My latest reading is a book entitled "The Great War For Civilization-The Conquest of the Middle East" by Robert Fisk. He is a British journalist of significant reputation though we in the United States hear little of him. He has been a war reporter in the Middle East since the early 1970's. The book is a collection of his reflections on his reporting of wars, specific battles, political intrigues, war crimes, and more. Within the covers of the book are his thoughts on justice, fairness, hypocrisy, racism, criminality, and historical responsibility. He is not at all unbiased. It is an opinion piece at many levels. This book is not "balanced" in the sense that he makes any claim to impartiality. In fact he suggests to the readers that if one hears someone say to them that they are impartial one must immediately assume that speaker in fact has a view that they are working hard to get across. No one is impartial. It is humanly impossible if you are truly engaged in life.
That being said I strongly recommend to my few listeners that they take a shot at reading and understanding what Mr. Fisk has to say. He is not "popular" because he calls the western powers to account for their part in the mess that is the Middle East. He also does not give a pass to Israel on the basis that Jews suffered terribly during the European Holocaust. Mr. Fisk calls the Israeli government and its people to account for what he considers immoral violence and racist attitudes. At the same time he calls the Palestinians to account also for their immoral behavior, yet he also allows us to see them as an oppressed people group...a view that is distasteful culturally, particularly within the United States. Mr. Fisk does a masterful job or making understandable the incredible, historical disconnect that has been created in the Middle East between all who live there.
You can chose not to read this book. It is almost one thousand, two hundred pages. I will assure you that in reading it you will feel a life change if you are a follower of Christ. One of my core beliefs is that Christ calls his followers to a higher plain of existence. He, through his Word gives us an opportunity to see human existence through God's eyes. Clearly when the church begins to view anything primarily through cultural and political perspectives it is not seeing from its highest vantage point. From these lower perspectives the church has fought wars with itself and with nations violently and pridefully for the past two thousand years. Mr. Fisk is not a church representative. He is a secular journalist. However, he has achieved a sense of perspective that can be said to be on a higher plane than most. I fear that he is above many who would call themselves followers of Christ and members of The Church catholic. Mr. Fisk calls his readers to reconsider cultural norms and from my view he is calling me to be more Christ like, though he has no idea that he is calling me to raise my spiritual temperature.
I think all modern westerners should read this book before they die. If you die before you have read Mr. Fisk's journal on the Middle East and its tribulations, and only with the knowledge you have gleaned from the conventional media, then you will have died "under informed."
An amazing book.
