As Israelis and Palestinians take faltering steps toward
peace in the Mideast, Christian groups watching from the United States have
taken sharply different stances on the peace plan backed by President Bush.
The majority of churches — Roman Catholic, Orthodox, mainline Protestant and
some evangelical groups — welcome the three-step plan called the “road map,”
which envisions the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005.
President Bush is hosting Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas today to
discuss the initiative, and is to meet Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon.
A vocal segment of evangelical Protestants, however, are lobbying the Bush
administration to abandon the plan because they believe it rewards terrorism
and violates God’s promise to give the Jewish people the historic land of
Israel.
So-called Christian Zionists also see the modern state of Israel as a
fulfillment of biblical prophecy — and a precondition of the second coming of
Jesus Christ. Setting up a Palestinian state is seen as undermining these end
times events.
“Because of their apocalyptic interpretation of the Bible, they view the
initiative as a betrayal,” said Randall Balmer, a religion professor at
Columbia University. “They’ve threatened to derail the whole thing.”
Gary Bauer, a former Republican presidential candidate and an evangelical
Christian, is spearheading a “one-state solution campaign” with a group called
Americans for a Safe Israel, which is erecting billboards and distributing
bumper stickers emblazoned with a verse from Genesis: “And the Lord said unto
Jacob...’Unto thy offspring will I give this land.”’
Another group, Christian Friends of Israeli Communities, last year donated
$200,000 from U.S. churches to help build Jewish settlements in “Judea and
Samaria” — the biblical name for the West Bank.
“Judea and Samaria were given to the Jews by God, and I cannot see the United
States of America taking this land and giving it to a known terrorist,” said
religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, also an unsuccessful GOP presidential
candidate, referring to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Such views, heard widely on Christian radio and television — and increasingly
picked up in the Muslim media, where they’re regarded as threatening — are
harshly criticized as counterproductive and theologically misguided by most
other American Christian groups, including a significant number of
evangelicals.
“Christian Zionists have turned their biblical interpretation into a political
ideology that is aligning itself with the most extreme forms of Zionism in
Sharon’s own coalition,” said Donald Wagner, religion professor at North Park
University in Chicago and a co-founder of Evangelicals for Middle East
Understanding.
Understanding the grievances and desires of both the Israelis and the Palestinians
is key to resolving this conflict, said Gerard Powers, director of the
international justice and peace office at the U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishops.
“A one-sided approach isn’t going to help,” Powers said. “You have to try to
understand the legitimate aspirations of both sides. The road map seems to be a
way to do that.”
Orthodox Christians support Israel but also strongly back the Palestinians’
right to self-determination because of historic ties to the Middle East — and
out of a sense of justice, said Antonios Kireopoulos, an Orthodox theologian
and associate general secretary at the National Council of Churches.
“The Palestinians are indigenous to the region,” said Kireopoulos. “To deny
them a homeland would be unjust.”
Bauer, now president of American Values, a conservative think tank, counters
that a Palestinian state, on top of violating God’s covenant, “will be used as
a launching pad for more terrorist attacks against Israel.”
By offering the Israeli government such strong support, however, Christian
Zionists are attacked for ignoring the suffering of Palestinians — including
Palestinian Christians, whose roots in the region go back 2,000 years to the
beginning of the church.
“Evangelicals who are Christian Zionists want to see events unfold, but they
aren’t so concerned about justice,” said Richard Mouw, president of Fuller
Theological Seminary, an evangelical school in Pasadena, Calif.
Christian Zionism is based on a theology called dispensationalism that emerged
in England in the mid-1800s. It emphasizes a literal reading of prophetic and
apocalyptic passages in the Bible, contrary to most Christian traditions.
Dispensationalists believe that the regathering of the Jewish people in Israel
is foretold in Scripture, and that Israel will play a key role in end times
events.
This system of thought — popularized in the “Left Behind” novels — is embraced
by about a quarter to a third the evangelical Protestants in this country, or
as many as 17 million Americans, estimates Timothy Weber, church historian and
president of Memphis Theological Seminary.
By pushing the Mideast initiative, Bush risks alienating these evangelical
voters who would otherwise likely support the GOP.
Yet the Rev. Jerry Falwell, who in the past opposed the creation of a
Palestinian state, now says he is willing to accept one with reservations — but
only because Bush is behind the plan.
“I love and trust President Bush so much, I will go with him almost anywhere,”
said Falwell, the well-known televangelist.
Robertson says that conservative Christian voters won’t desert Bush unless
there are signals that the Palestinians will be given East Jerusalem as the
capital of a future state, as is their desire.
“If (Bush) touches Jerusalem, he’s not only going to get us mad but get God
mad,” Robertson told the AP.
Activism from churches supporting the peace plan has been more muted — although
it has intensified recently, partly in reaction to the anti-road map efforts.
Churches for Mideast Peace, a coalition of 18 mainline Protestant and Catholic
groups, has been sending out e-mail alerts to 4,000 grass-roots organizers,
urging them to contact their congressional representatives to back the road
map.
Corinne Whitlach, the coalition’s director, sees one of the group’s roles as
“tempering the extremists” — although some Jewish and evangelical groups
consider it to be biased in favor of the Palestinians.
“We recognize there are wide differences in interpreting theology, even within
our coalition,” Whitlach said. “But when interpretation thwarts peacemaking, we
need to challenge that.”