relevant when it comes to leadership, despite there being hundreds of verses in the Scriptures that suggest otherwise.
The film Jesus Revolution about the youth revival in the 1970s has done much better than expected in US cinemas – and now there are reports that some have even given their lives to Jesus after seeing the film. At a movie theater in Miami, a prayer and praise meeting arose after the film was over where some made the decision to become Christians.
Here I have made a video where I have collected clips from the revival meeting at the cinema:
People were saved even during filming. When Jonathan Roumie, who plays the hippie preacher Lonnie Frisbee in the film (and who also plays Jesus in the series The Chosen) filmed a scene where Lonnie baptized hundreds of people in the sea, some of the extras said that they had never been baptized but wanted to be born again in the name of Jesus. Thus, some of the baptisms that made it into the movie are not staged, but the cameras filmed people being baptized for real! 🙌
The film’s producer also said that many in the studio and on the production team who were not Christians were moved to tears when they saw the film and wanted to know more about Jesus. This is truly no ordinary Hollywood movie!
The Jesus Movement in the 1970s emerged as a unique blend of evangelism, charismatic spirituality, and activism for peace and justice. Participants were deeply engaged in anti-war protests, expressing their commitment to nonviolence and social reform. This countercultural movement also fostered a strong sense of community, with many followers living in communes and practicing a simple, communal lifestyle that emphasized shared values and spiritual growth.
As the Jesus Movement gained momentum, it attracted a diverse range of individuals, including disenchanted youth, disillusioned with the mainstream societal values of the time. These followers sought solace in the teachings of Jesus, interpreting them as a call for radical transformation of both individual lives and society as a whole.
The movement’s emphasis on charismatic spirituality, which included speaking in tongues, divine healings, and prophetic visions, created a sense of unity and transcendent experience among its members. This spiritual fervor served to strengthen their commitment to activism and social justice, fueling the movement’s impact on the broader culture.
The Jesus Movement’s anti-war stance aligned with the growing peace movement of the era, and its members often participated in protests and demonstrations against war and militarism. This commitment to peace extended to various social issues, such as racial and economic justice, environmental concerns, and advocating for the rights of marginalized communities.
Despite its countercultural roots, the Jesus Movement also had a lasting influence on mainstream Christianity. It contributed to the growth of contemporary Christian music, as well as the rise of non-denominational and charismatic churches. Ultimately, the Jesus Movement’s unique combination of evangelism, spirituality, and activism served as a powerful catalyst for change, both within Christian communities and in the broader society of the 1970s.
It’s amazing to see how the Holy Spirit is impacting people’s lives through this movie. Now sadly, I haven’t been able to watch the movie myself since I live in Sweden, but a Swedish friend of mine, Anders-Petter Sjödin, went to the premiere in Los Angeles and said that it was amazing. If you have the opportunity to see it, you should definitely take it.
Micael Grenholm is a Swedish church historian, author and an editor for PCPJ.
Pentecostals & Charismatics for Peace & Justice is a multicultural, gender inclusive, and ecumenical organization that promotes peace, justice, and reconciliation work among Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians around the world. If you like what we do, please become a member!
This book has sold over 400,000 copies and has been translated into multiple languages. In it, Sider argues that Christians have a moral responsibility to actively work towards ending poverty and economic inequality and that prosperity theology, which teaches that wealth is a sign of God’s favor, is misguided.
Sider’s work has also had an impact on the broader society. He has been a leading voice in the Christian social justice movement for several decades, and has been influential in shaping the thinking of many Christians on issues of poverty, economic justice, and the role of faith in politics and society. He was the founder of Evangelicals for Social Action (nowadays called Christians for Social Action), an organization that works to mobilize evangelicals to advocate for social justice issues. Through his books, speaking engagements, and involvement with this organization, Sider has been instrumental in raising awareness of poverty and economic inequality and encouraging Christians to take action to address these issues.
Ron Sider was also a devoted pacifist and his speech at a Mennonite conference in 1984 that pacifists needed to be as willing to make sacrifices for peace as soldiers led to the founding of the Christian Peacemaker Teams, an organization that sends nonviolent observers to conflict zones.
Ron Sider’s work on nonviolence and peacemaking is centered around his belief that Christians have a moral responsibility to actively work towards peace and justice. He argues that war and violence are not consistent with the teachings of Jesus and that Christians should instead strive for nonviolence and reconciliation.
One of his notable contributions in this area is his book “Just Peacemaking: Ten Practices for Abolishing War” which was first published in 1992. In this book, Sider outlines ten practices that individuals, churches and nations can engage in to work towards the abolition of war and the establishment of just peace. These practices include: nonviolent resistance, conflict resolution, economic alternatives to military spending, and the promotion of democracy and human rights. He also argues that Christians should actively work towards disarmament and the abolition of nuclear weapons, and that the just war tradition has been misused to justify violence and war.
Sider’s work on nonviolence and peacemaking has been influential in shaping the thinking of many Christians on issues of peace and justice. He has been a leading voice in advocating for nonviolence and disarmament, and his work has helped to raise awareness of the moral implications of war and violence.
I listened to him when he visited Gothenburg over ten years ago and I was struck by his passion to follow Jesus and his Sermon on the Mount no matter what it costs us. We need more disciples like Ron!
PCPJ 
