Author Topic: A General Overview: Pro-Israel and Anti-Israel Attitudes within the Churches  (Read 1281 times)

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http://jcpa.org/article/anti-zionism-and-the-churches-the-canadian-scene/

A General Overview: Pro-Israel and Anti-Israel Attitudes within the Churches

Christian attitudes toward the state of Israel vary greatly. On the one hand, there is the World Council of Churches (WCC), the collective voice of all the major Protestant denominations, which stood in the vanguard at the UN conference at Durban in August 2001. There Israel was stigmatized for “systematic perpetration of racist crimes including war crimes, acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing.” The WCC issues declarations that echo the anathemas given currency by the Durban II conference and the Goldstone report.[1]

On the other hand, there are the Christian Zionists, perhaps the most reliable supporters of Israel’s cause today. They are more consistently pro-Israel, in fact, than the general constituency of those who, in the United States, Canada, and the Western democracies, identify themselves to the census-takers as Jews.

Christian Zionism reflects a basic pro-Israel disposition among North Americans, most of whom, despite the superficial secularization of the culture, believe that the state of Israel came into the world in fulfillment of promises found in Holy Scripture. These North Americans believe that their collective wellbeing requires their leaders to display a preference for Israel’s cause in the face of the threats to its life that have continued without abatement since 1948.[2]

Over recent years, leaders of major Protestant denominations have been conducting vigorous educational campaigns directed at discrediting Christian Zionism as “heresy.” These campaigns are paid for out of general revenues of the various denominations and usually take the form of weekend study sessions directed at discovering solidarity with the “Christian people of Palestine.” Their principal speakers are usually bishops representing the main denominations in the Holy Land (Anglican, Lutheran, Roman Catholic, etc.) – all of whom are Palestinian Arabs. No place is ever permitted on such programs for pro-Israel response. All of the study materials and recommended readings are derived from anti-Israel sources, disseminated by the publication houses owned by the particular denominations."
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