Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, September-October 2002, pages 80-81

Christianity and the Middle East

The Christian Right and Support for Israel

By Fred Strickert

How does one explain the differences in Middle East policies between President George W. Bush and that of his father just a decade ago? For some the answer is quite simple. It is the influence of the Christian right on the younger Bush.

During Israel’s April military incursions in the West Bank, Washington Post writer Dan Balz described the shift. “The growing strength of the Republican Party’s conservative wing has given the party a more decidedly pro-Israel tilt than when Bush’s father was dealing with the Middle East,” Balz wrote in the paper’s April 7 edition, “and marks a dramatic change in a party whose most conservative wing once bristled with an undercurrent of anti-Semitism.”

Unlike the elder Bush, who is Episcopalian and somewhat private concerning the topic of religion, the younger Bush, a Methodist, seems to wear his religion on his sleeve, speaking openly of himself as a born-again Christian. “The senior Bush’s support for Israel was more pragmatic,” said Balz, “and W’s is more emotional.”

During the events of the past few months, this has resulted in a clear tension among foreign policy advisers. Secretary of State Colin Powell, like the elder Bush an Episcopalian, has represented the traditional pragmatic line. It is not surprising that he has exhibited an openness to meet with leaders of mainline Christian denominations who advocate a balanced approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (See “Church Leaders Discuss Middle East Peace with Secretary of State Colin Powell,” Aug./Sept. 2001 Washington Report, pp. 66-67.)

Others, such as Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, reflect the views of more conservative Bush supporters. Many note that the current president has sought advisers from the era of Ronald Reagan, a president noted for his strong apocalyptic views associated with the Christian Right.

The bottom line is that the voice of the Christian Right has been winning out. Gary Bauer, conservative Christian activist and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families, openly criticized Bush for sending Powell to the region, arguing, “Ninety percent of what he said was undercut by the demand that Israel withdraw.” Instead he encouraged Bush to offer full support for Israel, “to drain the swamp that is producing these murderers.”

Bush’s increasing inclination to the fundamentalist position on Israel reflects a number of factors. One is his already established alliance with Christian conservatives on domestic issues and his reliance on their support for his re-election in order to complete that domestic agenda. The other is the seeming success of the war on terrorism, which has been couched in terms of black and white. “Either they’re for us or they’re against us,” Bush has been fond of saying. The Christian right thus has pushed the president into viewing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in similarly simplistic terms.

“Stand with Israel” has been described as a Christian version of AIPAC.

In June, President Bush addressed the St. Louis assembly of the Southern Baptist Convention, thanking them for “your good works” and for being “good citizens of America.” “You and I share common commitments,” he told the 10,000 conventiongoers via satellite hook-up. Little did it matter that former SBC president Jerry Vines described Islam as a war-mongering religion and characterized the Prophet Muhammad as “a demon-possessed pedophile”—comments endorsed later by the newly elected president, Jack Graham.

For decades the Christian right has offered one-sided support for Israel. Fundamentalists, Bauer notes, “feel deeply that America has an obligation to stand by Israel,” based “on readings of the Scripture, where evangelicals believe God has promised that land to the Jewish people.”

The state of Israel itself has courted this relationship. Soon after Menachem Begin was elected prime minister in 1977, Israel gave a Lear jet to Baptist preacher and Moral Majority leader Jerry Falwell, who in 1980 was awarded the prestigious Jabotinsky Award. The alliance became so strong that when Israel bombed Iraq’s nuclear plant in 1981, Begin reportedly phoned Falwell to solicit political support before he informed President Reagan. In return, Falwell pledged in an address to the Rabbinical Assembly in Miami “to mobilize 70 million conservative Christians for Israel.”

Now the mantle has fallen to Ralph Reed, former head of the Christian Coalition and currently chairman of the Republican Party of the state of Georgia.

Reed has joined with Orthodox Rabbi Yehiel Eckstein of Chicago to form “Stand with Israel,” which some have described as a Christian version of Washington’s powerful pro-Israel lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Reed always has admired the latter organization, saying, “They’re good at the outside game, we’re good at the inside game,” according to Eli Kitisch in the June 21, 2002 Forward. Reed also noted that the new organization will help Christian conservatives focus on a single issue, compared to the Christian Coalition, where support for Israel was one of several dozen issues.

Rabbi Eckstein has a proven track record among the Christian right. As president of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, he has raised over $60 million for development and settlement projects in Israel. Just this summer this organization contributed $2 million to assist 531 North American Jews to complete the aliya to Israel—including some to be settled in illegal West Bank settlements.

“We hope that within a year we will have a million registered supporters,” reported Eckstein. Registration will be conducted on an Internet site, where users will be kept informed on legislation and be able to send letters of support to Congress.

Eckstein, in fact, has been somewhat critical of AIPAC for not having been more active in creating such an alliance with fundamentalist Christians.

Wary American Jews

At the same time, many American Jews are wary of such a close alliance. Rabbi David Saperstein, executive director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, expressed concern for the Christian Right’s literal interpretation of biblical passages leading to the belief in Israel’s divine right to all the land of historic Palestine. The idea that fundamentalist Christians would lobby Washington to reject “land-for-peace” proposals, said Saperstein, causes “discomfort among a significant majority of Jews who believe in a diplomatic solution.” A similar view was expressed by New Republic editor Peter Beinart in his May column, “Bad Move.”

Other American Jewish leaders are concerned about the proselytizing tendency of conservative Christians. It was not that long ago, after all, that Southern Baptist Convention president Bailey Smith publicly announced that “God does not hear the prayers of the Jews.” Today many focus their efforts on such organizations as Jews for Jesus.

Perhaps an even greater concern is Christian fundamentalists’ Apocalyptic Armageddon version of the end times. According to this scenario, a Middle East war is preferable to a peace based on compromise because the former would usher in the second coming of Christ. This has to be problematic for Jews, since a mass conversion to Christianity by Jews is part of that oft-repeated timetable.

Other Christian fundamentalists are wrapped up in the idea of a third temple to be built on the current site of the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque. Once again this fall, on the Jewish holy day of Succoth, thousands of fundamentalist Christians will make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem to rally with an extreme element of Israelis in promoting this endeavor.

While Falwell, Hal Linsey, and others long have preached this end-time scenario, it is now Tim LaHaye who has popularized it with his Left Behind series of books. Significantly, LaHaye’s name was joined with that of Falwell and others in an April advertisement in the Jerusalem Post assuring Israelis of the prayers of the Christian right.

Many American Jews and Israelis thus are rightly cautious that politics breeds such strange bedfellows.

Nevertheless, others see the alliance as necessary. Mort Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, is willing to overlook such problematic theology in return for whole-hearted support for Israel. “I want their support now,” Klein says, “and I don’t care what their theology says down the line.”

For mainline Christian leaders, what is most discouraging is the Christian right’s complete disregard for established churches in the Middle East. One leader summarized the problem by saying, “To recognize the existence of Palestinian Christians, as well as their plight, would be to admit that complicated issues cannot be painted in black and white.”

Sunday, Sept. 8, 2002 has been designated as a day of support for Israel within fundamentalist churches. The date was selected by Rabbi Eckstein to coincide with the second day of Rosh Hashanah. Coming as it does days before Sept. 11, it is a clear attempt to link closely the Israeli cause with the World Trade Center attacks.

“Millions of Americans will attend church on that day,” Eckstein told Yair Sheleg in the May 29 issue of the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, “among them President Bush and the leaders of the Republican Party.”

SIDEBAR 1

Other Evangelical Leaders* Urge Bush to Follow “Even-Handed U.S. Policy”

July 2, 2002

Dear Mr. President,

We write as American evangelical Christians concerned for the well-being of all the children of Abraham in the Middle East—Christian, Jewish and Muslim. We urge you to employ an even-handed policy toward Israeli and Palestinian leadership so that this bloody conflict will come to a speedy close and both peoples can live without fear and in a spirit of shalom/salaam. An even-handed U.S. policy toward Israelis and Palestinians does not give a blank check to either side, nor does it bless violence by either side. An even-handed policy affirms the valid interests of Israelis and Palestinians: both states free, economically viable and secure, with normal relations between Israel and all its Arab neighbors.

We commend your stated support for a Palestinian state with 1967 borders, and encourage you to move boldly forward so that the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people for their own state may be realized. We abhor and condemn the suicide bombings of the last 22 months and the failure of the Palestinian Authority in the first year of the intifada to stop the violence against Israeli citizens.

We grieve over the loss of life, particularly among children, and the suffering by Israelis and Palestinians. The longer the bloodletting continues, the more difficult it will be for both sides to reconcile with each other. We urge you to provide the leadership necessary for peacemaking in the Middle East by vigorously opposing injustice, including the continued unlawful and degrading Israeli settlement movement. The theft of Palestinian land and the destruction of Palestinian homes and fields is surely one of the major causes of the strife that has resulted in terrorism and the loss of so many Israeli and Palestinian lives. The continued Israeli military occupation that daily humiliates ordinary Palestinians is also having disastrous effects on the Israeli soul.

Mr. President, the American evangelical community is not a monolithic bloc in full and firm support of present Israeli policy. Significant numbers of American evangelicals reject the way some have distorted biblical passages as their rationale for uncritical support for every policy and action of the Israeli government instead of judging all actions—of both Israelis and Palestinians—on the basis of biblical standards of justice. The great Hebrew prophets, Isaiah and Jeremiah, declared in the Old Testament that God calls all nations and all people to do justice one to another, and to protect the oppressed, the alien, the fatherless and the widow.

Finally, Mr. President, be assured of our prayers for you and your cabinet as you lead our nation in this troubled time. May the strength and peace of the Lord be with you.

Sincerely,

Raymond J. Bakke, Executive Director, International Urban Associates, Seattle, WA

Craig Barnes, Senior Pastor, National Presbyterian Church, Washington, DC

Marilyn Borst, Executive Director, Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding, Houston, TX

Gary M. Burge, Professor of Theology, Wheaton College & Graduate School, Wheaton, IL

Clive Calver, President, World Relief of the National Association of Evangelicals, Baltimore, MD

Paul-Gordon Chandler, President & CEO, Partners International, Spokane, WA

John Crosby, Pastor, Christ Presbyterian Church, Minneapolis, MN

Tim Dearborn, Chairman, International Fellowship Of Evangelical Mission Theologians, USA, Seattle, WA

John De Haan, Executive Director, Association of Evangelical Relief & Development Organizations (AERDO), Grand Rapids, MI

John R. Dellenback, Former Director, U.S. Peace Corps, U.S. House of Representatives (ret.), Medford, OR

Christopher Doyle, President & CEO, American Leprosy Missions, Greenville, SC

Craig Hilton Dyer, President, Bright Hope International, Hoffman Estates, IL

Colleen Townsend Evans, Author, Writer, Fresno, CA

Leighton Ford, President, Leighton Ford Ministries, Charlotte, NC

Steve Hayner, Past President, InterVarsity, USA, Madison, WI

Paul Kennel, President, World Concern, Seattle, WA

Don Kruse, Vice President, Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation, Chicago, IL

Peter Kuzmic, Distinguised Professor of World Missions & European Studies, Gordon-Conwell Seminary, South Hamilton, MA

Max Lange, President, Childcare International, Bellingham, WA

Gordon MacDonald, Board Chairman, World Relief of the National Association of Evangelicals, Boston, MA

Michael A. Mata, Pastor of Leadership Development, Pasadena (CA) First Church of the Nazarene, Director, Urban Leadership Institute

Rev. Dr. Albert G. Miller, Midwest District Minister, The House of the Lord Pentecostal Church, Oberlin, OH

Paul Moore, President, CitiHope International, Andes, NY

Richard J. Mouw, President, Fuller Seminary Pasadena, CA

David Neff, Editor, Christianity Today, Carol Stream, IL

Victor D. Pentz, Senior Minister, Peachtree Presbyterian Church, Atlanta, GA

Eugene F. Rivers, Special Assistant to the President, Pan-African Charismatic Evangelical Congress, Boston, MA

Leonard Rodgers President, Venture International, Tempe, AZ

Andrew Ryskamp, Executive Director, Christian Reformed World Relief Committee-U.S., Grand Rapids, MI

Scott C. Sabin, Executive Director, Floresta USA, San Diego, CA

Cheryl J. Sanders, Senior Pastor, Third Street Church of God, Washington DC, Howard University School of Divinity

Amb. (ret.) Robert A. Seiple, Founder & President, The Institute for Global Engagement, St. Davids, PA

Ronald J. Sider, President, Evangelicals for Social Action, St. Davids, PA

Luci N. Shaw, Author, Lecturer, Writer in Residence, Regent College, Vancouver, B.C., Canada

James Skillen, President, Center for Public Justice, Annapolis, MD

Glen Harold Stassen, Professor of Christian Ethics, Fuller Seminary, Pasadena, CA

Richard Stearns, President, World Vision U.S., Federal Way, WA

Amb. (ret.) Clyde D. Taylor, Board, International Justice Mission, Washington, DC

Dean Trulear, Pastor, Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church, Twin Oaks, PA

Harold Vogelaar, Resident Scholar in World Religions, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago

Donald Wagner Director, Center for Middle East Studies, North Park University, Chicago, IL

Robin & Nancy Wainwright, Board of Directors, Holy Land Trust, Pasadena, CA

Philip Yancey, Author, Evergreen, CO

*Since it was first sent, 19 additional evangelical leaders have signed the above letter.

Fred Strickert is professor of religion at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa.