By ISRAEL TODAY—
The Christian humanitarian aid and development organization World Vision has followed the lead of the Lausanne Movement in distancing itself from an article penned by its own vice president who strongly criticized Christian Zionists.
In the January 2015 issue of Lausanne Global Analysis, World Vision VP Steve Haas wrote that “for over 60 years, many evangelicals have clung to a very narrow theological narrative that weds Christian theology with a political ideology known as Zionism.”
Haas went on to compare Christian Zionism to the Spanish Inquisition, the Crusades, Apartheid South Africa and other large-scale atrocities to which Christians were party.
Messianic blog Rosh Pina Project highlighted on Wednesday that World Vision is now seeking to disassociate itself from the words of its own vice president.
Read a statement released by the ministry:
“The article…published in the Lausanne Global Analysis does not accurately reflect World Vision’s position and views toward the State of Israel and the Palestinian people and was published without proper World Vision approvals. …broad statements such as those in the Lausanne piece oversimplify issues at hand, limit meaningful dialogue, and harden staunch perspectives toward the conflict.”
The statement went on to call Haas’ criticism of Christian Zionists “unhelpfully simplified and combative.” World Vision even went so far as to retract its support for the propaganda film “With God on Our Side,” which condemns Christian Zionism. “World Vision no longer endorses the film,” according to the press release.
Unfortunately, even as World Vision spoke of avoiding oversimplifying complicated issues, it did just that by concluding that “sustainable peace cannot be fully realized under the realities of military occupation…”
There was no mention of how or why that “military occupation” came to be. The truth is that “peace cannot be fully realized” until people are educated for peace, rather than for violence, which is what led to the “military occupation” in the first place.