Real Change News | Rev. Lang: To be a Zionist in the U.S.

September 16, 2009
Vol: 16 No: 41

Rev. Rich Lang

Rev. Lang: To be a Zionist in the U.S.

by: Rev. Rich Lang

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Today’s column is Part One in a series of articles concerning a very intimate and controversial subject: Christian Zionism. Zionism is the movement that evolved out of the continual sufferings and persecutions of the Jewish people. Zionism is a movement with a goal toward securing a Jewish homeland by reviving Jewish national life, culture and language. After 1,800 years of exile, Zionism became a global political reality in the 20th century with the emergence of the State of Israel. Over the course of the last 50 years, Israel, no longer a suffering slave of the nations, has become a major broker of military and political power both here in the United States and throughout the Middle East.

Christian Zionism is the dominant belief of media and cultural Christianity in America. A Christian Zionist is a fully committed supporter of the Jewish right to the entirety of the land of Israel, including the West Bank, Gaza and, for some, all of the land between the Nile River in Egypt and the Euphrates in Iraq.

The belief emerges from a peculiar interpretation of the Bible that assumes that the scriptures contain a hidden code revealing a detailed prediction of events that will lead to the end of life as we know it. The good news of such an end becomes the advent of an entirely new creation, purified of all the unclean and unrighteous. Christian Zionism affirms that the Jews must reclaim their own purified land before the end-times clock can start. Most (but not all) Christian Zionists believe that today the end- times clock is about to start ticking. One implication being that those kids we all sent to school last week, are, in fact, the last generation before the end of time.

The theology of Christian Zionism has major implications for the political, economic and military policies of this nation. Whether or not you give a rip about such esoteric theological pontifications, the reality is that such pontifications have deeply influenced the right-wing of this country. Such pontifications are, for example, deeply embedded in the theology of many chaplains who serve in the armed forces, and who have indeed helped twist the minds and hearts of our military apparatus in our current undeclared holy war against Islam.

Christian Zionism is a movement of spiritual despair. It has political implications that justify violence, genocide and ethnic cleansing in a celebratory fantasy that they will glorify and please the Creator. In the months ahead, I will continue this series with growing specificity concerning the theological heresy of Christian Zionism. I will attempt to make the case that such a Christianity is the antithesis of the spirit of Jesus, and the Jewish tradition in which his teachings are rooted. Such a theology, I will argue, imperils the wellbeing of our nation and the political and economic health of all creation.

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