At a Night to Honor Israel Christ is Left Outside with the Vigil Team
Charles E. Carlson
“The greatest US-born political threat to peace is not the terrorist sleeper cells of Al Qaeda, nor even the deployment of more US troops to the Middle East. Instead it’s the polemic spread of a brand of fundamentalist Christian end-times pseudo-theology linked to a massive support, military and financial, for the state of Israel. The threat goes by the name of Christian Zionists. The implications of Christian Zionist beliefs and political agendas are truly frightening…” Robby Noel
These words of introduction came from my host on a recent radio interview show, and they are indeed well said. Christian Zionism is the biggest political obstacle to peace in the world because it teaches war in the name of religion. If a “Christian” can be convinced God is for war, who can be against it?(1
John Hagee has assumed de facto leadership of the radical Christian Zionist movement. Art Preisinger, a Lutheran minister associated with the Institute for the Study of Christian Zionism, attended A Night To Honor Israel at Hagee’s Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, October 23, 2006, and had this to say:
“From dramatic processions to keynote addresses; from offerings taken and offerings given — there was not a shred, a trace, a scintilla of Christianity in the proceedings. It (A Night to Honor Israel) could well have been sponsored by the PTA or the Rotary Club.”
Reverend Preisinger could not be more correct. Your author’s own painful experience with Night to Honor Israel comes from watching the whole show on tape. We have also held vigils outside two of these events in metro Minneapolis and Denver and talked to many attendees. Jesus’ name is left out of the proceeding from beginning to end except for the five words, “Salvation is of the Jew,” which Hagee quotes out of Jesus’ clearly intended context in conversation with the Samaritan woman in John 22. Neither Jesus and his early followers had parts to play in A Night To Honor Israel.
The stated purpose of Christians United For Israel is to generate political support for Israel. The idea of raising money for Israel is misleading, because the amounts raised are largely eaten up in expenses and shared with host churches, including Living Word in Minneapolis and Faith Bible Chapel in Arvada ,Colorado, and what is left is not significant compared to what Congress can provide to Israel with a stroke of the pen.
Some few Congressmen see through Christians United for Israel and have stood up to it. One of these is Betty McCollum, Democratic member of Congress from Minnesota, who declined to attend Hagee’s April 29, 2007, A Night to Honor Israel at Mac Hammond’s Word of Life Christian Center Project Strait Gate was there to hold a Vigil.* McCollum did more than turn down the invitation…in the plainest way, she told Pastor Mac Hammond why she was turning him down. Congresswoman McCollum:
“Well publicized public statements by Pastor Hagee demonstrate extremism, bigotry and intolerance that is repugnant. For example:
“I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God … I believe that Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans,”
“Those who live by the Qur’an have a scriptural mandate to kill Christians and Jews.” and,
“I would hope the United States would join Israel in a military pre-emptive strike to take out the nuclear capability of Iran for the salvation of Western civilization.”
Christian Zionism is political, which is why Jesus gets left out of Hagee’s programs…Christ does not fit in with Israeli secularism and warring, so he is simply moved out for the duration. One Rabbi described Hagee’s movement, Christians United for Israel, as “AIPAC with a cross” (American Israeli Political Action Committee).
One of the big signs Project Strait Gate displayed at A Night To Honor Israel in Pastor Hammond’s church read, WHO WOULD JESUS BOMB? No mention is made of loving your brother as yourself or loving your enemy, words that Jesus and his followers repeated so many times that not even John Hagee can forget them, starting in the book of Matthew:
“I say to you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them who hate you, and pray for them that dutifully use you and persecute you.”
Christ never said his law is easy, and he did not make it optional or exclude those who follow John Hagee and love political Israel. Hagee ignores Jesus’ admonitions in his Night to Honor Israel show, and the church hosts like Mac Hammond also ignore it. When Project Strait Gate comes to call, we often get anything but love, grace and kindness. The occasionally open hostility toward Vigil volunteers is worth reporting. Judeo-Christians’ sweet and silky words of tolerance are poured upon the heads of the congregants, but their angry and vindictive acts toward our Vigils belie their words.
Hundreds of individual acts could be cited. Many congregation members defy the advice of the leaders and choose to talk to us, listen, accept literature and go home to think about what we say. A very few are angry to the point of violence. As for the leaders, with three positive exceptions, they have chosen not to listen. Mac Hammond’s reply to a letter I sent him came by way of a call from the local police, who he had instructed to keep Project Strait Gate off church property on threat of arrest. He even rejected my request to be ushered to the pastor by the local police. This hostility seems misplaced; what damage can a volunteer Vigil of only four men do to a mega-Church that has a dozens of pastors on its staff and more than 10,000 members? Yet to those of us who conduct these mild protests, hostility is the hallmark of the Judeo-Christian churches.
Four or more churches and organizations have tried to head off Vigils by lying about their ownership of public right-of-ways to keep demonstrators so far from the door that they are out of sight from the congregation members. In each case the church has hired uniformed off-duty police to order demonstrators off public property under threat of arrest, sometimes claiming ownership of public sidewalks. These include Word of Life Christian Center, Brooklyn Heights, MN; Faith Bible Chapel, Arvada, CO, Cavalry Community Church of Phoenix, AZ, and Promise Keepers, who rented the huge Glendale arena. So common has this untruthful practice been that Project Strait Gate has learned to routinely obtain plat maps of church sites to establish the rights-of-way and establish police protection in advance.
Grace Community Church of Sun Valley, CA, pastored by the very public and famous John MacArthur, has been the scene of four Vigils over five years. Its leaders have repeatedly used off-duty police for security, and on three separate occasions these parking lot guards have trapped and detained departing Vigil team members when they separated from the group to go home. Don Bennett (on his first of many vigils) was arrested three years ago for parking his car in the church lot, handcuffed and detained in the church while his car was towed and regular police were called to charge him with trespassing. Pastor Bennett, a public school teacher, and a former pastor, was a frequent attendee at Grace Community, and dressed in suit and tie when he was cuffed and hauled away. He remarked that he was not sure he properly enjoyed a Grace Choir’s rehearsal heard through the wall of his “cell” as he sat handcuffed inside the church while waiting to be arrested. On separate occasions, Diad and Helen, each professional women, had similar experiences at Grace. Each was frightened and intimidated by several men traveling in gulf carts. They were detained, threatened and interrogated, but not arrested. Both women walked on the parking lot on church property after Project Strait Gate Vigils ended.
Calvary Community Church in Phoenix, AZ, pastored by Pastor J. Mark Martin, often flies a full-sized Israeli flag on a 26-foot flagpole in front of the church and has a large security team. Four years ago church employees used pick-up trucks and SUVS to crowd Project Strait Gate men and women off the curb into a busy street from what they claimed to be their private property, there being no sidewalks. Later Project Strait Gate proved to the city engineers that the vigil members had been on public property, and the City of Phoenix responded by forcing the church to permanently mark the right-of-ways for public use and refrain from parking cars on right-of-ways. Project Strait Gate turned the other cheek and returned to claim the public ground for the taxpayers with several Vigils since. But some older and less nimble Vigilers were intimidated and felt they had been nearly assaulted.
Project Strait Gate has learned to send instructions to potential Vigil team members warning them about the attitude of church leaders, including a warning to avoid even stepping on church property. But these warnings are not always heeded; many Vigilers are themselves church members, and often they do not take the warning seriously, not believing a church would arrest someone for stepping on a church parking lot or standing on contested grass. Some hear about the Vigil from others and do not know about the special instructions; they somehow expect a church to act like Jesus would act. Judeo-Christian churches do not “turn the other cheek.” (5)
Word of Life Christian Center arranged a counter demonstration to muffle Project Strait Gate, 30 plus church staff and volunteers, each with a newly painted sigen, about ten for every one of the Vigil volunteers, surrounding each individually and physically shielding our team members from contact with arriving and departing persons. It did not become physical, instead we lectured those who surrounded us, a captive audience, but one Marine veteran said it felt like the combat he never experienced.
The wife of Pastor Chuck Smith, at large and famous Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, CA, came to the street with two men to render a curse on your author and on our project. Her words were, “I curse you and your organization in the name of Jesus Christ.” Mrs. Smith refused to answer where she got the authority to render curses, but this is not uncommon. Judeo-Christians believe God places curses on anyone who is not sufficiently kind to Israel, in other words, anyone who fails to honor Israel might be eligible for a curse, an idea extrapolated from ancient verses in Genesis 12:3 It’s unlikely that Mrs. Smith can quote a New Testament source of her ability to render curses, but she, like John Hagee, believes in a world where war is holy if it’s war that pleases Israel.
John Hagee wraps his love of Israel around the idea of blessings for those who bless Israel, and curses for those who do not. Hagee routinely makes the following war-like statements in publicly recorded meetings and services, here are a few:
“The truth is in the Torah in Genesis 12” (referring to blessings and curses)
“The blessings and curses are real…the Jewish people are prophesied”
“He (God) will bless those who bless (Israel) and curse those who curse (Israel)”
“You are not going to heaven if you do not like the Jewish people”
“The enemy is Islam-fascism”
“Iran is behind the wars…. Stop Iran now…they will have nuclear weapons in two years”
“Iran is Germany…Ahmadinejad is Hitler”
“We support Israel’s right to self-defense against Gaza…”
“The claims (to land) of the Palestinians are a historic fraud…they never owned the land…this makes them gasp for air like catfish out of water.”
“Long after Hamas and Hezbollah are buried in the bone yard of history…Israel will be there.”
“The sleeping giant of Christian-Zionism has been awakened”
Project Strait Gate has learned from talking to hundreds of well-meaning and good-hearted Judeo-Christians outside their own churches that their leaders deceive them, but they are also self-deceived…they are not innocent dupes. A hallmark of Christian Zionism is that when it comes to life and death in Israel and Iraq, few will discuss the words of Christ.
Endnotes:
1) Robby Noel, Republic Broadcasting Network
http://republicbroadcasting.org
2) Rev. Art Preisinger, Institute for the Study of Christian Zionism, http://www.christianzionism.org/
3) Betty McCollum, full letter to Mac Hammond https://whtt.org/straitgate/index.php?news=2&id=240
4) Project Strait Gate letter to Mac Hammond
https://whtt.org/straitgate/index.php?news=2&id=238
5) Vigil Rules
https://whtt.org/straitgate/index.php?news=2&id=230
6) CUFI website
7) New Project Starit Gate vigils , Washington, DC, Oakland, CA, San Antonio,TX. https://whtt.org/straitgate/index.php?id=14&news=1
.
