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Mar 25, 2013

Are U.S. Churches Pro Israel?

Recently, a friend of mine with some influence in the pro Israel community contacted another friend of mine at a huge church in the Bible Belt. When I say huge, I mean one of the very largest congregations in the country.

Friend A asked Friend B to help set up an Israel event at the church. A couple weeks later, the latter sadly reported that the leadership wasn’t onboard, and beyond that, he could only get about two dozen people interested in showing up for the event!

This little story leaves me dismayed, because I suspect it’s not really “little,” but signals a big change in the landscape. A generation ago, thousands would have shown up for such an event.

Twenty-four people?

Look, I believe in being realistic, and also being upfront about this issue. That it leaves our ideological opponents in the church giddy does not deter me from reporting on the fact. I can accept lack of results we hope for; I cannot accept lack of effort to understand and combat this reality.

As I’ve been writing for some time, a seismic shift in attitudes about Israel hit our shores sometime back. We are only just now feeling the shockwaves and the high-point of impact is probably still to come. In short, American evangelical support for Israel is slipping.

Shane Claiborne, the leftist leader of the Simple Way, and buddy of long-time Palestinian advocate Tony Campolo, has been tweeting lately rare instances of Jewish violence towards Palestinians (or their duped friends, such as activist Rachel Corrie). Last month he tweeted about the 19th anniversary of the Baruch Goldstein-led massacre of Arabs in Hebron.

The real context of this story though is the shocking lack of cases of Jewish violence towards Arabs and its reverse: Arab Palestinian violence towards Jews is ubiquitous, gruesome, coordinated, relentless, and fiendish.

And that’s just for starters.

Why, for example, would Claiborne not tweet about the second anniversary of the slaughter of the Fogel family from Itamar? The Fogel’s youngest child was nearly decapitated by two Palestinian murderers.

Shane! Calling Shane Claiborne! I’ve asked via Twitter why he doesn’t send out these anniversary remembrances, but so far…silence.

Claiborne is but one cog in the wheel of the giant propaganda machine that is turning American Christians away from Israel. There are dozens more leaders engaged in this unholy agenda, and many thousands of operatives working behind the scenes.

Last summer I interviewed Eagles’ Wings director Robert Stearns, who has been engaged in pro Israel work for years. His organization works with churches that are pro Israel. He indicated, though, that he is also aware of this slippage in support that I mentioned.

How did this happen? A generation ago, of course, you could toss a rock and hit a pro Israel church. Today, one is virtually threatened with stoning for dreaming of such a scenario.

One of the many problems “our side” has is the lack of coordination and effort. What do I mean by this? Nothing disparaging, I can assure you.

Shane Claiborne and Lynne Hybels and Gabe Lyons and Donald Miller and Cameron Strang and John Ortberg do this for a living. They are part of organizations that have the resources to keep them pushing Palestinian propaganda. Lynne Hybels’ husband, Bill, is head of one of the largest religious organizations in all of history. That’s not hyperbole. Willow Creek Association is gigantic and entrenched.

If Lynne Hybels wants to travel to Israel (and another, mythical place called “Palestine” , she just books the trip, or an assistant does it for her. Same with those other folks. They then absorb whatever the Palestinian Authority/PLO wants them to hear, and they return to America and promote the living daylights out of it.

What are you doing? Raising a family, struggling to pay bills and taxes squeezed out of you by a government forcing you to fund the destruction of the country, and getting up the next day to do it all over again. A vacation for you is a couple nights at the Days Inn in the next county. Every few years. In general—and let me be clear again: I’m generalizing here—Bible-believing folks in the United States are working so hard to earn a living, they don’t have time for advocacy for Israel. Our opponents on the other hand have plenty of time and money.

This is their career.

While you are fighting rush-hour traffic, or taking on an extra job to send tax dollars to the Marxist Palestinian Authority, Shane Claiborne is being flown to the so-called “Christ at the Checkpoint”/Hate Israel palooza in Bethlehem.

When you add to this the fact that seminaries churn-out unbelieving pastors and youth workers, one can begin to see why churches today aren’t interested in Israel and the Jews. (As just one example, Rob Bell graduated from both Wheaton and Fuller, and when Ed Dobson hired him at Calvary Church in Grand Rapids, Dobson told the board that Bell didn’t know much Bible!)

Get your mind around this: in Christian ministry today in America, there are plenty of Jew-haters. They smile, they talk about Jesus, they “do” church and ministry. And they are as clueless about the specialness of the Jews as a kindergarten teacher or plumber in 1938 Hamburg.

Is your church pro Israel? Is your pastor pro Israel? If so, I’d really like to hear from you (jim@prophecymatters.com). I’d like to get a sense of how many churches out there understand the specialness of the Jews and Israel in history. If you know of a church that is pro Israel, please let me know who they are. Send me contact info.

The silence of Shane Claiborne and Donald Miller and their friends who bash Israel is a coordinated effort to fool evangelicals, until they are clueless about Israel. This is done by promoting Palestinian stories that present Israel as an aggressor, murderer of Arabs, and colonialist power—the latter description laughable to anyone who can read a map.

In order to stem the tide of anti-Israel fervor in our churches, we are going to have to get active. You can do your part. With all the urgency I can muster, please let me hear from you.

jim@prophecymatters.com



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Zechariah 12:3,9:
And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people; And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.


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