“At a time when Europe’s very future hangs in the balance, its two most senior Christian leaders – the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, and the head of the Church of England, Archbishop Justin Welby – have abandoned their most sacred duty to protect and defend the values of the Bible.”
This is the startling opening of South African Chief Rabbi Dr. Warren Goldstein’s hard-hitting address about the proliferation of jihadi forces throughout the continent and elsewhere.
“The world is locked in a civilizational battle of values, threatened by terrorism and violent jihad,” said Rabbi Goldstein. “Now is the time for religious leaders to come to the defense of society, to speak up for Western values and freedoms.”
Instead, he said, Pope Francis and the Anglican Archbishop have been “silent”.
“They’re indifferent to the murder of Christians in Africa and to the threat of terrorism throughout Europe, and outright hostile to Israel’s attempts to battle these Jihadi forces led by Iran.”
As an illustration, Rabbi Goldstein cited Archbishop Welby’s full-throated support for the recent International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling declaring Israel to be “an illegal occupier of Palestinian land” in eastern Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria.
In supporting the ruling, Archbishop Welby is effectively rejecting the Bible.
“The Bible is not just a book of theology; it is a book of historical facts. What today the UN and its ICJ calls the West Bank, the Bible calls Judea and Samaria, and lies squarely within the borders of the land that God promised and delivered to the Jewish people. Which raises the question: does Archbishop Welby actually believe in the Bible? Does he regard [the Bible] as mere myth?”
Furthermore, Rabbi Goldstein said, by echoing the claims of Hamas that Israel is an occupier in its own land, the head of the Church of England is bolstering the forces of jihadism which threaten Europe.
“The Jihadi ideology that seeks to destroy Israel is a clear and present danger to the future of Europe. With open-border policies in the UK and across Europe, immigrants have poured into these countries, many brandishing a violent Jihadi ideology deeply hostile to Christianity, liberal democracy and Western values.”
This ideology, he said, has created no-go areas in cities like Paris and London.
“Antisemitism is surging to the point where Jews feel unsafe in Europe. Jewish children in London, for example, can no longer wear school uniforms with Jewish emblems in public for fear of being attacked. This tells us that something is terribly wrong. And Europe’s foremost religious leaders – Archbishop Welby and Pope Francis – do nothing.”
The chief rabbi also accused the two European religious leaders of indifference to the plight of Africa’s Christians.
“They stand by passively as their fellow Christians in Africa are butchered by Jihadi groups with direct ties to Israel’s enemies in Gaza and the West Bank – groups like Boko Haram, ISIS and al-Shabaab that are the ideological brothers in arms of Hamas. Both Archbishop Welby and Pope Francis have largely ignored the crisis or refused to call it by its name.”
He contrasted this “cowardice and lack of moral clarity” with the example of Pope John Paul II, describing how his visits to Poland at the height of the Cold War hastened the end of the Soviet empire.
Read it all in Arutz Sheva
