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Special Report
The Religious Left and Israel
Some of its condemnations are off the wall.
The nearly 3 million member Presbyterian Church (USA) is pondering yet one more condemnation of Israel, which ranks along with the U.S. as the world’s nearly only sinful nation, at least according to liberal Mainline Protestant elites. Several years ago, Presbyterians approved an anti-Israel divestment policy that was quickly revoked after enormous criticism from Christians and Jews. On July 3, the denomination’s General Assembly will meet across 10 days and consider a new anti-Israel policy from its Middle East Study Commission.
Like the failed divestment policy, the new proposed anti-Israel policy stance is meeting considerable resistance, including from former New York Times religion reporter Gustav Niebuhr (nephew of the famed Christian theologian Reinhold Niebuhr), and Christian Century magazine, the longtime flagship journal of liberal Mainline Protestantism. In the 1940s and 1950s, liberal Mainline Protestants elites were typically ardent Zionists. The radicalism of the 1960s and 1970s shifted them to pro-Palestinian, under the guidance of Liberation Theology, which portrayed Israel as the colonial oppressor. But extreme anti-Israel stances still arouse the vocal ire of some liberal Protestant voices, who cherish Jewish interfaith ties, and who also remember Israel’s early history, when America’s Protestant elite, including the elder Niebuhr, were enthusiastic boosters.
A former long-time editor and publisher of Christian Century who remains a contributing editor, James Wall, himself an ordained United Methodist, is responding angrily to the liberal dissent against the proposed Presbyterian condemnation of Israel, especially on the pages of his former journal. In a recent blog, he virtually slammed the critics as Israeli inspired provocateurs trying to disrupt a Christian denomination. Indeed, his blog’s provocative headline was: “Israeli ‘Agents’ Infiltrate Presbyterian General Assembly.” Ominously asking why two publications, Christian Century and Newsweek’s religion blog, are presenting “one side” before the church convention, Wall explained they are “merely following the lead of other American media who, either wittingly or unwittingly, are following the guidance of the Hasbara propaganda army, Israel’s public information program designed to sell Israel as a peace-loving and misunderstood victim surrounded by hateful neighbors.”
Exasperated by Hasbara’s supposed success, Wall opined, “One of the mysteries of collective human sin that will plague scholars of this century for generations to come, will be to find some rational explanation of why Americans, who otherwise find the violations of human rights to be repugnant, have been, and continue to be, such easy targets for Hasbara propaganda.” For good measure, he also decried the New York Times’s Tom Friedman as the “high priest of Hasbara,” though Friedman has not seemingly directly addressed the proposed Presbyterian stance, but is merely guilty of occasionally defending Israel.
The so-called Israeli “Hasbara” control of American public opinion is an ongoing preoccupation for Wall, who has led many anti-Israel ostensible fact-finding missions to the Middle East over the years, and whose nearly three-decade reign over Christian Century included frequent salvos against Israel. Tracking with liberal Mainline Protestantism as a whole, that journal which once represented mainstream Protestant opinion fell into near collapse in the wake of Wall’s long editorship, partially reviving since his departure as editor by shifting towards the center. Recently, Wall also blamed White House correspondent Helen Thomas’s disgrace and retirement on Hasbara, which supposedly wanted to punish her and shift attention away from the Israeli confrontation with the Gaza flotilla. Wall derided Thomas’s critics as PEP’s, or Progressives Instead of Palestine. Progressive Protestants like Martin Luther King, Jr. once championed Zionism as social justice. But the hard Religious Left, so entrenched against America, Israel and Western Civilization, often reacts peevishly against any reminder of liberal Protestantism’s nobler, earlier decades.
Angrily, Wall is wondering whether voting commissioners at the Presbyterian assembly will be “duped” by Israel’s “Hasbara Warriors” or more thoughtfully will “listen to our Presbyterian Commissioners who have studied, prayed about, and witnessed the gross injustice of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian people?” The supposedly Hasbara-inspired Christian Century column that irked Wall came from two Vanderbilt University professors who wrote about the proposed Presbyterian policy: “Despite numerous attempts by mainline Protestant denominations to promote historically informed studies of Judaism, repudiate supersessionist theologies and engage in conversations with Jews, the old habit of bearing false witness against Jewish neighbors lives on.” They concluded: “In recent years this practice has thrived, especially in mainline Protestant statements on the Middle East.”
Niebuhr’s critique of the Presbyterian proposal in the Newsweek blog, which he co-authored with a Presbyterian seminary president, similarly denounced the anti-Israel stance as “unbalanced, historically inaccurate, theologically flawed and politically damaging.” They also reported signing “a letter circulating among Presbyterians nationwide, calling on the General Assembly to reject the Middle East Study Committee’s report.” Wall naturally denounced these signers as “whether they know it or not, in the Hasbara army.”
Evidently a stranger to nuance, at least on this topic, Wall slammed Israel as guilty of the “the slaughter of the innocents [which] began with the Nakba [Palestinian term for “catastrophe”] in 1947,” while bemoaning the “harsh reality of Israel’s six decades of immoral and unethical treatment of the Palestinian people,” and the “prison-like conditions under which Palestinians are forced to live.”
Wall does not seem to get similarly exercised over the sins of Israel’s neighbors, or of virtually any other government in the world. And the Presbyterians do not have study committees or proposed human rights critiques aimed at Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran, or other non-democracies notorious for abuses and oppression.
At the risk of being accused of serving in the Hasbara Army, here is my Presbyterian colleague Alan Wisdom’s own critique of his church’s proposed anti-Israel stance. Religious Left anti-Israel zealots like Wall believe their opponents are simply tools of Israeli propaganda. But by the same conspiratorial measure, whose tool might Wall be?
About the Author
Mark Tooley is president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy in Washington, D.C. and author of Methodism and Politics in the Twentieth Century. You can follow him on Twitter @markdtooley.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (40) | Leave a comment
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Religious Righty| 7.9.10 @ 7:01AM
Everyone on the religious left, without exception, worships Satan.
Alan Brooks| 7.9.10 @ 9:27AM
One of the most convoluted things about the Soviet Union was its being 'progressive' but championing medievals in the Mideast. Even if the Russians were acting there in what they considered their national interest after 1945, it wasn't in our interest or democracy's interest.
martin j smith| 7.9.10 @ 7:44AM
The Religious Left are no different from the non-religious left only they cloak their ideology in a religious framework. It is the same Marxist ideology just a little Religious lingo thrown in. From my vantage point and experience, I recall when I was young and naive was involved in an anti-war group. But they in tern of course were connected to many other such as anarchist ( nothing at all to do with anti-war ) Quakers who hated violence except when our soldiers were killed, that was ok. and Catholic Marxist groups I would say the same for them as well. Very pius and religious. And, on top of hat there was always anti-israeli sentiment. Let me put it bluntly: They are anti-Jewish that is their motivation and I have absolutely no respect for desire to engage with such evil people.
cavan1| 7.9.10 @ 8:16PM
I have impeccable leftist credentials.
Like David Horowitz, I have seen the light.
I no longer worship socialism/communism, tolatarianism ( and it is so easily garbed/disguised in liberal churches).. I used to be a member of one such church...until I couldn't stand it any more.
You are very clear in your understanding.
Ryan| 7.9.10 @ 8:27AM
The real tragedy here isn't the squabbling over Israeli legitimacy.
The tragedy is the PCUSA - and the "mainline" churches as a whole - running headlong away from their responsibilities to preach the Gospel.
Commissions and study groups and condemnations and committees and all those sorts of things don't lead people to Christ.
It's the faithful preaching of the Word. It's being Christlike and showing the love of Christ to the world.
Owen K.| 7.9.10 @ 5:14PM
I couldn't agree more. This is one reason why the PCUSA and other mainline denominations are loosing membership and struggling to meet annual budgets. They no longer engage in the true mission.
Appleby| 7.10.10 @ 7:46PM
I left the PCA many years ago due to their Sixties Bafflegab. (I was at university in the Sixties, but was there to get an education, not to wee-wee in the wastebasket of the University President). I later left the Lutheran Church and the Episcopal Church for the same reason.
If the Catholic Church ever falls into that error I will leave her too.
Life is not a spectator sport. Neither is belief.
Louis Jenkins| 7.9.10 @ 8:44AM
The PCUSA has backslid into politics. They no longer preach the Gospel, but instead work against Israel. May God work to bring them back to their purpose.
BREDNG10| 7.9.10 @ 8:57AM
For all the talk about the evil Jews and evil Israel,there is only one real democracy in the mid-east,Israel.
The Arabs are allowed to vote and practice their religion in Israel,while Jews and Christians in the rest of the mid-east fear for their lifes.
The so called suffering Palestinians,are better off than most of the rest of the Muslims in the area and are allowed to come to Israel for major medical care.Al though they must leave weapons and suicide belts at home.
Ken (Old Texican)| 7.9.10 @ 9:24AM
OK, trolls, time to get your lazy butts out of bed to begin trashing the Jews...again.
Why doesn't the religious left just revert back to the old standby and headline their articles "Christ Killers be Damned".
As a Christian, I will stand with Israel.
KyMouse| 7.9.10 @ 10:32AM
Several relatives of mine still attend Presbyterian (PCUSA) churches, mostly because that's where their friends are. They've told me that the Belhar Confession, which was developed during South Africa's apartheid years, is being emphasized more and more in their worship services.
The Belhar Confession focuses on "social justice" and fighting against discrimination (especially, but not only, racial). My relatives sense that it is being pushed on them in order to show PCUSA support for three groups: the so-called Palestinians; the gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgendered (GLBT) folks; and illegal aliens.
At one of my relative's PCUSA church two weeks ago, the sermon was about Jesus' parable of the workers in the field (Matthew 20:1-16). The workers who started early in the day were annoyed that those who came late were paid the same wages. The minister made a quick reference to illegal aliens, insisting that they should be paid the same and have the same benefits as American citizens.
Stay tuned for much more, and much worse.
Alan Brooks| 7.9.10 @ 11:18AM
I wouldn't mind it so much (though it would be cold comfort) if Israel's enemies would say what they are actually thinking:
"Someone has to be a sacrifice, it might as well Jews-- or at least let us push Israel into the Sea and that will satiate our bloodlust 'till the next Holocaust."
But naturally they cannot say that, so they say "Israelis use the blood of Palestinian to prepare Matzoh"
or
"The Mossad tipped off Jews working at the WTC on 9/10/2001"
Why say what you think when propaganda is so much more useful and satisfying?
In the '60s I listened to whites in Carolina talk against blacks, and eventually realized they mostly didn't like the way blacks looked; it occurs to me that since it wouldn't sound right to say
"we don't like ugly Jews and apelike blacks",
so propaganda works instead.
Since so many gullible people exist, propaganda works surprisingly well.
Wayne Hertmes| 7.9.10 @ 12:19PM
I'm guessing that he's just a tool
Mick Lee| 7.9.10 @ 1:07PM
The divines in my own Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) make a lot of hay out of the notion that the ELCA must be a "public" church. In practice, a "public church" is one in which the bishops, church councils and various committees make "prophetic" statements concerning whatever political issue that catches their fancy at the time. The claim is the church must stand up for "justice" as a biblical mandated. In this way, questions of balance are regarded as beside the point. You see, it isn't about politics. Instead, one and all are told that the church is speaking out for the oppressed. The unstated claim is that the divines are not speaking out because of their personal politics but because they have been listening to the God of the Bible. Charges that the church's pronouncements are motivated by anything but the voice of the Almighty are met with indignation and outrage. After all, these statements have only been made after "listening, thoughtful reflection, study, prayer and witness of the facts on the ground". Horrors if anyone should seriously think anything less!
Thus the "responsibility" for the whole mess is laid at the feet of the prophet Nathan and the World War II German martyr, Dietrich Bonheoffer. That Nathan did speak out against power is true in a matter of speaking. But Nathan rebuked King David for the taking of Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah. The Bible says nothing of Nathan calling down the judgment of Yahweh on David's troop movements.
The case of Dietrich Bonheoffer is even more disingenuous. Bonheoffer attacked Hitler over the latter's simultaneous denunciation of Christ and attempted transformation of the Church into the worship house of pagan Aryanism. It was only toward the end of the war that Bonheoffer joined in an assassination conspiracy against Hitler. Even after once joining in the plot to kill Hitler, Bonheoffer was plagued with crippling doubts that he might be sinning against God. Hitler was a monster and possibly the "Anti-Christ"; but was it Bonheoffer’s the raise his hand against one (so says Romans) God set up in authority? Bonheoffer clearly felt he may have to answer to God's wrath for what he was about to do.
Out of Bonheoffer’s example in such an extreme situation the ELCA's divines see license to speaking out on everything from "green" living, cancer research funding, and war to immigration, gay rights and "paper or plastic". Why the Church should have any special wisdom into any of these issues over anyone else is never really explained.
Of course, logic really doesn't go into it. The "end" is all that matters. Whatever rhetorical justification one uses is just the means to get there. If "national healthcare" seems to be the answer demanded by "justice", surely God is on our side.
KyMouse| 7.9.10 @ 3:45PM
Mr. Tooley begins this excellent article by referring to "the nearly 3 million member Presbyterian Church (USA)..."
The PCUSA can only dream of the days when it had nearly 3 million members! According to a report that was released a few days ago by the PCUSA's Office of the General Assembly, membership is down to 2,077,138 souls. So "barely over 2 million" might be a more accurate figure.
That number is far less than half of the PCUSA membership at its peak -- 4.25 million in 1965. And given the way things are going at the General Assembly's gathering in Minneapolis right now, more members will be leaving very soon.
Margie| 7.9.10 @ 5:20PM
"...in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men." Mt. 15:9.
Alan Brooks| 7.9.10 @ 7:21PM
Well, women are civilized and thus buffered from the precepts.
Good news is, when you are in Heaven none of it will matter.
Alan Brooks| 7.9.10 @ 7:31PM
... that is to say (how to say it?) unfortunately men's precepts are piloted by their appetites of all sorts...
on Earth we can only attempt to escape such.
Saint Thomas More got it just so: "our business lies in escaping."
Catholics are wiser than you think, Marge; and as far as I know the Englishman is the wisest of all.
Cotton Fite| 7.10.10 @ 12:06AM
Mr. Tooley is right. There are many other nations in the Middle East whose human rights records are the legitimate object of serious criticism. That, however, does not invalidate criticism leveled at the Israeli government for policies that not only oppress the Palestinian people but put Israel's future in jeopardy as well. Mr. Tooley also confuses those of us he labels "anti-Israel" as being "anti-Jewish". He is badly mistaken and, by these charges, he makes a difficult and necessary conversation nearly impossible.
JackRose| 7.10.10 @ 11:31PM
Your response is NONSENSE
The POINT is that the criticism leveled at Israel is NOT LEGITIMATE. Why is Israel is singled out with factually deficient, lop sided and inane criticism that attempts to re-write history and fact?
RCV| 7.12.10 @ 11:46PM
There is simply no comparison between the two, as anyone who has traveled in the Middle East who is honest can attest. In Israel, a Muslim can worship at a mosque, and a Christian at a church. Try doing that if you are a Christian in Saudi Arabia, or a Jew almost anywhere in the Middle East other than Israel. Indeed, the first thing General Dayan did after capturing the Old City was to return control of the Temple Mount to the Muslim Waqf. The first thing the Jordanians did after capturing the Old City was to destroy centuries-old synagogues and desecrate Jewish cemeteries on the Mount of Olives. Israel has an independent judiciary and a press which criticizes the government; Israeli citizens demonstrate constantly against governmental polices; try doing that virtually anywhere in the Arab Middle East.
Is Israel perfect? No. But it is always held to higher standards than any country in the region, none of whom can even approach its record in preserving democratic rights and human values. That's why most Americans, including this Liberal Democrat, steadfastly stand with Israel.
Yosemeti Sam| 7.10.10 @ 1:29AM
" ... The nearly 3 million member Presbyterian Church (USA) ...."
Wow - what a force for Israel to reckon with.
Folks, I would offer the columns of one Ms. Caroline Glick, featured per the Jerusalem Post
website, for contextual insights to the behavior of
Israel's enemies - in all their DISGUISES.
Ken Roberts | 7.10.10 @ 8:04AM
As for me and my house we will serve the Lord not some preacher standing against God's people . the Palestinian people are duped by there leaders into thinking they have a right to the city of Jerusalem when they have no right to it. The Palestinians would have it that the Jews would move to the center of the sea and drown , they care not about peace .
martin j smith| 7.10.10 @ 8:29AM
Here is something interesting to consider. The religious left, and in tandem with the Marxist secuyrlar Left have what in common ? The destruction of the west--period. Here is a very interesting example: Lets look at treatment of women. Did you hear of this woman who is to be soned--I do note mean with pot--in Iraon for what ? adulwery. Second example: Issue of gay rights: There are gay peoplke ( the phenomena of homosexuality ) does not exist in Iran. That is according to Achmedinadjad. I do not believe the Jihadist types believe in gay marriage. I suspect they do not support it. So where exactly is the Left Religious or otherwise on these two little issues of human right s? Nowhere that is where.
So, tell me about the motivation and goals of the Left Religious or otherwise.
Louis Jenkins| 7.10.10 @ 10:36AM
Let's pretent that Israel is pushed into the ocean. It's kaput! No more Jews or Israelites. Who is next? Doesn't take much to figure that out does it. The US and the Israel are tied together in this world. Get right with God, and pray it doesn't come to that.
martin j smith| 7.10.10 @ 11:28AM
Cotton fite: Whoever you really are--a troll for example--that is a person on the left insinuates left arguments. Anyway, I digress. Those you and i mean You Cotton fite --are in fact--and here get ready --ANTI-JEWISH-- That is my oppionion. I am not going to go thru a Dershowitz type of legal brief for Jews to have a state of their own. That is for him to do. But what I will say is simply this since 1948 there have been many golden ( well maybe silver ) opportunities for sincere Muslims and Jews to come to an agreement about a Jewish state and a Palestinian ( Arab State ) but as more and more time goes by the real motives of the Arab ( Muslim ) world becomes very clear: They really do not and never did want a JEWISH STATE ( or a nation other than a Muslim one ) in their region. What elementsin recent history show this to be true. ? The fact that in all parts of the world, Muslim terrorism shows itself everywhere antagoni9zing people of other religions. Philipines ,Darfor,Malaysia,Western Europe ,South Europe in the Balkans etc. The Left and those isolationists on the right fail to comprehend that their arguments about Israel: Either what does Israel do for us ? --In the area of intelligence plenty plus a lot of the dirty work against nations that are antagonistic to our interests ( Iran ) for example. Or, they take up the same canard of Israel as the racist or whatever handed top them by Al Jazeera. The truth as for me is this: The Left especially hates Jews--includimng folks like Rom Emmanuel who claims to be Jewish.
John II| 7.10.10 @ 5:30PM
The one-sided "social justice" claptrap of the PCUSA has its analog among Left groupies in my own Catholic Church. When Jesus is being tested by the Pharisees on this and that teaching (Matt. 22) and they ask that he cite the greatest of the divine laws, he responds (Matt. 22: 34-40) by pulling together two laws: love of God (Deut. 6:5) and its corollary, love of neighbor (Lev. 19:18).
These are the two greatest laws, but the second follows from the first in a kind of moral hierarchy, and the first law is the greatest, subsuming all others. Apparently, when the second (love of neighbor) is given undue emphasis, the first (love of God) starts wearing away until the second itself dissipates.
I have seen this happen time and again in the narcissistic behavior and manner of the nominally Catholic social-justice freaks. Whatever emotional problems they bring to their project, the bottom line, I think, is that they don't seem to have any serious faith in God, and their disposition is far removed from that of the truly selfless missionary or pastor.
In other words, the first poster on this thread has it right: lefty activism in the Church comes from Satan.
james voles| 7.11.10 @ 11:57AM
A dead center bulls-eye. When the people concentrate on their concern for mankind above their worship and demonstration of humility before the Almighty, disaster ensues.
First things first. over and over the words are there, and the "religious left" studiously ignore the First Law.
RCV| 7.12.10 @ 11:36PM
... and the religious right not only ignores, but violates the second.
Kenneth E. MacAlister Jr.| 7.10.10 @ 5:44PM
"The religious left". A misleading descriptive term to say the least. The religion of the left is leftist ideology & worshiping GOD's creations instead of GOD The Creator. "The religious left" & GOD The Creator are not on the same page to say the least. Any person, government, or nation who align themself against Israel & the Israelites, GOD's chosen people, are in danger of aligning themselves against GOD. Alot of the mainline protestant denominations seem more interested in teaching secular humanism than The Word of GOD & it shows in their declining attendance. When mortal men decide they are more important than GOD they are on the fast track to destruction.
Long Ben| 7.11.10 @ 3:17AM
What has crawled up Mr. Walls' tuckas , with whom is he consorting , when and how will he come to clarity and truth ?
Hershl| 7.11.10 @ 1:59PM
The so-called Christians who condemn Israel for defending itself from the same people who attacked us on 911 are on the wrong side of history.
www.jewishdailyreport.wordpress.com
Golda | 7.11.10 @ 5:49PM
Oy vey Hershl ! What's Next ?
Jews For Jesus ?
KyMouse| 7.12.10 @ 1:49PM
Actually, Golda, Jews for Jesus have been around since 32 A.D., give or take a year. Over the centuries, they've included British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli, composer Felix Mendelssohn, attorney Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice, planetary astronomer William Herschel, and pediatrician Vera Schlamm, M.D., a survivor of the Bergen-Belsen death camp.
You can read about them and how they came to believe that Jesus is the messiah and God at www.jewsforjesus.org.
Margie| 7.12.10 @ 6:38PM
There are so many wonderful Jewish people for Jesus. Just two more to add, that I loved dearly were Rev. Richard Wurmbrand and his wife, Sabina. Both now in Heaven with Him who loved and gave Himself for them. They both suffered for many years in Communist prisons and began the Underground church to help the persecuted in Communist countries the world over. His book, "Tortured for Christ" is one of the most excellent books I've ever read, and Sabina's "The Pastor's Wife" is also wonderful. Voiceofhtemartyrs.com.
Joseph O'Neill| 9.1.10 @ 7:45PM
The Palestinians should not be made to pay for a Holocaust by Germany and Europeans.