We Might Be Chosen, But We're Still Going to Hell: Jews and the Christian RIght

We Might Be Chosen, But We're Still Going to Hell: Jews and the Christian Right (7 comments )

READ MORE: Iraq, 2006, New York Times, James Dobson, Israel

Tuesday's New York Times had an interesting article about John Hagee, the San Antonio pastor who has emerged as America's most influential Christian Zionist. I was especially intrigued because, when I travel around the country speaking about my book Kingdom Coming , some of my most impassioned challengers have been Jews who are grateful for the Christian right's zealous support for Israel.

As many point out, Hagee is a major fundraiser for pro-Israel causes -- at his "Night to Honor Israel" celebration last month, he gave out $7 million to various Jewish and Israeli charities.

The theology that underlies Christian Zionism -- called premillenial dispensationalism -- is opposed to a two-state solution, a goal most American Jews continue to cherish, however far off it seems. As I described it in a 2002 Salon story "Put baldly, millions of evangelical Christians see forewarnings of Armageddon in the crisis in the Middle East. Followers of dispensationalism, a major strain within American evangelical Christianity, they believe that the return of Jews to Israel and the restoration of Jewish sovereignty over the Temple Mount is a precondition for the rapture, the apocalypse and the return of Christ... For them, there can be no negotiation over what they call 'Judea and Samaria' despite the fact that many Israelis, and Jews worldwide, hope Israel eventually pulls out of the territories. Randall Price, jet-setting founder of World of the Bible Ministries, says, 'In the book of Genesis, there are territorial dimensions for the land that is given to Abraham and his descendents. It's from the river of Egypt to the river of the Euphrates.' In his view, Israel's right to that land, which extends into modern-day Iraq, is absolute. As for the Palestinians, Price says, 'Ishmael has said that his descendants would live to the East of their brother. There's a much larger geographical territory allotted to them.'"

Maybe that sounds lovely to ultra-right Jewish maximalists, but the dispensationalist scenario ends badly for the Jews -- after a third world war in the Middle East, those who remain unconverted are dispatched to hell while believers enjoy a thousand years of peace on earth. Most Jews (and, of course, most Christians) see massive military conflict in the Middle East as something to be assiduously avoided, but for many Christian Zionists, it's a necessary step to paradise. Some Jews are willing to put such differences aside for the sake of political expediency, figuring they needn't trouble themselves with rapture fantasies that will never be fulfilled outside of Left Behind novels. The New Republic's Leon Wieseltier has famously called this bargain a "grim comedy of mutual condescension." (The Times story offered one striking example of such condescension from the Christian right: James Dobson grudgingly allowing that, "[d]espite all the spiritual shortcomings of the Jewish people," they are uniquely blessed by God.)

Last night, I gave a talk in San Antonio sponsored by the Texas Freedom Network, an amazing local organization that combats religious fundamentalism in one of the regions where it's strongest. I figured I'd get some questions about Hagee, so I read his most recent book, Jerusalem Countdown: A Warning to the World. There's an astonishing passage in it that Jews who partner with the pastor would do well to be aware of. Read the whole thing -- it takes a few paragraphs to see where he's going:

The Bible is a book of parables and word pictures describing principles of truth from God to man. The prophet Jeremiah puts his pen to parchment and paints a vivid picture of the human agendas God intended to use to bring the Jewish people back to Israel.

"But now I will send for many fishermen" declares the LORD, "and they will catch them. After that I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill and from the crevices of the rocks."
-- Jeremiah 16:16 NIV

I believe this verse indicates that the positive comes before the negative. Grace and mercy come before judgment. The fishermen come before the hunters. First, God sent the fishermen to Israel. These were the Zionists, men like Theodor Herzl who called for the Jews of Europe and the world to come to Palestine to establish the Jewish state. The Jews were encouraged to escape while there was still time. The situation for Jews in Europe would only get worse, not better.

A fisherman is one who draws his target toward him with bait. Herzl and his fellow Zionists were God's fishermen, calling the sons and daughters of Abraham home. Herzl was deeply disappointed that the Jews of the world did not respond in greater numbers.

God then sent the hunters. The hunter is one who pursues his target with force and fear. No one could see the horror of the Holocaust coming, but the force and fear of Hitler's Nazis drove the Jewish people back to the only home God ever intended for the Jews to have -- Israel. I stand amazed at the accuracy of God's Word and its relevance for our time. I am stricken with awe and wonder at His boundless love for Israel and the Jewish people and His divine determination that the promise He gave Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob become reality.

Unless I'm really reading this wrong, Hagee seems to be saying that Hitler was sent by God to drive the Jews back to where they belong. If that's the case, he might be a friend of the Israeli state, but he's no friend of Jewish people.

Send to a friend
Post a Comment
Print Post
Read all posts by Michelle Goldberg

Related News Stories
Senate Majority Leader Frist's Post-Election Message: We Are "Not Winning" In Iraq...
US Office In Iraq Attacked By Mortar Fire...
NY Times Endorses No GOP Candidate "For The First Time In Memory"...
Related Blog Posts
Arianna Huffington: Jack Murtha for Majority Leader... and "Person of the Year"
Blake Fleetwood: Iraq, Iraq, Iraq -- The Elephant Nobody Wants To See
Cenk Uygur: The Lesser of Two Evils in Iraq
Comments :
Voltaire was right. "As long as men continue to believe in absurdities, they will continue to commit atrocities."
By: TheOtherMaven on November 15, 2006 at 07:21pm Flag: [abusive]
A lot of people are going to be surprised to find out that God is not an Evangelical Republican who supports cutting taxes.Assimilated PressRead "It's Official: God Is A White Male Heterosexual Christian" at:http://assimilatedpress.blogspot.com/2006/07/its-official-god-is-wh...
By: Virt on November 15, 2006 at 07:28pm Flag: [abusive]
Very interesting. Thanks. I'm not positive either that he is condoning Hitler - though he is saying it fits with prophecies. Regardless, it DOES support your contention that "he's no friend of the Jewish people", given that he believes the rest of the Armageddon prophecies. And is yet another example of why Jews should be cautious with such "support".
By: azpaull on November 15, 2006 at 07:37pm Flag: [abusive]
Religious fundamentalists suffer from a severe mental illness, as evidenced by their bizarre social and political opinions.Religion of all stripes is harmful because it promotes fantasy as fact, and for that reason should be discouraged by public policy. Humankind will be very fortunate if it survives the current religion-based conflicts around the globe.
By: Merlin7 on November 15, 2006 at 07:39pm Flag: [abusive]
I think you are right, right wing evangelists and right wing Israelis sounds like a match made in hell to me.
By: citizenofreality on November 15, 2006 at 07:39pm Flag: [abusive]
hagee like many others have got it all wrong. the japethic jews, who occupy israel are jews but they are not hebrews. they are askenazi from russia and sephardim from spain.(late converts) if hagee really wants to support the true israelis/hebrews..he needs to head for the inner citys and poor rural areas of this country where the true hebrews wound up after they were caught up in the slave trade.the original arabs and jews (israelites) like jesus who like his mother mary and father joseph spent their entire lives in north africa, were tar black.does anyone find it kind of strange, that jesus and mary would have been the only blonde blue haired, blue eyed people in egypt when they fled there to hide from herod? how could they hide amongst all those darkies? wouldn't they have at least have gotten a deep tan in the hot african climate of egypt? if hagee wants jesus to come back the temple of king solomon has to be rebuilt. it can not be rebuilt by the sons of japeth.hagee and the rest of the racist guntotin evangelical hypocrites need to find a way to get us back to israel so we can rebuild the temple.as for the arabs..ismael's mother...hagar the egyptian lived in the time when ethiopea was the capitol of egypt. it wsn't until a thousand years later that the romans came to lighten up the population.so hagee read that damned bible again and pay attention to genesis.
By: drow1stboy on November 15, 2006 at 08:03pm Flag: [abusive]
Well what we need is to turn Israel to the left (diplomacy instead of 4.1 Palistinian eyes for a Jewish eye philosophy), and I think we should take a page out of the neo-con play book and set up the Israeli America Political Action Committee offices all over Israel where we "buy" the correct left leaning, American first, Israeli politicians. Yes we can create our own Emanual Rahm's and Joe Liberman's in the Knesset which will disregard their own state and do exactly what America tells them to do for cash and power. Hopefully, unlike the neo-con warmongers who have no problem sending Americans goyim off to die, we could channel that greed driven energy toward the creation of a two state solution and possible peace.
By: itsthemedication on November 15, 2006 at 08:11pm Flag: [abusive]