Genocide in Gaza. Commons image: Abd elhkeen Abo riash – Palestinian photojournalist
Violet White critiques the ideology of Christian Zionism, which has influenced the passivity of mainstream Christian churches’ responses to the genocide in Gaza. Her article is accompanied by some new poems from Michael Rosen, who has just published ‘Words United‘.
Let’s call it what it is. Christian Zionism is a dangerous sect that has much to do with Zionism and little to do with Christianity. A heresy beloved of those who call themselves by the name of Christ, yet just aren’t that interested in Jesus.
This ideology has run theological cover for genocide and, if there ever were any justification for entertaining it, there certainly isn’t any longer. Christian Zionism is a useful idiot doing the water-carrying for Israel’s crimes against humanity, playing out before the eyes of the whole world in multiple layers of death, with every possible method of systematically eradicating the means of life seemingly being employed in chilling and calculated ruthlessness against an unarmed, civilian target for 626 days and counting.
With Israel’s illegal act of aggression on Iran on Thurs 12th June now being endorsed by an illegal, performative, yet highly dangerous, air strike from the United States on 20th June, we’re potentially in WW111 territory, with the ever-looming threat of it going Nuclear to boot. And the rest of the West has sycophantically fallen over itself to applaud.
In Ephesians we read a verse that seems to me to speak to where we are right now:
See that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, for the days are evil. – Ephesians 5, 15, 16
Idolatry: the influence of Christian Zionism
The influence of Christian Zionists is, of course, of most direct consequence in the United States, particularly with Donald Trump as President. But although elsewhere the ideology is less vocal and proactive and probably far fewer Christians in Britain understand its claims, the basic idea has seeded itself in church communities everywhere. And it is all the more dangerous for being a vague background feeling that ‘Christians must support the Jews as a people and this means Israel’, especially in the context of the quite extraordinary pressure disseminated throughout the western world over the past decade for opposition to Israel to be treated as antisemitism.
The underlying discomfort with opposing Israel has become dangerously pathological in churches, and is surely a significant factor in the tragic and irresponsible reluctance of Christians to come out in force (or at all) and denounce Israel for its horrific crimes against Palestine, and correspondingly stand in wholehearted solidarity with Palestinians.
We are watching unparalleled evil being committed with impunity. The literal ‘slaughter of the innocents’. And Christian churches are not sure whether to oppose Israel or not?
The Massacre of the Infants
by Michael Rosen
Keir Starmer was asked today
what he thought about
the moment in the Bible
when King Herod ordered that all the male
infants should be killed.
Sir Keir was forthright in his condemnation.
He said this cannot and will not be tolerated.
One interviewer asked him
why then had he authorised the selling of swords
to King Herod which could then have been used
to kill the babies,
to which Sir Keir replied
that was an outrageous accusation
and that he and his colleagues
had strained every sinew
to restrain Herod
and that the record stood for itself.
Then,
when he was asked
whether these deaths of innocent people
could be called a ‘massacre’
Sir Keir replied, ‘It’s not for me to say.
and that it’s not helpful to call what’s been going on
“The Massacre of the Innocents”.’
And Sir Keir left to spend more time straining his sinews.
When Scripture is used to create a useful narrative for any oppression, it is notable how quickly central tenets of the faith are replaced in people’s imaginations and priorities to become the dominating story, sidelining Jesus and overriding key teaching. For Christian Zionism the State of Israel has become the gospel – to the point of veneration. It can do no wrong.
In biblical terms this veneration is a form of ‘idolatry’, in which we effectively worship a ‘false God’.
Worship
We are told that those practices we call ‘worship’ are despicable in God’s sight without our actually ‘serving’ God, who counts our service as worship. And we serve God by aligning with God’s values as revealed in Jesus; and basing how we live on these values. The prophet Amos relays God’s message to us:
I hate, I despise your feasts,
and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
Take away from me the noise of your songs;
to the melody of your harps I will not listen.
But let justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
– Amos 5. 21, 23, 24
Let Justice Roll Down like Waters. Image: James Carty
In other words, without the intention and practice of shunning, resisting and opposing evil, God isn’t interested in the noise. And the prophets consistently refer to this in communal, institutional and national terms. That the unfathomable evil of what we are watching in Gaza can be supported by Christians in the name of God under the banner of Jesus is an abomination.
Proof Texting
Proof-texting is the standard practice for those who use Scripture to underpin their own supremacy. Proof-texting ignores the essence and substance – the main thrust of the whole – to extrapolate the whole from the particular in time and place, in a classic example of not seeing the wood for the trees. It’s myopic, lazy, manipulative and inaccurate.
Although Christian Zionism relies on various texts, the verses Christian Zionists at this moment in time seem most heavily to be leaning into for their ‘We Stand With Israel’ ideology are the following verses in Genesis – verses in which God speaks to Abram (who God subsequently names Abraham – the Patriarch of Jews, Christians and Muslims) on calling him to continue his migration from Ur by moving on from Harran. Abram is departing in faith, ‘not knowing whither’ (as we’re told in Hebrews), so God speaks words of encouragement to him as he sets out:
I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you. (Genesis 12. 2 & 3)
There are obviously multiple messages packed into this – the most significant surely being ‘all peoples on earth will be blessed through you’. A thorough unpacking of this verse, however, is a topic in itself..
Suffice it to say for now that the effective key interpretation Christian Zionists place on it – that it means we must give total impunity to Israel to commit whatsoever crimes it wishes – is ludicrous by any means of calculation, including Scripture.
A US Senator explains why he supports Israel
It might be ludicrous, but there’s no doubt it is highly expedient and very lucrative for US politicians in particular who endorse it. And it is in line with the status quo in the West politically.. Promoted by Israel and highly encouraged by its indicted war criminal Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, it has a significant influence on US foreign policy (effectively Western foreign policy) and thus affects us all.
Ted Cruz is a neo-conservative senator in the United States, who, along with the vast majority of both Republicans and Democrats, is heavily financed by the Israel lobby (in his case reportedly to the tune of $1,899,059).
Ted Cruz – US Senator. Official portrait
He was asked recently in an interview about his support for the State of Israel – he’s referred to as ‘Tel Aviv Ted’ by critics, even though he is not, nor ever has been, an Israeli. Topically though, he has long been a strong advocate for bombing Iran in support of Israel, and this interview went out shortly before Trump actually did in fact bomb Iran in support of Israel. Cruz explained his support for Israel like this:
I came into Congress 13 years ago with the stated intention of being the leading defender of Israel in the United States’ Senate; I’ve worked every day to do that
As a Christian growing up in Sunday School I was taught from the Bible that ‘those who bless Israel will be blessed and those who curse Israel will be cursed’ – and, from my perspective, I want to be on the blessing side of things’’
It becomes clear he’s actually referring to the above text from Genesis spoken to Abram, and the interviewer tries to clarify what Cruz means by ‘Israel’, and Cruz clarifies that he means the modern state, created in 1948.
He’s very specific about what the text precisely says. At one point the interviewer asks if Cruz means the ‘government of Israel’, and Cruz says
No, it doesn’t say ‘the govt of Israel; it says the ‘nation of Israel’ – so that’s in the Bible; as a Christian I believe that.
The interviewer, who says he is also a Christian, suggests:
I think most people understand that line in Genesis to refer to the Jews as God’s Chosen People.
And, again, Cruz emphatically contradicts him:
That’s not what it says
Clearly, he thinks he’s actually ‘quoting’ – but you can see from the text, it simply doesn’t say what he says it does. You might believe that, you might even (with considerable gymnastics) have an argument for it… but he’s not making one. He’s just saying explicitly (and erroneously) what a few verses in the Bible ‘say’, and what they ‘do not say’. He doesn’t even mention Abram (Abraham).
He then takes this further and expresses it as a ‘command’:
We’re commanded to support Israel – and we’re told those who support Israel will be blessed
Plainly, however, there is no ‘command’ at all in the text, which is a ‘promise’
The interviewer asks Cruz where this text appears in the Bible. And astonishingly, for someone who appears to base his entire ideology on it, he doesn’t even know! So, it’s not really surprisingly he doesn’t actually know what it says…
The interviewer points out how bizarre this is:
So, you’re quoting a Bible phrase – you don’t have the context for it – you don’t know where it is – and that’s your theology?.
‘God’s Foreign Policy’
As Ted Cruz self-confessedly strives every day as a senator to support Israel, based on what he imagines the Bible says, listening to him gives a fair idea of how Christian Zionism plays out in the United States.. and there are many such people seeking to influence the President of the United States at this terrifying time in history. And thus world events…
Yep
by Michael Rosen
Did we get away with the Vietnam War?
Yep.
Did we get away with the first Gulf War?
Yep.
Did we get away with the Iraq War?
Yep.
Did we get away with Afghanistan?
Yep.
Have we got away with Gaza?
Yep.
Are we going to get away with Iran?
Why not?
Indeed Christian Zionists in the United States openly purport to be advocating for ‘God’s foreign policy’. Apparently, ‘God’s foreign policy’ for some is no more, no less than ‘supporting the state of Israel’. I don’t know what levels of depravity you have to sink to in order to believe that ever, let alone at this point in time, but I think it shows how extreme are our times.
Theologising Oppression
There are people who theologise oppression for their own agenda. The subjugation of women; slavery; apartheid in South Africa – to mention but a few – have all been expounded by people seeking self-aggrandisement at the expense of others, who abused Scripture in this way.
People who conveniently believed God preferred them to others whom they were entitled to treat as sub-human. People who veered off in their own more self-pleasing direction and run amok, shunning the fortitude and humility of real faith in order to drive their own specific plans (or those of their peers and preferred culture), remake God in their own image and spin Scripture to suit, drawing their ideology from just a very few verses in the Bible which they dubiously interpreted in the way most politically expedient to themselves. To devastating effect. Based on almost nothing.
The Scriptures frequently remind us that this kind of fixation is not only drastically antithetical to gospel truth, but a calamitous distraction and in direct contradiction of the real business of faith, losing us ground in key matters.
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, and to love mercy and compassion and to humble yourself and walk humbly with your God?
– Micah 6, 8.
Photo Credit: Section from “Do Justice; Love Kindness; Walk Humbly” by marcn is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
And this is the gold standard that echoes throughout all Scripture. But, in contrast to this, the Christian heresies of our times are overwhelmingly in step with the prevailing culture of entitlement and heist which uphold the materially powerful. In short, ‘injustice’. They elevate human pride and always punch down, reinforcing oppression.
Jesus tells us his yoke is easy and his burden light. Justifying Christian Zionism, by contrast, is the burden of a terrible dead weight which is going to get heavier and heavier with the ever-mounting evil horrors it’s enabling.
And the long and the short of it is that you can bet your life on Scripture that no doctrine which upholds the pride and arrogance of the powerful and puts the boot in on the oppressed is remotely sound.
The Prophetic Word or the Crystal Ball?
Christian Zionist proof-texters love to read (or not actually read, but be programmed by in the case of the likes of Ted Cruz perhaps) the Old Testament prophets and the Book of Revelation. But they view them first and foremost as prediction rather than the prophetic word, avoiding the correctives, denunciations and pleadings which often so aptly apply to their cult. They would do well to reverse their focus.
Whereas the prophetic word is rich in meaning for us all in our here and now, Christian Zionists prefer to extrapolate future events from these texts which they predict in astonishing detail and spectacular technicolour, then seemingly proceed to try creating a self-fulfilling prophesy.
But one thing about God’s promises for future blessing a practicing Christian learns through their own walk of faith is that they’re not intended as a crystal ball and you don’t get to predict or control precisely how even personal promises play out, let alone world-shattering events. This is ways ‘above our pay grade’. We can see something of the future from Scripture – we are shown some wonderful pictures, images, we are given underpinning inviolate values that speak of its essence – and these visionary texts can be a great encouragement as we struggle – but details and times we don’t have.
The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things which are revealed and disclosed belong to us and to our children forever, so that we may do all of the words of this law.
– Deuteronomy 29. 29
Which – along with other verses – aligns with the orthodox Christian belief that the main purpose of revelation is to show us the nature of God – for the Christian, Scripture is viewed first and foremost through a Christological lens revealing who Jesus is – and to enable us to do what is right in the light of that knowledge. Thus Jesus says to the religious of his time:
You pore over the Scriptures.. But these are the very words that testify about me! And yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
– John 5. 39
Revelation is therefore not for us to indulge our fancies in the obsession with future events we have no way of properly understanding. This distracts us from our crucial mission of fighting the good fight right now, where paying attention to the prophetic word equips us in that mission.
The doctrine must never be questioned
Another signature trait is that of absolute certainty. No doubts or questioning entertained. The doctrine must never be questioned. Even where experience, humanity and even Scripture itself repeatedly undermine it.
Those who live by the doctrine express it in the most dogmatic and fundamentalist terms as though afraid it will fall apart if they permit any interrogation of it, as though their defence of it is, in fact, all that holds it together. When it achieves dominance it permits no deviation from its beliefs and persecutes all who disagree. This is quite alien to real faith in God, who obviously needs no such advocacy, and it demonstrates not faith but arrogance.
You will know them by their fruits
Perhaps the most critical evidence that a doctrine is not in line with Christian faith is when the actions which align with the doctrine are consistently evil.
And this often provides the clearest opportunity for those who might have been mislead by the claims to recognise what is going on and repent – to turn around and change direction. They see the results on the ground and are prepared to question the doctrine. Others are too afraid or lazy to tackle the challenges and prefer to stay in their comfort zone – the polar opposite of our calling to take the gospel to the world. And others double down in giving ever more depraved actions a pass in order to maintain their support for their sect.
And we are watching influential Christian Zionists do exactly that right now. To devastating effect. It’s long past time to recognise what’s going on here and fight this hideous travesty. Christians above all need to wake up, stop being paralysed by confusion and the fear of offending and get to grips with this critical mission. Let’s go. In His Name. Who says:
‘Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do people gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit… Therefore by their fruits you will know them..
Cheap Petrol
by Michael Rosen
In the heart of western governments there is a special human breed known as ‘Heartless Bastards’ who are at this very moment figuring out which pretext, justification and alibi for war and genocide will work best to convince western populations that killing hundreds of thousands of people in the Middle East is a good thing.
To achieve this, any or all of the following, (or versions thereof), the Heartless Bastards say:
No one is starving
We’re sad about what’s going on
We’re very sad about what’s going on
We regret what’s going on
We’ve always wanted a ceasefire
We love ceasefires
We keep saying, let’s have a ceasefire
We are unable to say whether we are or are not or would or would not, or might or might not supply arms to Israel
We’re only killing genocidal Islamist maniacs
Israel is surrounded by billions of people who want to destroy it.
If we didn’t kill people the Jews will be liquidated in another Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust
This is about Western Civilisation.
This is about self-defence
This is about the Jewish homeland
The Jewish homeland is very old and very big.
The Jewish homeland is getting bigger every day and this is good for everyone.
Benjamin Netanyahu might not be everyone’s cup of tea but he cuts the mustard, so smell the coffee.
We have to defend our strategic interests.
Strategic interests
Strategic interests
(For security reasons we’re unable to say what these strategic interests are but we hope that calling them ‘strategic’ make them sound important and grown-up)
Hamas will cut your head off.
Israel is a good place, there’s very good coffee in Tel Aviv, some of my best friends are Israeli Arabs.
The Iranian people are wonderful and that’s why we have to kill them.
Any second now Iran is going to drop a nuclear bomb on London. It’s part of their plan to make London Muslim.
Look at our record of involvement in the Middle East. It speaks for itself – Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq – a long string of successes.
Do you want cheap petrol or not?
