messianic christianity

SDS-Website

sds02603.html#1 sds02603.html#2 sds02603.html#3 sds02603.html#4 sds02603.html#5

German President criticises Bush's 'divine mission' -2/4/2003

[UserTrolls] God, God, God, God...why is Bush always invoking God?
Euro countries want to know...

'German President Johannes Rau, a Protestant preacher's son who makes
no secret of his own faith, reacted sharply this week on n-tv television to press
reports that Bush believed defeating Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news -
web sites) was part of a divine plan.

"George Bush has got a completely one-sided message. I don't think a people
gets a sign from God to liberate another people," he said. "Nowhere does the
Bible call for crusades."

...In his speeches, he [Bush] has asked for guidance from "the loving God
behind all of life and all of history," hinted he believed there was a "divine plan" f
or the world and warned Americans that "we are in a conflict between good and evil."

...These references ... stand out and sometimes even shock many Europeans
who remember how German soldiers trooped off to World War One with
"Gott mit uns" (God with us) stamped on their belt buckles.

In France, where even practicing Catholic or Jewish politicians shrink from
mentioning religion, the daily Le Monde reacted sharply last week to the news
that the U.S. House of Representatives had called for a day of national prayer
and fasting to secure divine blessings for U.S. troops in Iraq...

"This bizarre approach shocks Europeans," it said in an editorial. Its religion
correspondent accused Bush and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein of "gross misuse"
of religion.

"One is tempted to say the destiny of America is in the hands of a small group
of Protestant bigots," Henri Tincq wrote.' Submitted on April 4, 2003 1:11 p.m.
by divaPastyDrone [Refer][Research][Reflect]

http://216.239.39.100/search?q=cache:b8h9MkNhfuIC
:www.newstrolls.com/+divine+mission+%22Johannes+Rau%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

sds02603.html#2

Bush Mix of God and War Grates on Many Europeans

By Tom Heneghan

PARIS (Reuters) - The religious overtones in President Bush's (news - web sites) speeches
increasingly grate on many ears in Europe, where leaders invoking God in times of war are
widely suspect of misusing faith for political purposes.

No less than the German president, French prime minister and Belgian foreign minister have
joined religious leaders in expressing concern about Bush's beliefs and the place of religion
in U.S. politics.

Media commentators, especially in northern European countries with Protestant heritages,
have branded Bush's evangelical views as Christian fundamentalism, with some even
comparing them to the Islamic fundamentalism of Osama bin Laden (news - web sites).

The discussion reflects both the widespread popular anti-war sentiment in Europe and the
deeper gulf between a continent where faith is on the wane and an America where religious
values probably play a more prominent political role than ever before.

German President Johannes Rau, a Protestant preacher's son who makes no secret of
his own faith, reacted sharply this week on n-tv television to press reports that Bush
believed defeating Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) was part of a divine plan.

"George Bush has got a completely one-sided message. I don't think a people gets a
sign from God to liberate another people," he said. "Nowhere does the Bible call for crusades."

Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel, a vocal critic of the war, said before hostilities
broke out last month that he saw Christian fundamentalism gaining influence in Washington
and added: "That is, of course, a dangerous point of departure."

French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, asked about a U.S. weekly's cover story on
Bush and God, told Le Point magazine: "In no way can God be called on for a vote of confidence."

UNEASE AT GOD TALK

Bush's firm faith, rooted in an evangelical Protestantism that reflects an important voter bloc in
his Republican party, has also prompted questions in mainstream U.S. media about how
much it colors his stand on Iraq (news - web sites) and his war on terror.

In his speeches, he has asked for guidance from "the loving God behind all of life and all of
history," hinted he believed there was a "divine plan" for the world and warned Americans
that "we are in a conflict between good and evil."

These references may not seem so out of place in the United States, where all presidents
say "God bless America" and "In God We Trust" is emblazoned on dollar bills.

But they stand out and sometimes even shock many Europeans who remember how
German soldiers trooped off to World War One with "Gott mit uns" (God with us)
stamped on their belt buckles.

"I believe George Bush's religious views are genuine," Cardinal Karl Lehmann, head of
the German Bishop's Conference, told the Catholic weekly Rheinischer Merkur in an
interview on Thursday. "But this careless way of using religious language is not
acceptable anymore in today's world."

In Sweden, invoking God in politics is so unusual that parliamentarian Hans Lindqvist
told Reuters: "I've never seen anything like this before."

Commentators in Britain, where Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites)'s firm but
discreet Christian beliefs have also aroused critical attention, have described Bush as
"chaplain in chief" and analyzed his use of religious phrases and images in detail.

"For world-weary Europe, the presidential language evokes mirth and queasiness in
equal measure," The Independent wrote.

In France, where even practicing Catholic or Jewish politicians shrink from mentioning
religion, the daily Le Monde reacted sharply last week to the news that the U.S. House
of Representatives had called for a day of national prayer and fasting to secure divine
blessings for U.S. troops in Iraq.

"This bizarre approach shocks Europeans," it said in an editorial. Its religion correspondent
accused Bush and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein of "gross misuse" of religion.

"One is tempted to say the destiny of America is in the hands of a small group of
Protestant bigots," Henri Tincq wrote.

The religious side of Bush's thinking has attracted much less public attention in
traditionally Catholic countries such as Ireland, Italy and Spain, where the Roman
church has lost most of the vast influence it used to wield in secular affairs.

Media there have focused mostly on whether the Iraq conflict is a just war, sometimes
quoting the pronounced anti-war stand of Pope John Paul (news - web sites) II.

__________________
7ub stranjeluv http://216.239.39.100/search?q=cache:2Klg6bxWlMUC:
www.morocco.com/forums/showthread.php3%3Fgoto%3Dlastpost%26forumid%3D9+divine+mission+
%22Johannes+Rau%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

sds02603.html#3

Armageddon
by Morgan Strong
October 19, 2002

When we go to war in Iraq we will do so to summon the Messiah. That is what the
Christian right believes. The final battle to rid the world of all non-believers, non-Christians,
more exactly non-Evangelical Christians, is going to take place very soon at Armageddon
in Israel. The Bible tells us so.

Rev. Jerry Falwell believes fully, and un-equivocally that we must go to war with Iraq to
set in motion the cataclysmic events that will ensure the second coming of Jesus Christ.
War with Iraq will lead to the end of the World, as we know it. God will reign and Jerry
Falwell will sit at the right hand of God.

Israel will be no more. Israel will be destroyed during the apocalypse. Any Jews that
survive anywhere will be converted to Christianity. Or more precisely, Evangelical Christianity.

The Moslems, the Jews, the Buddhists, the Hindus, the Shintos, the Animists,
the Voodooists, the Catholics, et al, will be converted to the Evangelical Christian
legions of the Lord commanded by Jerry Falwell.

If you believe otherwise, if you believe that Biblical prophesies as interpreted by the
Christian right are so much lunacy, you are in the helpless majority. Because the
Christian right has extraordinary influence in the administration of President George Bush.
George Bush is one of their number. He does not attempt to hide this; he is quite deliberate
in his public discussions of his re-birth, and his salvation. He was saved from a life of excess
when he embraced the rigorous teachings of the Christian Evangelicals.

The Christian right managed, through the rebirth of George Bush, to gain a good measure
of influence over the most powerful nation on this earth. The Christian right believes that only
the apocalypse will purify the souls of the heretics, and the United States will be the
instrument to bring forth God’s wrath. The great resources, the military might, of the
United States is part of the divine plan to bring the Apocalypse upon us.

Jerry Falwell has made the truth about the administration's desperate attempts to go to
war with Iraq frighteningly clear. Falwell has said publicly he believes Mohammad the
Prophet was evil. Falwell said that Mohammad was a terrorist. That is why he and the
Christian fundamentalists support Israel in their battle against the Palestinians. Because
the battle Israel is fighting against the Moslem Palestinians is to reclaim the lands of
biblical Israel. Evangelicals believe the lands of ancient Israel must be reunited in order
to fulfill the biblical prophesy of Christ’s return to earth.

That is why George Bush makes no effort to stop Ariel Sharon’s furious attempt to drive
the Palestinians from the occupied territories. Sharon will restore the ancient Hebrew Kingdom,
including Judea and Samaria, provinces which make up the modern-day West Bank.
George Bush makes no effort to protect the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat because the
Evangelicals tell him not to.

When President Bush told the Israelis to withdraw their tanks and troops from the
occupied territories last April, Falwell sent him a letter of protest. Falwell had his followers
send one hundred thousand emails to President Bush to support his demand. Israel did not
withdraw its tanks and troops and George Bush stopped calling. George Bush has given
Ariel Sharon a free hand since.

The Evangelicals are Bush’s core support. They are the people who helped him defeat
John McCain, who once called Jerry Falwell "evil". in the crucial South Carolina primary.
Falwell’s Evangelicals called thousands of South Carolina voters to inform them that
McCain has a black child. (McCain and his wife Cindy adopted a little girl from Bangladesh.)
These righteous people do not believe in the mixing of the races. The Bible tells them the
mixing of race is an abomination.

These same pious people, who await the coming of Christ, find nothing wrong with murdering
doctors who perform abortions. These virtuous people and their leader are the same people
who have condemned homosexuals, and will never give women the right to an abortion. These
devout people regard other religious beliefs as heresy. They want to go to war with Iraq so that
millions will die in the apocalyptic horror that will follow for their own salvation.

What is frightening is the language President Bush uses when he describes Saddam and
others as the "Evil Ones," the "Evil Doers," to incite the American people to war. They are
the same descriptions; carrying the same religious connotations, that Jerry Falwell and his
flock employ to describe non-believers. George Bush is a child of their beliefs. George Bush
seems to believe he and Ariel Sharon are locked in a struggle together against the "Evil Ones"
for the world’s salvation.

Sharon represents the key to the coming salvation. The Evangelicals adore him. Sharon has
said often he wants to reclaim the land of ancient Israel. He believes the Palestinians have a
homeland – called Jordan. He does not want peace with the Palestinians, and he does not
want Iraq to remain a threat to Israel. Sharon and Falwell have formed a partnership based
on the lunacy of biblical prophecies, and the insanity of Sharon’s vision of the resurrection
of the ancient Hebrew Kingdom.

We, the majority of Americans, are only observers, and have no real influence to stop what
will surely occur. There may be a reason for the war. Saddam is truly a very bad person.
He should be removed. But he is not the only bad person who runs a country. Where do we
stop? Or do we stop at the second coming?

What worries me is that we may be going to war to fulfill what a few deluded people believe
to be biblical prophecy. And what really worries me is that we have a President who might
believe this nonsense, too.

Morgan Strong a former professor of Middle Eastern History at S.U.N.Y. Poughkeepsie, is a
consultant to 60Minutes on the Middle East. He has written for Playboy, USA Today,
Vanity Fair, and many other publications.

__________________
7ub stranjeluv

http://www.morocco.com/forums/showthread.php3?postid=122063#post122063

The article below give the ground work for the above article:

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

sds02603.html#4

Evangelicals and Israel: Theological Roots of a Political Alliance

by Donald Wagner

Donald Wagner is director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at North Park
University in Chicago and director of Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding.
This article appeared in The Christian Century, November 4, 1998, pp. 1020-1026.

When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Washington this past January,
his initial meeting was not with President Clinton but with Jerry Falwell and more than
1,000 fundamentalist Christians. The crowd saluted the prime minister as "the Ronald
Reagan of Israel," and Falwell pledged to contact more than 200,000 evangelical pastors,
asking them to "tell President Clinton to refrain from putting pressure on Israel" to comply
with the Oslo accords.

The meeting between Netanyahu and Falwell illustrates a remarkable political and theological
convergence. The link between Israelis Likud government and the U.S. Religious Right was
established by Natanyahu's mentor, Menachem Begin, during the Carter and Reagan
administrations. However, the roots of evangelical support for Israel lie in the long tradition
of Christian thinking about the millennium.

In Luke's account of the ascension, the disciples ask Jesus, "Lord, is this the time when
you will restore the Kingdom to Israel?" The question illustrates the early church's fascination
with Israel and its prophetic role at the end of history--a fascination that continues to this day.
Reflections on the end times draw on the Book of Daniel, Zechariah 9-14, Ezekiel 38-39 and
various apocryphal books, as well as Matthew 24, the early Pauline letters
(1 Thess. 4:16-17; 5:1-11) and the Book of Revelation.

An early version of Christian eschatology, called "historic premillennialism," held that Jesus
would return and establish his millennial kingdom after the world had been evangelized.
However, by the 18th century another model of eschatology emerged in England that
emphasized the role of a reconstituted Israel in the end times. This eschatology was rooted
in three streams of British Christianity: the piety of English Puritanism; the view that Britain
was the "new Israel," a theme that dates back at least to the seventh century and the Venerable Bede; and a hermeneutic that interpreted biblical prophetic texts as having a literal, future fulfillment.
Among the forerunners of this movement was Sir Henry Finch, a prominent lawyer and member of
Parliament. In 1621, Finch wrote a treatise in which he called upon the British people and its
government to support Jewish settlement in Palestine in order to fulfill biblical prophecy.

As the year 1800 approached, several premillennial theologies emerged as a result of the insecurity
surrounding the American and French revolutions. Among them were various utopian movements
and the Millerites (a group that later became Seventh-day Adventists). During this period
John Nelson Darby (1800-82), a renegade Anglican priest from Ireland, popularized and systematized
eschatological themes while simultaneously developing a new school of thought which has been
called "futurist premillennialism."

During 60 years of unceasing travel and preaching across the European continent and North America,
Darby converted a generation of evangelical clergy and laity to his views. Darby held that biblical
prophecies and much of scripture must be interpreted according to a literal and predictive hermeneutic.
He believed that the true church will be removed from history through an event called the "rapture"
(I Thess. 4:16-17; 5:1-11), and the nation Israel will be restored as God's primary instrument in history.

According to Darby, Christians must interpret history in light of seven epochs or "dispensations," each
of which reflects a particular manner in which God deals with humanity. For example, we currently
live under the dispensation of "Grace," whereby people are judged according to their personal
relationship with Jesus Christ. This hermeneutical method is called dispensationalism.

According to the dispensational model, a time of turmoil lies ahead, but believers will be "raptured"
away before it begins. This period of tribulation will culminate in the final battle at Armageddon, a
valley northwest of Jerusalem. As evangelical historian Timothy Weber points out, for premillennialists
"the historical process is a never-ending battle between good and evil, whose course God has already
conceded to the Devil.. . . History's only hope lies in its own destruction."

Through Darby's influence, premillennial dispensationalism became a dominant method of biblical
interpretation and influenced a generation of evangelical leaders, including Dwight L. Moody. Perhaps
the most influential instrument of dispensational thinking was the Scofield Bible (1909) which included
a commentary that interpreted prophetic texts according to a premillennial hermeneutic. Another early
Darby disciple, William E. Blackstone, brought dispensationalism to millions of Americans through his
best seller Jesus Is Coming (1882). Blackstone organized the first Zionist lobbying effort in the U.S. in
1891 when he enlisted J. P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, Charles B. Scribner and other financiers to
underwrite a massive newspaper campaign requesting President Benjamin Harrison to support the
establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine.

Similar efforts were under way in England, led by the social reformer Lord Shaftesbury, who, like
Blackstone, was so taken with Darby's eschatology that he translated it into a political agenda.
These seeds of the Christian Zionist movement preceded Jewish Zionism by several years.
Loni Shaftesbury is also credited with coining an early version of the slogan adopted by Jewish
Zionist fathers Max Nordau and Theodor Herzl: "A land of no people for a people with no land."
Both Lord Arthur Balfour, author of the famous 1917 Balfour Declaration, and Prime Minister
David Lloyd George, the two most powerful men in British foreign policy at the close of World War I,
were raised in dispensationalist churches and were publicly committed to the Zionist agenda for
"biblical" and colonialist reasons.

The establishment of Israel in 1948 gave dispensationalism new momentum. The restoration of a
Jewish nation was taken as a sign that the clock of biblical prophecy was ticking and we were
rapidly approaching the final events leading to the return of Jesus. During the cold war,
dispensationalists readily interpreted the Soviet Union and its allies as the Antichrist. Passages
such as Ezekiel 38-39 were read as predictions of an impending Soviet attack on Israel. A
ten-member confederation--often interpreted as the European Union--was expected to join the
Soviet Union in this attack.

When Israel captured Jerusalem in the 1967 war; dispensationalists were certain that the end
was near. L. Nelson Bell, Billy Graham's father-in-law and editor of Christianity Today, wrote in
July 1967: "That for the first time in more than 2,000 years Jerusalem is now completely in the
hands of the Jews gives the student of the Bible a thrill and a renewed faith in the accuracy and
validity of the Bible."

By the early 1970s numerous books, films and television specials publicized the premillennial
dispensationalist perspective. Hal Lindsay made a virtual industry out of his book
The Late Great Planet Earth: it sold more than 25 million copies and led to two films, as well as
a consulting business with a clientele that has included several members of Congress, the
Pentagon, and Ronald Reagan.

In the mid 1970s at least five trends converged that accelerated the rise of Christian Zionism.
First, evangelical and charismatic movements became the fastest-growing branch of North American
Christianity. Mainline Protestant denominations and the Roman Catholic Church were declining
both in budgets and attendance.

The election of Jimmy Carter; a Southern Baptist Sunday school teacher; to the presidency in 1976
increased the visibility and legitimacy of the once-marginalized evangelical movement. Time magazine
declared 1976 "the year of the evangelical." Still, the mainstream media seemed confused by the
various traditions and polarities within the complex evangelical movement, failing to distinguish
between the diverse political and theological voices clamoring to claim the term "evangelical" for
their particular viewpoint.

Israel's occupation of Arab lands after 1967 created tension between many Jewish organizations
and the mainline Protestant, Eastern Orthodox and Catholic communities. Many Jewish
organizations, particularly lobbying groups such as the American Israel Political Affairs
Committee (AIPAC), turned to the growing evangelical community for support. As
Rabbi Marc Tanenbaum of the American Jewish Committee stated, "The evangelical community
is the largest and fastest-growing bloc of pro-Jewish sentiment in this country." AIPAC and the
Anti-Defamation League (ADL) added staff to focus on relationships with evangelicals and
fundamentalists. The Israeli ministry of tourism eyed evangelicals as a major new market for
Holy Land tours and thus a source of revenue.

The fourth factor that stimulated the emerging evangelical Christian Zionist movement's political
agenda was the election of Menachem Begin as Israel's prime minister in May 1977. Prior to
Begin's election, Israeli politics had been dominated by the secular Labor Party. Begin's Likud Party
was dominated by hard-line military figures such as Raphael Eitan and Ariel Sharon, and supported
by the increasingly powerful settler movement and by small Orthodox religious parties. Likud
constituencies used the biblical names "Judea and Samaria" for the West Bank and employed a
religious argument to justify Israel's confiscation of Arab land for settlements: since God gave the
land exclusively to Jews, they have a divine right to settle anywhere in Eretz Israel. Evangelicals
welcomed the Likud leaders and endorsed their political and religious agendas.

The final development that accelerated the alliance between Likud and the Religious Right was
Carter's March 1977 statement that he supported Palestinian human rights, including the "right
to a homeland." Likud, when it came to power just two months later; immediately reached out to
Christian evangelicals. Likud's strategy was simple: split evangelical and fundamentalist Christians
from Carter's political base and rally support among conservative Christians for Israel's opposition
to the United Nations' proposed Middle East Peace Conference.

Within weeks, full-page advertisements appeared in major U.S. newspapers stating, "The time has
come for evangelical Christians to affirm their belief in biblical prophecy and Israel's divine right to
the land." Targeting Soviet involvement in the UN conference, the ad went on to say: "We affirm
as evangelicals our belief in the promised land to the Jewish people . . . . We would view with
grave concern any effort to carve out of the Jewish homeland another nation or political entity."

The ad was financed and coordinated by Jerusalem's Institute for Holy Land Studies, an evangelical
organization with a Christian Zionist orientation. Several leading dispensationalists signed the ad,
including Kenneth Kantzer of Christianity Today and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, singer
Pat Boone, and dispensationalist theologian and Dallas Theological Seminary president John Walvoord.

The advertising campaign was one of the first public signs of a Likud-evangelical alliance. A former
employee of the American Jewish Committee, Jerry Strober, who had coordinated the campaign,
made the political connection in a statement to Newsweek: "[The evangelicals] are Carter's
constituency and he [had] better listen to them... The real source of strength the Jews have in
this country is from the evangelicals."

At times the new alliance was uncomfortable for Jewish leaders. On one such occasion, the
president of the Southern Baptist Convention, Bailey Smith, stated that "God does not hear
the prayers of the Jews." Within weeks, the AIC took Smith on a trip to Israel and corrected
his views. While Christian Zionists and Jewish organizations agree on many points, the
Christian Right's enthusiasm for evangelizing Jews remains an unresolved point of tension.

Evangelicals, major Jewish organizations and the pro-Israel lobby supported Ronald Reagan
in the 1980 election. Carter's loss of the evangelical vote played a significant role in his defeat.
Likud policy was aggressively represented by AIPAC both on Capitol Hill and within the Reagan
administration. For example, when Israel decided to invade Lebanon in the spring of 1982, Begin
sent Ariel Sharon, his defense minister, to Washington to enlist the Reagan administration's
support. By late May, Sharon was reportedly given the green light by Secretary of State
Alexander Haig. Within days of the June invasion, full-page ads appeared in leading newspapers
requesting evangelical support for the invasion.

Begin developed a unique relationship with Reagan and many fundamentalist leaders, especially
Jerry Falwell. Falwell and his Moral Majority had long supported Israel. In 1979, Grace Halsell reports,
Israel gave Falwell a Lear jet and in 1981 gave him the prestigious Jabotinsky Award during an
elaborate dinner ceremony in New York. When Israel bombed Iraq's nuclear plant in 1981, Begin
called Falwell before he called Reagan. He requested that Falwell "explain to the Christian public
the reasons for the bombing."

In March 1985, while speaking to the conservative Rabbinical Assembly in Miami, FaIwell pledged
to "mobilize 70 million conservative Christians for Israel and against anti-Semitism." He also takes
credit for converting Senator Jesse Helms (R., N.C.) into one of Israel's staunchest allies. Helms
soon became chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The Reagan administration regularly conducted briefings and seminars for its Christian Right
supporters, briefings in which the pro-Likud lobby (Americans for a Safe Israel and AIPAC)
participated. Among the approximately 150 Christian fundamentalist leaders invited to each
event were Hal Lindsay, Jimmy Swaggart, Jim and Tammy Bakker; Pat Robertson and Tim
and Bev LeHaye.

Reagan himself was a committed Christian Zionist. His support for Israel derived from both
strategic political concerns and a vague dispensationalist perspective. He told Tom Dine,
AIPAC's executive director; "I turn back to your ancient prophets in the Old Testament and
the signs foretelling Armageddon, and I find myself wondering if we re the generation that is
going to see that come about." The remark was published by the Jerusalem Post and widely
distributed by the Associated Press.

Netanyahu's 1996 defeat of Shimon Peres brought Likud back to power. During his years as
Israel's representative at the UN, Netanyahu spoke regularly on the Christian Bight's "Prayer
Breakfast for Israel" circuit and similar venues. Within a few months of his election, in conjunction
with the Israeli ministry on tourism, he convened the Israel Christian Advocacy Council. Seventeen
American evangelical and fundamentalist leaders were flown to Israel for a tour of the Holy Land
and a conference at which they pledged support for what was essentially a Likud agenda. Included
in the delegation were Don Argue, president of the National Association of Evangelicals; Brandt
Gustavson, president of the National Religious Broadcasters (an organization that oversees
approximately 90 percent of Christian radio and television broadcasting in North America); and
Donald Wildmon, president of the American Family Association. The evangelical leaders signed
a pledge expressing the hope that "America never; never desert Israel."

Several members of the Advisory Council backed the pro-Israel advertisement in the April 10,
1997, New York Times. Titled "Christians Call for a United Jerusalem," the ad may have been
a direct response to a December 1996 Times ad sponsored by Churches for Middle East Peace,
calling for a "Shared Jerusalem."

The Christian Zionist ad claimed that its signatories reach more than 100,000 Christians weekly
and called for evangelicals to support the Likud position on Jewish sovereignty over Jerusalem.
Using several familiar dispensationalist themes, the ad claimed: "Jerusalem has been the
spiritual and political capital of only the Jewish people for 3,000 years." Citing Genesis 12:17,
Leviticus 26:44-45 and Deuteronomy 7:7-8, it spoke of Israel's biblical claim to the land. The
ad was signed by Pat Robertson of the Christian Broadcasting Network; Ralph Reed, then
director of the Christian Coalition; Ed McAteer of the Religious Roundtable; and Falwell,
among others. Voicing one of Netanyahu's themes, the ad asked that Israel "not be pressured
to concede on issues of Jerusalem in the final status negotiations with the Palestinians."

Likud also turned to evangelical and fundamentalist Christians to offset the decline in
contributions for Israel from the American Jewish community. In response to the increasing
power of the Orthodox parties in Netanyahu's government and the second-class status these
parties assigned to non-Orthodox Jews, Reformed and Conservative Jewish communities cut
back their usual generous contributions to the Jewish National Fund and other agencies in the
U.S. that support Israel. But the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, led by Rabbi
Yechiel Eckstein of Chicago, raised more than $5 million for the United Jewish Appeal, almost
all of it from evangelicals and fundamentalists.

In a separate initiative, John Hagee, pastor of the Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas,
and a signer of the Christians for a United Jerusalem Statement, announced in February of this
year that his church was giving more than $1 million to Israel. He claimed that the money would
be used to help resettle Jews from the former Soviet Union in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
"We feel like the coming of Soviet Jews to Israel is a fulfillment of biblical prophecy," Hagee
stated. When asked if he realized that his support of Israel's Likud policies was at cross-purposes
with U.S. government policy and possibly illegal, Hagee retorted: "I am a Bible scholar and a
theologian and from my perspective, the law of God transcends the law of the United States
government and the U.S. State Department."

While the U.S. and European governments in 1997 were pressing Netanyahu to negotiate with
the Palestinians, the prime minister's public relations specialists developed another strategy
involving the cooperation of Christian Zionist organizations in Jerusalem. The initial phase of this
strategy was launched in an October 22, 1997, report on Israeli Radio (Kol Israel) News, a report
claiming that the Palestinian National Authority (PA) was persecuting Christians.

Two days later the Jerusalem Post published an article charging that, according to a new
Israeli government report, "the few Christians remaining in PA-controlled areas are subjected
to brutal and relentless persecution." The report alleged that "'Christian cemeteries have been
destroyed, monasteries have had their telephone lines cut, and there have been break-ins to
convents.'" Moreover; the Palestinian Authority "has taken control of the churches and is
pressuring Christian leaders to serve as mouthpieces for Yasser Arafat and opponents of Israel"

A month later; Congressman J. C. Watts (R., Okla.) reiterated these charges in the Washington
Times, blaming Arafat and the PA for the Christian exodus from the Holy Land and calling into
question the $307 million in grants the U.S. has given the PA.

Palestinian Christian leaders were quick to respond. Said Bethlehem mayor Hanna Nasser,
a Christian: "Our churches have complete freedom, and I've never heard that they've been
under pressure." Mitri Raheb, pastor of Bethlehem's Lutheran church, challenged the Israeli
report as pure propaganda. He noted that while Bethlehem was under Israeli occupation, his
house had been robbed and his car stolen twice; but "there have been no robberies since the
Palestinian Authority has taken over. On the contrary, there is a greater sense of security
now than there was under occupation."

Last May, Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding and Open Doors International sent
a 14-member team to the Holy Land to investigate the allegations of persecution. The delegation
interviewed more than 60 spokespersons in Israel and the Palestinian territories, including a
number of Christian leaders; Uri Mor, director of the Israeli Ministry of Religious Affairs in the
Department of Christian Communities; and several Christian Zionist leaders.

The delegation concluded that though there were isolated incidents of discrimination and
increased tension between Christian and Muslim communities in certain areas, there were
no cases that could be characterized as persecution in the territories under the Palestinian
Authority. Four converts from Islam to Christianity had experienced pressure from their families
and communities. One or two who had criminal backgrounds had been pressured by the PA.
But in neither case could the context and reasons for the pressure be construed as persecution.
Furthermore, though some Christian Palestinians are concerned that if Islamic law (Shari'a)
becomes the law of the Palestinian areas, the religious freedom of Christians maybe restricted
in the future, no evidence of this development is present.

The investigative team found "disturbing indications of political motivations behind [the] recent
publicity about Christian persecution." The team learned that a Christian Zionist group, the
International Christian Embassy--Jerusalem, had cooperated with the office of David Bar-llan,
Netanyahu's chief spokesman, in exaggerating accounts of Christian persecution and circulating
them to the international press. A staff member of the U. S. consulate in Jerusalem interviewed
Mor; the Israeli religious affairs official, who stated that the report was intended to be an internal
document, but Bar-llan's office leaked it to the Christian and secular media.

Asked why the prime minister's office would do such a thing, Mor noted that Bar-llan uses such
information as his "bread and butter" in the Israeli propaganda war against the PA. Clearly,
there was no attempt by either the Israeli government or the Christian Embassy to note the
criminal status of some claiming to be persecuted, or to distinguish between persecution and
understandable pressure from families or communities opposing a member's conversion to another faith.

It is true that Palestinian Christians are leaving the Holy Land. But it is not because of Muslim
persecution. They are leaving because of the brutality of Israeli occupation and because Israel's
resistance to negotiating a just peace with the Palestinians makes them despair about the future.

At this juncture, it appears that the hardline Likud position has the backing of both houses of
advocate the Israeli Labor Party peace formula, or the Oslo Accords, have little leverage with
Likud. Palestinian Christians and their supporters fear that the Christian Right's alliance with
Likud may in the end serve as a self-fulfilling prophecy, heightening tensions in the region and l
eading to a new round of conflict in the Holy Land, which the Christian Zionists will readily interpret
as "the final battle."

__________________
7ub Stranjeluv

http://www.morocco.com/forums/showthread.php3?postid=122063#post122063

sds02603.html#5