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One of the most insidious neo-Christians and defilers of what Jesus was all about is John Hagee.
Last year Hagee launched CUFI/ Christians United For Israel, the "Christian AIPAC" which is a fundamentalist organization focused on providing financial and political support to Israel.
Hagee and his minions view the modern state of Israel as the fulfillment of biblical prophecy, by weaving together disparate scripture in a literal and delusional way. They lust for nuclear war in the heretical hope that Jesus/AKA THE PRINCE OF PEACE will return-snatch them all away/rapture; and then all those who did not believe in their small vengeful god, will be 'left behind' to suffer the torments of hell on earth.
This is NOT at all what Jesus preached!
About two weeks ago in Jacksonville, Florida, Hagee mesmerized about 3,500 cheering, Bible-thumping blind, deaf and cold hearted neo-Christians who were ecstatic at the thought of a nuclear war.
The following is excerpted from an article published in the
The Times-Union, By JEFF BRUMLEY,
"We must act out against Iran before it becomes a nuclear Holocaust," Hagee said to roaring applause, "and I hope and pray there's enough courage in Washington to do the job."
He repeatedly quoted biblical passages, including a verse in which God says he will bless those who support Israel and curse those who oppose it.
"If a line has to be drawn in America, draw it around Christians and Jews because we are one," Hagee said.
The gathering was a fundraiser designed to generate aid for an Israeli town that has suffered recent rocket attacks. At least $65,000 was raised in the collection, church spokeswoman Melodee Nobles said.
That concern for an Israeli town, coupled with a lack of concern for communities in Palestine or Lebanon, is upsetting to many from the region, said Sam Farhat, a Palestinian Christian and Jacksonville businessman, who affirmed:
"Hagee and his followers aren't true Christians because their hearts go out only to Israel…They have no empathy for the humanity of others."
Farhat is most correct, and the Times-Union did NOT do its job and research and report on why Hagee and his followers aren't true Christians.
So I will.
And I will persist in doing it again and again and again, with HOPE that my fundamentalist sisters and brothers will WAKE UP and open their eyes to the truth;
That their ears will hear the cries of the Christians in Israel Palestine,
So that their hearts of stone will bleed
And they will see ALL the people of the Holy Land as sacred human beings.
The heretical theology of Hagee is best understood in the universally accepted definition of Christian Zionism, which is a POLITICALLY driven extremist movement amongst fundamentally minded Christians. These limited thinkers believe that the State of Israel should take control of all of the land currently disputed between Palestinians and Israelis. They believe Israel is a geographical location and that God was in the real estate business.
They also conveniently neglect to comprehend the history of Genesis 12:3 which they quote adnauseum:
"I will make you a great nation and I will bless you. I will bless those who bless you, and who ever curse you I will curse."
This promise from God to Abraham, was issued BEFORE the birth of Abraham's first son; Ishmael, the father of the Arab nation.
But these neo-Christians threw that baby out with the bath water and also skip over the fact that Abraham banished his first born son and his mother to perish in the wilderness, but that:
God has heard the boy [Ishmael] crying [and told his mother Hagar] 'Lift him up and take him by the hand for I will make him into a great nation'…God was with the boy. -Genesis 21:17, 18, 20.
These neo-Christians also ignore the fact that the first mention of Israel in the Hebrew scriptures/Old Testament was when Jacob was renamed Israel for having wrestled, struggled and then clinged to The Divine Being.
So, my understanding of Israel is anyone and everyone who struggles and wrestles with God is Israel, and Israel is NOT just a geographical location.
The danger to the world is that these fundamentalist that espouse and embrace the most extreme ideological positions of Zionism, are a politically driven detriment to a just peace within Palestine and Israel.
These neo-Christian's worldview is identified with the ideology of empire, colonialism and militarism.
The gospel Jesus preached was of Gods love and mercy for all; NOT just for some!
But these militant neo-Christian fundamentalists believe that God fights only on the side of Israel, when God has always been on the side of the poor, oppressed and outcasts.
These militant neo-Christian fundamentalists call for the unqualified support for the most extreme political positions related to the Holy Land, and not for peace and justice!
They have even attributed Hurricane Katrina to God’s wrath over America's failure to stop Israel from pulling out* of Gaza and that Sharon's stroke was a punishment from God.
The neo-Christians consistently oppose any moves towards a solution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict which would validate the political aspirations of both sides!
This is a HUGE problem for America, Israel Palestine and the entire world!
The fastest growing cult in the USA is the cult Hagee leads.
Approximately 25 million U.S. Christians believe in the simple answers of fundamentalism and that God meant blessings to be political power and military might!
The popularity of the putrid escapist fiction of the LEFT BEHIND series which is being accepted as literal fact by good but very ignorant Christians coupled with an Israel-fixated media, that stereotypes Palestinians pursuit of freedom from occupation as blanket terrorism and spins with Orwellian words that the illegal colonies/settlements are neighborhoods!
Fuels the fire of my Irish ire to DO SOMETHING, as this committed Christian of The Beatitudes clings to the rock solid promise Jesus made in his Sermon on The Mount:
THE PEACEMAKERS ARE THE CHILDREN OF GOD!
* more on that truthiness can be read "9/11/05 and The Gulfport Blues" on March 6ths WAWA blog:
http://www.wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=436&Itemid=147
