500 Religious Leaders Against Hagee

The Institute for the Study of Christian Zionism brings together Jewish and Christian religious leaders and lay persons from around the country with a shared concern for the distortions of the more extreme expressions of Christian Zionism, of which Pastor John Hagee and his Christians United for Israel (CUFI) are the best examples. What is most troubling is the political access Pastor Hagee has, with politicians in Israel and the United States wittingly or unwittingly giving credence to what is best described as a militant apocalyptic theo-political ideology. Senator McCain belatedly realized how toxic Hagee's views are, disassociating his presidential campaign from Hagee's embrace. Several politicians who will be appearing on stage with Pastor Hagee in next week's CUFI summit in Washington DC apparently haven't gotten the message yet.

As representatives of the Institute for the Study of Christian Zionism we feel its time to go public with a petition we've put together which expresses our concerns for the support political leaders are giving to Hagee's poisonous ideology. Already over 500 have signed up, including a number of prominent Christian and Jewish leaders. Those who wish to add their names to our growing list* can do so by clicking on the link below the petition which will direct you to the website of the other organization which has joined us in this effort, Jewish Voice for Peace.

Thanks for joining our protest!

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THE PETITION:

A statement from concerned Christians and Jews

Psalm 122 - Pray for the peace of Jerusalem

As Jewish and Christian leaders and members of worshiping communities in the United States, we write to address the ongoing controversy surrounding Pastor John Hagee. We are concerned by the content of his statements, his organization, Christians United for Israel (CUFI), and the theological ideology of Christian Zionism underlying both.

We have concluded that John Hagee is a poor representative of how faith can inform discernment regarding public life and discourse surrounding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It is regrettable that any public figure would choose to be associated with Pastor Hagee or his organization, CUFI. We were surprised to learn that three elected officials are scheduled to speak at CUFI's upcoming "Washington-Israel Summit": Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), Rep. Elliot Engel (D-NY), and Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT). We call on each of these elected officials to disassociate themselves from the extremist views of Pastor Hagee and withdraw from this event.

We feel they should do so for the following reasons:

* Pastor Hagee has claimed that supporting the State of Israel is "God's foreign policy." But his work to support the State of Israel does little than ensure that Israel's conflict with the Palestinians and its other Arab neighbors will continue into perpetuity given his adamant opposition to a negotiated peace.

* He prays for the peace of Jerusalem, but not its shalom, as he looks forward instead to the false peace established through a treaty offered by the Antichrist, whom, we now know, Pastor Hagee believes must himself be a Jew.

* Just as his ideology blames Jewish unbelief in Jesus for their centuries of suffering at the hands of Christians and provides a simplistic justification for the Holocaust (also based on Jewish intransigence), Pastor Hagee has again found a way to blame Jews for their own demise . . . this time at the hands of their self-supplied Antichrist.

* In this political season, Pastor Hagee's radical views were first exposed by his description of the Roman Catholic Church as a "false cult system" that is the "Great Whore" of Revelation 17 and 18. Ignored in most media coverage of this controversy was the fact that these attacks on Catholicism were central to Pastor Hagee's ideological Christian Zionism.

* Pastor Hagee's support for the State of Israel is at the expense of many others, including the Roman Catholic Church. Now, it has become clearer than ever before that Pastor Hagee's support for the State of Israel comes even at the expense of Jews.

As CUFI sought to expand its congressional influence, Rep. Betty McCollum (DFL-MN) wrote that Hagee's public comments "demonstrate extremism, bigotry and intolerance that is repugnant."

We agree.

Click here to sign the petition and see the signatories. Other signatories can be found here.

Comments

[edtastic]

The problem is not Pastor Hagee, the problem is Zionism. Zionism is a ideology with religious justification heaped on to cover the stench of colonialism. I would like to see a petition against Zionism by religious leaders. If the Christians are blind to the injustice going on then perhaps their faith is failing to constrain their immoral behaviors as it did during the slave trade. Sadly enough in the year 2008 we see see educated adults trying to bring about ancient prophecy through militaristic engagement of other peoples and cultures. We call those other cultures and peoples "threats, terrorist, extremist, fundamentalist". I would call anybody who felt god gave them land thousands of years ago and wanted to go back and take it hundreds of years after 99% of those people left that land extremist fundamentalist invaders.

[Vern58]

I can tell you all right now- anything associated with Mike Pence gets an immediate and total thumbs down. He is one of the biggest self righteous hypocrites the State of Indiana has produced yet. And that is no small feat.

[DIdaho]

This has nothing to do with religious tolerance. Hagee not only crosses the political line, he obscures it. The "creed" here is that the United States should actively support a foreign policy to hasten an apocalyptic war in the middle east so Christ can come down and rapture the (well-paying) faithful, after which all the Jews who do not accept Jesus (the old one, not any presumably new one for whom they're waiting) will be baptised in blood and cast into hell.

Now, one can believe anything they wish. But when you use the lever of religion to push for an avowed purpose of thermonuclear war and genocide that's something you need to keep to yourself.

[openhand]

It is a sad portrait of humanity that every generation reading this text has felt they would witness the apocalypse.

[ld]

Best of luck in your campaign to bring awareness of the apocalypse that some "Evangelical Christians" are trying to create. This vicious vision includes them having a lovely "rapture" and everyone else suffering. That's not Christ-like in ANY way. I'm certain that their vision includes the apocalyptic destruction of the temple - bad for Christians and very bad for Jews.

[flipbiscut24]

Evangelical Christians aren't the only ones calling for war.

Check out Justin Raimondo's latest article "A Brazen Evil" at www.antiwar.com and decide for yourselves.

[adnmoh1]

AH! the politics of religion. "it is willed by god to kill that person because GOD says hes bad". dont you just love the politics of power to manipulate religion into a perverse form of totalitarian control over the ignorant masses. i wonder what really came first god or politics?

[rwe]

Will you same religous leaders condemn the black liberation , anti semitic racist Reverend Wright?

[MajorKong]

Sure, just as soon as Wright is drafting Middle East policy for the Democratic Party the way that Hagee gets to do with the Bush administration. You see, we at least don't put our crazy preachers in charge.

[ed3541]

If Hagee was a Christian, he would adhere to Jesus's words in the New Testatment. Jesus said the Old Covenent was obsolete. He gave us the New Covenent, " Love one another as I have loved you." The Old "eye for an eye" Covenent brought "death and destruction" (actual words of Jesus in New testament).

Jesus said reading the Old Testament pulled a veil over your heart. So Hagee is not following the teachings of Jesus Christ, hence, he is not a Christian, hence he is a false prophet.

[mikie63]

Didn't Jesus also say some pretty bad, discomforting things too? What about Luke 19:27: " But for those enemies of mine who did not want me for their King, bring them here and slaughter them in my presence." What a loving guy!

[torrrep]

Why don't you try reading the whole scripture. Then you won't look so ignorant when you make a post. Jesus did not say to bring people and slaughter them in front of him. He was telling a story and the man in the story stated these things. Nice try to take what was actually said out of context. But of course that is the liberal way.

[BethStuart]

If you take a look at Hagee's book on Jerusalem and the mushroom clouds on its cover, it should be pretty clear what he has in mind.

[TexasDem0]

Why did it take so long for responsible religious leaders to speak up on this issue?
Why do they allow the hatred and bigotry of these greedy pseudo-Christian charlatans to go unchallenged?

[liberalgirl31]

Looking at some of the comments here, I always love how some secular liberals, who are supposed to be the tolerant, open-minded ones, are very negative and close-minded when it comes to religious faith. You guys remember Martin Luther King and all that he did? How about Gandhi? Or William Wilberforce, an evangelical who helped to end the slave trade in Britiain? Or Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a pastor who stood up to Adolph Hitler?

Sexism, racism, and homophobia are rightfully not accepted by the Left. But apparently religiophobia is! Amazing.

[Zanti]

"Looking at some of the comments here, I always love how some secular liberals, who are supposed to be the tolerant, open-minded ones, are very negative and close-minded when it comes to religious faith."

Yup. And, in my experience, they either can't see the truth of that or else choose not to.

They recognize every instance of bigotry except their own. If you want to see logic flee town for its very life, just press them on an issue--any issue. Ask them, for example, why they blame all Christians for the behavior of a minority, and marvel at the variety of non-answers.

No, they're not bigots--not so far as *they're* concerned. Tragically, bigotry is the easiest thing on earth to excuse in ourselves. Maybe that's why Christ instructed us to consider the beam in our own eye before noticing the moat in our brother's.

[edgraham]

Sexism, racism, and homophobia are real.

Ed Graham

[idabamaho]

Not amazing at all. The problem with Evangelicals, and others, is their self righteous uncontrollable desire to legislate morality on to the rest of us. Stay out of my government and you can do or say anything you want. Got it?

[Zanti]

YOUR government? LOL! Did you win it on eBay, or...?

I hate to break it to you, but our system (at least in theory) is based on representation for all. Including people whose behavior you don't like. It's their government, too.

Plenty of people, groups, and institutions exercise an unfair degree of influence via lobbying, but the solution is never to ban interaction with (and therefore representation in) the government. When the system isn't working probably, it's best to fix it, not cripple it. Those who casually recommend denying religion (or any other lawful group) its part in the democratic process may find that they're setting the stage for a similar trampling of THEIR interests at some point. When we start tossing rights away, who knows when ours might join the pile.

[torrrep]

That's funny. The last time I checked it was OUR government too. You don't have a corner on the market. Got it?

[KillTheMessenger]

Just because I really could not care less that you might believe in some incarnation of a heavenly being does not mean I won't fight for your rights. Indeed, I feel that going out into the public square and making a fool of himself without fear of repercussions is the highest right we can give to any human being. I will protect it, no matter whether someone wants to participate in "American Idol" or declare that they believe in their version of the flying spaghetti monster.

And you know why? Because one lesson in history that really stuck with me is that people will go to religious war over Carbonara vs. Pesto if we suppress their beliefs in the one and only sauce. And that, my Dear, is really something we want to avoid. And the best way to have peace is to give all sauces the same share of freedom. The world is a much better place since we have learned that cooking lesson.

[Zanti]

I'm truly happy that you're so open-minded and accepting. However, I think she was referring to the huge number of secular liberals who aren't.

[Angelaaaa]

God has a foreign policy? Foreign from what - heaven? I thought it was all foreign from that far away.

Thank goodness (not God) I am second-generation atheist.

[squander123]

Am not even going to comment on the religious aspects of this - as an atheist I would barely know where to start, and the HuffPost word-limit wouldn't be nearly enough anyway!

But I love this detail that Hagee describes support for Israel as 'God's Foreign Policy'. I hadn't realised that he had one: and does this mean that he has other 'policies'? What's his view on sustainable energy, interest rates, universal healthcare and education?

Also, doesn't that phrase imply that God is a) definitely NOT from Israel, and b) most likely a US citizen? Does this then mean he has a vote in the presidential elections?

These people are all INSANE and truly scary, but at the same time they really do provide some cheap laughs...

[normathumb]

That so much of the world is dominated by iron and bronze age superstitution bodes ill for the future. Hagee, our stupid stupid president and a lot of their followers think whatever we can do to hasten the apocalypse is a good thing. They desire death and destruction, literally, on a biblical scale,because they believe in ghosts they think will return and choose them to live in a country club in the sky where the mayonaise never goes bad. They are possessed by a snarling smug holier then thou attitude, telling themselves how special they are and how wonderful heaven will be without all the people they hate. How can you tell they hate? Just count all the people they say will burn in hell. Of course, that is true of most iron and bronze age superstitutious groups.

[acv]

Pastor Hagee also supports a pre-emptive strike on Iran. There are differing opinions of why. Some believe his position is purely for the protection of Israel but others believe it is to trigger the apocalypse, and we can all agree, it surely will.
His desire is to begin to “further” the chain of events that will lead to the second coming of Christ, who, they believe, returns to earth in a rage over mankind’s devastation to each other and the earth. Pastor Hagee and his followers are itching for a front row seat for the return,. The prophecy says this will be at a specific location (forget where) in Israel, which is why they don't want Israel to "give an inch, not an inch," to the Palestinians.
I imagine Rev. Hagee and his followers chartering planes and buses with lawn chairs in tow or maybe they’ll build bleachers for the event, but my guess is they will learn, the hard way, they are not to be saved, they will remain on what is now the hell of earth.
They are not united for anyone or anything but the idea that because they are “true believers” Christ will deliver them to an eternity in heaven and everyone else, including their friends the Jews, will be left behind. For lots of reasons, that’s just not going to fly.
I would be proud to sign the Petition.