Did you hear the one about the anti-Zionist lectures[1] in Canada last week? This is how the night unfolded, as re-told to Olive Press . . .
October 24th
IMAGINE
Imagine a packed auditorium filled with people who have come from far and wide to hear high-profile Christian speakers tell far fetched, re-imagined stories about a land mentioned in an old book that they don’t really believe anymore. They tell about all the ‘atrocities and human rights violations’ that are committed by the Israelis towards the wonderful Palestinian people. They talk about how GOD never gave Israelis the land they ‘stole’ and now ‘occupy’, and all they would have to do is share a little more of it because the Palestinians just want peace. They lament that the Hamas charter is ‘unfortunate’ but if the Israelis would just gave them space, they would settle down. No one bursts into laughter as the outrageous mis-information pile grows higher.
There’s more! Imagine! Although only two speakers are mentioned on the website . . . surprise! An unknown Greek Orthodox pony tailed priest[2] in a long black robe takes his turn in the spot light and tells the audience how they no longer believe in the concept of original sin, and how the ‘chosen people’ concept has been re-thought and the Bible has been re-visited on core issues.
It may sound like an evening at The Improv, but this is no stand up comedy routine. The main attractions, in fact, appear to be seriously irritated by the pro-Israel advocates who try to speak, even cutting one from the microphone, which is very obvious to the crowd. Because well behaved Christian Zionists don’t throw rocks or shout obscenities and threats, the lecturers use their free speech rights to continue critiquing the “Christian Right,” referring to Christian Zionism as though it is a huge, monolithic controlling ‘government’ within the church (when it is actually a small percentage). Meanwhile, the Christian Zionists in this packed auditorium of 250 are mostly of the older generation and highly outnumbered by about 10 to 1.
One can only imagine how some pro-Israel supporters in attendance find such an evening so spiritually oppressive and intolerable, and the propaganda so hard to take, that they begin to feel physically sick. Because it is so shockingly, most of the mis-information stacks up without retort, although one soft-spoken gentleman from the audience manages to destroy the speakers’ arguments from his seat.
Other than a pungent ecumenical aroma[3], the stories offered at such a dark comedy of errors appears to be nothing more than an attempt to court the uninformed and woo them over to the other side.
The final curtain drops. The tragedy is over, for now. A few students seek out the Zionists for an alternative answer, which they are given. The rest of the crowd goes home to spread the new propaganda that sounds right to their ears.
Imagine . . . attending a lecture by Christians on the biblical view of Christian Zionism and finding nothing but inaccuracies and anti-Israel propaganda. Welcome to the new fascism.
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Endnotes:
[1] This may be a bird’s eye view of the Challenging Christian Zionism: Canadian Roots and Responses lecture that took place
October 24, 2014, but more importantly, this scene is also one that is playing everywhere, and may be coming soon to a town near you.
[2] Imagine hearing a speaker who was not on the list, and no one seemed to know his name. Someone later thought this might be a Greek Orthodox Archbishop associate of one of the speakers who belongs to a group that seems to have re-thought the traditional views of the penal substitutionary atonement and a literal hell. A comment that ensued suggested that, if so, ‘at least the speakers are consistent’ in that they get it ALL wrong.
[3] One of the points listed on the evening’s powerpoint that is needed was:
“A new Ecumenical deal with Evangelicals, Protestants, Catholics and Orthodox Christians.”
*The views in this post are the opinions of an attendee of a recent lecture series on some re-imagined views of Israel (as told to, and edited by, Olive Press).
Related:
Anti-Zionist Lectures in Canada
https://olivepress.wordpress.com/2014/10/15/anti-zionist-lectures-in-canada/
Olive Press 