I read this article in Monday’s [UK] Guardian newspaper, and found it extremely disturbing. The Christian Coalition is supporting Israel and opposing any chance of a Palestinian state, even to the point of inviting the mayor of Jerusalem to speak at their national conference. An ecumenical gesture, I hear you ask? If only.
No, according to the article, the reasons are somewhat more sinister:
Considering the amount of influence this group has with the current administration, I find this a very, very worrisome bit of news.
There are zillions of people who oppose Jews or oppose Israel for the wrong reasons. It’s fine with me if some people support us for the wrong reasons.
That’s pretty old news. Many Christian fundamentalists have long supported Israel because of the Rapture. But the abolish the Jews thing is an arbitrary editorial spin tacked on by the Gaurdian. In fact, many fundamentalists now say that Jews need not accept Christ for salvation.
I should probably add here, for readers unfamiliar with the Guardian, that it has a pretty consistent and <ahem> unapologetic liberal/left-wing (choose the term of your choice) bias to its straight news reporting, and moreso to its features such as this one. Take it with the appropriate-sized grain of salt. But it still worries me that there are people out there who think a third world war might be a nifty idea for ANY reason.
To nitpick, the Pope announced this recently. I suspect many fundamentalists immediately announced a renewed effort to convert as many Jews as possible. Cause the Catholic Church is the Whole of Babylon and all that. I’d like to see some cites showing that fundamentalists agree with this.
In looking for a cite for Kyla, I discovered that he is basically correct that it was the Catholic Church who announced the no need for Christ salvation of Jews.
However, I also discovered that the Rapture theory proposed here is not necessarily correct, either. Many “evangelistic” Christian support Israel simply because God Himself does.