Resisting Christian Zionism

I’ve been, like the guest without the proper robe in the lectionary gospel from Sunday, speechless before the immensity of destruction and violence erupting in Palestine and the murder of Israelis. I’ve been stunned again and again by casual explanations, lazy hot takes, and horrific op-eds (of course in the NYT). I’ve wept and I’ve cried. I’ve listened to Tori Amos sing over and over again, “God, sometimes you just don’t come through.”

From the ashes of these two weeks, as I expected, the specter of Christian Zionism is making itself known. And so I’d like to address that, especially hopeful Christians will work to resist this political ideology.

Christian Zionism is a significant part of the political discourse of the Right in the United States. This theo-political strategy suggests that the Abrahamic covenant continues on in the state of Israel, thereby justifying all actions by the state of Israel as ordained by God. Some Jews believe this is true, others do not. Some Christians believe this is true, others do not. Neither group is a monolith and both Jews and Christians have significant biblical evidence to question the linkage between a secular state and the prophetic messianic revitalization of Jerusalem that will lead to peace in the land.

There are many troubling political strategies that emerge from Christian Zionism, but I want to point out one in particular — the virulent anti-Semitism (both to Jewish and Palestinian people) of Christian Zionism.

Let’s start with the Balfour Declaration. This British policy that led to the establishment of the state of Israel was born out of a British desire to woo new allies during the war. One those desired allies was “international Jewry.” The appealed to two despicable Jewish canards: that Jews could finance the war through their control of international finance and that Russian Jews controlled the pacifist commitments of Russia. The British utilized the same racialization of the Jewish people as the Nazis, with one of their primary officers claiming that Jewish converts to Christianity were secretly running the Turkish state — as Jews.

“It has been suggested to me,” he wrote to his colleagues, “that if we could offer the Jews an arrangement as to Palestine which would strongly appeal to them, we might conceivably be able to strike a bargain with them as to withdrawing their support from the Young Turk government which would then automatically collapse.”

This kind of “for the state of Israel but not for the Jews” continued on in Christian dispensationalism. In this literal reading of the book of Revelation, Jesus will only return to the earth for the second coming when the land of Israel from the Bible is restored to the Jewish people. It is the work of Christians to ensure, by whatever means necessary, that this is enacted — and there is no cost too great.

Like the British architects of Balfour, Jews are used as a pawn towards a greater political end. And in Christian Zionism, they are eventually destroyed. After the Jews have established the state of Israel and Jesus returns, both Muslim and Jewish people in the land will be thrown into an everlasting fire. The only possibility of salvation for the Jews in conversion to Christianity.

I hope this might help to better understand why Right Wing politicians are so invested in Israel while also stoking violent conspiracy theories that directly harm Jewish people. Think of the nonsense of “Jewish space lasers” and others bizarre anti-Semitic conspiracy theories (e.g., Rothchilds) frequently espoused by Marjorie Taylor Green. Think of Donald Trump. dining with a Shoah-denier.

Here in North Carolina, the frontrunner for the GOP gubernatorial nomination is the deeply and persistently anti-Semitic Mark Robinson who called the Shoah “hogwash” and called Jewish bankers “The Four Horsemen of Apocalypse” has now launched an Israel Solidarity Week. But digging a little deeper, it’s not difficult to see that for Right Wing politicians like Robinson, there is little connection to care for the living, embodied Jews of our world and the political establishment of a secular Israel. Robinson is part of a long line of Christian Zionist who treat the Jews as a pawn in a bizzare and terrifying geo-politics of Christian warfare and ultimately ends with the mass death of Jews and Muslims alike.

When you see posts from Christians about “the importance of Israel” or “why Israel matters for Christians” you can bet that this kind of Christian Zionist ideology is lingering in the background. Resist it. Seek the God who brings healing.