Mainline Christians Fail Israel Now—and the Jews Again
Mainline Christian churches in the West and mainline Arab/Palestinian Christian theologians in the Middle East, have set off strident alarms with their responses to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Before it’s too late, these all-too-familiar sirens should strike fear in our Christian hearts—again.
Our confused petitioning for a Christian version of peace in the Middle East shows that we mainline Christians don’t remember our participation in a similar situation—when it involved supporting or not supporting the Jewish people. We only need to look back eighty years to recognize the Christian Church’s support for Germany’s Third Reich. That was when our biblical interpretation of scripture supported the destruction of the Jewish people in Polish death camps during World War II.
Since the October 7 barbaric massacre of Israelis by Hamas, the Church’s public statements, while condemning Hamas, also seem to justify its attack by blaming the Israeli occupation as the root cause of Palestinian frustration and the resultant hand-to-hand murders. Since October 8, when Hezbollah began shooting thousands of rockets into Israel, there seems to be little or no concern for Israel’s right to exist while being attacked by Iran’s proxies in Lebanon (Hezbollah), in Yemen (Houthis), or in Syria and Iraq (Islamic militias). These attacks have only one goal—to end Israel’s existence—not to end to the “occupation.”
Have our churches forgotten the terrorist attacks on America and the world by Hezbollah?
I haven’t. I remember Hezbollah’s 1983 suicide truck bombing of the US Embassy in Beirut, killing 48 staff members, wounding many others. There subsequently was an attack by Hezbollah in the same year targeting the American marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 American and 58 French soldiers. The US had a 5-million-dollar bounty on Fuad Shukr, the Lebanese Hezbollah commander it held responsible for the attack 41 years ago. Israel caught up with Shukr this year, killing him for the rocket attack on an Israeli-Druze village in the Golan Heights that killed 12 Druze children at play.
Have we Christians forgotten the definition of terrorism? Do we remember that Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Taliban are listed right alongside the Proud Boys as terrorist organizations on Canada’s watchlist? The U.S. lists the same groups on our terrorist list along with ISIS and Al Qaeda.
Do you remember Al Qaeda?
I do, and I remember September 11, 2001. Many college and university student protesters today were not yet born or were little children at the time. It isn’t history for me, it’s a living memory—the loss of 3000 American civilians and others by another Islamic jihadist organization, Al Qaeda, that struck at our American core.
Members of my Lutheran congregation in New Jersey, were working in New York City that day, and many of us knew friends and family caught up in that horrible suicide attack and its long unfolding aftermath. Like many pastors, I commemorated 9/11 on Sundays close to the date of this tragedy in the years following; many churches in the United States still do.
Was October 7, 2023, a terrorist attack? According to the United Nations definition: terrorism includes criminal acts that are intended to cause death or serious bodily injury, or to take hostages. Speaking of which, there are still American citizens held hostage by Hamas in Gaza.
While we Christians continue to pray for a vague cloud of peace to settle over the Middle East, we do not seem to pray for Israel’s success in defending itself against terrorists. We rightly pray for Palestinian civilians who are wounded or killed in Gaza. But something feels wrong. We do not acknowledge that Israel is a sovereign nation, which is under attack, and which has the right to defend itself.
Does this mean that, in our desire for peace, we American mainline Christians end up supporting—even applauding—known terrorist organizations like Hamas?
Where is our support for Israel against its numerous attackers who want to eliminate, or dismantle it as their goal? Why our silence? Are we so “drunk with peace”—as Douglas Murray says—that we can’t take a stand?
We call for ceasefires to stop the killing, and it sounds good on paper. Although we may feel righteous, the terrorists end up feeling grateful to us because they use ceasefires to re-arm, re-strategize and resume killing.
This tactic does not contribute to a lasting peace. Israel lives in constant fear and in constantly resumed conflicts because there have only been ceasefires in Israel’s entire history as a nation since the 1948 war. That war “paused” for a ceasefire that resumed in the 1967 war, which “paused” in a ceasefire until the 1973 war, which “paused” for a ceasefire until the 1982 war, which “paused” for a ceasefire.
The world—including our mainline Christians—once again call for a ceasefire, but never demand the surrender of Israel’s aggressors.
We Christians are walking a slippery slope. We must ask ourselves some hard questions. One such question might be: What should we peace-loving Christians have done after Pearl Harbor? Should we have called for a ceasefire with Japan in 1941?
I was born after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and I still support the actions of the United States when defending itself at that time.
As a note to student protesters who were born after September 11, 2001, can you—in good conscience—support terrorist groups like Hamas?
(Click Above)
Comments