‘Thank you Israel, for supporting America’

The transnational flow of Christian Zionist resources

Dados Bibliográficos

ID18947752
AutoresFaydra L Shapiro (The Max Stern Yezreel Valley College, autor correspondente)
Ano2012
Volume19
Fascículo5
Páginas616-631
Data de publicação2012-09-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoIdentities (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1070-289X • E-ISSN: 1547-3384
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1070289x.2012.735616
OpenAlexW1986810546
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas7
Referências citadas18

This article seeks to understand what it means when, in 2006, a noted British pastor and Bible teacher stood up in front of 8000 evangelical Zionists from all over the world at the convention centre in Jerusalem and addressed the audience with the following counter-intuitive words: 'Thank you Israel, for supporting America!' Evangelical Christianity has complex relations and ambivalent relations to the nation state and globalisation. Supernaturally speaking, Israel is the only nation state in the world that matters. Contemporary Israel becomes a kind of litmus test, both for manifesting the truth of the word of God and for manifesting the individual's or the nation's commitment to realising God's will in this world. For Christian Zionism, this transnational flow of resources into and out of Israel ultimately redeem locality, offering 'the nations' a place in the story, and the opportunity to serve as vehicles for God's will. Keywords: transnationalismIsraelZionismChristian Zionismevangelicalism Acknowledgements Research for this article was carried out with the help of a faculty standard research grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. I am grateful for their support and for the research time granted by Wilfrid Laurier University and the Galilee Center for Studies in Jewish-Christian Relations at Yezreel Valley College. I specially thank Paul Freston and Shaul Katzenstein for their patient reading and suggestions. Notes 1. My findings are based on fieldwork comprising extensive participant observation and semi-structured interviewing with Christian Zionists that began in 2006 and has continued to the present. I have taken part in many international Christian Zionist conferences, celebrations and meetings both in Israel and North America. Interviews have included both Christian Zionist leaders and participants, as well as critics and supporters of this movement. 2. For excellent treatments of contemporary Christian Zionism more generally, see Spector (Citation2009) and Weber (Citation2004). 3. For an understanding of the phenomenon of Christian support for Zionism more broadly than in its contemporary evangelical guise, see Goldman (Citation2009). 4. These include large progressive evangelical organisations like Sojourners and smaller, more focused ministries such as Evangelicals for Middle-East Understanding. For an explication of evangelical anti-Zionism, see the works of Sizer (Citation2004, Citation2007). 5. No doubt, this evangelical supranationalism is an outgrowth of the Christian universalism that stands at its base, with its foundational transcendence of ethnic identities, most importantly between Jew and Gentile (see e.g. Gal 3:28 and Col 3:11, Ephesians 2:14–16). 6. That said, there are indeed Arab pastors and congregations who partner with Christian and Jewish Zionists and support the state of Israel. 7. While non-Jews are not eligible for citizenship under the Law of Return, some Christians have sought and received permanent resident status through naturalisation. 8. While a particularly dazzling example, John Hagee Ministries disbursed 8 million dollars to Israeli charities in 2010. 9. For example, HaYovel/The Jubilee (www.hayovel.com) brings Christian volunteers to help Jewish residents with the grape harvest in Samaria (part of what is often called 'the West Bank') and Bridges for Peace (www.bfp.com) invites Christian volunteers to help pack food for the poor at warehouses in Jerusalem and Karmiel. The common 3-month limit is because of restrictions on Israeli tourist visas. 10. They had just returned from visiting a school seeking additional funds for special projects. 11. The first Sunday of every October has been designated as the Day to Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem, an initiative of Robert Stearns and his ministry, Eagles' Wings, a name based on Psalm 122:6. 12. Spoken by Gila Gamliel (Likud) at the Day to Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem 2 October 2011. Italics indicate emphasis. 13. Certainly, the contemporary situation of an independent but embattled Israel has critical eschatological significance for Christian Zionists, but after years of firsthand field research, I can say that eschatology is by no means the primary motivator for supporting Israel. 14. This is a reference to evangelism of the Jews, a subject of significant tension within Christian Zionism. 15. The expression comes from Zachariah 2:8, a verse that presents precisely this dynamic, in which God announces that the nations who plundered the children of Israel will in turn be plundered. 16. Many Christian Zionist organisations include facilitating Jewish immigration to Israel and helping new Jewish immigrants, among their organisational priorities. 17. This is a dynamic most clearly displayed at the participation of delegates in the annual ICEJ Feast of Tabernacles in the Jerusalem March. Christians parade through the streets, grouped by country. Complete with national dress, T-shirts declaring 'South Africans for Israel', national flags and the distribution of flags and pins to onlookers. 18. For more on how evangelicals position themselves vis-à-vis specific domestic issues, see the series Evangelical Christianity in the Global South with its volumes on Asia (David Halloran Lumsdaine, ed.), Africa (Terence O. Ranger, ed.) and Latin America (Paul Freston, ed.). 19. This event takes place during the biblical Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot in Hebrew). The ICEJ is not the only Christian Zionist group to highlight this holiday for a major gathering. 20. For an in-depth consideration of American Evangelicalism and Islam, see Kidd (Citation2009). 21. Christian Zionists particularly turn to this Esther reference at this time due for its general foregrounding of overcoming a threat to the Jewish people and the convenient connection to be made between the Persian villain of Haman and the current President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (Shapiro Citation2010). 22. This refers to the controversial 2009 report from the UN Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, headed by Richard Goldstone. 23. Several Jewish religious leaders, including Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and Rabbi David Batzri, also asserted that Hurricane Katrina was God's retribution upon America for its dealing with Israel. For a sense of this connection between the fate of the nation and its treatment of Israel expressed in popular evangelism, see the Chick gospel tract 'Love the Jewish People' http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/1000/1000_01.asp

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