Christian Zionists and false prophets
The following appeared in the TimesSelect on the one line New YorkTimes web site
By Daoud Kuttab, Ramallah, West Bank
As if we don't have enough problems with Muslim and Jewishfundamentalists, we are now confronted with yet another -ist.Christian Zionists, mostly from the United States, are trying tothrow their weight behind one of the parties, in effect calling forthe continuation of the war and carnage in Lebanon.A small minority of evangelical Christians have entered the MiddleEast political arena with some of the most un-Christian statements Ihave ever heard. The latest gems come from people like PatRobertson, the founder and chairman of the Christian BroadcastingNetwork, and Rev. John Hagee of Christians United for Israel. Hagee,a popular televangelist who leads the 18,000-member CornerstoneChurch in San Antonio, ratcheted up his rhetoric this year with thepublication of his book, "Jerusalem Countdown," in which he arguesthat a confrontation with Iran is a necessary precondition forArmageddon (which will mean the death of most Jews, in his eyes) andthe Second Coming of ChristIn the best-selling book, Hagee insists that the United States mustjoin Israel in a preemptive military strike against Iran to fulfillGod's plan for both Israel and the West. Shortly after the book'spublication, he launched Christians United for Israel (CUFI), which,as the Christian version of the powerful American Israel PublicAffairs Committee, he said would cause "a political earthquake."With the outbreak of the war on Lebanon, he and others have calledto their followers to pray for Israel, and for the continuation ofthe war on Lebanon. They have demanded that Israel not relent inwhat they call the need to destroy Hezbollah and Hamas. They seem tohave completely forgotten the very core of the Christian faith.I have been watching many American evangelicals trying to distancethemselves from the calls in the name of the Almighty for the war tocontinue. As Christian leaders of all persuasions, including leadersof evangelical churches, are calling for Mideast peace and animmediate cease-fire, these Christian Zionists want their followersto pray only for Israel.One e-mail message that was making the rounds came from a prominentU.S. evangelical Christian totally upset with an interview that PatRobertson gave to the Jerusalem Post. In it, Robertson appears morepro-Israeli than the Israelis themselves and expresses anger at thenotion that Israelis might not completely finish off Hezbollah — atask that he somehow sees as God's will. The author of the above-mentioned e-mail message, Serge Duss of World Vision, a Christianrelief organization, called the Robertson interview "a perversion ofthe Gospel of Jesus." Duss writes that he is sure that manyevangelicals strongly disagree and would gladly refute Robertson'sdistorted theology.Duss insists that American evangelicals are praying for 1) thepeople of Israel and Lebanon; 2) for a cease-fire, so that liveswill be spared and 3) for peace with justice for all people in theMiddle East.The discussion has reminded me of so many calls I heard as a youngChristian boy growing up in Bethlehem and Jerusalem: the falseprophets that have predicted the end days and the presence of theanti-Christ are too numerous to list here. But I vividly rememberthe very same Pat Robertson in 1982 as he spoke on C.B.N.'s "700Club." He stood in front of a map of the Middle East, opened up acopy of the Old Testamant and claimed to know what a particularprophecy meant in geopolitical terms. As the Begin-Sharon army atthe time was besieging Beirut, he pointed out exactly what he saidwould happen next. In particular he was keen to repeat that theP.L.O.'s leader at the time, Yasir Arafat, was none other than theanti-Christ himself.Less than 13 years after that international broadcast, Robertson wasfilmed visiting Arafat in Gaza, delivering food and milk toPalestinians and applauding the peace agreement that Arafat hadsigned with Israel's Yitzhak Rabin.Christian Zionists who use religious rhetoric to justify politicaland military actions are no better than Jewish or Islamicfundamentalists who make similar outlandish claims. Peace in theMiddle East should be about the liberty, independence and freedomsof all the people of the region, and not about whose promised landthe Holy Land is.For the time being, I, as a Christian Palestinian, prefer to followthe words of Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount. "Blessed are thepeacemakers for they will be called the sons of God."
By Daoud Kuttab, Ramallah, West Bank
As if we don't have enough problems with Muslim and Jewishfundamentalists, we are now confronted with yet another -ist.Christian Zionists, mostly from the United States, are trying tothrow their weight behind one of the parties, in effect calling forthe continuation of the war and carnage in Lebanon.A small minority of evangelical Christians have entered the MiddleEast political arena with some of the most un-Christian statements Ihave ever heard. The latest gems come from people like PatRobertson, the founder and chairman of the Christian BroadcastingNetwork, and Rev. John Hagee of Christians United for Israel. Hagee,a popular televangelist who leads the 18,000-member CornerstoneChurch in San Antonio, ratcheted up his rhetoric this year with thepublication of his book, "Jerusalem Countdown," in which he arguesthat a confrontation with Iran is a necessary precondition forArmageddon (which will mean the death of most Jews, in his eyes) andthe Second Coming of ChristIn the best-selling book, Hagee insists that the United States mustjoin Israel in a preemptive military strike against Iran to fulfillGod's plan for both Israel and the West. Shortly after the book'spublication, he launched Christians United for Israel (CUFI), which,as the Christian version of the powerful American Israel PublicAffairs Committee, he said would cause "a political earthquake."With the outbreak of the war on Lebanon, he and others have calledto their followers to pray for Israel, and for the continuation ofthe war on Lebanon. They have demanded that Israel not relent inwhat they call the need to destroy Hezbollah and Hamas. They seem tohave completely forgotten the very core of the Christian faith.I have been watching many American evangelicals trying to distancethemselves from the calls in the name of the Almighty for the war tocontinue. As Christian leaders of all persuasions, including leadersof evangelical churches, are calling for Mideast peace and animmediate cease-fire, these Christian Zionists want their followersto pray only for Israel.One e-mail message that was making the rounds came from a prominentU.S. evangelical Christian totally upset with an interview that PatRobertson gave to the Jerusalem Post. In it, Robertson appears morepro-Israeli than the Israelis themselves and expresses anger at thenotion that Israelis might not completely finish off Hezbollah — atask that he somehow sees as God's will. The author of the above-mentioned e-mail message, Serge Duss of World Vision, a Christianrelief organization, called the Robertson interview "a perversion ofthe Gospel of Jesus." Duss writes that he is sure that manyevangelicals strongly disagree and would gladly refute Robertson'sdistorted theology.Duss insists that American evangelicals are praying for 1) thepeople of Israel and Lebanon; 2) for a cease-fire, so that liveswill be spared and 3) for peace with justice for all people in theMiddle East.The discussion has reminded me of so many calls I heard as a youngChristian boy growing up in Bethlehem and Jerusalem: the falseprophets that have predicted the end days and the presence of theanti-Christ are too numerous to list here. But I vividly rememberthe very same Pat Robertson in 1982 as he spoke on C.B.N.'s "700Club." He stood in front of a map of the Middle East, opened up acopy of the Old Testamant and claimed to know what a particularprophecy meant in geopolitical terms. As the Begin-Sharon army atthe time was besieging Beirut, he pointed out exactly what he saidwould happen next. In particular he was keen to repeat that theP.L.O.'s leader at the time, Yasir Arafat, was none other than theanti-Christ himself.Less than 13 years after that international broadcast, Robertson wasfilmed visiting Arafat in Gaza, delivering food and milk toPalestinians and applauding the peace agreement that Arafat hadsigned with Israel's Yitzhak Rabin.Christian Zionists who use religious rhetoric to justify politicaland military actions are no better than Jewish or Islamicfundamentalists who make similar outlandish claims. Peace in theMiddle East should be about the liberty, independence and freedomsof all the people of the region, and not about whose promised landthe Holy Land is.For the time being, I, as a Christian Palestinian, prefer to followthe words of Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount. "Blessed are thepeacemakers for they will be called the sons of God."
posted by Kevin Evans at 9:02 AM
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