This is another point that I feel is important to make. Very little coverage is given to it in the press.

Stumbling block to Middle East peace.

In January 1970 there was a best seller book titled: “The Late Great Planet Earth“, by Hal Lindsey. This book laid out a scenario for the end of the world according to a literal interpretation of Bible prophecies.

There have been many doomsday books and many predictions of when the Earth will be transformed in some cataclysmic manner. Some are nonreligious but a large number of them are based on biblical prophecy. What seems to have escaped much attention (at least by the press) is a movement, springing primarily from Hal Lindsey’s book, called the Christian Zionists.

Zionism, by a definition in the Oxford American Dictionary and Language Guide, is “a movement were the reestablishment and development of a Jewish nation in what is now Israel”.

The Christian Zionists and associated evangelical Christians, mostly in the U.S., but also from others around the world, over the past two decades, have poured millions of dollars in donations into Israel and formed a tight alliance with the Likud and other Israeli politicians seeking an expanded “Greater Israel”.

That sort of “reaching out” would be eminently commendable were it not for the motivation behind It. The rationale behind this movement is the literal interpretation of the “end of days” prophecy. The Christian Zionists are acting on the belief that the modern State of Israel is the fulfillment of God’s covenant with Abraham, the second coming of Christ and the final battle of Armageddon, when the Antichrist will be defeated.

What the Christian Zionists are doing is positioning themselves. They want to be on the right side when the time comes. In order to ensure that they have this advantage they have been “pressuring the U.S. government away from peace negotiations and toward an annexationist policy that has a direct negative impact on the potential for change in the Middle East”, says Gershon Greenberg, a senior editor at the Jerusalem Report newsmagazine.

Not all Christians in the holy land agree with the Christian Zionists. They say that “Christian Zionism transforms faith into a political ideology and one that needs an enemy” says Rev. Rafik Khoury of the Catholic Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem.

It is the political activism of the Christian Zionist movement that bothers me, and I’m certain will bother others if they are made aware of it. Certainly people are entitled to their religious beliefs and undoubtedly those beliefs influenced their political choices. Where the dirt hits the fan is when the religious beliefs become fanaticism and allow no compromise.

Fortunately concern is growing, including that of some Evangelicals, about the ultimate serious, even disastrous, consequences attendant upon the Christian Zionist’s influence on U.S. and Israeli policy.

This current Republican administration is rife with adherents to the Christian Zionists cause. Ralph Reed, an ardent religious rightist, and Republican Party strategist, has formed “Stand for Israel”, a project to build grass-roots advocacy for Israel among U.S. Christians. Christians Israeli Public Action Committee (CIPAC) lobbies Congress to oppose any limitation on Israel’s action. This group effectively blocked President Bush’s peace proposal, “the roadmap”. We have heard very little about that. This in spite of the fact that many consider the Israeli - Palestinian problem a key to settling much of the Middle East unrest.

Tom DeLay the House majority leader, is quoted as “seeing no occupied territory, I see Israel”. Former Rep. Dick Armey, ( R ) of Texas, proclaimed his support for “transporting the Palestinians to other countries”.

Some point to a coalition that is tilting the Bush administration toward Israeli supremacy. The neo-conservatives, the Jewish lobby, and the Christian Zionists, who provide the grass-roots political punch as a prime Bush constituency.


There is a group of 15 Christian denominations in Jerusalem, from Greek Orthodox to Quakers, that formed an ecumenical movement called Sabeel (“the Way”, in Arabic) which works to counter extremism on both sides. Sabeel held a conference called “Challenging Christian Zionism”. Some 500 Christians from 31 countries came to Jerusalem to discuss ways to check the growing influence of Christian Zionism.

Jews also are concerned, and they should be. Ironically the ultimate goal of the Christian Zionists is the conversion of Jews to Christianity.

While our media is commandeered by the momentous matters of the Peterson, Martha Stewart, Kobe Bryant, trials there are significant issues not being brought to the public’s attention. I feel the Christian Zionist movement demands to be aired much more publicly. Something that has so much political influence and, to my way of thinking, is so negative and obstructionist to a just peace for Israel and Palestine, deserves to be more generally discussed.

Footnote: The material for this piece is primarily from an article in the Christian Science Monitor of July 7, 2004. It was also aired earlier on the Bill Moyer program on PBS .