From Spirit Daily
We have been talking about Bethlehem and the amazing fact that this town so crucial to Christianity is now walled off from Jerusalem and totally Arab in population (although thirty percent of the Arabs are Christian). Across and throughout the Holy Land are such barriers and enclaves, the fences slashing across desert the Holy Family once traversed. Will there one day be encirclements -- not as extreme, but enclaves -- in the U.S.?
More to the point: will major future events involve Israel? And how -- surrounded by enemies, but also with many Muslim enclaves within its own borders (entire towns), or in the occupied zones -- can the nation possibly survive?
(The number of Christian Arabs diminished greatly after Israel built settlements here.)
One day, there may be division in North America -- the U.S. and Canada -- as there is now in Israel.
When asked if in the future religious people might form their own communities in the West, the great mystic and Servant of God Maria Esperanza once said, "Yes, especially in mutual living together, because I think that in a very little while we're going to be living in social communities, religious communities. This is a very important point that you have to take into consideration because the very economic situation of nations and villages -- especially Venezuela, which doesn't have resources right now -- dictates that they will have to really try to live together, to cooperate with their ideas and in their feelings and intuition and their love and their Christian charity."
Back to the Holy Land:
There are the Jews. They are still a majority in Israel itself (though Arab numbers are surging), and their culture and memories of holocaust seem enough, for the foreseeable future, to keep them united. But among them are deep divisions. There are the many devout Hasidic Jews who don't get along so well with the secular, "cultural" Jews, some of whom are ethnically connected to the Middle East but most Germans and East Europeans who have no blood connection to the territory but converted to Judaism when Europe was invaded by the Turks during the Middle Ages. Thus, there are divisions among Jews themselves. On the Sabbath, the devout Jews chase non-observant ones out of their neighborhoods.
Then there are the Arabs. They often live in parts that are fenced or walled off in or around this nation that at times seems less a nation than a conglomeration of penal colonies. According to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics, the Arab population of Israel in 2010 was estimated at 1,573,000, representing 20.4 percent of the population. There are 5.8 million Jews.
There are another 3,760,000 Palestinian Arabs living in Old Jerusalem, the West Bank, or the Gaza strip. Their numbers are growing exponentially. It is a nation of checkpoints.
There are the Christians. They too are divided -- in this country that seems like a classic symbol for the spirit of division. Catholics and Orthodox have long struggled over the two holiest sites in Israel -- the Church of the Nativity and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (both currently placed under Orthodox control by the government, with Catholics operating parts of those complexes and occasional physical altercations between "holy" men of both faiths duking it out -- sometimes physically).
There is a sect near Galilee that claims to harbor deep religious secrets and forbids anyone not born into the sect from belonging.
Nowhere on earth exhibits the "spirit of division" more than the Holy Land and without Divine intervention (and that's certainly possible, here where Jesus was born) it will be the center of a truly major coming event. To stop this, let us invoke the Infant Who was born here.
Meanwhile, to a lesser extent, the Holy Land's divisive template could be one the U.S. and other nations come to experience if they edge closer to Third World characteristics or devolve into republics with enclaves likewise based on religion, culture, race, ethnicity, or financial status.
One day -- especially if there is an epidemic, or economic "crash" -- will the U.S. see checkpoints?
There are divisions over politics; no longer are civil discourse and common ground to be found in the U.S. Many have gravitated to extremes. There are separations in our culture: this divide is even more extreme than the political one, from the arts to public morality. There are divisions of wealth: never before has there been a wide gap between the rich and middle class, not to mention between the super-rich and those considered to be in poverty. There are racial divides. There are ethnic divides.
While, with Christian love, there doesn't have to be division here, we are a nation with intense hotspots. If you think it is idle musing, take a look at the demography. Look also at the polarization. Without the Prince of Peace, there is divisiveness. With Him, there is hope of avoiding a splinter.
Tx-Cal-New Mex-Colorado-Nevada-Arizona?
Florida-Louisiana, Georgia, Carolinas, Tennessee?
New York-New England-Mid-Atlantic?
Upper Midwest?
Lower Midwest?
Quebec?
Will there be encirclements exclusive to millionaires?
Will ethnic groups coalesce to form enclaves (or republics)?
Meanwhile, will our society become so secular that it discriminates against believers?
Will Christians -- will Catholics -- one day feel the need to coalesce separately?
Will there be Christian enclaves -- or republics, in what was once the U.S. -- and non-religious, secular, or even anti-religious ones?
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| Cardinal Burke |
It's not an idle question. We are a nation that is divided and increasingly so with each passing month.
It is the intolerance for those who object to matters such as homosexual marriage that has Cardinal Burke worried.
You can now be accused of a "hate crime" for considering something wrong that the Bible tells us is wrong; you can be accused, in effect, for following the Testaments.
We are deeply divided over abortion. We are disoriented over public prayer. Incredibly, while it may return some day to Communism, Russia has become more openly Christian than the U.S. (with its leaders kissing icons of the Virgin Mary). We live in a nation that forbids Christian displays in public, including the Nativity -- basis for the most celebrated holiday of the year.
It's not an issue; it's a mindset. It does not have to happen. It is not too late. The hour, however, has grown very long and precursors will soon give way to developments. Such dissolution paves the way for world government.
We forget that the word "culture" is derived from the word "cult" -- in its broadest meaning, which means a system of belief.
Our nation was founded -- and united -- as a Christian culture.
As that dissipates, so will the mortar that holds us together.
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