Tuesday, October 18, 2005

A House of Prayer for All Peoples?

On Simchat Torah (Festival of the Rejoicing of the Law/Last Great Day) I went up to the Temple Mount with my Bible to pray. Although I do not usually wear a kippa (skull cap), I took one with me.

My first challenge was to pass the guards near the Temple Mount entrance; if they saw me with my Bible they would not let me enter. I silently prayed all the way up to the site where God's Temple stood twice, and will be rebuilt for a third and final time, that I would be able to go in. I got past the guards.

You say Jewish guards prevent Christians and Jews from exercising their religious right to pray on the Temple Mount? That's right! Only Muslims have unlimited access to Judaism's most holy site. Only the Koran is permitted within. The Tanach (Jewish Scripture, known to much of the world as the "Old Testament") and Christian Scriptures (the New Testament) are forbidden. Yet Israel claims to respect the religious rights of all people...

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