Michael's Blog

July 4, 2026 This week:      America 250 years, built on the back of slaves and the murder of its indigenous inhabitants.      1000 days of Israel’s genocide against Palestinians.      Which one we will remember this week will say a lot about us.  But it also will say something about the power of myth, the power of the stories we tell ourselves.      America, we’ve been taught, its origins in the search for religious freedom from

Three weeks ago today, twelve of us began our two week “Solidarity Tour” in Palestine. While we were there, businesses and homes in the Christian village of Taybeh were burned by settlers, Hebron’s Ibrahimi Mosque and Greek Orthodox property in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, both of which we visited, were seized by the Israeli military, and three weeks ago tomorrow, at breakfast at our Bethlehem Manger Square guesthouse, we heard an explosion, looked out the window, and

Rev. Sara Ofner-Seals Let me start by saying this: I believe that Jews are precious and beloved in the sight of God. My Jewish friends are precious to me. I think that Judaism is a rich and beautiful religion and culture. Oh, and I’m a quarter Jewish myself. That being said, I do not believe that Israel has a right to exist. Furthermore, I don’t believe there can ever be such a thing as a democratic Jewish state. At

To members of the Fort Wayne Islamic community:      Ahlus-Sunnah Mosque      Bosnian Islamic Cultural Center      Islamic Center of Fort Wayne      Masjid Al Hidayah      Masjid Burmese Noor ul-Islam – Muslim Education and Community Center      Taqwa Mosque      Universal Education Foundation Salaam aleichem! Warmest fraternal greetings and peace! We at Indiana Center for Middle East Peace (ICMEP) write in response to the Indiana Lieutenant Governor’s recent deplorable hate speech against Islam and Muslim communities in Indiana,

L. Michael Spath, DMin, PhD ICAHD Webinar, April 14, 2026 The following is my extended presentation, from which I excerpted parts for my remarks for the April 14, 2026 ICAHD webinar with my friend, Stephen Sizer. Thank you, Linda [Ramsden, head of ICAHD-UK], and thank you especially to Jeff Halper, for his continuing strong voice for justice. Our friend, Stephen Sizer, is one of the world’s leading experts on the history, theology, and politics of Christian Zionism. My assignment

Sermon, Emmaus Road Mennonite Fellowship, 2nd Sunday in Lent, March 1, 2026 I’ve known Sahar Vardi for 15 years now, and ever since the first time she spoke to one of my groups, I’ve asked her to re-tell the same story, and she shared it here this past Thursday. She described how not only Israel’s economy but its culture, its everyday life, its religion, too, is militarized, it’s shaped by a “narrative of fear.”  Linda Steury asked her for