Leelanau ordained minister goes to Washington to protest “Christians United for Israel”
By Rev. Lucy Waechter Webb
Sun contributor
I am an ordained Presbyterian minister whose Christian denomination has a long commitment to ending the occupation of Palestine. And yet, for most of my life, I never realized the role my fellow Christians have played in the creation of this apartheid state.
A few years ago, I was talking to a Jewish mentor of mine about how to talk with a Rabbi friend who had different views than me about Palestine. She asked me, “Do you know the role of your own faith tradition in the occupation?” This was the first time anyone had ever pushed me to consider the role that Christian churches play in further empowering the state of Israel. As I prepared to preach about the latest escalation of violence in Palestine, I took her invitation to heart and studied more. I was deeply disturbed to learn that there are more Christian people supporting Zionism in the United States than there are Jewish people living here. The largest such organization is Christian United for Israel (CUFI), which boasts 10 million members and is by far the largest Zionist organization in the US.
In August CUFI held their convention in Washington, D.C., with the specific purpose to pressure our nation’s top leaders to continue to fund and support the unfolding genocide in Palestine. Those who sat in on their opening plenary saw images of bombed out neighborhoods in Gaza overlaid with scripture declaring this to be God’s holy work. The founder, a preacher named John Hagee, has in fact said, “God sent Adolf Hitler to help Jews reach the promised land.” The theology that undergirds such a celebration of war is the idea that if all Jewish people can be gathered in Israel, then it will bring about the second coming of Jesus, at which point Jews must convert or perish.
As part of the Interfaith Action for Palestine Coalition, I prayed and organized alongside Jewish neighbors on Capitol Hill in response to this dangerous theology. I was so moved by the clarity of their courage to provoke the question: Does this mean you believe that I don’t belong here in America? This expression of Christian theology is not just antisemitic. This theology kills. And the Christians who embrace it are brutally complicit in the extermination of whole Palestinian family lines. My Jewish siblings that week boldly declared at the threshold of this violent Christian rhetoric: “We are not your pawns!”
As we stood outside the place where CUFI was meeting, a few people from the convention came outside with their chests puffed up and their cameras on, clearly trying to intimidate us away from our message of ceasefire. As one of them turned around I read the back of his t-shirt which said: “Hamas Fighting Club — Happy Hunting,” and I wondered when and how hunting humans became acceptable in his faith.
At that rally an elder, who is a Black Reverend in Washington, D.C., testified about the lawn where we sat. He said, “I can think of no better place for CUFI to have their conference, because this used to be a Black neighborhood—until the community was pushed out to build this shiny gentrified convention center.” He drew a comparison to the settler colonialism happening in Gaza right now—where Israeli real estate ads are already advertising land for sale on the coast where the IDF has obliterated Palestinian homes and peoples.
What gets missed in the story we tell about the violence unfolding in Palestine is that Christians are deeply complicit. Christian Zionism is, in fact, older than Jewish Zionism, and has its roots in the evangelical party in Britain. Theologians and politicians aligned when the Balfour Declaration was signed in 1917 setting the first ever international precedent for a religious-ethno state for Jewish people. Christian Zionism functions as the foreign policy for Christian Nationalism, supporting the idea that one religion can or should govern a nation. Those who claim Christian Zionism in America want to ultimately purge this country of all other faiths, including Judaism.
Our response to this dangerous theology was to gather in our grief and our outrage as an Interfaith Coalition of Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhist and Muslim people. We gathered and sang together on Capitol Hill—praying for and embodying the world we dream of, a multi-racial multi-faith beloved community, one where each person can live peaceably in community with their neighbor regardless of their race, gender-identity, religion, sexuality or physical abilities. We sang words based on the Hebrew scriptures from the prophet Isaiah: “And everyone ‘neath their vine and fig tree, shall live in peace and unafraid, and into plowshares turn their swords, nations shall learn war no more.”
There is something more insidious than the explicit defenders of Christian Zionism—and that is the way this extreme theology has seeped into a broader mainstream Christian culture. Even as a relatively politically moderate Presbyterian kid, I grew up reading the Left Behind series, a Christian apocalyptic novel series that details the end times and in fact, just like the rhetoric of CUFI, sets up the Jewish people as pawns for the Christian heroes of the story. I had no idea the political implications of this end-times adventure series I got lost in as a teen.
It can be hard to find our way through, to sort out where to plant our own feet inside of all this turmoil we are witnessing and navigating together. So here are few options I want to offer my Christian neighbors:
→ It’s tempting to say, “This conflict is so far away, what can I do?”
We can stop sending bombs from the United States. Demand an arms embargo now from your legislators.
→ It’s tempting to blame others, to assume this is a religious war that as Christians we have no part in.
In reality, Christians are championing the cause. Talk to your Christian neighbors about this.
→ It’s tempting to say, “It’s too confusing—I don’t want to pick a side.”
It’s as simple as thousands of dead Palestinians. It’s as simple the International Court of Justice calling this apartheid & genocide. You can pick the side of stopping the violence now and call for an arms embargo without abandoning your Jewish neighbors. You can be against antisemitism and against genocide at the same time.
I went to D.C. to interrupt the message that CUFI is proclaiming—to declare in the highest halls of power that there are many Christians who long for something different. I went to appeal to those who are caught in the fangs of Christian Zionism to examine their conscience and to embrace dignity, justice and equity for all.
To be clear: Christianity has a long legacy of participating in harm, defending slavery being just one horrific example. But I am sickened that my faith tradition is continuing to be used to fuel violence and genocide. Just as there were Christians who resisted slavery and fought for abolition, I stand with the many Christians who proclaim that the way of Jesus is rooted in love. Jesus’ life, ministry and death was dedicated to pushing back on cultures of domination and empire and ensuring that all were safe and whole in the community. I am not willing to let those who are defending Christian Zionism and Christian Nationalism co-opt the way of Jesus for their own profit and power.
Christians and people of Christian ancestry, we must ask ourselves if this is the legacy of our people. Will we let this be what happens in the name of our spiritual tradition?
As so many Jewish people around the world have been powerfully speaking and praying—“NO—not in our name,” I call upon Christians and all of us as American taxpayers, to also say—“NO—not in our name.”
