Canadian Republicanism and Christian Zionism by Ron Dart

The National Post (Saturday August 19 2006) carried a full page advertisement, sponsored by Christians United for Israel, calling for a ‘National Day of Prayer for Israel and the Peace of Jerusalem’. A short read of the advertisement makes it quite clear that the political agenda for the day of prayer is support of Zionism. The organization that sponsored the advertisement, Christians United for Israel, is a right of centre activist organization with close ties to Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Benny Hinn and John Hagee. It is interesting to note that Benny Hinn was offered some of his earliest vision and assistance by the well known Canadian Christian Zionists, Merv and Merla Watson.  A browse through the Canadian affiliate website tells the tale in startling clarity (www.cufi.ca). 

The connection between republican politics and Zionism in the USA and between conservatism and Zionism in Canada does raise some worrisome questions. If I was a Palestinian, I might have some questions. What about an organization called Christians for Palestinians?  Christians United for Israel has a large following in both the USA and Canada, and such a following does have an impact on the foreign policy of both Canada and the USA in the Middle East (and who sides with who and why). It also does much to define who the terrorists are. It does not take much reflection to sort of where Christians United for Israel line up in this ideological chess game.

It is significant to note that on the Christians United for Israel website another conservative organization is recommended. Institute for Canadian Values (www.canadianvalues.ca) has decided Zionist leanings, and the connection between Canadian values and Zionism does beg some rather serious questions. Do Canadian values equal uncritical support for Zionism? The CEO of Institute for Canadian Values is Joseph C. Ben-Ami, and his website makes it rather obvious (particularly in the books recommended) that he has so linked Canadian values with Anglo-American republicanism (and brought such a mixture into Canada) that he seems to know nothing about the more complex nature of historic Canadian conservatism. Smith, Hayek, Novak, Neuhaus and many more Republicans are held high. This heady mixture of republicanism and Zionism equals, so Ben-Ami and the Institute for Canadian Values think, Canadian values. Surely, most thoughtful Canadians would have serious problems with such a questionable synthesis. Ben-Ami’s website does need to be pondered, read and noted for the worrisome connections made, and the serious inability to understand Canadian history.

Christians United for Israel and Institute for Canadian Values point the way to Equipping Christians for the Public Square Centre (www.ecpcentre.org). Tristan Emmanuel is the captain and chief of Equipping Christians for the Public Square, and there is no doubt where such a tribe rests its committed head. The hot button social issues such as family, abortion, gay rights, crime and punishment, public education and the welfare system dominate the day.

The USA, guided by Bush, and Canada, led by Harper, are seen as the great hope of Christian political and national renewal. Again, a tour of the website of Equipping Christians for the Public Square reveals the how a limited and reductionistic interpretation of Christianity has come to be equated with republicanism in the culture and political wars of our time. I’m sure many Canadians and Christians would have their doubts and questions about the merging of Canada-Christian-republican-Zionist. But these organizations and think-tanks often make such a move. Needless to say, such an ideology does breed serious distortions about the meaning of what it means to be a Canadian and Christian.

Christians United for Israel has another companion organization in Canada that has drawn the naïve and historically illiterate. Watchmen for the Nations (www.watchmen.org) was started by Bob Birch on the West Coast. Bob Birch was well connected with Bernice Gerard, and both have played a significant role in linking the Christian charismatic and renewal movements with Republican politics and Zionism. Bob Birch and Bernice Gerard have a decades long history with David Mainse of 100 Huntley Street in Burlington, Ontario, and Mainse, Birch and Gerard have made it quite clear why and how they turn to the political right and Zionism in their read, interpretation and application of the Bible for these times. Birch and Gerard are now aging, but new leadership has taken over Watchmen for the Nations, and the position of such a group merely follows the Republican and Zionist lead of their elders.

Christians United for Israel, Watchmen for the Nations, Institute for Canadian Values and Equipping Christians for the Public Square have their distinct appeal for those who think Western civilization and Canada is slipping into a moral abyss and vacuum. Such organizations and their leaders do much to motivate the rank and file foot soldiers to fight for traditional values against the corrosive nature of liberalism and secular humanism. Such words are often bandied about without much in-depth understanding of what they mean, but such is the nature of ideology.

There is yet another group (dominated by younger people) that have joined this right of centre parade. Such a group drew more than 5,000 to Parliament Hill this spring to rally the Republican cause. Zionism is always there. 4MyCanada (www.4mycanada.ca) has been led by Faytene Krystow, and, in many ways, this movement of people in their teens and twenties is indebted to the earlier vision of Birch, Mainse and Gerard. 4MyCanada stands on the shoulders of Mainse and 100 Huntley Street and Birch’s Watchmen for the Nations. All of these groups tend to merge Christianity, Republicanism and Zionism. The USA is seen as a good place, for such an empire has tended, in the last few decades, to support the Jewish cause. Therefore, Christianity becomes linked to the American Republican way, and both join affectionate hands with Zionism. The mixture becomes even more interesting when this concoction is stirred with the Bible and Canadian values. 4MyCanada brings together charismatic and Christian renewal types with Harperite conservatism and pro-Israeli policies in the Middle East.

I must admit, as a historic Canadian Tory of the vintage of Inglis and Strachan, Forsey and Creighton, Leacock and Grant, Acorn and Fiamengo, Sibbald and De la Roche, Moodie and Parr Traill, I find little in common with such notions of conservatism. Such ideas are foreign to the noblest and best aspects of Canadian High Toryism. A real turn to Canadian virtues begins with a much deeper understanding of Canadian religious, political, and intellectual history. It is rather ironic that the organizations mentioned above that claim to be conservative have little knowledge of what it means to truly conserve Canadian history. Most, I suspect, have a rather thin knowledge of Christian and Western history, also.

We do need to ask, by way of conclusion, whether it is possible to link, with any serious integrity, Christianity, republicanism and Zionism. The attempt to do this by Christians United for Israel, Watchmen for the Nations, Institute for Canadian Values, Equipping Christians for the Public Square and 4MyCanada does need to be called into question by both Canadians who know their history well and Christians grounded in the finest tradition of peacemaking and justice-seeking. Ideology of the right, centre or left in the Culture wars of our time will not do. Critical thinking is called for to prevent a new form of religious and political Puritanism and fascism from colonizing hearts, head and souls.

Ron Dart

Comments

[Nicolas]

Umm, do we not know that Christians are The Israelites, the ones who have inherited the promise in which the Jews have turned away. According to scripture, history and the Church Fathers.

[Aaron Zacharias]

I find this wholesale endorsement of Zionism by many evangelical Christians to be disturbing and somewhat embarrassing (in the seventies I looked up to Bob Birch as a mentor. Not any longer!). While I have no problem with Israel's right to thrive and exist it baffles me that so many Christians can remain blind to the sufferings of the Palestinian people so that the Israelis can thrive. There is good reason that for the people of Palestine the birth of the modern state of Israel is Al Naqba (the Great Disaster), given that 150,000 Palestinians had to flee for their lives while the Jewish settlers took over their land and homes. This selective and prejudicial proof-texting of Scripture that many Christians are prone to I think is the cause of this wrong-headed support. Yes, there is animosity and misunderstanding on both sides and much blood (more Palestinian than Israeli) has been shed because of this.
If Jesus is the Messiah, he is equally so for the Palestians as for the Jews, and surely his blood was shed to atone for all the blood wrongly spilled for and by both peoples. As long as such personalities as Merv and Merla Watson continue to take sides while ignoring the Call from the Cross for reconciliation and healing they are simply perpetuating and worsening the crisis.

[Nathan]

John, thanks for sharing that article, you seemed to have read my mind. This evangelical perspective helps re: the West vs. Islam, but if you know of any sources addressing Christian Zionism specifically (and palatable for conservatives) I'd love to know. I know there are plenty of arguments against it from secular, political & human rights perspectives; but obviously those don't register for conservatives grounded in Christian Zionist theo-ideology, who then induce their political views and priorities from their religious views. Most Christian Zionists are correct in their synthesizing of faith and politics together, the problem is the type of faith they've extracted from the Bible, as well as the problematic subscriptions to nationalism, ethnocentrism, and xenophobia. I feel it is the universal values underlying the Bible, of love, righteousness/justice, compassion, humility and peacemaking- and epitomized in Christ- that need to be re prioritized for such people...

[John Shorack]

Thank you, Mr. Dart, for writing on these Christian Zionist movements. If readers have conservative family members and friends who are caught up in these Zionist kinds of groups, I want to recommend a fine article you can pass on to them. It was penned by a conservative Evangelical, with conservative concerns about world evangelization. Yet he's from Sri Lanka and challenges Christians from the West to go beyond their national allegiances. The article is called "A view from the other side of the globe", by Ajith Fernando. To read it, go to: www.1jn419.blogspot.com

[Nathan]

I just now happened to come across this interesting article, the topic is of significant interest to me. I would like to see more in depth explanations of labels like republican and zionism, and how they actually relate to Canada and Christianity today- credibly or incredibly. And more importantly, what can be done to prevent, expose and counter this neo "religious and political Puritanism and fascism" that is "colonizing hearts, head and souls"?