World “Vision”
One of the areas of research I’ve been involved in for 20 years is how the Church responds to Israel and Jews.
It is a complicated and often tragic story. As I’ve documented for years, Christian support for Israel is waning. And a Jerusalem Post report spells out troubling links between terrorists and a Christian relief organization.
“Hamas spied on and interrogated staff from the NGO World Vision, disrupting attempts by whistleblowers to obstruct a trial against the charity’s former Gaza director, Hamas internal documents captured by the IDF during the war revealed.
“World Vision’s former Gaza director, Mohammed al-Halabi, who was convicted in Israel in 2022 six years after he was arrested for diverting aid to Hamas, worked for Hamas while holding a senior position in the NGO, according to the Hamas documents reviewed by The Jerusalem Post.”
I’m not surprised Hamas was intimidating World Vision. Evidently, some staffers with the relief organization were troubled by what they saw from the criminal gang controlling the Gaza Strip. But potential whistleblowers were threatened just like Gaza citizens were threatened. That’s unfortunate of course, but it’s also true that many of these professing Christian organizations have a less-than-biblical worldview when it comes to Israel and Jews. Many of my columns over the years deal with this. Paul Smith’s invaluable book, New Evangelicalism, put the puzzle together by gathering source documents about Fuller Seminary, Wheaton, and the Church Growth Movement. These sources are anti-Israel, and training new generations of pastors and ministry workers. World Vision has contributed to the narrative that the IDF abuses Gazans.
Several years ago, Steve Haas of World Vision lauded a man who had involved himself in the conflict in Israel and “Palestine.”
“I’m delighted to hear of the appointment of Adam Estle to the position of Executive Director at EMEU. Adam continues a long tradition of leadership excellence combined with creative energy, deep spiritual conviction and a sincere desire to serve.
“With a significant educational and experiential background, Adam stands to take this ever-evolving fellowship into a new era with strong outreach potential, especially amongst younger leaders desirous of global peace and justice. With EMEU so appropriately positioned, I dare say the best years of this encouraging fellowship are before it.”
Estle also has experience with immigration reform:
“Adam Estle brings a wealth of experience in the immigration world to his role as Senior Vice President of Field and Constituencies for the National Immigration Forum. Adam coordinates efforts for the Forum’s Bibles, Badges and Business for Immigration Reform network and serves as the liaison between field mobilizers, various constituency groups and Forum staff.
“Before joining the Forum in 2015, Adam served as the executive director for Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding, directed a federally funded program providing housing and care for unaccompanied immigrant children and taught high school Spanish. He also served as a Bibles, Badges and Business mobilizer for the Mountain West. Adam has been an accredited representative of the Board of Immigration Appeals through the Department of Justice. In 2015, the Islamic Speakers Bureau of Arizona honored him with their Hero Award for his multifaith peacemaking efforts in Phoenix.
“Originally from Peoria, Arizona, where he currently resides, Adam graduated from Olivet Nazarene University and earned his master’s in Global Leadership from Fuller Theological Seminary.”
The interfaith award from Islamists is especially troubling but underscores the networking between terrorist groups and center-left professing Christians.
In a 2013 article for The Washington Post, Estle revealed some interesting things about his perspective on Israel.
“Before the summer of 2008, I was what could best be described as a ‘default Zionist.’ As an evangelical Christian, I knew that the Bible said some things about supporting Israel and didn’t give the situation much more thought than that. Then, I spent a summer in Lebanon learning Arabic and working with Palestinian refugees, and my entire perspective changed. As I listened to story after story from the Lebanese and Palestinians, I gained a greater understanding of the Arab-Israeli conflict. The problem was that I only understood one side.
“Returning home, I became active in different organizations that dealt with the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. I felt like I was being faithful to my Lebanese and Palestinian friends, but noticed that my one-sidedness didn’t build any bridges with my evangelical friends. At first, I thought this was due to their ignorance of ‘how it really is over there,’ but then I realized that I really didn’t have a complete picture either. I began to realize that this unbalanced view would not help me participate in the resolution of the conflict, but would instead keep me stuck perpetuating it. By taking sides, I had become part of the problem instead of being part of a solution. I realized that, not only did I not understand the Israeli narrative, I didn’t really want to. So I sought another trip to the Middle East that would help me understand the ‘other’ side, which I found through the Just Peacemaking Institute at Fuller Seminary.”
Notice that Estle identified in some way as a “default Zionist,” but it’s clear he has never really understood what Zionism is, especially biblical Zionism. His role with the EMEU, a leftist group purporting to be a balanced source, is telling. Mr. Estle might be very sincere, but he’s sincerely deluded if he relies at all on Arab propaganda. While World Vision has had some sincere individuals that genuinely want to alleviate suffering among the Arabs, its organization is compromised in this area. Controlled by Hamas—even parroting some Hamas propaganda that slanders Israel—World Vision has done more harm than good in Gaza, and especially in the propaganda it carries back to the United States.
From threatening whistle blowers to defaming the IDF, Hamas is a devilish organization. And that has impaired the vision of World Vision.
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