President Obama met Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this morning to discuss growing concern over Iran’s nuclear weapons program. With increasing talk of a possible Israeli military strike against Iran’s nuclear capabilities, U.S. leaders caution against a premature military strike.
“The United States will always have Israel’s back when it comes to Israel’s security,” Obama said as Netanyahu nodded.
Speaking at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Sunday, Obama said it was time to follow Theodore Roosevelt’s axiom to “speak softly but carry a big stick.”
A slim majority of Americans said that the U.S. should remain neutral if Israel attacks Iran, according to a February poll conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. Forty percent voiced support for Israel, while only 5 percent of suggested the U.S. should oppose military action.
Among evangelicals, nearly two-thirds said the U.S. should support Israel if it attacked Iran. Evangelical support for the U.S. backing an Israeli attack was stronger than it was among mainline Protestants and Catholics, each of whom favored neutrality over support for Israel (52 percent to 42 percent).
I love the Lord and he loves me.
I will not forget, and neither will he.
That was the poem that a seven-year-old Christian Wiman handed his pastor—during the altar call, no less. The young Wiman didn’t wait for a response or say a word, he just ran back to his pew. Soon after, the pastor published Wiman’s poem in the Southern Baptist Convention’s newsletter.
“I gave him a poem,” Wiman says on this episode of The Russell Moore Show. “That was my gesture of salvation.”
In the decades since, Wiman has wrestled with his faith, suffered from cancer, and continued to find meaning in writing poetry. On this episode, he and Moore discuss the poetry in Scripture, how Jesus engaged with suffering, and how poetry can help pastors in their preaching. They talk about why poetry can be intimidating, entry points for engaging it, and how poetry can reveal the joy in our lives.
Resources mentioned in this episode include:
Zero at the Bone: Fifty Entries Against Despair by Christian Wiman
My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer by Christian Wiman
Joy: 100 Poems edited by Christian Wiman
The Tree of Life
Frederick Buechner
“The Figure a Poem Makes” by Robert Frost
Theology and Joy by Jürgen Moltmann
“How the Poet Christian Wiman Keeps His Faith” by Casey Cep for The New Yorker
W. A. Criswell
Abraham Joshua Heschel
The Moviegoer by Walker Percy
Sara Grant
The Sickness unto Death: A Christian Psychological Exposition of Edification & Awakening by Anti-Climacus by Søren Kierkegaard
Miroslav Volf
“The Ground of Being”
Basil Bunting
John Milton
William Shakespeare
William Wordsworth
Do you have a question for Russell Moore? Send it to questions@russellmoore.com.
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“The Russell Moore Show” is a production of Christianity Today
Executive Producers: Erik Petrik, Russell Moore, and Mike Cosper
Host: Russell Moore
Producer: Ashley Hales
Associate Producers: Abby Perry and McKenzie Hill
Director of Operations for CT Media: Matt Stevens
Audio engineering by Dan Phelps
Video producer: Abby Egan
Theme Song: “Dusty Delta Day” by Lennon Hutton
In an interview last week with TheAtlantic, Obama said the U.S. will continue to advocate a political strategy that would pressure Iran into permanently ceasing its nuclear ambitions.
“Our argument is going to be that it is important for us to see if we can solve this thing permanently, as opposed to temporarily,” Obama said. “And the only way, historically, that a country has ultimately decided not to get nuclear weapons without constant military intervention has been when they themselves take [nuclear weapons] off the table.”
The President’s comments came as Israel signaled that it is growing impatient with sanctions and will use force to eliminate Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
“I would ask that we all remember the weightiness of these issues; the stakes involved for Israel, for America, and for the world. Already, there is too much loose talk of war… For the sake of Israel’s security, America’s security, and the peace and security of the world, now is not the time for bluster; now is the time to let our increased pressure sink in, and to sustain the broad international coalition that we have built,” Obama said.
Netanyahu said he welcomed Obama’s speech. “For them you’re the great Satan, we’re the little Satan,” Netanyahu said. “For them, we are you and you are us. And you know something, Mr. President? At least on this last point, I think they’re right. We are you and you are us. … Israel and America stand together.”
Israeli president Shimon Peres also addressed AIPAC Sunday saying there was “no space” between the position of the U.S. and Israel on the question of Iran, but he was far more forceful on his assessment of Iran as a threat.
“Iran is an evil, cruel, morally corrupt regime. It is based on destruction and is an affront to human dignity,” Peres told AIPAC. “It must be stopped. And it will be stopped.”
Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, and Newt Gingrich will address AIPAC Tuesday. Responding to Obama’s statements, both Romney and Santorum called for tougher U.S. actions against Iran.
