Translated from the Original Article in Arabic.
https://kaldaya.me/%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%ba%d9%8a%d8%a7%d8%a8-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%aa%d8%a7%d9%85-%d9%84%d9%84%d9%85%d8%ad%d8%a8%d8%a9-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d8%b3%d9%8a%d8%ad%d9%8a%d8%a9-%d9%81%d9%8a-%d8%ba%d8%b2%d9%88%d8%a9-%d8%b3/
By Hammurabi the Grand Son
I don’t know what sins the rebels at St. Peter Church committed to deserve stoning. I personally don’t know any of them, and I don’t reside in the United States. What convinced me to tackle this tragedy is the Christian upbringing I lived through, which sharpened my imagination, ripened my feelings, and tendered my personality with faith. All the noble values that form the backbone and the core of the teachings of the Good Master are reflected below:
– Unlimited love, including the love of the enemy
– Humbleness, mercy, and sacrifice
– Forgiveness up to 77 times per day and more
– Whoever calls his brother a fool deserves condemnation
– Prodigal son and fatherhood love
– The Good Shepard that leaves the 99 looking for the lost 1
– Let him throw the first stone who is without sin
– Don’t judge lest be judged
– Didn’t all the apostles deny their master during the hard times with Peter being the first and yet did not get punished?
– The only one that did not betray him was Mary Magdalene, who searched the cemeteries for him
What is listed above is but a small part of the human richness from that unlimited source.
I question if there is any trace of any of the above values in the way the central church had dealt with the rebels (I say this to satisfy the leaders because that was the idea about the rebels) at St. Peter Church in San Diego).
If we compare the Iraqi government dealing with the Kurdish rebels to our case here we find some mercy and wisdom of the government towards the Kurds.
I can state what was posted on the Internet of difference in points of view between the leadership in San Diego and the church leadership in Iraq.
The former was:
Encouraging Christians’ migration as a better choice and was proud of his Chaldean identity without hesitation.
The latter, Baghdad (the Patriarchate) was advocating the stay in the motherland as the better choice while being unclear on the national identity. Actually, the Chaldean patriarchy was courting the forces that were bent on wiping the Chaldean identity of our people.
It is natural to have differences in points of view, but that difference was not about core Christian beliefs.
The San Diego point of view did not exhibit heresy towards the church, nor did it deserve exclusion as was seen after the triumph over the rebels. Couldn’t the two ideas coexist since both are factual? What if one of the above mentioned Christian merits had been used by the leaders of the patriarchy to solve the differences?
They could have agreed that St. Peter Eparchy could offer assistance to whoever wanted to migrate, had already migrated, or was on his way to immigrate. The other side could have offered protection and services to whoever decided to stay. What harm would that solution have?
What happened was that the leadership dealt with the difference of opinion according to the mentality “ kill or being killed.” The conflict took a clashing direction and in a determination to break the wills of the rebels and to assert who was in charge, the result was to finish the rebel leader and to accept his request for retirement. These results were not satisfying even to a child, and the true purpose of the conflict was to isolate and strip the rebel leaders of their positions.
As for the second rebel, we read the clarification of the apostolic administrator that was posted on the patriarchy web site. He (Fr. Noel Gorgis) was banned from any and all church services. What is really shameful is that he was given the choice to leave the Chaldean Church and go to another Catholic church. Among the several reasons for his dismissal, there was one that specifically caught my attention. The central church claims that he misspoke about his leaders during his homilies. However, I pose the question, is it acceptable that these leaders act as if they are sacred icons and not humans? We are coming to the age of excommunication, which the church had suffered from and still is suffering from and which Rome is trying to erase. Is there any sin or fault that the man had committed against his Christian faith to be eligible for stoning? Or that he had trespassed against icons whose owners want to impose fear upon all, as if they are the hands of God on Earth and all should obey? By the way the central leadership had dealt with this issue from the beginning until triumph, we see a tendency of retaliation and bone crushing, which are the highlights of the resolution of the conflict. There is no war without victims. It was said that conquerors write history.
After this, I can say that the leaders of the Chaldean Church had come out triumphant from the battle. May God not have mercy on the victims as long as the church administrators, not the church, are well. Finally, my question to the triumphant leaders: were the plans of the battle administration Quranic or Biblical?
My Greetings to the dear reader, I ask your forgiveness if I had offended anyone.
