PRAY FOR THE SALVATION OF THE MEN AND WOMEN IN THESE PICTURES!
The following article was published in Hadashot HaIr (City News) May 26, 2004
We all know terrorists do not respect the rights of others. Under that definition, the Haredim here in Arad are terrorists. They come to our houses and business in the daytime with their signs to cause incitement against the Messianic Jews and the Christians. They come at night making noise and chanting slogans. They are not interested in what we believe. They are only interested in what they THINK we believe. They have chosen to pick on a Jewish widow with children under the guise of her house being a mission: It is not. But even if it was, what business is it of theirs? We are all citizens of Israel and according to the Laws of this Land, we are free to believe as we choose. Most of us celebrate the Holy Days according to the Torah and the only difference you will find in our beliefs has to do with Y’shua, whom we believe to be the Messiah. Our Creator, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, does not need to be defended.
Perhaps it is time to for the Haredim to face this fact: their Nazi tactics show just how LITTLE faith they have in God if their religion of rules can be shaken by someone believing in a Jewish man born in Bethlehem over 2000 years ago.
Faith is not true faith unless it is a free choice of the heart! True belief cannot be purchased or turned away by persuasion.
The Haredim are only offering coercion to their way of thinking. How many parents know their children in the Arad yeshivot are being taken around to demonstrate at the homes of the Messianic believers? This kind of incitement led to the murder of Rabin by a young man who thought he was doing the right thing. If you think it can’t happen here, think again. The entire Nazi era was introduced by ordinary people demonstrating outside the homes of Jews in Germany and no one said anything.
The activities against the Messianic believers are morally wrong. It is wrong to allow demonstrations outside private homes. It is wrong to allow spiritual leaders to use children in demonstrations. It is wrong for spiritual leaders of one group to denigrate people of another belief. It is wrong for elected public officials, such as the mayor of Arad to use their office to persecute anyone. We need to treat others the way we want to be treated and that means respect. The Torah tells us to love the Lord with all our heart, soul and might and to love our neighbor as ourselves. It doesn’t say we have to agree with them.
Stand up for your right to believe as you choose or lose your freedoms altogether! My thanks to those few non-Messianic neighbors who have chosen to stand for freedom.
Lura Beckford
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