Statistically, at least one in every five people who walked past our tent at the Denver People’s Fair has been indoctrinated by the Neo-Christian movement.  They sometimes but not always refer to themselves as “Christian Zionists”.  They are the only large Christian sect whose belief system has been formalized within the last 110 years.  In spite of the numbers, only one Neo-Christian stopped during my four-hour shift Saturday morning.  Sarah, not her real name, doesn’t know she is part of a young cult.  She would claim to be “traditional” in her beliefs.  She re-taught me a lesson in dealing with “Bible-believing Born Again Evangelicals”, a term which Sarah would gladly admit to.  In a word I blew my chance to influence her, and I want to share my mistake with you so you will not repeat it.  I have no excuse, for I have been doing this since about 2001.  In a word, I lost my temper and I fell off my plan.  Thus, I lost my hope of helping Sarah see the utter falsehoods about history and life in Israel that she supports.

First mistake:  I tried to talk to Sarah about well-establish secular facts and statistics of war, about Israel’s occupation of the Philistines and what I consider to be its slow-moving genocide of them.  Second mistake:  I allowed myself to show frustration and even anger because Sarah did not accept or believe a word I said.  Nor did she consider for one moment the factual literature we tried to give to her. She went away probably feeling that I was an angry, anti-Israeli (anti-Semite), who simply had been hopelessly brainwashed.

In fact, Sarah thinks much like the leaders of some 50-70 million American Neo-Christians who are indoctrinated in their respective churches and national bible study groups.  I simply underestimated the degree to which she had been indoctrinated.   This is a common error when you think you are talking to an intelligent person of Sarah’s background.

We, who support independence for the Philistines and oppose wars in the Middle East, must also challenge, and never ignore  Neo-Christians because of their large numbers. They can be defined most simply as the sub-cult that believes the political state of Israel is the fulfillment of biblical prophesy. Many, like Sarah, believe Israel’s leaders are God’s messengers.  Consequently, whatever Israel does to the 3.5 million Arabs it subjects in the ancient land of the Philistines, is to her God’s will.  Please note I use the work “Philistine” because it is the Arabic pronunciation of Palestine, the biblical name for the ancient tribe to which some of the present Philistines owes their lineage and language.

Henceforth, I will  use the “Christian Zionist” label more advisedly, only with self-proclaimed, professional Zionists like John Hagee and the late Jerry Falwell, who proudly proclaim they are CZ’s.  I will not use this label to describe amateurs like Sarah, for she was insulted by it and did not understand it.  We, who say we are for peace, must adjust our tactics, but not our message, which is always the same:  Jesus was and is for peace.  We must convince many Sarahs that the Philistines are the indigenous people who lived in that country, just as the many Indian tribes are the indigenous people in America, and that we should protect both from extermination.  Neo-Christians have played a big part in that genocide in Philistine, and they deserve to know it, for God also knows it.  Neo-Christians consider themselves God’s people under His will, care and law.  We need to convince them of their errors for their own sake.  “Thou shall not kill,” apples to Neo-Christians, and their part in the killing should not be kept from them. These facts of occupation seemed obvious to most of those who stopped at our booth at the People’s Fair.  But to Sarah it was a huge lie.  “Where did you hear that?” she asked.  “I listen to CNN and Fox news.”  We need Sarah on our side–she can be the swing vote for peace and for the life of the remaining Philistines, but not when she is pre-wired for war.

It goes without saying that one must never show even a hint of sarcasm or temper when talking to the most brainwashed Neo-Christian, no matter how far-fetched their ideas seem. Sarah talked about the missiles that rain down on Israel from Palestine.  She has been told this, and no one ever told her that Philistines have no “missiles” and never have had any; they only have unguided rockets, which is why their rocket attacks are simply defiance with small damage, if any. 

I broke my own unwritten rule when I showed anger over Sarah’s strange statement that “Palestine does not exist; and never did…there is no such country.”  She went on to tell me very coldly that, those people have forfeited their rights to justice because they are ‘terrorists’ and the Israelis are totally justified doing what they do because Palestinians are the aggressors.  

It is not easy to stay cool for those of us who have watched the penned up Gazans being bombed, but we must or we lose.  Sarah is repeating lies that someone else has told her. She has total confidence in what she said, having just been in Israel on a church-led junket, where she learned all she thinks she needs to know.  She has, without doubt, sat through years of bible study at her church, or perhaps with one of two national bible study organizations that sell Christian Zionism as biblical truth.  Precepts Ministries founder Kay Arthur holds forth against the Philistines’ rights in this revealing video.

Because these myths become reality when taught in a church, Neo-Christianity is now the most dangerous pro-war cult in America.  We Hold These Truths has been writing about it, by the name of “Christian Zionism”, since 2001.  Yes, there is something in a name! Sarah is radically dedicated to Israel, but is otherwise a morally conscious churchgoers.  Henceforth, I will call Sarah and others like her “Neo-Christians”. 

This is the third year I have pulled a shift at the fair for Coloradans for Justice in Palestine (CJP).  Sarah stopped at the CJP tent, seemingly challenged by two large posters that depicted the plight of the occupied “Palestinians”.  She soon revealed that she is absolutely convinced they are a violent, anti-Christian tribe bent on destroying holy and sacred Israelis.  Sarah is sure this is part of God’s plans and is necessary to preserve the chosen people and to punish evil-doers.  Every fanciful and distorted word Sarah spoke comes from the religious dogma taught her at Calvary Temple South, enforced by her one or more junkets to Israel.  Sarah can adroitly recall fragments of bible verses that seem, on surface, to support every argument she makes. She has a good memory and can paste together and intermingle passages from the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament into a seeming fit.  So how do we deal with Sarah in our own lives?

Lesson 1.  Let’s challenge Sarah’s faith as “Neo-Christianity”.  It is new–only 108 years back to the circulation of the Scofield Reference Bible, which is the source of much of the Neo-Christian doctrines.  Readers can learn the basics in “The Tragedy and The Turning”  (32 minutes, free)

Not all evangelical churches are Neo-Christian.  One enthused ELCA Lutheran pastor stopped to talk earlier that morning and told us with pride that his group had passed a denomination-wide resolution calling for the censure of Israel for its occupation of and its brutality toward Palestinians.  Christians Zionism is a term We Hold These Truths helped invent, define and popularize some 15 years ago to describe a prevalent disease within many evangelical churches.  It is the erroneous belief that the state of Israel if the fulfillment of biblical prophesy, and not just another political state.  Sarah is a Zionist Christian, but she does not know it, and these words have become a red flag to Sarah that sets off her alarm system, as does any criticism of Israel.  Every sympathetic-sounding statement about “Palestine” activated Sarah’s defense mechanism.  So if you cannot influence her with facts about Israel’s heathen abuse of this minority culture, how do you deal with Sarah?

Lesson 2.  Talk about peace and Jesus.  Avoid pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli quips, or even historical facts, such as the death toll in Operations Cast Lead or Protective Edge, which she is not yet ready to believe.  Instead, try to get your Sarah talking about what Jesus the peacemaker means to her.  When Sarah tells you the “Palestinians fire missiles into Israel, ask her what Jesus’ response would be to these rockets (not missiles)?  Would he bomb Gaza?  Ask her if Christ would punish all Philistines for the violent acts of a few?  Ask her if Jesus ever assaulted anyone, even when they scourged him.   Ask her what Jesus would say about Israel’s tactics of bombing the Philistines’ homes?  Ask her, do aggressive acts perpetrated by one side justify killing so many?  Ask Sarah who Jesus would bomb?  Most important, have handy one or more bible references about peace, love, forgiveness and tolerance to share with her.

Lesson 3:  Talk about the Philistines.  I recently listened to an elderly Palestinian lady speaking at length in Arabic, and, although I could not understand most of her words, she clearly pronounced “Philistine” over and over again which her translator rendered “Palestinian”.  Why not give these people a break and call them by their name in history, especially in the Bible?  Sarah’s heroes, the Israelites, are to her the same as the 20th Century European “Israelis”.  To Sarah, the “Palestinians” are the invaders, the vicious heathen Islamic enemy of Israel.  But Philistines are a predecessor tribe in Sarah’s bible, she can and will deny the Philistines were there first, but the word may make her think.

Lesson 4. Do not assume your “Sarah” has any sense of balance in her understanding of modern Middle Eastern history, even though she may have made one or more junkets to Israel. She is unlikely to have traveled anywhere but in Jewish Israel.  If she met a Philistine Arab on her junket, it is was likely a paid guide who keeps his job as a token “Palestinian” on the tour by keeping his mouth shut tight. The biblical brainwashing Sarah has received will blot out any natural sympathy that others might have toward the Philistines.  She has been carefully cultured in a hundred bible study classes to believe a biblical scrabble game that you would not think possible in the world of internet we all have access to. Remember, your “Sarah” could be your own daughter or mother.  Do not explode, no matter how outlandish and unbelievable Sarah’s beliefs are nor how frustrated they make you feel–and don’t be surprised if you are.  I was!  

Lesson 5: We are often asked, “Why bothers with the Zionist churches…are they not a lost cause?”  The  hope of Neo-Christians is that most are themselves deceived by leaders, but are sincere and concerned for life, and want to find God’s will for their lives.  The Southern Baptist Convention, the largest and most organized follower of the Neo-Christian myth, is on record as losing up to a million members a year in recent years.  Many of us who are now workers for peace, were once influenced by Neo-Christian churches.  I was one of them.  They can and will change when we least expect it.

Listen to Chuck Carlson discuss his encounter with “Sarah” and explain the mistakes he made.

Notes: 

Fifteen years ago Charles Carlson wrote about Sherry’s War, a woman at war, much like Sarah.  It helps explain the widespread Neo-Christian belief system in the now forgotten, tragic war for oil on the people of Sudan:

“Sherry’s War,” Charles E Carlson, Oct., 2001, pdf copy of Right To The Point journal:

Links:

https://vimeo.com/59933668

http://s50.podbean.com/pb/f549f64248b817e98a3c015578374818/575af384/data2/blogs18/278464/uploads/0110RTTPJournal-SherrysWar.pdf

“Sherry’s War,” Charles E Carlson, Oct., 2001, posted on whtt.org: https://whtt.org/?s=sherry%27s+war

Precept Ministries: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFgSnsAYvhs