A few weeks ago, Michael Oren, Israel's ambassador to the United States, wrote a pretty straightforward piece about Christians in the Middle East. The piece, titled “Israel and the Plight of Mideast Christians,” appeared in the Wall Street Journal on March 9, 2009.
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| Michael Oren-Israel's Ambassador to the US |
Oren stated two obvious and undeniable truths. He said Christians living in the Middle East are suffering from Islamist violence and as a result they are fleeing the region, just as Jews fled Arab countries a few decades ago. Oren also stated that while Christians do sometimes encounter intolerance in Israel, Christians living in the Jewish state are safer there than they are anywhere else in the Middle East.
These two points are unassailable, but Oren's piece sure did offend some people. After the piece was published in the Wall Street Journal, Oren was attacked by a number of Christians in the United States and the West Bank. He was accused of fomenting Islamophobia and ignoring the impact of Israeli policies on Palestinian Christians.
Apparently, talking about dhimmitude, or the status of Christians living in Muslim-majority countries, is out of bounds for the Israeli ambassador.
Interestingly enough, Palestinian Christians admitted that Islamist hostility toward Christians is a problem in Palestinian society. They made these statements at the Christ at the Checkpoint Conference on March 6, 2012 – just a few days before Oren's piece appeared in the Wall Street Journal.
Why is it that Oren is not allowed to say in the Wall Street Journal what Palestinian Christians told a roomful of people in Bethlehem just three days before?
Munther Isaac's Response
One of the most notable condemnations came from Munther Isaac, the chief organizer of the one-sided Christ at the Checkpoint Conference that took place in Bethlehem in early March.
Isaac wrote a response to Oren's piece. The article, which appeared in Sojourners on March 27, 2012, included the following passage:
To insist thatradical Islam is the primary struggle for Palestinian Christians undermines the sufferings of Palestinian Christians caused by the occupation, and labels these struggles as imagined and unreal. This is insulting. To blame the Muslims is an attempt to mask the injustices of the occupation. It is also an attempt to color the conflict with familiar Western "black and white" colors. This is the shameful goal behind Oren's article: to stereotype Palestinians as radical Muslim persecutors of Christians, with Israel as the only ally for Christian Americans who are concerned for Christians in the East.Click here to read more.
6 comments:
I attended this conference and wrote a review of it which has recently been published. I think you will find it quite interesting as I touch on some of the things you mention here. On the whole though I did find the conference to be positive. Anyway, check out the review if you like:
http://www.stfrancismagazine.info/ja/images/stories/9-SFMAbuDaoud.pdf
Abu: I did read your article in St.Francis magazine. I appreciated your comments and reflections on the CATC2012 event. I'm not sure this was a "victry for a small and weak community of believers," as you say. If anything, the conference allows other evangelicals to understand what these Palestinian Christians are saying -where they have something to contribute and where they are grossly misled theologically regarding Israel. Why would you call John Hagee an "aulterer-Zionist? Your terminology is extremely harsh and you provided no factual information to support your accusation.
Thanks for pointing out the inaccuracy of Palestinian Christians claiming, "we have been here since Pentecost." They act like they started the early church when it was actually messianic Jews who did so. That point need not be argued if one reads the Book of Acts. You call teh scholarship of Burge and Sizer careful. Please read my current series on the Seed of Abraham on my other blog ScriptureSolutions: http://scripturesolutions.com/2012/04/the-seed-of-abraham-and-the-middle-east-crisis/
In find their theology and exegesis sloppy, unsupported and filled with gross mis-interpretations of the Old Testament. Thanks again for sending me your article. God bless you!
Abu: Here are the links to the ScriptureSolution articles on the seed of Abraham in which I respond to Burge's lecture at CATC2012:
Seed of Abraham #3
Seed of Abraham#2
Seed of Abraham#3
Hello Louis, thanks for taking the time to read my review, and also thank you for your references to some fo your work on Scripture, I will check them out. RE John Hagee, he is a Zionist by his own admission. Also, After a marriage of several years to a faithful Christian woman he started seeing someone else behind her back, and then informed her that they would be getting a divorce. This strikes me as unscriptural. He did divorce her, and the got remarried, and then took her to court to sue her for custody of the children. Read about it in the news. The unholy, blasphemous activities of such a man are enough to drive anyone away from Zionism. He is lucky that he has a lot of money and influence and has been able to do a darn good job keeping this info out of the Christian press and search engines. But it doesn't change the truth.
Abu: re John Hagee. I do not know the man but I know people who are close to him. I hope what you're saying is not true. If it is true, I am sure his church would have had him step down. Please don't associate Hagee's actions with the ideology of Zionism. I do not agree with Hagee on many issues. I find he's built a fortress around himself as an evangelical untouchable. I have written letters to him challenging him on some of his theology, but he has not written back. It is sad that the anti-Christian Zionists keep holding up Hagee as the "father of the Christian Zionism movement." He isn't. He is a world unto himself. There are many evangelicals who label themselves as Christian Zionists but have no association with Hagee. The anti-Zionists focus on Hagee because he's an easy target. PLEASE do not pass on that information about his personal life. I leave it to his church to deal with it and if they don't, they will stand before our Lord for tolerating leaven in their midst.
Louis, unfortunately what I am saying about JH is true. His church tried to discipline him and he went off and planted a new one. I only mention this because asked about it. That more people don't know about it has more to do with his lawyers and money than anything else.
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