By JAMES FLETCHER, JUICYECUMINISM—
The rise of young leaders in the church who identify (more or less) as evangelicals, and who seem to have a bone to pick with Israel…continues apace.
This community, which loves to use buzzwords like, well, “community,” is heavily networked and social media-savvy. They are attractive, possess uncommon communication skills, and understand the culture intimately.
It seems to me that most pro Israel supporters in the church are largely unaware of a titanic challenge that has been incubating for decades.
As just one example, Margaret Feinberg is an engaging and emerging writer/speaker, based in Colorado. She speaks at events like “Catalyst” and her bio is emblematic of the fresh-faced, “world-changer” persona so prevalent among young evangelicals. Her bio reads, in part:
“Always up for an adventure, Margaret is known to drive 50 miles to chase down a food truck and snag Groupons for skydiving on a whim. She prefers watching comedies and laughing until her tummy aches over doing sit ups.”
I note the bio because it is important to understand that this generation will do everything in its power to separate itself from the fundie-meanies of the previous generation. This move away from traditional church began in earnest with writers like Philip Yancey, who lamented their experiences growing up in fundamentalist churches in the South.
Fair game; legalism was and is a problem in some circles. Yet, have the “New Evangelicals” gone too far? They are much more open to embracing the culture, to show that they are in fact cool people unencumbered by hateful dogma and conservative rhetoric.
Back to the Israel-bashing.
Feinberg (whose books appear in LifeWay Stores, along with Iranian-apologist Hank Hanegraaff’s) wrote a piece for the Catalyst website (www.catalystspace.com) in which she cleverly used what I’d call “Jesus language” to convey two ideas: Jesus is the Good Shepherd, and, Israel abuses the Palestinians.
This last point has become a rallying cause for the New Evangelicals. For decades, the Palestinian leadership—aware that head-to-head battles with the Israelis don’t end well for them—have cultivated relationships with American religious leaders. This is not unlike the Soviet efforts to enlist Western dupes during the Cold War. Often, mainline church officials were targeted, and they in turn became the mentors for new generations after them, including the New Evangelicals.
In fact, the transfer of mainline theology and ideology to the New Evangelicals is surely one of the most interesting religion stories of the new century.
In Feinberg’s Catalyst narrative, biblical “shepherd” imagery is used, as she relates the story of a Palestinian widow who ran afoul of Israeli troops one day. The Israeli soldiers rounded up a town’s collection of sheep and goats, ostensibly as punitive punishment for unpaid taxes.
(An aside: as with most of the New Evangelical charges against Israel, there is seemingly no documentation for the Feinberg story. It is akin to the stories of Palestinians who watch in horror as Jews inhabit their ancestral homes; inevitably, the title deed and actual key to the property is “somewhere in Turkey,” and so these unsubstantiated stories serve to portray the Jews in a most negative light.)
The woman asks an officer if she can pick out her sheep, since they are her sole source of income. He agrees, and his doubt at her ability to do so leaves him bemused. She calls her young son to bring his flute. The boy plays and predictably, the sheep belonging to the woman trot-out dutifully.
End of poignant, gripping story.
I mean, propaganda.
Feinberg relies on the details of this story from a Wheaton professor, Gary Burge, who has opposed Israel on political and theological grounds for a long time. It isn’t clear whether Burge witnessed this alleged event, or picked up the story from a Palestinian friend.
Burge, who chums with such Christian leaders as Hanegraaff (who spoke at a Tehran conference a year ago and afterward declared on Twitter that much of what we hear in the negative about Iran is simply not true, a whopper that perhaps would have made “New York Times” 1930s era Joseph Stalin apologist Walter Duranty blush) and recently wrote about a key priority for “Christian Palestinianists” (a term coined by British author Paul Wilkinson):
“They represent the great groundswell in their generation. The Zionist movement in our country is loud and scrappy. But I’m describing the young people who will be leading our churches when many of us are retired. And the prospects look good.”
When one examines the associations and networks within the New Evangelicals’ community, it is easy to see that, while many of the leaders do not have Israel on their radar, many others do. And they all cross-promote in breath-taking fashion.
For example, among the other organizations bringing in Feinberg to speak is Focus One, a mentoring project based in Rockford, Illinois. Other guest speakers include Shauna Norquist, daughter of WillowCreek co-founders Bill and Lynne Hybels. While Shauna Norquist doesn’t blog much about what the New Evangelicals call “Israel/Palestine,” her husband, Aaron, does. And of course, Lynne Hybels is a leading light in advancing the Palestinian cause and mainstreaming the Palestinian Authority in American churches.
I attended “Catalyst East” in Atlanta, in October, 2012, and was shocked by Hybels’ one-sided presentation of the Arab-Israeli conflict. One can assume that the Catalyst leadership, which has also hosted radical professor Cornel West, agrees with Hybels’ depiction of Israel.
Further, Gabe Lyons (founder of “Q” and also a frequent contributor to Catalyst) has endorsed Focus One. Lyons recently interviewed Palestinian Christian Sami Awad for Q; Awad is perhaps the point man for spreading the Palestinian narrative—with its smoothly slanted view of the Arab-Israeli conflict—throughout American churches.
The effect of this advocacy for the Palestinians is a shocking advance that cuts across denominational lines, linking arms among high-profile ministries. In short, the New Evangelicals seem comfortable with a secular left-wing agenda, and the Palestinian issue is front-and-center within that framework.
At a time when the pro Israel movement among evangelicals is aging, this new breed of cultural spokesman is ascendant. The leaders and followers alike sprinkle conversations with new social media lingo like “HootSuite,” “Tweet,” and “blog,” while the pro Israel crowd tinkers with slide projectors and typewriter ribbons.
If pro Israel advocates care about the generation that comes after them, they’d better get in the game and meet the challenges presented by the heirs to Yasser Arafat’s slick propaganda.
(Jim Fletcher is a member of the executive committee for the National Christian Leadership Conference for Israel—NCLCI—and blogs extensively. He can be reached at jim1fletcher@yahoo.com)
Apparently those on the left have never read Deuteronomy 7:6-7.
Those who undermine the welfare of Israel and the Jewish people in any way are destined to lose popularity and resources. History proves it. Biblically, they should be embarrassed for their posturing.
Any Evangelical with the revelation in the spirit of G-d’s promise in Genesis 12 should “give the Lord no peace until He makes Jerusalem a praise in all the earth”. What an invitation from the Lord !!
If the Lord invited Believers to bother Him like that to gain wealth, the Conservative Evangelicals would be speaking all day long. Time to rise up !! RISE UP AND SPEAK !!
I would think from the very begining of G-d’s Word how He warns who is cursed who do not bless Israel. Also all thru the word, he tells us of His Love for the Chosen People. The churches have not figured out who G-d is talking to all thru His Word. So, the churches have stolen all of the Promises to the Jews and of course throw back the ones they don’t like. From Romans 9- 10 and 11 He lets us know how Salvation came thru the Jews and we owe them a debt and how HE blinded them for us heathen so we would have the power to become sons of G-d. That we are to go into all the world and preach the gospel to the JEW first..tho so many dont tell their people that to the JEW first so leave it out..Then in Matthew 25 when He is talking about the least of HIs my brethern..HE is talking about His chosen brothers…and warns of taking away our name in the book of life. I would think if the chruches think HE is a Covenant breaker they would have to think of HIM breaking HIS Salvation Covenant. Many think that Rev has been fulfilled..they are in for a big surprise..One said that if we have the power to become sons of G-d that means we are already sons of G-d with a little “g”… and finally they need to read the scripture in CONTEXT because if they don’t they are reading PRETEXT..just a nother lie..and to go against Israel is to go against Almighty G-d and HE says they will HAVE NO EXCUSE. I pray they will change their minds but looks like scripture will be fulfilled… Shalom
Jan, thank you for the article written by JAMES FLETCHER. I intend to post the “anti-Israel” names on a site I go to named CARM. We need to make more people aware. Even there when I see posters (so called) witnessing to Jews their approach is combative rather than with love. It does little good to talk to some because the President’s attitude, and actions, towards Israel trickles down , especially to the young people.
We know that God gave the Gentiles the chance of salvation to make the Jews jealous to bring more back to Him. How can we ignore so great a salvation?
If pro-Israel advocate care about the generation that follows them they had better GET BACK in the Word of God, period. They had better study the Word and realize neither Jew nor Gentile have a Messiah without the promises to Israel from first to last. They need to get the Bible back into Bible study and NOT the modernist and secularist writings of Rick Warren, et. al. They need to realize that Jews provided our Savior and our Bible. The Word of God is forever settled in heaven (Psalm 119:89) not the fallible, worldly writings of men.
There are three issues which CONFOUND the conflict between the jews and the arabs that need to be addressed: 1.0) the legal documents giving rise to the State of Israel and the 2.0 Ottoman-Turk Land Registeries issue which governs who owned registered land and who worked these registered lands during the reign of the Ottoman-Turks; and 3.0 Replacement Theology being taught to our young men and women in our prestigious christian universities and bible colleges.
The Adversary is busier than ever, beguiling/seducing those who would follow the Lord.
1.0 It was the nations of the U.K & France, who after WWI, magic-markered up the conquered lands of the Ottoman-Turk empire to become Syria & Lebanon which was to be governed by France; Iraq & Jordan which was to be governed by the Brits; & Israel which became the Palestine Mandate confirmed by the Council of the League of Nations on 24 July 1922, and initially included the land east of the Jordan R. given to the 1/2 tribe of Manasseh & the tribes of Gad and Reuben, as well as all the land from the Jordan R. to the Mediterranian Sea.
Do you suppose one of the reasons France & the U.K. have so many MUSLIM citizens today, is G-d’s ‘passive-aggressive’ judgement upon them for what these two nations did to the land they conquered from the Ottoman-Turks? Gives NEW meaning to Psalm 2:4 “He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds [the godless gentile nations/kings/leaders] in derision.”
The Palestine Mandate was passed onto the U.N. and became UNGA Resolution 181, along with Article 80 of the UN Charter. And it should be noted that this Charter is an international treaty. Article 80, once known unofficially as the Jewish People’s clause, preserves intact all the rights granted to Jews under the Mandate for Palestine, even after the Mandate’s expiry on May 14-15, 1948. Under this provision of international law (the Charter is an international treaty), Jewish rights to Palestine and the Land of Israel were not to be altered in any way unless there had been an intervening trusteeship agreement between the states or parties concerned, which would have converted the Mandate into a trusteeship or trust territory. The only period of time such an agreement could have been concluded under Chapter 12 of the UN Charter was during the three-year period from October 24, 1945, the date the Charter entered into force after appropriate ratifications, until May 14-15, 1948, the date the Mandate expired and the State of Israel was proclaimed. Since no agreement of this type was made during this relevant three-year period, in which Jewish rights to all of Palestine may conceivably have been altered had Palestine been converted into a trust territory, those Jewish rights that had existed under the Mandate remained in full force and effect, to which the UN is still committed by Article 80 to uphold, or is prohibited from altering.
This UNGA Resolution and UN Charter Article 80 are as valid today as they were when brought into existence.
2.0 The Ottoman Land Code of 1858 (recorded as the year 1274 in the Islamic Calendar) required land owners to register ownership. The reasons behind the law were twofold: i) to increase tax revenue, and ii) to exercise greater state control over the area. Peasants, who worked the land, did not register claims, because those who registered as land owners were subject to military service in the Ottoman Army AND a need to evade and avoid taxes and registration fees to the Ottoman Empire. So who registered land in their own names were those for whom the peasants worked — the merchants and administrators of the land.
The result was that the land the peasants worked became the legal property of people who had never lived on the land, while the peasants, having lived there for generations, became surfs working for the absentee owners. This is the plight of the 58 families living in the Cremisin Valley between Beit Jala and Bethlehem, Sami Awad’s home town. Their ancestors were the peasants working land registered in the name of an absentee landlord who did the military service, paid the taxes and the registration fees to the Ottoman Empire. None of the peasants claiming that land today paid a penny for it, nor did their ancesters serve in the Ottoman military, nor did they pay any of the taxes or the registration fees. The serfs who worked the land cannot produce a Registered Deed to any of the land. They were the feudal serfs working the land. And so they are today.
This is the type of land that has become the “disputed land” since 1948.
Since Israel conquered the land of Judea and Samaria in 1967, and since these Ottoman Land Code registrants have NOT been located; and since these Land Codes have NOT been rescinded by neither Jordan who ruled Judea and Samaria BEFORE 1967, nor Israel who conquered the land in 1967 in the Six Day War. So, by the rules WAR, today these lands belong to the conqueror. And even if Israel gave the land back to Jordan, from which State they conquered the land known as Judea and Samaria, the arabs, Ishmaelites, Moabites, Edomites, Hagarenes, Amonites, Canaanites, who are squatting there, ought to spend their energy on finding the Ottoman registration deeds to the land they are claiming.
The question is, would they then have what they so desperately want — ownership of the land?
3.0 Of course, the biggest confounding issue is men like Gary Burge, Professor of New Testament Studies at Wheaton College, who are busy using WORDS to mislead and deceive our young men and women into apostasy teaching/preaching Replacement Theology.
Burge is a presbyterian PC(USA). He has been indoctrinated by Replacement Theology [aka Covenant Theology/Liberation Theology like Palestinian Liberation Theology ala Naim Ateek’s Sabeel Inst. teachings]. This theology is error. Simply put, replacement theology teachings leads to ‘love jesus, but to hate the jew’, conveniently forgetting that the jesus whom they are taught to love lived a very Torah-revealed jewish cultural lifestyle. Which He proclaimed He had not come to do away with, but to fulfill it. Replacement Theology leads to anti-semitism — the demonization of jews, the delegitimization of jews and the applyiing of double standards when it comes to dealing with the jews (Sharansky, 2004).
Burge does not do as his Savior asks, to ‘keep my commandments’. Burge appears to be a christian ‘in name only’. He is a man who thinks that he can rewrite scripture to suit his interpretations. He conveniently ignores what the G-d of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob caused to be recorded by the prophets — that all that is written in Scripture will come to pass. Reread the chronicle of Ahab for confirmation. All that is written will come to pass. Burge ignores scriptures which don’t promote his peculiarly invented, non-scriptural religion of ‘social justice’.
Wheaton College administrators need to investigate Burge’s ‘theology’. How many young men and women are going to naively buy into the error Burge propagates? On Judgement Day, how will each and every person who allowed Burge tenure at Wheaton answer to their Lord about all those who were lead astray because those who hire did not properly ‘vet’ the theology of Burge?
Replacement Theology is error — it teaches that the G-d of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob is finished with the jews, and that the church has replaced the jews as the chosen children of Israel. Romans 11:25ff however, doesn’t say that at all. The question to ask Burge is, as a gentile grafted onto the original root (the faith of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob), what nurtures his spiritual growth if he’s a branch that has chopped itself away from the original root? That grafted-on wild gentile branch will whither away and die!
Who is it, Paul writes, has hardened the hearts of the jews until the time of the gentiles is fulfilled? What is the purpose, does Paul write, that this hardening of the hearts of the jews happened? And what about verse 26, which then states that “all Israel will be saved”? Who is Gary Burge to rewrite scriptural truths to favor the propaganda needs of a persecuted group of arab christians whose very lives are at stake if they say anything other than the muslim hatred of the jews? Burge and his friends are peace-breakers. Paul writes in Romans 12 that we are to run from such as these, for they take sides and divide the brethren.
And how is it that Burge and his buddies, fellow replacement theologists such as Stephen Sizer, were allowed to use the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton to plot and plan the next Israel bashing Christ At The Checkpoints conference? To think all that Billy Graham stood for, and then to have what is named after him be desecrated by replacement theologists planning their next attack upon the jews, individually and collectively as in the State of Israel?
Didn’t the christian world do enough harm by going along with Hitler during WWII? Writing grovelling letters to Hitler about how they were looking forward to his coming into power in the early ’30’s? Now the christians are going to do it again? Through the auspices of men like Gary Burge, a professor from Wheaton College, AND Steven Sizer, an Anglican cleric who is currently under investigation by the Anglican church; and people like Tony Campolo, and Lynn Hybels, who travelled to Bethlehem Bible College, in Bethlehem of Judea, to participate in the CCP Conference in previous years — speaking against the jews, standing in solidarity with the arabs squatting in judea and samaria, against the jews and the jewish state. Obadiah 1:15 notes that “The day is near when I, the LORD, will judge the gentiles! As you have done to Israel, so it will be done to you. All your evil deeds will fall back on your own heads.”
Wise men would be careful not to poke G-d in the eye!
Well said M Stiener
Well said M Stiener