Sabeel Conference Calls for Rejection of Christian Zionist “Heresy,” Ideology

By Sister Elaine Kelley


ABOVE (l-r): Right Rev. Edmond Browning, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Dr. Hanan Ashrawi address Sabeel conferencegoers in Arafat’s Ramallah compound. BELOW: Father Michael Prior (staff photos E. Kelley).

SOME HISTORIANS cite the rise of Christianity more than two millennia ago as a factor hastening the fall of the Roman Empire. The new spiritual movement minimized the importance of service to the state and challenged the Roman values of militarism and domination. Its theology was pacifist, a humble grassroots movement that ingratiated itself among the poor and oppressed.

The 5th International Sabeel Conference held in Jerusalem in April took up the cause of that early church to challenge modern nation states and the growing worldwide phenomenon of Christian Zionism. Rejecting the latter’s ideology of empire, colonialism and militarism, Sabeel views Christian Zionism as a political movement that embraces the most extreme ideological positions of Zionism that are “detrimental to a just peace within Palestine and Israel.”

Sabeel was founded on the precepts of another worldwide movement, liberation theology—sometimes referred to as Third World Christianity—which was born in the 1960s Christian-based communities of Latin America, and which interprets the Hebrew and Christian scriptures from the perspective of the powerless and disenfranchised. The organization represents an effort by Palestinian Christians in the Holy Land to foster liberating interpretations of the Bible; to search for ways to strengthen the faith of Palestinian Christians in Palestine and Israel with the aim of preserving a continuous worshipping Christian community in the Holy Land; and to nurture relationships and support with Christians of the West. A grassroots movement, Sabeel emphasizes nonviolent resistance.

Two years in the planning, “Challenging Christian Zionism: Theology, Politics, and the Palestine-Israel Conflict,” was held April 14 to 18 in Jerusalem’s Notre Dame Center, and attracted over 600 people from 32 countries, half from the U.S., reflecting the ecumenical diversity within Sabeel. According to the Rev. Naim Ateek, director of the Sabeel Center in East Jerusalem, the gathering was convened in order to assemble the best theologians, Bible scholars, writers, and activists to provide knowledge and resources on Christian Zionism and to engage the mainstream Western churches in challenging its false teachings.

Opening the conference was the Rev. Donald Wagner, professor of religion and director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Chicago’s North Park University, and author of several books, including Anxious for Armageddon and Dying in the Land of Promise. He defined Christian Zionism as “a theo-political movement within Protestant fundamentalist Christianity that views the modern state of Israel as fulfillment of biblical prophesy and deserving of unconditional support.” The movement interprets the Bible literally, Wagner added, anticipating the return of Christ, an end to history after a great war called Armageddon, and an event called The Rapture, popularized by the best-selling Left Behind series of fictional apocalyptic thrillers written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins.

Christian Zionism “embraces a war theology,”according to Wagner, and constitutes a “monumental force” growing not only in the U.S., but also in Asia, South Africa, Europe, and even some pockets of the Middle East. Their numbers in the U.S. vary depending on the exact definition used and whether they are considered part of a broader evangelical community or limited to the 20 percent of evangelicals who can strictly be called Christian Zionists. Nevertheless, Wagner said, their numbers are increasing even within traditional, mainstream churches. “If these are included,” he stated, “the number swells to about 120 million.”

A diversity of views within Sabeel’s framework of liberation theology revealed itself in a debate sparked by the lecture of Rev. Dr. Michael Prior, CM, a Catholic priest and professor of the Bible and Theology at St. Mary’s College in the UK. “The problem is the Bible,” he began by stating, calling it a “dangerous book” that should have written on its cover, “Reading may damage somebody else’s health.” The author of several books, including Zionism and the State of Israel: A Moral Inquiry, Prior took the case against Christian Zionism a step further by insisting that the real problem is not “people with bizarre and whacky ideas who are fundamentalists and easily ridiculed by the intellectual and liberal establishment.”

Instead, he said,“The problem is the mainstream biblical scholarship academy, churches, leadership, and theologians” who “buy in very comfortably to the biblical narrative that allows legitimacy to preferential treatment on the part of God in favor of one people, that not only legitimizes but actually mandates, genocide.” The Book of Exodus, he continued,which “we read…with great piety…is actually a con job.”

According to Prior, the primary task of biblical scholarship is to “identify the literary character of the biblical narratives.” The Bible is not an historical record, he insisted, and “the early years being recorded in the Torah, especially about the promise of the land…ought to be recognized as parts of myths and legends.”

Prior’s unorthodox interpretations raised the ire of a few in attendance. But, he asked, “Who wrote these texts?”

Prior argued that the authors “were narrow-minded, xenophobic, militaristic pin-headed bigots,” and referred to the Old Testament hero Joshua, who occupied Canaan, killing the inhabitants, as “the patron saint of ethnic cleansing.”

Prior was challenged by Dr. Gary Burge, professor of New Testament at Wheaton College in suburban Chicago and former president of Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding. During his presentation on “Theological and Biblical Assumptions of Christian Zionism,” which preceded Prior’s, Burge admitted, “Wheaton has graduated many [whom] you might describe as Christian Zionists.”

“You present me with some remarkable problems,” he said to Prior. “I have an understanding of canon, I’m a biblical scholar; but I’m not sure it’s helpful to me to step inside my community and talk about Joshua as a genocidal maniac.”

The dialogue that ensued between the two theologians—with audience participation—revealed the different currents within the Christian justice and peace community, and the varying approaches to the Bible as either history or myth.

A Key Absence

Also overshadowing the international gathering, and underscoring its theme of challenging problematic religion, was the absence of the keynote presenter, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who had accepted Sabeel’s invitation over a year ago but cancelled a month before the event—disappointing attendees who came solely for the status and credibility accorded the conference by the religious leader’s participation. Rev. Canon Jonathan Gough, sent by the archbishop in his stead to read his address, stated at the outset, “You will all understand in this setting, above all, actions can be taken to mean things which are not intended. The archbishop’s priority is to be able to act as a bridge builder in this situation. Given the wide range of views on how his attendance here could be understood and represented he has decided that this lecture will be delivered by his representative, me his unworthy servant.”

Speculation about Williams having been pressured not to participate by local religious leaders, and/or by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, culminated in a meeting between Gough and about 35 of the Sabeel international leadership in which Gough listened to angry remarks and jotted notes to take back to the archbishop. Gough elaborated on the archbishop’s reasons, citing the former Bishop of Wales’ new position as necessitating a new and “higher profile,” “moral stature” and “certain protocols” not required in his previous post.

Archbishop Williams’ address itself sparked even further outrage, causing some to walk out in protest. Naim Ateek, who said he had invited Williams specifically because he considered the British cleric to be “an excellent theologian,” expressed dismay that the archbishop’s paper seemed “obsessed with the Holocaust” and with a theology that looks to the past rather than the present. According to Ateek, in his paper Williams sounded almost as if he were “sympathizing more with Israel” than regarding Israel as an oppressor. Ateek had “hoped for a prophetic voice against abuse of the Bible,” the Sabeel founder explained.

Williams’ 4,000-word paper, entitled “Holy Land and Holy People,” evidenced an absorption in the biblical language of Zionism—in direct opposition to the theology of presenters such as Prior, who interpret biblical Zion as “a symbol which pointed beyond itself.” In his paper the archbishop named Israel 74 times, and, without naming Christian Zionism, referred to it as a “deeply eccentric form of Christian theology.” He proceeded to call for a “good theology of Israel,” which he deemed to have a special place in God’s plan. “I cannot understand any attitude that assumes the calling of the Jewish people is not still a calling to be special, by God’s gift and grace,” Williams wrote.

Developments on the Ground


	Bara’em dabke dancers perform at the Friends School in Ramallah (staff photos E. Kelley).

Major developments in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict which occurred during the course of the conference accentuated its importance for participants. Among these werethe April 14 memorandum of agreement between George Bush and Ariel Sharon stating U.S. support for unilateral Israeli policy toward Gaza and the West Bank, and the April 17 assassination of Hamas leader Abdul Aziz Rantisi. Naim Ateek read a Sabeel press statement in response to the Bush memo, expressing Sabeel’s “outrage over the endorsement of the Sharon dictat by the United States and other governments, which repeats the historical errors of colonial empires in the past.”

The Rantisi assassination necessitated a cancellation of conference lectures scheduled at Bethlehem University.

A number of people were drawn to the conference because it coincided with the April 21 release ofIsraeli nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu, convicted of treason and jailed in 1986 for publishing photographs of Israel’s nuclear bomb facility at Dimona (see June 2004 Washington Report, p. 16). Conference attendees Nick and Mary Eoloff of Minnesota, members of the Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu and Vanunu’s legally adoptive parents, helped organize conference participants for demonstrations and celebrations around his release. Vanunu, a Christian convert, was adopted by the Eoloffs in 1997 following their failed attempts to urge U.S. government officials to pressure Israel for Vanunu’s release.

The conference’s 25 major presentations all focused on the dangers of Zionist and millennial theologies, primarily from a Christian perspective. Additional lectures by policy analysts addressed the translation of those theologies into government policies, and scholars on Jewish scripture discussed Zionism and apocalyptic thought in Judaism. In addition to those mentioned above, other presenters included: Rev. Dr. Stephen Sizer, chairman of the International Bible Society, UK; Rev. Barbara Rossing, teacher of New Testament at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago; Dr. Rosemary Radford Ruether, Carpenter Professor Feminist Theology at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley; Gershom Gorenberg, associate editor of The Jerusalem Report and founder of the Israeli religious peace movement Netivot Shalom; Marc Ellis, director of the Center for American and Jewish Studies at Baylor University in Waco, Texas; and Father Peter DuBrul, an American Jesuit teaching scripture, philosophy and cultural studies at Bethlehem University.

Among the outcomes of the conference is the establishment of an international institute for the study of Christian Zionism. A Web site, <christianzionism.org>, already has been launched, and Sabeel plans to publish a book containing the transcripts of all the conference presentations.Conference videos and DVDs can be ordered from Sabeel in Jerusalem by e-mailing <friends@sabeel.org>.

The program included a pre-conference Easter pilgrimage from April 4 to 11, blending traditions of Eastern and Western Christianity, and post-conference day trips in the West Bank and Galilee from April 19 to 23. Field trips included an audience with President Yasser Arafat inside his compound in Ramallah, attended by more than 500 people. Clearly impressed by the number of internationals present, President Arafat addressed the group alongside Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, Rev. Naim Ateek and the Right Rev. Edmond Browning of Hood River, Oregon, former presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church USA and co-founder of Friends of Sabeel–North America. Thanking Western Christians who were working for justice, the president said that he, too, still was committed to a peaceful solution. A cultural event at the Friends School in Ramallah attended by well over 500 conference participants featured folk dancers of El-Bara’em, the youth contingent of the renowned El-Funoun Palestinian Popular Dance Troupe.

Sister Elaine Kelley is administrative officer of Friends of Sabeel–North America, based in Portland, OR.