Christian pessimism is the prevailing mood of the day in world affairs. And, hey- who can blame somebody for being a pessimist right now? Peggy Noonan (writes for the WSJ) reported that a major world diplomat looked at her after she asked his views on the prospects of peace in the middle east and said one word: "Unsolvable." Though the pessimists have seemed less consistent in their approach to American culture, they have been consistent on the middle east situation. It's bad, getting worse, and they like it that way. Two hours of listening to Christian talk radio confirmed that in my mind earlier this week.
This particular program was allowing Christians to call in and give their opinions on the overall middle east situation. Consistently, each caller’s opinion could generally be summarized as follows:
Modern Israel is the chosen people of God, and God gave them all the middle east from Egypt to Iraq to Syria. They have a right to this land no matter who else is there or how long they've been there. We must approve everything the government of Israel does, or we are going against God. (That was frequently referred to as being "Biblically aligned" with Israel, which means we get blessed in the deal, no matter what else might be going on.) The consensus solution is something drastic, like wipe out the Palestinians. (One woman referred to this as a "Holy War" that we must win. Holy Osama Bin Ladin, Batman! It's a Christian Jihad!) This is all part of the arrival of the anti-Christ, a European do-gooder who will wow the world with his ability to solve the unsolvable crisis. Anything the Palestinians do- from suicide/homicide attacks to pleas for American intervention- is terrorism. Anything Israel does is God's will. Best of all, if this keeps up, we will all soon be raptured and the Jews will turn to Christ, so let's keep our hands off and pray for the worst.
No one mentioned that there are thousands of Christian Arabs and Christian Palestinians. No one mentioned that Israel is an unbelieving nation where evangelism is illegal (yeah- just like some of those Muslim countries.) No one mentioned that Israel has developed an attitude towards the Palestinians as a race that justifies and excuses the worst kinds of discrimination. No one mentioned that there is good reason to believe scripture does not teach anything as stupid as a blanket approval of the actions of the government of Israel. No one mentioned peace, reconciliation and justice must apply to all sides. No one mentioned the fact that many Israelis and Palestinians live together in peace, and loathe what the younger generation of Palestinians are doing. No one mentioned the complex root causes of Palestinian violence in the despair of the refugee camps. No one mentioned that America will soon face its own plague of suicide bombers if we cannot find a reasonable, justice-pursuing alternative to nuking the whole Arab world, one country at a time. And no one mentioned evangelizing the Palestinians, or Muslims in general.
Christian pessimism and Muslim extremism are a marriage made in hell. I think evangelical leaders would do well to say loudly and clearly, that there is no undercurrent of grinning apocalypticism in our dealings with the middle east. If anything in our faith should be animating us right now, it is that Jesus, a Palestinian Jew, would be putting himself in harm's way to bring together those who are choosing vengeance over reconciliation. The knee jerk Zionism of conservatives and the knee jerk backing of liberals needs to give way to a policy that recognizes the evil of terrorism and the evil of human pride, prejudice and stubbornness. And as Christians, our concern should be the evangelizing of all the peoples of the earth, including those who hate one another.
It took a generations to produce suicide bombers who hate people as a virtue. It may take as long to produce Christians who believe the Gospel enough to love their friends and their enemies and their friend's enemies. What we can't have is a Christianity that embraces the worst case as the best case, and excuses violence as the necessary fulfillment of prophecy. Scripture says that we must not lose heart and grow weary in doing good. I would urge every Christian to reject a view of the world that says giving up on peace and advocating war is what Jesus would do.
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