Sunday, February 4, 2007
There's a lot of good stuff in Ed Lasky's American Thinker piece: Splitting the Evangelicals from Israel
While there has been much attention given to challenges Israel faces on college campuses, in the media, and increasingly in the halls of Congress, the historically solid and vitally important support given by Evangelical Christians towards Israel is now being threatened. How is this happening and who are the actors?...
...However, the core reason that Evangelicals have an affection for the Jewish people and a strong desire to protect Israel is found, unsurprisingly, in the Bible.
What may surprise people is that the foundation of this support has nothing to do with end-of-days scenarios or the desire to convert the Jews. Instead, there is a belief that God has a covenant with the Jewish people and with Israel. Christians have a religious mandate to support Israel. Throughout the Bible there is language that calls upon Christians to honor and cherish the Jewish people. A key section is found in the very first book of the Bible: Genesis. The promise of Genesis 12:3 regarding the Jewish people is
"I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse".
The Bible also commands Christians to pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6), to speak out for Zion's sake (Isaiah 62:1), and to be watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem (Isaiah 62:6)
To people who interpret Israel to mean the Jews - such as evangelical Christians - Genesis becomes an exhortation to both Zionism and philo-Semitism. (see this Q and A with author David Brog for a further explanation of the basis of Christian Zionism). There is also a feeling of sympathy for the Jews-given the tragic history of Christian anti-Semitism in Europe...
There's a lot more that hits this issue from a variety of different angles, including the Carter angle and the "plummeting Christian population across the Middle East" angle, in the complete article.
That's a solid article by Lasky, he describes Carter's and similar initiatives particularly well. Likewise the manner in which he reflects upon and describes Zev Chafets' recent book seems spot on as well. Otoh I'm not sure Lasky goes far enough with his nuanced view of Christians' motives in their support of Israel. He's certainly right to completely deemphasize eschatological emphases (I've never known anyone to express such views), but even the reference to the Gen. 12:3 verse (""I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse") is not typically accepted unthinkingly, devoid of other primary considerations. For example if Israel had become a Stalinist state virtually all Christiams, imo, would consider that morally/legally and socially/politically aberrational and would not in the least disregard such basic information.
Still, Lasky is thoughtful, very sound, and he closes with precisely the right rhetorical question. First and foremost this is an ideological war, a war of primary and foundational ideas, and it will be won or lost in that theatre.
This is also why socially and ideologically committed Jews, from Abe Foxman to Sam Harris and in between, at least to the extent they care about Israel in a world where public opinion matters, should better temper their initiatives against traditional, classically liberal (conservative or center/right) minded Christians. That won't occur, but to the extent they care in that vein they would be wise to consider that advice.