Evangelicals and the Israel-Palestine Crisis

For those of you who may not know, evangelicals have recently embraced a call for lasting peace in Israel/Palestine by calling for a two-state solution. Essentially, they are saying that it is about time that the two were able to split and be two separate nations, able to elect whom they want, to govern the way they want (at long as it is democratic), and to be two separate nations. Let me just say that this is great and it is about time.

However, I have a few problems with the drawing up of this statement. The first major problem I have is that 4 of the 5 Wesleyan schools did not have a representative; Houghton was the lone exception. Now, the GS’s for my denomination did sign the statement, but we were missing the signatures from the presidents of four of our schools. To me, this is incredibly disappointing. However, I am also ecstatic that we got all three of our GS’s to sign. This is fantastic and real progress for my denomination.

Second, I have an issue with the reasons given in the statement for the adopting of this statement. The first reason is for the safety of Israel. Now, I do not disagree with this, but it begs the question of the safety of Palestinians as well. I understand that evangelicals have traditionally “kissed up” to Israel and favored Israel. However, in this crisis, Israel (and the creation of Israel) is the real culprit for much of the violence and many of the problems in the area. This comes about through many Israeli policies, not the least of which is to erect a wall around Palestinian territories so as not to allow Palestinians out (this is a similar tactic to that of the Berlin Wall, always a symbol of evil in the West). And so, where is the call for Israel to be actively engaged in creating a peace-full place where Palestinians are allowed to thrive, to have economic success, and to not be treated like second-class citizens. It seems that to me, it is time for evangelicals to stop bowing at the feet of Israel – and giving them a free pass – and to start holding them to the same standards.

The second reason given for the statement is the safety of America and Americans abroad. I find this to be completely narcissistic and naïve. A statement is made to the effect that many people in the Middle East view America through the Israel-Palestine conflict. And, while this is true, people in the Middle East also view America through the Soviet-Afghanistan war (and America’s involvement therein), the first Gulf War, and continuing to label various countries as terrorist states. America is not popular because of America’s policies in the Middle East. And, so now, evangelicals call for peace between Israel and Palestine to keep America safe. Perhaps the next call should be to America to attempt to repent and right wrongs to keep itself safe? This should be strictly about Israel and Palestine, not about America.

I want to end this by saying that I am incredibly encouraged by this statement. It seems that evangelical leaders are starting to understand that they have more of a role to play in the world than has traditionally been supposed. This is a good thing. It is also very encouraging that the people signing this are educators in evangelical schools, meaning that hopefully these schools are raising socially-conscious evangelical leaders.

Personal Update

So, it's been about 10 months since I have published on this blog. I'll get to why in my next post, but in this one I just wanted to give a quick update on my life and some current things I am thinking about.

First, my wife and I and our son moved from Chicago about a year ago. We moved to Plymouth, IN into an old farmhouse - our nearest neighbor is about 1/4 mile away. This is a drastic change from our place in Chicago. We moved to be closer to family, as this greatly helps with doing my doctoral work.

Second, over the last year I have been studying for and taking my comprehensive examinations for my doctorate at Loyola University of Chicago. This was fantastic to finally get through. And now I have a good story about getting ripped in part of my oral exam by Adriaan Peperzak over some stuff I said about Heidegger and language. I'm just happy I did not cry.

With my exams finished, I am now beginning to think about my dissertation more fully. I've worked to narrow it down, so that this is not my life project. And, basically, I am going to work with deconstruction and theology. I'll make an initial claim that deconstruction is less about taking apart of destroying a tradition/text and more about a right attunement to be able to listen to the entire history of a tradition/text, including the internal differences. I then want to take that structure and look at how Christian theologians have a similar method of attunement in their theological thinking; specifically I'll be looking at some by texts by Nicholas of Cusa. I may also look at Augustine and Simone Weil, but we'll see.

I have also spent the last semester teaching Introduction to Philosophy at Indiana Wesleyan University. It was a great experience - I love to teach. I had a good group of students and I feel like we all learned a lot.

Lastly, I'm working on a few papers for conferences and for submission to some journals. At the Wesleyan Theological Society this year I am presenting on Emergence theories of Consciousness and Entire Sanctification - looking at how some new emergence theories of consciousness inform our understanding of entire sanctification, specifically a more Maddox/process view. Sorry Collins! Second, I'm presenting at the Society for Pentecostal Studies on the role of experience in the religion/science dialogue. I'm looking at more "pop" level books (Dawkins, Collins, and McGrath). I've learned more about biology than I ever cared to. Lastly, I'm presenting a paper at the Interdisciplinary Nineteenth Century Studies Society: it is a conference on human rights and I am presenting on Luther Lee and how he puts forward a natural theology based upon the humanness of all humans. I'm going to specifically look at what he says about women and slavery.

On the submission end, I'm tinkering with an Eastern (specifically, Kyoto School of Buddhism) reading of the Sermon on the Mount. I'm also working on the idea of prayer as a political practice, specifically if viewed through contemporary phenomenology.

Well, I'll post more regularly and hope to see people around.

peace.