The NeoChristian Lobby

Those seeking insights into the source of America’s support for Israel should skip the work of pseudo-scholars and read instead “God’s Country?” by Walter Russell Mead in the September/October issue of Foreign Affairs:

Conspiracy theorists and secular scholars and journalists in the United States and abroad have looked to a Jewish conspiracy or, more euphemistically, to a "Jewish lobby" to explain how U.S. support for Israel can grow while sympathy for Israel wanes among what was once the religious and intellectual establishment.  A better answer lies in the dynamics of U.S. religion.

Mead notes that there is a long history of evangelical support for Israel: 

In fact, American Protestant Zionism is significantly older than the modern Jewish version; in the nineteenth century, evangelicals repeatedly petitioned U.S. officials to establish a refuge in the Holy Land for persecuted Jews from Europe and the Ottoman Empire.

Here is an excerpt from Mead’s explanation of the evangelical view:

Evangelicals . . . find the continued existence of the Jewish people to be a strong argument both for the existence of God and for his power in history.  The book of Genesis relates that God told Abraham, "And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee. . . . And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee all families of the earth be blessed." . . . 

In standing by Israel, evangelicals feel that they are standing by God -- something they are ready to do against the whole world.  Thus John Hagee -- senior pastor of an 18,000-member evangelical megachurch in San Antonio, Texas, and author of several New York Times bestsellers -- writes that if Iran moves to attack Israel, Americans must be prepared "to stop this evil enemy in its tracks."  "God's policy toward the Jewish people," Hagee writes, "is found in Genesis 12:3,” and he goes on to quote the passage about blessings and curses. . . .

That U.S. foreign policy now centers on defending the country against the threat of mass terrorism involving, potentially, weapons of apocalyptic horror wielded by anti-Christian fanatics waging a religious war motivated by hatred of Israel only reinforces the claims of evangelical religion.

For more on the role of Genesis 12:3 in history (from a non-evangelical source), read this.

Mead contrasts the evangelical view with that of the liberal Christian movements:

For liberal Christians, the Jews are a people like any other, and so liberal Christians have supported Zionism in the same way that they have supported the national movements of other oppressed groups.  In recent decades, however, liberal Christians have increasingly come to sympathize with the Palestinian national movement on the same basis. 

In 2004, the Presbyterian Church passed a resolution calling for limited divestment from companies doing business with Israel (the resolution was essentially rescinded in 2006 after a bitter battle). One study found that 37 percent of the statements made by mainline Protestant churches on human rights abuses between 2000 and 2004 focused on Israel.  No other country came in for such frequent criticism.

Thirty-seven percent.  Targeting as the No. 1 abuser not China or Sudan or Cuba or Iran or Saudi Arabia but . . . Israel.  The Presbyterian Church’s position is almost -- but not quite -- beyond parody, as James Lileks demonstrated in an article last year, after the Church had announced its anti-Israel campaign:

But they're not anti-Semites.  Heavens, nay.  Don't you dare question their philosemitism!  No, they looked at the entire world, including countries that lop off your skull if you convert to Presbyterianism, and what did they choose as the object of their ire?  A country the size of a potato chip hanging on the edge of a region noted for despotism and barbarity.  By some peculiar coincidence, it happens to be full of Jews. . . .

According to the hard left's script, Israel was created when some Europeans (hisssss) invaded the sovereign nation of Palestine, even though we all know the Jewish homeland is somewhere outside Passaic, N.J.  Then for no reason Israel invaded the West Bank and Gaza -- which for some reason had not been set up as New Palestine by the Egyptians and the Jordanians, but never mind -- and made everyone stand in line and get frisked. . . . 

Don't tell the Presbyterians about Tibet or Sudan.  It would absolutely ruin their day.

Between 1965 and 2005, Mead reports, membership in the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the United Church of Christ and Episcopalians fell by percentages ranging from 25% to 50%, and “by 2003 there were more Southern Baptists than Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and members of the United Church of Christ combined.” 

Mead writes that more than 25% of the members of Congress are self-identified evangelicals.  In 2004, self-identified evangelicals provided roughly 40% of George W. Bush’s total vote.  Among white evangelicals, Bush received 78% of the vote.

Almost enough people to form a Lobby.

Comments

[Brother Mel]

HI Rick,

Every Christian I know fervently supports Israel. Indeed, we consider it incomprehensible NOT to support Israel.

I've heard critics of "Christian Zionism"--if you want to use that term--say that Christians have an ulterior motive in supporting Israel. They argue that the support is based on Christians' belief that the Jews must return to Israel before the Messiah can come.

I've attended many Christian services and conventions, and private ministers' meetings over the last 26 years, and I have never heard anyone argue that we should support the Jews returning to Israel in order to speed the coming of the Messiah.

God has His own timetable, and the Messiah will come whenever God chooses for him to come.

Every Christian I know or have ever heard, support the Jews returning to Israel because: One, God gave them that land, and who are we to second-guess God? Two, the Jews suffered greatly in the Holocaust, and they need a land of refuge of their own, and what more logical place than the land of Israel? Three, as your article states, most non-Liberal Christians take very seriously the Scripture in Genesis that says, "...I will bless them that bless thee, and I will curse them that curse thee..." We cannot possibly have the blessing or help of God if we individually or as a nation do not support the Jews both in our own country and in Israel. And four, it's just the right thing to do.

I agree entirely with these sentiments, and teach them to others when I hold services.

There is only one aspect of our support of Israel in which I believe that SOME Christians make a very severe mistake. In their zeal to support Israel, sometimes they intrude into Israeli politics.

For instance, they look at the boundry lines for Israel that God lays down in the Books of Moses. Then if a current peace plan guarantees all of that land to the Jews, they say, "This is God's plan." If it doesn't guarantee the Jews all of their historic land, they say, "God is against that plan." And they say that if an Israeli politican favors where they believe the boundry lines should be drawn, then they say "This is God's chosen leader for Israel." If he believes in different boundry lines, "Well, God isn't with that man."

The most flagrant example was Pat Robertson's recent public announcement that God had given Ariel Sharon a stroke to keep him from giving away historic Jewish lands. He has since profusely apologized to Sharon's family. But his ridiculous statement reveals a mind-set that some--not all--Christians have. Namely, they endorse or reject fleeting Israeli political positions based on whether the position of the moment agrees with their interpretation of the Torah.

I believe it is a grave mistake that some Christians make in intruding into Israeli politics in this way.

I have no idea whether the Camp David Accords pleased God or not. Neither does anyone else. I see only that they have brought a measure of relative peace between Egypt and Israel, for which I am grateful.

I don't know whether God wants Israel to give back the Golan Heights to Syria or not. If Syria would cease sponsoring terrorism, not use the land to fire missles into Israel, and if they would live at peace with Israel, logic--I think--would argue for the land to be returned. But for Christians or anyone else to state that God wants Israel to give back the Golan Heights or not give it back is presumptuous indeed.

To endorse or condemn individual Israeli politicians or political positions is simply nor our role--as Christians--to play. Israelis must elect leaders of their choosing, not of our choosing, and develop policies that they believe to be in their own best interest.

I think that we as Christians must first of all be supportive of Israel in an over-all and unconditonal manner. And secondly, we need to encourage an Israeli political decision, or peace treaty, or negotiation be based on logic, security, and verification, not upon anyone's personal interpretation of Scripture.

Kind Regards,
Brother Mel

[edfred]

Hi Rick,
Great post on the importance of evangelicals to the future of Israel. There are many myths circulating about the reasons why Christians support Israel. I recommend a very well-written book by David Brog, "Standing with Israel: Why Christians Support Israel" as providing a useful antidote to some of the misinformation that unfortnately tends to creep into any discussion about these growing ties. Contrary to critics, the loyalty to Israel is not based on end-of-days scenarios. Instead it stems from many factors-mostly based on Biblical calls to honor and bless the Jewish people. I am involved in the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews-a charity that is on course to raise more than 60 million dollars this year (the bulk from Christian donors); most of this money will go to help needy Israelis. Some of it will go to help poor Jews throughout the world who intend to stay in their current nations.Some fo the support is also based on a recognition that the Judeo-Christian world faces threats from extremists in the Islamic world and we must join together for our own peace and security.I am Jewish and can state that
my experience with Evangelical Christians has been nothing but positive and filled with warmth. In these days, warmth towards the Jewish people should be welcomed and not shunned.