By Mark D. Tooley, FrontPageMagazine

The National Council of Churches (NCC) is distressed that not all Christians share its animosity towards Israel.

Preferring not to address its own demographic implosion, the NCC periodically lashes out at more demographically robust Christian movements, especially conservative evangelicals. In its latest fusillade, the NCC denounced the “Christian Zionism” of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), which recently convened its second convention in Washington for pro-Israel evangelicals. Newt Gringrich was among the speakers.

“CUFI’s position of uncritical support for Israel separates it from the Anglican, Catholic, Orthodox, and traditional Protestant Churches, all of whom support Israel while at the same time advocate for a Palestinian state,” insisted the NCC’s news release, which mostly quoted Associated General Secretary for International Affairs and Peace Antonios Kireopoulos.

The NCC official asserted that “most Christians” do not share CFI’s stated goals. CFI’s objective, as its website describes, is to increase support for Israel among evangelicals by emphasizing the “the Jewish contribution to Christianity and Israel’s biblical mandate to the land through Bible teachings.”

CFI warns that “with every passing day, the threats to Israel and the Jewish people are growing,” specifically referencing Iran’s nuclear plans and Hamas’ popularity among Palestinians. “Millions of Christians across America have a deep love for Israel and the Jewish people and want to stand with them during these difficult days,” notes the CUFI website, which cites the “threats to Judeo-Christian civilization from radical Islam.”

Speaking unpleasantly about radical jihadists, of course, is unacceptable to the NCC and the Religious Left. “CUFI’s ongoing vilification of Islam is also unacceptable,” fretted Shanta Premawardhana, an NCC interfaith relations official. “The NCC continues to urge Christians to build relationships with Muslim people, the vast majority of whom are peace-loving, law-abiding people.” What the NCC never considers is that refusal to address radical Islamists is no favor to moderate Muslims who are “peace-loving.”

According to the NCC, the CFI has “advocated going to war with Iran,” which is “totally unacceptable,” Premawardhana claimed. “The NCC believes that high-level dialogues with Iran and other Middle Eastern partners is the proper method of dealing with Iran.” The NCC believes in high toned denunciations for Christians who disagree with its political agenda. But radical Islamists and other often very savage adversaries of Western Civilization always merit endless respectful dialogue, according to the NCC mindset.

The NCC, like the rest of the Religious Left, prefers to dismiss all pro-Israel evangelicals as “Left-Behind” fanatics whose support for the Jews is merely a crass and self-serving preparation for the end-times. CFI’s “efforts are the latest in a century old apocalyptic movement that began in earnest in the 19th century,” the NCC asserted. “Sometimes called Christian Zionism because of its uncritical support for the State of Israel, it is based on a literal reading of Biblical apocalyptic texts.”

Actually, Zionism and philo-semitism have a long history in Christianity, arguably dating back to the New Testament, whose writers were themselves Jews who followed a Jewish messiah, obviously. But more specifically among Western Protestants, a mystical attachment to the Jewish people and a belief in their connectedness to the land of Israel originated at least with the English Puritans. Zionism of some sort has nearly always resonated among some religionists in America over the last 400 years.

The NCC’s founders and early leaders were themselves ardent supporters of Israel. It was not until after the radicalization of the 1960’s, and the advent of Liberation Theology, that leftist Protestant prelates suddenly realized that Palestinian insurrectionists were actually God’s revolutionary vanguard against Zionist imperialism. Today, the NCC and its allies insist that they support Israel, within its pre-1967 borders. Naturally, these clerics prefer not to acknowledge that those borders are largely indefensible, and that an unrestricted “right of return” for Palestinian descendants would likely erase the Jewish state demographically.

According to Kireopoulos, the CUFI “message differs greatly with what theologians have taught for centuries” about Israel. Apparently, the NCC believes itself a mouthpiece for orthodox theology, instead of the shrinking pulpit for heterodox liberal Protestantism that it actually is. That the restoration of the Jews to Israel may serve some Providential purpose is hardly a belief confined to freakish evangelicals, as the Religous Left, sitting inside its insulated and largely empty churches, prefers to imagine.

“The NCC advocates for a two-state solution, with a secure Israel alongside a viable Palestinian state,” declared the NCC news release, sounding so very reasonable. “The NCC has stated the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories is unsupportable. This position is shared by Churches worldwide, and is counter to the position espoused by CUFI.”

According to Kireopoulos, “CUFI stands apart from the historic Churches still present in the Holy Land.” These churches for Palestinian Christians are “adversely affected by the policies supported by…CUFI.” The NCC prelate blamed pro-Israel evangelicals in the U.S. for the plight of Palestinian churches, which are “diminishing and are threatened with extinction.”

Of course, the NCC will never mention that Christian populations from throughout the Middle-East are declining, thanks largely to pressures from radical Islam. For the Religious Left, the Islamists themselves are never at fault but are merely the understandable consequence of endless Western oppressions dating to the Crusades. Almost hilariously, Kireopoulos frets about the de-emphasis on Jesus Christ by CUFI’s pro-Israel evangelicals.

“The Christian Gospel is clear that salvation came through the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ,” Kireopoulos intoned. “To supplement this message is to prevert the Gospel” that CUFI claims to preach. Naturally, the NCC and the Religious Left prefer not to mention inconvenient topics such as the resurrection of Christ in their various outreaches to Muslims. In fact, the Resurrection, which for leftist Protestants is typically just a poetic metaphor for social justice, is not a topic on which the NCC typically focuses.

Just as the NCC is almost never interested in persecuted Christians anywhere, except when the supposed perpetrators are Israel and its American evangelical supporters, so too the NCC will not usually cite the Resurrection, except as a polemic against both Israel’s Jews and their Christians friends.

Mark D. Tooley directs the United Methodist committee at the Institute on Religion and Democracy.

by Shelley Neese, FrontPage Magazine

“It’s a new day in America. The sleeping giant of Christian Zionism has awakened!” Pastor John Hagee announced in his booming voice to thunderous applause at the AIPAC Annual Policy Conference last March. What Hagee humbly omitted is that Christians United for Israel (CUFI), a group he formed just over a year ago, deserves much of the credit for arousing the sleepy 50-million-man giant.

To be sure, Zionist Christians are no recent phenomena. Neither is their communal work on behalf of Israel. For the last century, there have been Christian groups supporting Israel through their pocketbooks, prayer, and political power. What changed with CUFI is the visibility and consolidation of the Christian Zionist network. CUFI’s stated purpose is to “provide a national association through which every pro-Israel church, para-church organization, ministry or individual in America can speak and act with one voice in support of Israel in matters related to Biblical issues.”

CUFI, in a short period of time, has become one of the most important Christian grassroots organizations in America. Hesitant to call itself a lobby, preferring the term ‘national association,’ CUFI is often described as a Christian parallel to the Jewish lobbying-giant American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

With the goal of educating and mobilizing Christian support for Israel, CUFI’s signature event is the annual Washington Israel Summit in July. At last year’s Summit, 3,500 Christians convened on Washington to lobby their senators and congressmen on pro-Israel legislation. For this year’s Summit, taking place 17 July, Hagee hopes for twice as many.

For those who can’t make it to DC, CUFI’s volunteer regional directors organize Nights to Honor Israel which are held year-round all over the country. CUFI’s goal is for “Nights to Honor Israel” to be held in every major U.S. city. Thus far there have been over fifty well-attended “Nights to Honor Israel” which have raised over $10 million for charitable causes in Israel.

In forming CUFI, Pastor Hagee envisioned a united evangelical-Jewish alliance standing in defense of Israel. In his words, Congress must know “that the matter of Israel is no longer just a Jewish issue; it is a Christian-Jewish issue.” For an interfaith alliance to take hold there must be enough Jews who are willing to take CUFI’s hand in friendship. While Christian love of Israel may be unconditional, an alliance must be mutual.

The response to Pastor Hagee and the rise of CUFI among Jews has been mixed, predictably divided along liberal/conservative lines. Rabbis and Jewish community leaders who see CUFI as a negative development are generally more liberal in their domestic and foreign policy agendas. Those Jewish voices to the right are extremely optimistic about the surge in Christian support.

CUFI’s greatest moment of acceptance by the Jewish community was Pastor Hagee’s invitation to speak at AIPAC’s national convention. AIPAC broke policy by having Hagee come for a primetime slot. His impassioned speech brought standing ovations and ended with Hagee leading the crowd in a chorus of “Israel Lives!” The speech was widely covered in the press and repeatedly downloaded via the internet. It brought an enthusiastic response from Jews and Israelis that extended far beyond the walls of AIPAC. Bloggers in Israel sat by their computers crying as they heard Hagee’s words. They realized Israelis actually did have friends in the world. Jews in the U.S. said they needed more leaders in their own communities with half the ardor of Hagee and his Christian Zionists.

Not all those in the Jewish community, however, have seen Hagee’s newfound popularity as a good thing. Rabbi James Rudin from the American Jewish Committee criticized AIPAC for “being so focused on the tactical support [Hagee] offers” and ignoring his apocalyptic claims. Daniel Sokatch with the Progressive Jewish Alliance warned, “To get in bed with the hard Christian right on Israel is a dangerous path.”

Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism wrote a critical article for the Jewish Daily Forward entitled “When we Let John Hagee Speak For Us.” Yoffie claims the closer the organized Jewish community becomes to Christian Zionists, the further away they push younger, more liberal, Jews. The acceptance of right-wing Christian leaders like Hagee might alienate those Jews who are more moderate on the Israeli-Palestinian issue. Yoffie says Jewish organizations should rethink their embrace of Hagee and the supportive role they play in CUFI’s “Nights to Honor Israel.”

For most Jewish critics of CUFI there is a deep-seated fear that accepting Christian support for Israel means condoning evangelicals’ opposing religious and political beliefs. CUFI executive director David Brog, himself Jewish, claims that CUFI is a one-issue organization. For Jews and Christians to be partners in the coalition they need only agree on the point of collaboration—Israel.

While debate rages in liberal Jewish circles, there is a notable absence of discussion in the Christian Zionist community. A knee-jerk reaction would be for pastoral circles to ask whether it is in Christian interest to forge an alliance with Jews who have divergent beliefs and agendas. But such a question is irrelevant. Christian Zionists are following a biblical command to love and support the Jewish people and the state of Israel. That love is unconditional.

The new beginning for Jewish-Christian relations is still burdened by 2,000 years of baggage. Rabbi Irving Greenburg in his book For the Sake of Heaven and Earth said “the rearticulation of Christian attitudes toward Judaism and the determination to end the teaching of contempt toward the Jewish religion already constitute one of the great moral cleansing revolutions of all time—in any religion.” Christianity underwent great pains to make things right, breaking with so much history and tradition to purify itself from the evils of anti-Semitism.

If some Jews remain uncomfortable with robust Christianity it is understandable. Christian Zionists must be patient, bearing out consistent genuineness and unconditional love until the wounds are healed. The Christian hand of friendship must remain outstretched to God’s chosen as long as some, or even one, grab hold.

Shelley Neese is the Managing Editor of a DC-based pro-Israel Christian publication called The Jerusalem Connection.

A letter from Mr Alan Hoffman:

Dear Editor

I refer you to the Frontpagemag.com article dealing with Bishop Tom Wright.

Bishop Tom Wright, Church of England, repeated the old saw late last year that, “Every bomb dropped has proved to be another al-Qaeda recruiting agent, just as several of us were saying four years ago.” He also called on America to stop supporting Israel (another democracy). Such thinking says all forceful resistance is self-defeating. But if Wright’s blanket moral assertion were correct, then the Royal Air Force only increased the number of dedicated Nazis and Fascists during World War II and every American soldier stationed in Europe for 60 years caused more Soviet intrangience. How stupid and unlearned of history can he be? Those who do not study/learn from history will repeat it.

As for the call to stop supporting Israel, I would remind the good Bishop , and the Anglican Church, that Israel, a nuclear power reputedly with 200-300 warheads, if felt beseiged enough, can do far more damage to the world, environment (or European supporters of Jihad), than Hitler did. American conventional war, political and economic support tends to inhibit such use of power, not unleash it. The very purpose of the over 40+ bilateral and multilateral defense treaties America has with other nations is specifically intended to keep the nuclear genie in the bottle and prevent unimaginable escalation to occur even when small wars erupt.

The Bishop of course does not learn from history. The Holocaust, caused by such ineffective Europeans, taught Jews one supreme lesson: Never Again. That “never again” has become the unofficial but pyschologically ingrained 614th commandment for Jews worldwide. If you want an Israel unleashing its nuclear strike capability, then please, influence America to stop supporting Israel,because an isolated Israel will be attacked by the combined forces of Islam. Or better yet, support a European (i.e., Christian?) invasion of Israel to finish off what 2,000 years of “loving” that Christian history has not acheived - the end of Jews and Judaism. Then also ponder this - can you use oil for gasoline that is irradiated or can you wait 10 - 20 years until such radiation levels are reduced to pump that oil again? The bishop does not consider consequences of the alienation of Jews, only of the poor “terrorist community”. While the jihadist/Islamic mentality adores death of others, and acepts it lovingly for itself with grand visions of heaven, the Judaic mentality knows that it cannot allow the next Holocaust because we love life, not death, and the self-sacrifice the bishop would expect of Jews was lost in 1945 - especially to the Europeans.

Alan Hoffman

International Holocaust Remembrance Day, 27 January 2007

Anglicans for Israel is joining with St Paul’s Church, Kersal in Salford for a special Holocaust Remembrance Day event, to which all are welcome.
This is on Saturday 27 January, 2-4 pm. Venue: St Paul’s Church, Moor Lane, Kersal Salford M7 (near Manchester).

St Paul’s will also feature remembrance of the Holocaust in its Sunday services on 28 January. The Rector of St Paul’s, The Revd Lisa Battye, is a Patron of AFI.

Please also support the campaign Learn from History for Holocaust Day during Holocaust Week.

Please register your support on their website.

This letter was recently written to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, by Frances Waddams, a Regional Director of Anglicans for Israel. This was just before the visit by Dr Williams to Bethlehem and his subsequent comments.

Dear Dr Williams

I enjoyed your recent interview in the Tablet and was particularly interested in your forthcoming pilgrimage to Bethlehem, and I hope and pray that it will be a fruitful one. But I thought your question, ‘’I would like to know how much it matters to the Israeli Government to have Christian communities in the Holy Land,” curious.

It suggests that the Israeli Government is ambivalent towards Christian communities in the Holy Land. Yet in Israel, Christian communities of all types are flourishing. For example, leaders of Messianic communities report that their relatively new congregations now have some 10,000 Messianic believers – the largest number of Jewish believers in Israel since Bible times. The Israeli constitution protects freedom of religion, which in itself is a confirmation of Israel’s commitment to its Christian minority.

So does your question refer to the Palestinian Church, and does it indicate that you believe that Israeli actions and policies constitute the sole threat to its continued existence? If so, this underlying assumption seems unjust. Well documented and long standing intimidation of Palestinian Christians by Palestinian Islamists poses at least as much of a threat to the Christian witness in the Territories as Israeli actions. It has resulted in a haemorrhage of Palestinian Christians from the PA, independently of hardship caused by the conflict with Israel. Sadly, Anglican leaders rarely mention this threat to the Church in the Holy Land when they give interviews or make public statements.

Would it not be helpful for you now publicly to affirm the freedom of religion given by Israel to her citizens, and to condemn both the intimidation of Palestinian Christians by Palestinian Muslims and the continuing attacks by Palestinians on Israeli civilians, which render it necessary for Israel to take action to defend their civilian population, which result in hardship for both Christian and Muslim Palestinians?

I look forward to receiving your observations. In the meantime, may I take this opportunity to wish you and your family a very merry Christmas and a Happy and Peaceful 2007.

Yours sincerely

Frances Waddams
Regional Director, Anglicans for Israel

IPRAYNEWS.com to launch new international news network via Internet

IPRAYNEWS will launch the first international news network via satellite by airing a free broadcast of the Christmas festivities in Bethlehem. The 60 minute live web video and audio will be replayed for 24 hours starting on December 24th at 2:00 pm Eastern Standard Time US. Christians from all over the world gather in Bethlehem each year to celebrate the birth of Jesus. This year will be the first time that Christians worldwide can experience the paramount celebration from the comfort of their homes with their families.

Just as the wise men came bearing gifts so can you visit Bethlehem and give the gift of prayer. IPRAYNEWS would like to unite the prayers of Christians around the globe this Christmas by presenting this unique program from Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, free of charge.

Sign on to www.IPRAYNEWS.com to see the special Bethlehem parade and tree lighting in Manger Square. Go into the ancient Church of the Nativity for the rare viewing of the Christ Mass. Then browse the many exciting services that this program has to offer its members.

Members of IPRAYNEWS will have 24 hour access to live video and audio footage of the Temple Mount, the Western Wall, the Mount of Olives and Eastern Gate in Jerusalem. Coming soon will be the Sea of Galilee, Isle of Patmos as well as the United Nations in New York City and the European Union in Brussels with more sites added worldwide.

This site offers free calling to other members through voice over IP.

IPRAYNEWS offers relevant global news for prayer, seminars with world renowned lecturers, interactive Q&A, current events as they happen, pending governmental decisions and many more features.

Celebrate Christmas this year in Bethlehem at www.IPRAYNEWS.com where you can unite with other Christians in prayer over the holy places in Israel and the decision-making centers around the world.

We publish here a letter from The Bridge Christian Fellowship to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams:

Dear Dr Williams,

I have read the article in ‘The Tablet’ in which you speak about people leaving Bethlehem in large numbers and then ask the question: “I would like to know how much it matters to the Israeli Government to have Christian communities in the Holy Land. Are they an embarrassment or are they part of a solution? That’s a question.”

No doubt the Israelis have already given you their answer, perhaps informing you that the Christian Arab population within the pre 1967 borders of Israel has grown from approximately 34,000 in 1948 to nearly 130,000 in 2005. Ironically this is the only part of the Middle East where the Christian population is growing.

You should really have asked the Palestinian Authority how much it matters to them that there are Christian communities in their territory.
The main reason for the departure of Christians from PA administered territories is the religious persecution, murder and land grabs which stems from the increased Islamisation of the region. This is the result of the PA adopting Muslim religious law in the territories in contrast to Israel which safeguards the religious freedom of its citizens.

You have nothing to say about the likes of George Rabie, featured in a recent article in the Mail on Sunday who is a taxi driver from Bethlehem and was beaten up by Muslims using his cab when they discovered he is a Christian. He said ‘Every day, I experience discrimination. It is a type of racism. We are a minority so we are an easier target. Many extremists from the villages are coming into Bethlehem.’

Nor have you championed the cause of those who have been subjected to forced marriages of Christian women to Muslim men, received death threats for distributing the Bible to willing Muslims, or been intimidated into wearing traditional ultra-modest Islamic clothing. Nor have you written about the churches which have been firebombed by Muslim extremists protesting against the remarks of the Pope (most recently in Nablus, Tubas, and Gaza). Nor about the situation in which Christian Arabs have found their land expropriated by Muslims or been forced to pay bribes to win the freedom of family members jailed on trumped-up charges.

All of this is the main reason why Christian Arabs have been selling or abandoning homes and businesses, seeking to escape the chaos and corruption of the PA and move to Israel, Europe, South America, North America, or wherever they can get a visa.

Why do you have nothing to say about any of this in The Tablet or other public media? Of course you do not need to answer. We all know. No one in public life dares to make any comment even mildly critical of Islamic behaviour. On the other hand Israeli Jews are an easy target.
In this way we in the west are already submitting to Islamic demands and behaving like ‘dhimmi’ citizens subject to the rule of the mosque. I find this utterly shameful and a betrayal of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Yours sincerely,

Tony Pearce.

Pastor of The Bridge Christian Fellowship.

Episcopal Church’s portrayal of Arab-Israeli conflict is false, says CAMERA

After preparing an analysis of the Episcopal Church’s stance on the Arab-Israeli conflict, CAMERA (The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America) sent letters to Rt. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, incoming Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, and to Rev. Canon Brian Grieves, the church’s Director of the Peace and Justice Ministries. The letters express concern about the one-sided and distorted narrative the Episcopal Church has broadcast about the Arab-Israeli conflict. Although prominent members and bishops within the Church have expressed concern about Church’s portrayal of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the national leaders of the denomination have failed to respond.

Read the letters here »

Just months later, university ejects evangelical Christians from campus

by Bob Unruh, WorldNetDaily.com

The Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University has been renamed after Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal donated $20 million to its projects. And while that may be just the tail, the dog appears to be moving away from its historic Catholic and Jesuit teaching philosophy too.

The Center’s leaders say it now will be used to put on workshops regarding Islam, fostering exchanges with the Muslim world, addressing U.S. policy towards the Muslim world, working on the relationship of Islam and Arab culture, addressing Muslim citizenship and civil liberties, and developing exchange programs for students from the Muslim world.

The “Christian” part of the center’s projects at the university that has a history of 200 years of higher education following its Christian founding, is conspicuous by its absence in its website plans for its 10-year future.

But that won’t be a surprise to leaders of a number of Christian evangelical groups whose leaders recently were told to leave the campus and not list Georgetown University as a site for operations in the future.

Read the report in full »

From The Times (London):

Carey backs Pope and issues warning on ‘violent’ Islam
by Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent, and Richard Owen, in Rome

THE former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey of Clifton has issued his own challenge to “violent” Islam in a lecture in which he defends the Pope’s “extraordinarily effective and lucid” speech.

Lord Carey said that Muslims must address “with great urgency” their religion’s association with violence. He made it clear that he believed the “clash of civilisations” endangering the world was not between Islamist extremists and the West, but with Islam as a whole.

“We are living in dangerous and potentially cataclysmic times,” he said. “There will be no significant material and economic progress [in Muslim communities] until the Muslim mind is allowed to challenge the status quo of Muslim conventions and even their most cherished shibboleths.”

Read the full article »