Tony Campolo
Evangelical Zionists vs. George Bush
The good news lately is that George Bush seems to have gotten
things on track for peace in the Middle East. The bad news is that
pressures from a powerful segment of the Christian community may
derail his efforts. Evangelical Zionists, as they are now called,
have organized a massive movement aimed at blocking certain steps
necessary to resolve the crisis. Through their vast television
audience, leaders such as Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and Gary
Bauer have promoted unquestioning, total support for Israel at the
expense of calling for justice for the Palestinians. They have
convinced millions of Christians that Israel has dealt fairly with
the Palestinians, ignoring all evidence to the contrary.
Christian Zionists have ignored the illegal settlements that have
been established on land appropriated to the Palestinians as part of
the 1994 Oslo Peace Accord. While properly condemning the heartless
and evil terrorist acts of Muslim extremists, they have turned a
blind eye to the immoral destruction of hundreds of Palestinian
villages and the bulldozing of thousands of Palestinian homes. While
they properly highlight the victimization of innocent Israeli school
children, by Muslim fundamentalists, they fail to give equal
attention to the hundreds of Palestinian children who have been
gunned down by Israeli soldiers this year. Yes, a lot of those kids
threw rocks at trucks and jeeps carrying Israeli soldiers, but to
respond to rock throwing with live ammunition is simply
unconscionable.
These Evangelical Zionists contend that because God’s covenant
with Abraham makes Jews God’s chosen people, whoever supports Israel
will be blessed, and whoever questions Israel will be cursed. Such
thinking is one reason America devotes to Israel one third of its
foreign aid; enough to enable Israel to have the world’s fourth
strongest army.
Don’t get me wrong. I too believe America should support Israel,
and that we should insure the safety and security of its borders. We
owe at least that much to a people that has been victimized by
centuries of Christian anti-Semitism. Such support, however, does
not mean that we should look the other way when Israel itself
engages in oppression and injustice.
An important but little know basis for the Christian Zionists’
almost unqualified support of Israel is the theology of John Darby,
whose unique interpretation of the Bible declared Jesus could not
return to earth to establish God’s Kingdom until the state of Israel
was re-established and the Jewish Temple on Mt. Zion was rebuilt.
These doctrines of the preconditions for the second coming of Christ
have gotten wide circulation throughout the Evangelical community
over the last 75 years because they are subtly incorporated into the
widely used Scofield Reference Bible, used by by countless Sunday
school teachers across America in preparing their weekly lessons. Of
course, nowadays Darby’s theology is gaining even wider audience
through the Left Behind books of Tim LaHaye and Jerry
Jenkins, which have sold more than 40 million copies.
It’s important to recognize that prior to Darby, teachings about
the restoration of Israel and the temple as preconditions for the
return of Christ simply did not exist in Protestant or Catholic
theology. Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Aquinas and Augustine never even
hinted at such ideas, yet Evangelical Zionists now deem anyone who
disagrees with Darby to be a heretic.
Unfortunately, Evangelical Zionists are not content to simply
teach their version of Biblical prophecy. Instead, they seem
determined to make it happen through their highly effective
political action groups. I believe it is time for the rest of
Christendom to stand up to these people and declare that God’s
infinite love and requirement for justice extends to both Jews and
Palestinians alike. We must open our eyes to both the pain and the
excesses on both sides of this conflict, and refuse to be drawn into
simplistic solutions that fail to hold everyone responsible for
peace. If we don’t, President Bush’s roadmap for peace will soon
fade into oblivion, and the blood of continuing violence in the
Middle East will be on our hands.
Dr. Tony Campolo is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at
Eastern University. He previously served for ten years on the
faculty of the University of Pennsylvania. He is a graduate of
Eastern University and earned a Ph.D. from Temple University. A
spiritual advisor to President Clinton, Dr. Campolo is a media
commentator on religious, social and political matters, having
guested on television programs like Nightline, Crossfire,
Politically Incorrect, The Charlie Rose Show and CNN News.
He co-hosted his own television series, Hashing It Out, on
the Odyssey Network, and presently hosts From Across The Pond,
a weekly program on the Premier Radio Network in England. The author
of 28 books, his most recent titles are Revolution and Renewal:
How Churches Are Saving Our Cities and Let Me Tell You a
Story: Life Lessons From Unexpected Places and Unlikely People.
Dr. Campolo is an ordained minister, has served American Baptist
Churches in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and is presently recognized
as an associate pastor of the Mount Carmel Baptist Church in West
Philadelphia. |
