Some of the nuttiest American religious leaders today (and in the past) have latched on to one form or another of Christian Zionism. These days Reverend John Hagee (pastor of a mega church with thousands of members in San Antonio) is a leading Far Right Evangelical and ardent fan of Israeli expansion into the disputed West Bank.
And the bestselling books of the Left Behind series of novels have fed the Evangelicals' fixation on End Times prophecy and the "imminent" return of Christ. To put it mildly, the Evangelical theological/biblical "reasons" have deformed US policy and made America act against its self interest. This has also harmed the state of Israel.
Here's a story in the New York Times that handily illustrates the price both America and Israel pay for allowing Evangelical mythology to inform, or should I say deform, US foreign policy.
According to the New York Times, "Tax-Exempt Funds Aid Settlements in West Bank" (July 6, 2010), evangelical fans of the Apocalypse are hock deep in aiding and abetting illegal settlements while our government looks the other way!
HAR BRACHA, West Bank -- Twice a year, American evangelicals show up at a winery in this Jewish settlement in the hills of ancient Samaria to play a direct role in biblical prophecy, picking grapes and pruning vines.
Believing that Christian help for Jewish winemakers here in the occupied West Bank foretells Christ's second coming, they are recruited by a Tennessee-based charity called HaYovel that invites volunteers "to labor side by side with the people of Israel" and "to share with them a passion for the soon coming jubilee in Yeshua, messiah."...
"Israel exists because of a covenant God made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob 3,500 years ago -- and that covenant still stands," Mr. Hagee thundered. "World leaders do not have the authority to tell Israel and the Jewish people what they can and cannot do in the city of Jerusalem."
Conflict, Armageddon and the "End Times" is the Christian-Zionist agenda, not helping a child in Tel Aviv or Gaza live happily, have a normal life and walk to school safely. The Evangelicals who "love" the state of Israel would rather see an innocent Jewish or Palestinian child blown up in a rocket attack as long as the "Promised Land" is "fully reclaimed" to fulfill their harebrained ideas of biblical prophecy. With "friends" like the Christian Zionists Israel needs no enemies. With "citizens" like the Evangelicals rooting for Armageddon, America needs no traitors.
Hold the emails! The state of Israel has every much as a right to exist as countries like the United States, New Zealand and Australia where the land was also (relatively recently) forcibly taken from the previous occupants. And yes, Israel suffers from slander from many hypocrites in the world (Arab and otherwise).
That said, American Evangelicals have an unhealthy affinity with the idea of religion-based states. A bedrock article of faith among American Evangelicals is that America had "Christian origins," and that today America must be "restored" to our "Christian heritage." The "Puritan heritage" of America is constantly cited as evidence for our need to "return" to our biblical roots. (In order to "fulfill Biblical prophecy," so-called "Dispensationalists" have been working to ensure that the world's Jews return to Israel and occupy all of Palestine. Dispensationalists have been leading "pilgrims" to Israel ever since since Pastor Jerry Falwell's first visit in order to win financial and political support for the Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.)
As I discuss in my book Crazy For God Puritans believed that they were carrying "authentic Christianity" to America, especially as written in the Old Testament. They said that they were on a divine mission, even called themselves; "the New Israel" and a "city set upon a hill." John Winthrop (governor of Massachusetts Bay) transferred the idea of "nationhood" in biblical Israel to the Massachusetts Bay Company. Puritans even said the Bible confirmed their status as the New Israel!
It is no coincidence that the self-consciously religious states of the Middle East are in perpetual conflict with other equally religion-based countries, for instance Islamic states like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia (that postures as the keeper of Islam) and Iran are in perpetual conflict with Israel the Jewish homeland. And it's no coincidence that America has paid dearly in blood and treasure in one Middle Eastern-incited and/or actual military entanglement after another because of our theology-based relationship with the state of Israel as well as our meddling in the affairs of the Islamic states like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan.
What would you expect but conflict when modernity tangles with Bronze Age tribalism that's been given a biblical Evangelical "End Times" twist?!
As the Times story illustrates, Evangelical hardliners have a "prophetic" agenda when pushing Israel to keep all the West Bank and to be "tough on the Palestinians" that has nothing to do with what might bring peace (let alone justice) to the actual Jews and actual Arabs who are fated to be neighbors. Gleeful -- shamefully tax-deductible -- war mongering in the name of Jesus and/or "protecting Israel" -- from a safe distance, say from San Antonio! -- has everything to do with Evangelicals' ideas about what will hasten the "return of Christ" and nothing to do with what is actually good for the Israelis, Palestinians and Arabs, let alone the rest of us who long for peace.
Frank Schaeffer is a writer and author of Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back
Follow Frank Schaeffer on Twitter: www.twitter.com/frank_schaeffer
John R. Coats: What's Real About the Rapture?
Frank Schaeffer: Jesus For Jews, Or Something Like That
Clay Farris Naff: The End of Times: Do Scientists and Fundamentalists Concur?
David Suissa: Love Without Borders
so you're saying down with Israel, let's not support them, let them agonize and disappear, and then we can make peace with Islamists. just keep in mind that if Israel disappears, YOU"RE NEXT! but hey you could just so turn out to be a great collaborator with an Islamist regime....
Nothing belongs to the UN, there simply a bunch of stuff shirts that wish to rule the world.
Israel STOLE what did nor belong to them.
and their stealing and heinous crimes are still going on to this day...Why?
W H Y !!!!!
The Zionist terrorist group, Irgun, led by future Israeli Prime Minister, Menachim Begin,
blew up the King David Hotel in Jerusalem on 22 July 1946, killing 91 people and injuring 46.
The King David Hotel was HQ for British Rule in its then colony of Palestine.
Conflict between Jewish militants and the British Mandate escalated
but it was this act which turned the tide on British occupation in Palestine
paving the way for creation of the modern day state of Israel.
The UN was a matter of formality lobbied by the US, which had dropped
two nuclear bombs on two Japanese cities - the first and only time in history -
two years before. Other UN nations, meantime, were still picking up
the pieces of devastation in the aftermath of WW2.
They weren't about to object.
With respect sir, your use of language shows that you are part of the problem.
Can you acknowledge that Israel's illegal actions are a major contributory cause of Islamic terrorism?
How many American citizens are there amongst the illegal settlers on the West Bank?
How many illegal settlers were born outside of Israel?
Why does Mr. Obama ignore this illegal occupation and annexation?
I have never quite understood more clearly than I do now after reading this . I felt so uninformed when members of my family have always believed the way some of the Christian right (HAGEE) has believed...I was so of afraid to challenge them because I am not "IN THE CHURCH" as some of them---BUT I have felt that something was wrong with their "way of thinking" for a while now...but I was not able to articulate WHY....Thank-You for clearing this up for me.
This is akin to our current "War on Terror," where we're targetting nations, people who do not share our faith, while slaughtering innocent civilians, obscenely profitting, while turning our back on the very principles, rule of law that once made us a true free republic, and beacon of hope for democracy in the world. Thus, our nation, propelled by these Evangelicals with Zionist fever-fervor, has become more akin to the regimes we sought to overthrow, and forsaken any virtures, morality as well as the Christian doctrine they claim to follow.
Jews are like Native American Indians. We are indigenous people of the Middle East. We are returning to our homeland. You have also ignored the fact that there are more Jewish refugees from Arab countries than Palestinian refugees from Israel.
I guess the message gets distorted when it comes from unknown lips
That is the danger - the zealots that are trying to "usher in" the end times - and are blind to the world around them. As long as they believe there is another world - they don't give a damn about this one!
Sadly - that's why I left the faith. Forsaking the "now" for the "later" - without evidence that there even is a "later".
The fundamentalist-evangelical-christian conservatives have become a dangerous breed.
"What would you expect but conflict when modernity tangles with Bronze Age tribalism that's been given a biblical Evangelical "End Times" twist?!"
It is a sorry situation for sure.
Still, so far as I can tell, "Bronze Age tribalism" both predates and postdates the Bronze Age, has always been popular, but never been universal, and does not seem to be in retreat even in what we call the modern age. Tribal narratives and values have endured and been blended seamlessly into modern life. We need to find some way to moderate them so that they are more positive and less destructive.
http://www.jhm.org/ME2/Sites/dirmod.asp?sid=&type=gen&mod=Core+Pages&gid=27AAA6C53C0949FC85078AEDE43C4AA0&SiteID=8112722C039B4E508F0AB8552B898895
The settlements are not illegal, and if they were to magically vanish do you think there would be peace? The Israelis did not have peace before the settlements. They got rockets for pulling out of Gaza. Furthermore, I'm not convinced that American Christian opinions matter all that much to Jewish settlers.
Mr Hagee position is nevertheless very ambiguous, as many of his explanation usually are , since he quotes more or less what he wants in the book of Genesis. His sermon implies more or less, by quoting the book of Genesis, that Israel could extend the settlements over the whole territory of Jordan and part of Irak.
Mr Hagee often said that he never confounds biblical explanation and facts in modern history, but why somebody should search into Bible reasons for supporting Israel rights to exist ? Quoting the book of Genesis leads people to misinterpreting the political intention.
CUFI people should probably set up policies for avoiding unclear statements that may harm the cause they support.
By the way, what are YOUR credentials? How much of your life has been dedicated to the intersection of religion and policy? Frank has spent his entire life there.
b/c he knows and recognizes who and what the Evangelical/
Tea/ republican parties are b/c he helped them be who they are.
Instead of taking the easy way out and going on the preacher
parade with his own mega church he took a pay cut and
decided to give everyone a peak behind the curtain.
The West Bank was divided into 3 types of areas, with 'Area C' being administered by Israel to allow for the 'protection' of them.
Here's what an EU study found:
"Conditions for children in Area C have reached a crisis point:
79% of communities surveyed recently in Area C don't have enough nutritious food - this is higher than in blockaded Gaza where the rate is 61%.
84% of families rely on some form of humanitarian assistance to survive.
Rates of stunting in Area C are more than double than in Gaza. More than 15% of children under-5 surveyed were underweight.
An alarming 44% of children in the surveyed area have diarrhoea – the biggest killer of children under-5 in the world."
What sort of 'Christian' supports the deliberate abuse of children?
who may be think that his friends are faithful when they consider his religion inferior to their own ?
Two thousand years ago the Cross had NO symbolic religious meaning and was not a piece of jewelry.
When Jesus said: "Pick up your cross and follow me," everyone back then understood he was issuing a POLITICAL statement, for the main roads in Jerusalem were lined with crucified agitators, rebels, dissidents and any others who disturbed the status quo of the Roman Occupying Forces.
Clement, Tertillian, Polycarp and every other early Church Father taught that violence was a contradiction of what Christ was all about.
The most decisive event in the history of Christendom occurred when Emperor Constantine accepted the Christian faith, for those who had once been persecuted were now protected by an earthly king. Both a patriarchal monarchical state and church were formed at the same time.
The Just War Theory was the first major corruption in Christianity for church got in bed with state and we the people for justice, peace and love have ever since been getting screwed!
A GREATER AWAKENING @
http://www.wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=64&Itemid=195
"Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, but Jesus said,
'Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven'..” .
As long as this question is left open, talking about "Anti-Christ spirit in today's world" proves itself contradictory and does not make sense. Peaceful ways for achieving the same goals would better conform with God's commandments.
god is unconditional love.
god created these folks.
god gave them free will.
god knows past present and future.
god is all knowing. all knowing means knowing everything.
god created man and woman and the first ones screwed up.
now all men and women must suffer for those first two because they did not listen to god.
that free will thing again. god did not know free will would screw them up. how can that be?
then god had his or is it her son tortured on a cross so those these folks can get to heaven.
every one else off to hell but the christians are going to have a wonderful time in heaven while 66% of the others are roasting in hell. that is surely true compassion. :-)
the logic and even selfishness of this level of thinking staggers the imagination.
the real logic in their minds is a free trip to heaven, just believe. ie free pass to heaven.
it is no wonder we are a war mongering nation with that level of logic and selfishness as a nation.
"What people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It's just that the translations have gone wrong…Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me.
“You're just left with yourself all the time, whatever you do anyway. You've got to get down to your own God in your own temple. It's all down to you, mate...All we are saying is give peace a chance...All you need is love...Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will be as one.
"Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.”-John Lennon
It would really be funny if they were both right.
While I take issue with equating the Jews in Israel with the Europeans who decimated the Native American population, the support the American evangelicals are giving to Israel reminds me a little--actually, a lot--of the cliche of the guy who pushes his buddy into the fight, saying, "Go on, get in there and fight. I'm right behind you."
Church and state make strange bedfellows indeed.