When asked where their sympathies lie, 34 percent of global evangelicals surveyed sympathized with Israel, compared with 30 percent of American evangelicals.
Source/Credit: The Huffington Post / Religion News Service
By Sarah Pulliam Bailey | April 9, 2014
-- Excerpts
American evangelicals have played a significant role in U.S. support for Israel; by some measures they are even more supportive than American Jews.
But in the spring issue of Middle East Quarterly, David Brog, executive director of Christians United for Israel, wrote a piece titled “The End of Evangelical Support for Israel?” Evangelicals have shifted within the last decade, Brog wrote, and are no longer considered automatic supporters of Israel.
“The days of taking evangelical support for Israel for granted are over,” he wrote, suggesting an urgency for those who take the issue seriously. “They cannot let the evangelical community go the way of the mainstream Protestant leadership.”
Several mainline churches and international church bodies have passed resolutions on divesting money or boycotting products made in Israel because of its occupation of the Palestinian territories.
In October 2010, the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life conducted a survey of evangelical leaders attending the global evangelical conference in Cape Town, South Africa.
Overall, 48 percent of the evangelicals said Israel is a fulfillment of biblical prophecy about the Second Coming of Jesus, while 42 percent said it is not.
When asked where their sympathies lie, 34 percent of global evangelicals surveyed sympathized with Israel, compared with 30 percent of American evangelicals.
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For years, the source of that attachment was a specific, literalistic approach to biblical prophecy, called dispensationalism. Dispensationalists believe the Israelites’ return to the Promised Land is a requirement for the Second Coming of Jesus. They therefore rejoiced when Israeli troops captured the Old City of Jerusalem from Arab forces in June 1967 and saw it as a sign that Jesus was coming.
Before he switched his theological views, California-based pastor Kim Riddlebarger sold Bible prophecy books for 25 years. Now Riddlebarger, who co-hosts a popular radio show called the White Horse Inn, believes God has fulfilled his promise to Israel through a covenant with Jesus, so he sees no theological need for a state of Israel.
“Reformed folks tend not to be involved in punditry, date setting, but more the theological discussion on Israel’s role in international politics and human rights,” Riddlebarger said. “You can only hype something so many times before people start to lose interest.”
David Gushee, Christian ethicist at Mercer University, said he sees more tourist trips to the region wanting to include a Palestinian perspective.
“The Palestinian side of the story is coming into view in the way it hasn’t come before,” he said. “As people are organizing their mental worlds theologically, whatever they’re reading, it doesn’t equal unequivocal support for Israel at any given point.”
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/09/american-evanglicals-israel_n_5118417.html
American Evangelicals' Support For Israel Is Waning, Reports Say
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