STOP THE BOMBING

Lebanon is 40% Christian

Lebanon is a Christian nation with 40% of the population professing their faith in Christ. Over 1.5 million Christians live in Lebanon today. Millions more live elsewhere yet still call Lebanon their home. I have heard people say, "how can you call Lebanon a Christian nation when only 40% are Christian -- don't you feel you need a majority of at least 50.1% of the population to make that claim?" No, I don't. Wherever the light of Christ shines brightly amongst a nation's people, that nation has the Lord and should be protected against its enemies -- those who don't know Christ.

He who hates me hates my Father as well (John 15:21-27).

If I presented a list of the ten most influential people in my life who helped lead me to the Lord, five of them are Lebanese Christians. It is the reason I feel passionate about protecting their nation from destruction. I am not biased towards Lebanon in any other way. I myself am not Lebanese -- I am Slavic / East European.

In their search to remove Hezbollah terrorists, Israel is indiscriminately killing Christians; destroying their nation and personal property. Israel shows no regard for Christians here.

Rooting out Hezbollah is a job for the Lebanese military and yet the western NATO powers (led by the United States) have denied Lebanon's right to take up arms against Hezbollah.

If a few rats are found in the basement of your home, you don't stand by and let your neighbor burn your house down, do you?

No of course not! You take care of it yourself in a responsible way. The United States keeps Lebanon disarmed so they can't do the job themselves, and yet their neighbor Israel has no concern for human life or property that's not their own. This is evident in Israel bombing a United Nations observatory killing four innocent peace workers from Austria, Finland, China, and Canada.

We are enlightened by the light of Christ with an abiding spirit that gives us a supernatural empathy and compassion towards others. In addition, we are an educated people -- and as such we beg to ask the question:

What if?

What if this kind of thing happened here? How would we feel?

I know that's a difficult hypothesis given the internal stability of our nation. However, what if al Qaeda radical Islamists started firing missiles into northern Mexico -- and the United States was limited by its Constitution, civil liberty laws, and international pressure to effectively stop them?

If Mexico responded by bombing LAX and the Orange County Airport, the 405 and 5 freeways, along with other roads and bridges; schools and hospitals; homes and neighborhoods shared by all our citizens, I am certain that Americans would suddenly view Mexico as our enemy for not showing restraint.

If our government stood by passively paralyzed hoping the violent invasion would end, our people would unite around those attempting to protect our nation even if that means supporting some of the same radical elements who initiated the conflict.

People everywhere resist invasion forces. Whether it's Iraqis resisting U.S. invasion forces or Lebanese resisting Israeli forces. Americans would obviously resist an invasion by any nation. If at the height of the Nixon - Watergate scandal suddenly France invaded, our nation would not only unite against France, but would show renewed support for Nixon who would spearhead the resistance. ** If you have trouble getting past my Nixon analogy (because you share my nostalgic affinities), insert the Clinton - Monica Lewinsky scandal instead -- it's the same principle.

I know how human nature responds to such a crises. I saw it in Serbia during the 50 days of bombing by the Clinton Administration designed to inflict damage and destabilize the Milosevic government with the idea it would collapse and lose its hold on the people. Only to discover that the people suddenly rallied around Milosevic. It is a social psychosis, yes, but a commonly repeated phenomenon throughout world history. And that is exactly what we are seeing today in Lebanon.

Israel's bombing of Hezbollah in Lebanon is actually catalyzing the people into supporting it, its objectives, its hatred, and its leaders. The latest poll today suggests that 82% of Lebanese people currently support Hezbollah. Whereas they barely had 10% of the popular support prior to Israel's massive assault on Lebanese communities -- destroying public and personal property.

What can you do?

Pray for peace. Ask your pastors, small group, family and friends to pray with you.

Call Condoleezza Rice at the State Department at (202) 647-5291 leave a message asking her to mediate a cease-fire and stop the bombing in Lebanon. Please act now! America must act before Hezbollah popularizes their ideology of hate! It is human nature to support the cause of those who seem to be protecting you.

Call Henry Hyde or Ed Royce at (202) 225-5021.
Or email House Members of the Committee on International Relations: Henry J. Hyde, Edward R. Royce, Darrell Issa, Dana Rohrabacher, Howard L. Berman, Dennis A. Cardoza, Adam B. Schiff, Brad Sherman, Tom Lantos.

Call Senator Richard Lugar at (202) 224-4651.
Or email Senate Members of the Committee on Foreign Relations: Richard G. Lugar, Chuck Hagel, Lincoln Chafee, George Allen, Norm Coleman, George V. Voinovich, Lamar Alexander, John E. Sununu, Lisa Murkowski, Mel Martinez, and Barbara Boxer.

Email your friends and suggest they get involved.

Remember: God loves Jews and Israel -- but not at the expense of Lebanese Christians -- that's not how God operates. The United States needs to call for an immediate cease-fire and broker a peace by supporting and encouraging the moderate elements in the region.

And as I conclude I want to make this most important point:
There is only ONE true peace that comes through knowing Christ our Lord and Savior. If you are unsure what this means and have questions, please click the "home" link at the top-left of this web page to learn more.

When I went to Israel I came to realize something very profound. The Holy sites of Israel were no more important than my Holy sites right here in Southern California. Such as Dietrich's Coffee at Park Place, Irvine where I studied the Bible and learned about God in fellowship with devoted disciples of Christ. At my office near South Coast Plaza where I quietly prayed and read Romans and accepted the truth for the first time, or the Gazebo at Woodbridge Lake in Irvine where I gave my life to the Lord. These are my Holy sites.

And although these are very special places to me, I realize that Christ lives eternally in me and that these Holy sites aren't so important to God that he'd have me murder and destroy in order to preserve them. He wants us to guard our hearts with measurably more fervor than we feel towards guarding Jerusalem, the Sea of Galilee, the Garden of Gethsemane, and our personal Holy sites.

Beware of the modern-day Pharisees who with their "God-like voices" would have you fight and die to protect Israel and the Holy sites. They are Zionist-Christians full of folly because they believe they understand the mysteries of the Bible and prophetic interpretation, yet don't know where Christ lives and don't understand where the true battle exists: in the human heart.

In Romans 11, we are told how all of Israel will be saved. It will be when the full number of Christian Gentiles have come into Israel. That means millions upon millions of Christians will soon migrate to Israel. Israel will be busting out at the seams with Christians worshiping, praying, preaching the Gospel, publicly professing their faith and being baptized in the spirit of love and truth for all to see. This is very much the New Testament perspective and not the Old Testament perspective: God living in the Temple or hovering over protecting the Holy land. God would rather have his beloved children come home to him than protect his land and He would have sacrificed ALL his land to spare His only begotten Son Jesus from that most horrific death on the cross for our sins. He loves us that much that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.