Open Letter to: Katherine Cunningham, Bill Plitt, Walt Davis, and others in Israel/Palestine’s Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church USA
from We Hold These Truths
Dear followers of Christ:

Thank you on behalf of all who have been waiting for our mainline churches to come to the aid of the Palestinian people and the cause of peace everywhere. Your Zionism Unsettled, A Congregational Study Guide,[1] is a balanced and documented presentation of the facts. Your Presbyterian group, Israel/Palestine’s Mission Network (IPMN)[2], has made inspiring progress in the face of resistance from within the Presbyterian Church as well as scorching criticism and condemnation from the the Anti-Defamation League. May you not be discouraged. It is our prayer that churches in your denomination, and other denominations as well, will adopt the eight-week study program.

We Hold These Truths can attest to the amazingly organized pressure that comes from Jewish and Israeli lobbies when they are threatened with exposure. Jewish and Israeli lobbies have often influenced Christians to make decisions and concessions that do not follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, that reflect actions that Jesus did not do and would never do. However, these lobbies can do no more than call you a “hate group,” shouted by those who make no secret of their utter contempt for Palestinian lives, as can be seen in a recent film report from Jerusalem.[3]

"Israel holds US boy [Tariq Abukhdeir] without charge after police nearly beat him to death"

“Israel holds US boy, Tariq Abukhdeir, without charge after police nearly beat him to death”

The Anti-Defamation League called Zionism Unsettled, “perhaps the most anti-Semitic document to come out of a mainline American church in recent memory.” This attack can only mean they feel your efforts to be a real threat to expose the systematic genocide in Gaza and the West Bank. The Israeli lobby reserves such words for those they wish to be silenced. Yes, those who denounce and oppose you feel the sting of truth in what you have done. We Hold These Truths has also felt that pressure.

We Hold These Truths was a rather new organization 12 years ago when we began our efforts to expose untruths to attendees at churches that practice Christian Zionism. Subsequently, the organization found the energy to travel to over 100 evangelical mega-churches nationwide in 10 years, including John Hagee’s Cornerstone Church, in San Antonio, TX.  We have learned how to best communicate with Christian Zionists because many of us have Christian Zionist friends and relatives. We Hold These Truths volunteers also discovered what IPMN is now experiencing, that when you sting Zionists with truth, they fight back fiercely, usually with falsehoods they represent as “fact.”  Zionists fight as though the very existence of the exclusivist, Jewish State depends on their ferocity.

May the general membership of PCUSA come to realize that it is being tested to choose either Christ’s truth and with it conflict, or the placidity that comes with compromise. Would not Jesus have received similar bad “press” in his time from the Pharisee and Roman cabal that controlled Jerusalem?

Our first endorsement of your acts came in a June 17, 2014 story, “…Mainline Christian Churches Offer Help and Hope.”[4] We wrote : Education is the only permanent solution to the problem caused by the century old campaign to sell Zionism to Christian Churches[5] and national bible study groups. Those who long for peace in our time must learn how to recognize Christian Zionism, and persuade their own pastors, Zionist influenced friends, and even their own families to oppose it. For this reason, the PCUSA’s Zionism Unsettled: A Congregational Study Guide, wins our vote for potentially the most valuable educational tool. The study guide is a most professional one, a 76-page booklet released on January 21, 2014. It is accurate in vital areas of understanding the Palestinian occupation, with an overview of Christian Zionism as a root cause. We have also noticed that it has received the most virulent attack from the Israeli Lobby.

I believe Zionism Unsettled, A Congregational Study Guide is validated by subsequent events, including the pressure put on the General Assembly vote not to sell the book. The fact that the General Assembly approved a divestment of stocks, but removed the book from its website, reveals that Israel fears the exposure in Zionism Unsettled much more than it fears boycotts, divestments and sanctions. We Hold These Truths has learned to trust the practiced cleverness of those we oppose. Trust that Satan fears Jesus; trust that Zionist, hate filled, political Israel fears exposure more than it fears divestment.

We Hold These Truths made a film four years ago and in 2014 the film won an international award as a documentary.  Christian Zionism, The Tragedy and The Turning, Part I [5] is available free to all on our website. The film calls for Mainline churches to create a solution to an educational vacuum. Your study guide fills this vacuum. The final conclusion drawn in our film is that hope for the Palestinians and the entire world can only come from a movement within the traditional, non-dispensational churches in America. You are helping to fulfill our prayers.

We have dedicated many years to the quest for an America that is not at war with anyone, and where Palestinians are as free as we are. I would be pleased to meet with IPMN to discuss what we have learned. I have trained and worked in the Wall Street money markets, which has given me a perspective on the financing of war.  I have seen with my own eyes Gazans being bombed and murdered, and their children terrorized by Israelis, using US provided weapons. Scenes I photographed are in our film.  I am at your service, if I can help.

Toward the Strait Gate,
Charles E. Carlson
303 238 1168, Cell 602 741 4650
We Hold These Truths (www.whtt.org)
[1] Zionism Unsettled: A Congregational Study Guide, Israel/Palestine Mission Network, 2014: http://www.israelpalestinemissionnetwork.org/main/study-resources/publications
[2] Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church, (U.S.A.): http://www.israelpalestinemissionnetwork.org/main/
[3] “Israel holds US Boy without charge after police nearly beat him to death” [in Palestine], Middle East Monitor, July 5, 2014:  https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/12577-israel-holds-us-boy-without-charge-after-police-nearly-beat-him-to-death  See, also: “Several Israeli Jews arrested in killing of Palestinian yourth,” CBS News, 7/6/2014: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/jews-arrested-in-killing-of-palestinian-youth-official-says/
[4] “How to Talk to your Zionist Pastor: Mainline Christian Churches Offer Help and Hope,” Charles E. Carlson, We Hold These Truths, 6/17/2014:  https://whtt.org/how-to-talk-to-your-zionist-pastor-mainline-christian-churches-offer-help-and-hope/
[5] Christian Zionism: The Tragedy and The Turning, Part I, We Hold These Truths, © 2010: https://whtt.org/christian-zionism/