 |
As someone raised in Southern Protestant churches, I learned early in life that the majority of Christians have a special affinity for Israel and the Jewish people. And as a Bible college student, I learned how many people’s support for Israel is rooted in their interpretation of the Scriptures.
I learned about the holidays like Hanukkah when my aunt married a Jewish man, and I’ve visited synagogues and spoken with rabbis in order to learn more about the Old Testament from their perspective. They could not have been nicer; despite our faith differences, I was always welcomed and treated with respect, not judgment.
For many Christians, their support for Israel is rooted in the Jews being God’s “chosen people” and its role in the supposed end times: Jesus’ return to Earth, a “bloody final battle” at Armageddon and Jesus ruling the world from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. In this scenario, war is not something to be avoided, but something inevitable, desired by God and even celebratory, as John Hagee, founder of Christians United for Israel, put it during a sermon.
For those who are “saved,” this will kick off 1,000 years of blissful peace; for everyone else, maybe not so much.
So, needless to say, when Mary Mason of Murphy presented advertisements to publish in the Cherokee Scout that didn’t support a decidedly pro-Israel viewpoint, I knew there would be objections.
Any person with a conscience should say there is no room on the planet for the kind of heinous terrorist attacks inflicted by Hamas on Israeli citizens. It was barbaric and cowardly, and the Israeli government has an obligation to protect its people. Living in the shadows of war every day, outnumbered across your region by people who question your very right to exist, would obviously make you feel differently about things than those of us safely on the other side of the ocean.
However, while I am not in any way defending Mason’s viewpoints, I do defend her right to have them. Many people have been called anti-Semitic for criticizing the Israeli government and some of its leaders – not the Jewish religion or all Jews as a group – but no government nor human is perfect and beyond criticism.
What Mason has focused on is the Israeli government’s treatment of the Palestinian people and America’s involvement, which falls under the category of opinions. She’s not alone, as a U.S. State Department official has resigned, saying the “inequitable response” in Gaza was causing thousands of civilian deaths.
Free speech is not just something we think about as an aside at the Scout, it is at the very heart of what we do. Our private business – no others – has First Amendment protection in the U.S. Constitution, when means supporting independent media was very much on the minds of our Founding Fathers.
That’s something we take very seriously. So when someone sends something in to the Scout, I believe it should be accepted unless there is a strong, valid reason to deny it – not just because I didn’t agree with it, or was offended by it, or thought it might make some other people upset.
Here’s an analogy: The vast majority of actively publishing climate scientists – 97 percent, according to nasa.gov – agree that humans are causing global warming and climate change. So should we keep opinions opposing climate change out of the newspaper, even though one of our own Cherokee County commissioners, among others, has called it a hoax?
Here’s another: All relevant U.S. government agencies and courts on multiple levels have ruled that the 2020 presidential election was not rigged nor stolen; judges have even called it a lie from the bench. So should we keep opinions saying the reverse out of the newspaper, even though the leading Republican candidate for the White House claims otherwise?
Many local residents would be highly offended if the Scout censored opinions like that from letters to the editor, guest columns and, yes, paid advertisements. Even though her messages are horribly timed and insensitive, Mason deserves the same treatment as every other person.
David Brown is publisher of the Cherokee Scout. You can reach him by phone, 828-837-5122; and email, dbrown@cherokeescout.com.