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August 23, 2006

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"?

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