TO: Pastor Jim Franklin
Cornerstone Church Office:
1545 Fulton St.
Fresno, CA 93721
Phone: 559-442-0122
Dear Pastor Franklin and Other Area Church Leaders:
Project Strait Gate will conduct a Vigil for Peace With Justice at your Cornerstone Church on May 5, 2013, during the hours of your services. Our Fresno affiliates tell us your members definitely do not hear this message for peace in Cornerstone Church, nor on your frequent radio programs. We are also setting plans to visit other area churches and we are sharing this letter with them, and with the press.
This will be our second Vigil at Cornerstone since you hosted John Hagee and his Christians United For Israel, Night to Honor Israel in 2011. We believer you should tell your congregations about the growing Christ Followers movement for peace among traditional churches.
Some fifteen Mainline, mission oriented denominations that traditionally teach that Christ Followers live and labor in Jesus’ kingdom in the presence of His Spirit, and that we are a part of His mission today, have made significant progress in reaching out for the peace process in just the last 12 months. They have asked Congress to cut off aid for Israel’s military because they say it is used to repress the Palestinians, the longest running occupation of a captive people, since the soviet Gulags. (1)
Our associates in Fresno tell us Cornerstone is not a peace church, but you call yourself a mission church. On the contrary, those like Cornerstone, that teach that Political Israel is the fulfillment of Biblical prophesy and make political Israel a center of Christian life, have charged on in support of more wars since we last visited you. John Hagee continues to press for preemptive bombing of Iran, Syria, and the continued occupation of Palestine. We wish to bring this distinction to the members of your congregations and other pastors in Fresno CA. To this effect we are establishing an ongoing local presence in Fresno.
Your former guest, John Hagee, has publicly prayed for a preemptive strike against Iran. I am providing a link to that video, so those who read this letter can listen for themselves. (2)
We trust that you are concerned about the destruction of human life; John Hagee is not. It is my hope you will publicly renounce your support for Christians United For Israel, start praying for peace and working for peace. Evangelical congregations like yours should be the most peace-seeking persons on the globe.
Instead, you are supporting a nation that has been at war with its neighbors throughout all of its existence – the only country in the world that is openly imprisoning an entire disarmed population at gun point. Do you deny this, but you did not visit Gaza, did you? Would you like to see my photos of an Israeli bombing raid while I was there? (3) Churches like yours cannot be a peacemaker if you do not oppose the occupation of the Palestinian people and the murder of civilians on the very ground where Jesus’ blood was spilled.
Jesus’ words dictate the mission of Project Strait Gate. I am available to discuss why “Evangelical Christian Right” leaders should not support Israel because it is just another state, and why it is not the fulfillment of biblical prophesy. If you would like a film, and questions and answers presentation for your staff, Sunday school, mens group, youth group, etc., please contact me or our local associate, Dave Jacobs
We will be located on public right-of-ways at your church, ready to answer questions from all who wonder, from 8:30 AM to 11:00 AM. We will ask your congregation “Who Jesus would Bomb, Starve, or Drone?” We will, as always be respectful of your rights and the local laws.
Toward the Strait Gate (Mathew 7:13),
Charles E. Carlson
charlesecarlson.com
PO Box 35
Wheat Ridge, CO, 80034
Notes and links:
(1) Some Mainline, Traditional churches (http://www.pcusa.org/news/2012/10/5/religious-leaders-ask-congress-condition-israel-mi/)
(2) Hagee prays for war: (http://vimeo.com/34409225)
(3) Gaza war, Carlson (http://vimeo.com/15197234)
Note:  At our previous vigil at Cornerstone Church, a local Fresno TV station covered the event:  http://whtt.podbean.com/2013/04/22/whtt-gets-free-publicity-from-friend-of-john-hagee/
Copies to staff,
CA Press, and
 other area churches