We Hold These Truths’ Project Strait Gate is committed to coordinating “Vigils for Peace with Justice” outside announced meetings of John Hagee’s Christians United for Israel (CUFI) until CUFI changes its stands on Christ’s crowning principles of love for one’s brother and peace for all mankind. There are plenty of politicians and industrialists who worship war without the aid of those who claim to follow Jesus, as John Hagee does.
Our vigils are a proven method, and your help is needed…it takes a little time and a little courage on your part to come out and join us… to overcome the fear of the unknown, but we have completed over 55 vigils without a casualty, man or woman; we are always legal and invariably we feel uplifted and rewarded. You may learn about our Vigils by touring our website1. As you will discover, we are quiet and respectful and attempt to be as Christ-like as we are mortally able.(1) (2)
Why John Hagee?
This writer has listened to and viewed recent speeches by Pastor Hagee, including one at the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) meeting in Washington DC.3 Our decision is based upon a careful study of his own words. Pastor Hagee means what he says in his public speeches, and his clearly stated intentions are not in harmony with the example set by Jesus Christ (whom we seek to follow.) He calls for evil deeds done in Jesus’ name that will damage and deal death to many of all races and creeds, including some of our own sons and daughters.
Pastor Hagee and those who knowingly and freely follow him willfully condemn others to the horror and deprivation of untold and unnecessary wars. However, most of those who come to hear him have not considered the implications of their beliefs. More importantly, they do not consider how God would view their acts.
We deny most of John Hagee’s words as non-scriptural. However, we do not oppose him as a man, and we must not allow ourselves to be jealous of the worldly gifts of wealth and recognition Hagee has. We must depend upon the dedicated few to help us. We believe the worldly riches offered by World Zionism are false and do not come from God because the teaching of Zionism is anathema to the words of Jesus Christ. The Apostles received little from the powers of this world; Hagee has received much.
John Hagee openly claims or strongly implies that his success (and yours) is God-given because of his support of Zionism…he claims that God blesses the Christian-Zionists and curses any who dare oppose them. He invites you to prosper by supporting Israel and spins lavish biblical yarns to “prove” his point with distorted scripture. If Pastor Hagee is correct, he and all those who bless Israel by helping destroy Arabs and Islamic countries will be richly blessed, even as we are cursed. I call all Christ followers to this mission at Hagee’s shameful warmaking meetings. John Hagee has even called for a nuclear, pre-emptive strike against Iran to protect Israel.4
We must believe the words of Jesus Christ rather than the words of CUFI. Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers”; He never blessed war. Jesus blessed the little children, and He cautioned us to never harm them…in fact, he told us we must be like them in innocence to enter into his kingdom. Jesus would never condone bombing and terrorizing little children on account of their race or capturing and torturing hundreds when they are not old enough to resist.5 He never told us to make warriors out of our own children to destroy others in political wars. Jesus never blessed heinous wars against entire populations of any people, and to do so in his name is to take His own Holy name in vain.
Two of our volunteers attended John Hagee’s “Night of Honor for Israel” at Fordham University and reported on his speech. They were horrified and chilled by his message. Jack U, told me of his agonizing discomfort and embarrassment at having to stay and listen through the long painful event. Many of those on the program were not Christians and disdained Christianity except as a branch of Judaism. Jack confirmed that the purpose of the program was clearly to prescribe the need to support the police state of Israel in occupation of its neighbors, and even to encourage such wars as a desirable and necessary prescription for winning God’s favor. Christians United For Israel fails Jesus utterly in not demanding peace, and therefore, it already has the blood of tens of thousands on its hands.
Martha was also at Fordham. She is the American-born wife of an Arab who works as a Gaza City Christian missionary; devoting his life to helping those trapped inside the Gaza gulag. This man cannot even leave Gaza to see his wife, nor can she go there to see him. Israel guards all gates in and out of the Gaza Gulag and maintains list of those who are not allowed in or out. Martha was horrified at John Hagee’s callousness for the life of the one she is married to. She knows her Christian husband faces possible death every day, not from the million or more Muslims who surround him, but from the Israeli choppers overhead with their 200-pound assassin’s missiles that seek out victims every day, unreported to the American people. I do not know if Martha heard Hagee liken the Palestinians to “Catfish out of water gasping for air.” He is not far from the truth; they are starving and deprived of everything but the air they breath. Unfortunately, Hagee is not unique with his callous lack of concern for the lives of several million homeless Philistines in Gaza and the West Bank. These areas are nothing less than prisons inside Israel; prisons where the inmates are not fed. Here are a few excerpts from John Hagee’s speech at AIPAC and other events documented on the Internet:
“No Bible believing Christian can support disengagement”
“You are not going to heaven if you do not like the Jewish people”
“We support Israel’s right to self-defense against Gaza…”
“He (God) will bless those who bless (Israel) and curse those who curse (Israel)”
“The sleeping giant of Christian-Zionism has been awakened”
A Personal Word for
John Hagee
Pastor Hagee, you need to know we do not oppose you or any of the churches who sponsor you; in no way do we see you as the object of our mission. You are one man with your own salvation and afterlife to worry about, and we are convinced God will deal with you in His own way, as He will deal with each of us, regardless of our professions of faith, purity and goodness. You, John Hagee, are old enough and wealthy enough to know better.
It is not our job to seek those whom you have cheated and deceived. Those innocent souls’ blood that you cause to be shed are our concern…as Jesus has commanded, we are our brothers’ keepers. Pastor Hagee, we come to CUFI meetings to seek and to challenge the “lost sheep” who will remain lost if they listen to you. Our purpose is, with God’s help and whatever power He gives to us, to rescue the many followers of Christ who are in your path and thoughtlessly under your sway. We would turn them from the evil of warring for Israel. We humbly believe God must see in you the vilest apostasy in the entire 20th Century history of Christianity. Your anti-Christ teaching is now called by the disgustingly false epithet “Christian-Zionism.” Its forerunner, in a relatively harmless cocoon form, was falsely called Judeo-Christianity, also an oxymoron. Both words exist only in your mind.
Pastor Hagee, every one of the 40 million Americans who you brazenly claim as your followers need to be given the opportunity to be rescued from Christian-Zionism. We can only do our part to restore the moral example of peace and justice left for us in the words of Jesus Christ.
CUFI is based on a perversion of Jesus words found most clearly in the Scofield Reference Bible, written by Oxford University Press for Christians for the perversion of Christ followers. We have carefully studied and rejected its heresy, as promoted by hundreds of Christina Zionists, like you. We find Christian Zionism hiding in churches across the country with names like “Community, Grace, Faith, Living Word, and Church of Latter Day Saints.” We are still waiting to find a Christian Zionist church named “peace” (though there, no doubt, are some). It appears that there is no place in your movement to follow Christ’s commandments to love ones enemy and brother alike.
If God should see fit to honor our efforts, even the corrupt political state of Israel might be saved politically from its national policy of suicide. Our first objective, unalike yours, is not to Israel, but to our own friends, neighbors, wives and children who have been caught up in your false moment that leads only to death. Over 4,000 Americans have joined more than a half million Iraqis, Palestinians and Afghans in the grave. Pastor Hagee, your effort has played a part in these deaths. Yours is a success in your realm only, for there is hardly a family in America that has not been divided by Christian Zionism under some name. You are tragically dividing families, even as Jesus himself predicted they would be divided, but you are dividing for evil, not for love, as Jesus called us to do. You choose political Israel and its warmaking over Christ and his absolute demand for peace. You are an enabler of the most cruel war of our age. You have the blood of your own people on your hands. We call for our brothers and sisters who call themselves by your name to come out of whatever church sponsors you.
A Call to Action:
Stand up for Jesus
(not Israel)
The CUFI website lists over 30 events from October through December, 2009.6 If you can come to one of these meetings for just three hours, you can make a difference. We ask you to e-mail us with the name of the city where you can attend or work to coordinate others to attend. We will post a special page with cities and addresses, so others can find each other. You may give us your name and phone number as well; it will be kept confidential. We ask you to call right away or email us with your intent to help. Our phone number is 480-947-3329; or email Mark Horton at cecarl@whtt.org.
If you can arrange for a nucleus of only three persons who will commit to Vigil we will book your city and make all arrangements for signs and literature. We already have firm commitments for vigils in Denver, Scottsdale and Minneapolis. Help us prepare for every event on John Hagee’s calendar. We will do as much as we can afford to do with the resources God provides through His people.
by Charles E. Carlson
Endnotes:
1 WHTT web articles: “Vigils in Motion”: Successful Vigil at Promise Keepers “UNLEASHED”: https://whtt.org/straitgate/index.php?id=14&news=1
2 Zionist web article & anti-vigil handout: “Why Stand for Israel?”, by Jack Hayford: http://daytopray.com/getdoc/e62d3a30-2ed3-4b09-bf89-00677e9b7653/Why-Stand-with-Israel.aspx
3 YouTube web video: John Hagee at AIPAC, 2007: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5755055312928744516#docid=-9100022630137501207
4 Bill Moyers Journal: “Christians United For Israel” (October 7/2007): http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10052007/profile.html
5 “Would Jesus Concur or Weep?”: https://whtt.org/index.php?news=2&id=2832
6 “The Cause of Our Conflict” (a free slide show on Christian Zionism) https://whtt.org/show & The Roots of Christian Zionism: an in-depth DVD into what’s behind Christian Zionism: http://eshop.whtt.org/popupdetails.php?popup=1&prodId=231
7 CUFI Events: http://cufi.convio.net/site/PageServer?pagename=events
If You Can’t Attend, Please Pray For Us…
<!–[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]–>
<!–[endif]–>
We are in a spiritual battle for the hearts and souls of people throughout the world. Your prayers are appreciated. Any contribution, small or large, will help us in this epic fight. Contributions can be made on our website at: http://eshop.whtt.org/eshop.php?id=24&flag=1 or by sending a donation to Strait Gate Ministries at P.O. Box 14491, Scottsdale, AZ 85267-4491.
Thank you.
To print this flier with pictures in a pdf format go to: https://whtt.org/images/PW20091012-CUFI.pdf
<!–[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]–>
<!–[endif]–>
