{"id":643,"date":"2010-11-11T18:23:00","date_gmt":"2010-11-11T18:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/11\/meet-the-christian-zionists.html"},"modified":"2010-11-11T18:23:00","modified_gmt":"2010-11-11T18:23:00","slug":"meet-the-christian-zionists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/11\/meet-the-christian-zionists.html","title":{"rendered":"Meet The Christian Zionists"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

It\u2019s been a year or two since I last attended a meeting of the local rabbinical association, but the last time I did, I walked out with a sick feeling in my stomach.<\/p>\n

On the agenda was consideration of rabbinical participation in a planned Miami event called \u201cSalute to Israel\u201d hosted by Christians United for Israel (CUFI)<\/a>.\u00a0 This is the \u201cChristian Zionist\u201d organization founded by John Hagee, a right-wing fundamentalist minister.\u00a0 Its current president is Gary Bauer of Family Research Council fame.<\/p>\n

I was flabbergasted at the positive responses to this event that I heard from otherwise moderate and liberal rabbis (there was only one Orthodox member present and he was among the more reasonable).<\/p>\n

It seemed not to matter terribly much to my colleagues that Hagee, Bauer and their ilk represent the most vicious homophobic, misogynistic religious voices in America.\u00a0 The conversation was all about how wonderful it is that they support Israel.\u00a0\u00a0There was no consideration given to the motivation for this supposedly wonderful support.<\/p>\n

Frank Schaeffer is the author of Crazy for God: How I Grew Up As One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back<\/i>.\u00a0 In an article on HuffPost<\/a> he has written about these Christian Zionists and reviewed a new documentary film that\u2019s been produced about them.\u00a0 I haven\u2019t seen the film so I can\u2019t fairly comment on it, but his post makes some devastating points:<\/p>\n

To the Christian Zionists \u201cdefending Israel\u201d is just a handy pretext for indulging their obsession: egging on, even \u201chelping\u201d the fulfillment of \u201cbiblical prophecies\u201d about the \u201creturn of Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n

They are the Christian equivalent of the messianic Jewish nut jobs that insist on fulfilling God\u2019s will by their immoral and frequently violent settlement activities on the West Bank.<\/p>\n

Schaeffer sums them up this way:<\/p>\n

\u2026[T]heir very raison d\u2019\u00eatre is an insult to any actual God (if there is such a thing). I mean how could God be stupider than his frail human creatures? And what could be stupider than tying land acquisition to spirituality, as if the God Of The Universe is addicted to enforcing borders established by British colonialists and\/or some rather nasty genocidal warring Bronze Age tribes?!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

They absolutely do believe in these kinds of things.\u00a0 Both the settlers, many of whom believe that their actions will bring the messiah and their Christian allies, who care only about how to facilitate \u201cthe return of Christ,\u201d present a danger to any possibility of peace.<\/p>\n

I support Israel, too.\u00a0 The version of Israel that I support is a secular democratic state preserving Hebrew and Jewish culture while protecting the rights and dignity of all of its citizens.\u00a0 I care not one whit for \u201choly\u201d stories, sites or borders.\u00a0 The only thing that is sacred to me is human life and well-being.<\/p>\n

Accepting support from anyone who views Israel as the fulfillment of nonsensical supernatural legends is as irresponsible as it is ridiculous.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been a year or two since I last attended a meeting of the local rabbinical association, but the last time I did, I walked out with a sick feeling in my stomach. On the agenda was consideration of rabbinical participation in a planned Miami event called \u201cSalute to Israel\u201d hosted by Christians United for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[12,20,24],"class_list":["post-643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogentries","tag-fundamentalist-christianity","tag-israel","tag-liberal-judaism"],"yoast_head":"\nMeet The Christian Zionists<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It\u2019s been a year or two since I last attended a meeting of the local rabbinical association, but the last time I did, I walked out with a sick feeling in\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/11\/meet-the-christian-zionists.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meet The Christian Zionists\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It\u2019s been a year or two since I last attended a meeting of the local rabbinical association, but the last time I did, I walked out with a sick feeling in\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/11\/meet-the-christian-zionists.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Atheist Rabbi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-11-11T18:23:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeffrey L. Falick\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeffrey L. Falick\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/11\/meet-the-christian-zionists.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/11\/meet-the-christian-zionists.html\",\"name\":\"Meet The Christian Zionists\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-11-11T18:23:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-11-11T18:23:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#\/schema\/person\/fc95554b64c99ed45146c32bf5cd2372\"},\"description\":\"It\u2019s been a year or two since I last attended a meeting of the local rabbinical association, but the last time I did, I walked out with a sick feeling in\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/11\/meet-the-christian-zionists.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/11\/meet-the-christian-zionists.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/11\/meet-the-christian-zionists.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Meet The Christian Zionists\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/\",\"name\":\"The Atheist Rabbi\",\"description\":\"The blog of Jeffrey L. Falick, Secular Humanistic Rabbi.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#\/schema\/person\/fc95554b64c99ed45146c32bf5cd2372\",\"name\":\"Jeffrey L. Falick\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f4f93646f1bdd3c145883cb358ed21b6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f4f93646f1bdd3c145883cb358ed21b6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jeffrey L. Falick\"},\"description\":\"Jeffrey L. Falick is the Secular Humanistic Rabbi of The Birmingham Temple Congregation for Humanistic Judaism in Michigan. He is also certified as a Senior Humanist Celebrant by the American Humanist Association and is president and founder of Humanists of Southeast Michigan.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/author\/jfalick\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Meet The Christian Zionists","description":"It\u2019s been a year or two since I last attended a meeting of the local rabbinical association, but the last time I did, I walked out with a sick feeling in","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/11\/meet-the-christian-zionists.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Meet The Christian Zionists","og_description":"It\u2019s been a year or two since I last attended a meeting of the local rabbinical association, but the last time I did, I walked out with a sick feeling in","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/11\/meet-the-christian-zionists.html","og_site_name":"The Atheist Rabbi","article_published_time":"2010-11-11T18:23:00+00:00","author":"Jeffrey L. Falick","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jeffrey L. Falick","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/11\/meet-the-christian-zionists.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/11\/meet-the-christian-zionists.html","name":"Meet The Christian Zionists","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-11-11T18:23:00+00:00","dateModified":"2010-11-11T18:23:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#\/schema\/person\/fc95554b64c99ed45146c32bf5cd2372"},"description":"It\u2019s been a year or two since I last attended a meeting of the local rabbinical association, but the last time I did, I walked out with a sick feeling in","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/11\/meet-the-christian-zionists.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/11\/meet-the-christian-zionists.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/11\/meet-the-christian-zionists.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Meet The Christian Zionists"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/","name":"The Atheist Rabbi","description":"The blog of Jeffrey L. Falick, Secular Humanistic Rabbi.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#\/schema\/person\/fc95554b64c99ed45146c32bf5cd2372","name":"Jeffrey L. Falick","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f4f93646f1bdd3c145883cb358ed21b6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f4f93646f1bdd3c145883cb358ed21b6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jeffrey L. Falick"},"description":"Jeffrey L. Falick is the Secular Humanistic Rabbi of The Birmingham Temple Congregation for Humanistic Judaism in Michigan. He is also certified as a Senior Humanist Celebrant by the American Humanist Association and is president and founder of Humanists of Southeast Michigan.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/author\/jfalick"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2281"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}