Fiends in the Heartland

I’ve written recently about the “Christ at the Checkpoint” conference that is now opening a branch/front in the U.S. From October 15-18, in Oklahoma City, this diabolical group of anti-Israel, pro PLO narrative activists has now released a speaker’s list.

It’s a Who’s Who of Christian Palestinianists, including Gary Burge, Bob Roberts Jr., the overtly anti-Semitic Stephen Sizer, and Gerald McDermott. The latter is from Beeson Divinity School and is the only participant who is not anti-Israel/anti-Jew. In fact, McDermott has contributed good literature making the case for Christian Zionism.

My quibble with his participation is, as with other CATC conference speakers like Michael Brown, the PLO hacks organizing the event will use his participation as propaganda. As in, “Well, we’ve invited these Christian Zionist speakers in the interest of fair and balanced.”

The CATC is anything but fair and balanced, though. Theologically and politically, they insert their anti-Jew worldview into the Arab-Israeli conflict. This is of course being mainstreamed within Evangelicalism and, to date, no evangelical leader in America will denounce it.

Not one.

Think about that.

It grieves me that the conference will take place in my hometown. But to give you some historical perspective, Oklahoma City for decades has been home to pro Israel ministries like Southwest Radio Church and Prophecy in the News.

Can I be frank? Ministries like this are slipping in popularity due to the cultural changes we see now sweeping over the land. Noah Hutchings and J.R. Church would have led the fight against CATC in the heartland, but they are gone. That’s why the moment is right for hate groups like CATC to infiltrate (invade?) traditional strongholds for Israel.

They’re not meeting in New York City or Washington. They are meeting in Oklahoma City. The anti-Israel denomination the United Methodist Church is helping them, and I’m not aware of any pastors or ministries in the area opposing this grotesque conference.

I hope McDermott says some good things, but sadly, this will be seen as more talking-across-the-aisle and dialogue. All the while, from John Hagee to Ronnie Floyd to John MacArthur to Chuck Swindoll to…name several more…no one will condemn this anti-Semitic confab.

Among the other speakers is Bob Roberts Jr., pastor of the (Baptist) NorthWood Church in Keller, TX. Roberts engages in dangerous interfaith dialogue with our enemies, including the Muslim Brotherhood and Iranian imams.

Why is Roberts not called-out by fellow pastors and ministry leaders?

Mae Cannon, now director of Churches for Middle East Peace (an Israel-bashing group), was formerly with World Vision. She has also been, according to the website’s bio, “Director of Development and Transformation for Extension Ministries at Willow Creek Community Church (Barrington, Illinois), and as a consultant to the Middle East for child advocacy issues for Compassion International.”

Willow Creek? She cut her teeth on anti-Israel activism with Bill and Lynn Hybels. And Compassion? This is how insidious anti-Israel work is within evangelicalism.

Compassion International does terrific work around the world. They bring relief, especially to children. Their efforts are and should be applauded.

But by allowing people like Mae Cannon in the tent, it broadens her reach. When she does have private conversations with people in such organizations, inevitably the Middle East will come up. And inevitably people will hear that Israel brutally occupies the poor, defenseless Palestinians.

Now more of this sludge will be pumped into Middle America, via this conference in October.

Soft dialogue and reaching across the aisle and hesitancy to name names and problems has brought this about.

Pray for Israel, especially during this time, during the conference. Pray for the people who hear these messages, that the Israel-hate speech will not penetrate their hearts.

Oh, you’ll understand I’m sure that almost all the speakers at the OKC conference also despise the teaching of Bible prophecy.

This is a spiritual war that is raging.

I will support the Jews with the last breath in my body.

Jim1fletcher@yahoo.com

Churches for Israel?

I am very curious lately about the profile of a pro Israel Christian. You also are aware that I’ve ranted in this space about slipping support for Israel. We’ve discussed the reasons many times, chief of which is the de-emphasis on Israel by today’s evangelical “leaders.”

I don’t look for that to change any time soon, but I do think there are still thousands of churches out there that would identify as pro Israel. Obviously, that would almost require a pro Israel pastor (since they are the gatekeepers for better or worse), but some might consider themselves pro Israel even if the pastor isn’t necessarily on fire for Zion.

There are some good organizations that support Israel, but I’m not really aware of any entity that is exclusively dedicated to networking among churches.

I’ve heard from speakers that in each congregation, about 10 percent of the members are really engaged with Israel. Some will listen politely, some will be angry, and some will find their hearts moved toward the Jewish people.  The latter is the end-goal.

So, if a congregation of 500 hears a pro Israel/Bible prophecy speaker, about 50 will be real allies. Wish it were more, but that’s a good and precious start. Those 50 are very important to the cause. Things are helped immeasurably if the pastor is engaged.

Of the, say, 4.1 million members of CUFI, how many are from pro Israel churches? Are the majority individuals who love Israel and the Jews? I don’t know, but it’s an interesting question.

The churches are the funnels for all sorts of information going to the public, to the evangelical community specifically. For at least 15 years, much of that information has been toxic. By that I mean Rick Warren’s man-centered wisdom, Andy Stanley’s assaults on the integrity of Scripture, Stephen Furtick’s me-centered theology, etc.

I simply wish there were more pro Israel churches networking together, and I’d like to help do that.

If you belong to a pro Israel church, anywhere, please email me and I’ll enter that into a database. I don’t want anything from you, other than to compile a database. It would be fascinating to know just how many of you there are out there.

Let’s keep this going; send to your lists and help compile the premier pro Israel church database!

Jim1fletcher@yahoo.com