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Pro-Israel Christians Lobby in Washington
All Things Considered: July 17, 2006
Pro-Israel Christians Lobby in Washington
ROBERT SIEGEL, host:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I’m Robert Siegel.
MELISSA BLOCK, host:
And I’m Melissa Block. An Evangelical pastor from San Antonio has set out to form the first Christian political action committee dedicated entirely to supporting the state of Israel. Pastor John Hagee hopes it will become the most powerful pro-Israel lobbying group in America. And today, Hagee and thousands of Evangelicals are in Washington to make their case. NPR’s Guy Raz went to San Antonio to find out about Hagee and his cause.
GUY RAZ reporting:
A single caramel-colored stone wall, stands outside the entrance to Cornerstone Church in San Antonio. Along the top runs an inscription that reads:
Pastor JOHN HAGEE (Evangelical Pastor; Founder, Christians United for Israel): Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, they shall prosper that love you.
RAZ: It's from Psalms 1:22 and one of Pastor John Hagee's favorites.
Pastor HAGEE: Each of these stones is from Jerusalem, and we left a gap in the stones, just like there happens to be at the Western Wall, so that people can put their prayer requests on paper and push it in there.
RAZ: Hagee’s even seen people praying at this Texan Western Wall, at midnight.
Just a few steps from the wall, Hagee walks down the corridor that leads into his office. It’s a portrait gallery, most likely the only one of its kind in Texas, if not America, because each framed painting depicts one of Israel's former prime ministers.
Pastor HAGEE: This is David Ben-Gurion. He was first prime minister of Israel. Then here is one of my favorites, Golda Meir, often called the toughest man in Israel. This is Yitzhak Rabin. And this is again, my favorite of favorites, Menachem Begin. Then this is…
RAZ: The flag of Israel adorns the walls and halls of Cornerstone’s suburban campus. Affixed to the frames of many doors are Mezuzahs, cases filled with a prayer and usually found in Jewish homes. The banners of the 12 Tribes of Jacob decorate the church’s main prayer sanctuary.
Pastor HAGEE: It's a direct commandment that Christians should be supportive of Israel. It's the only nation that God ever created. It’s the only nation that Christians are told to pray for, and therefore, because the Bible is the compass of our faith, we do what it says.
RAZ: And it’s a commandment John Hagee preaches to his 20,000 congregants and the millions of homes he reaches each week in his televised sermons.
Pastor HAGEE: Genesis 12:3 says I will bless those that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee. God blesses those who bless Israel and curses those who curse Israel.
According to Luke 7:5, divine healing came because of practical acts of kindness to Israel. According to Acts 10, the favor of God…
RAZ: Hagee has known every Israeli prime minister since Menachem Begin, with whom he used to discuss Scripture, and he’s visited the country 23 times. On a recent trip, he came to a simple conclusion: Pro-Israel advocacy in America should be primarily a Christian cause, and it’s then he decided to form Christians United for Israel.
Pastor HAGEE: We are going to go to Washington and go face to face with senators and congressmen, representing Israel. We've never done that before.
RAZ: Hagee calls it biblical advocacy. It’s an idea that’s attracted prominent Evangelicals like Gary Bauer and Jerry Falwell, to join him. A biblical advocate for Israel believes the borders of the country were set down by God and should not be altered.
It's a view at odds with the majority of Israelis, who are prepared to trade land for peace, but Hagee promises his group won't intervene in internal Israeli politics. His commitment to Israel, he says, is a divine mandate, and Hagee's Cornerstone Church takes that mandate very, very seriously.
SOUNDBITE OF PASTOR MATTHEW HAGEE SINGING HEBREW HYMN
RAZ: This is Cornerstone Church's annual Night to Honor Israel. The song, a Hebrew hymn, is being sung by John Hagee’s son, Pastor Matthew Hagee. The brightly-lit sanctuary, an auditorium-sized space, is filled with thousands of Evangelical supporters of Israel.
It's the 25th year Hagee's put on the gala.
SOUNDBITE OF PASTOR MATTHEW HAGEE SINGING HEBREW HYMN
When he came up with this idea in 1981, John Hagee couldn't convince any mainstream Jewish leaders to attend. He even pledged he wouldn't proselytize to Jews, which Hagee says he discourages to this day.
Still, there was suspicion. Many Jewish leaders still are. But one, Rabbi Aryeh Scheinberg, who leads San Antonio's small orthodox community, decided to go. He and Hagee have been close friends since.
Rabbi ARYEH SCHEINBERG (Orthodox Jewish Community Leader, San Antonio, Texas): We've suffered a great deal from the Christian faith. And - but these Evangelicals are genuine, they're sincere, their love for Israel and love for Jewish people is rooted in the Bible that they believe.
RAZ: In fact, Hagee preaches that anti-Jewish sentiment is a sin.
Pastor HAGEE: Every anti-Semite is going to spend eternity in Hell without God.
RAZ: It's a nice thought, says Rabbi Barry Block, but not enough to change his mind about Hagee. Block's long encouraged San Antonio's Jewish community to keep its distance, in part because Block believes Hagee's conservative social agenda, for example on the separation of church and state, is simply one he cannot endorse. Block heads the liberal Reform Jewish Community in San Antonio and is unimpressed with Hagee’s theology.
Rabbi BARRY BLOCK (Liberal Jewish Community Leader, San Antonio, Texas): Pastor Hagee espouses an end-of-days theology, in which our Jewish people don't fare well at the end of the story unless, of course, we convert to Christianity
Mr. DAVID BROG (Executive Director, Christians United for Israel): I think there's no greater fallacy out there, than the claim that Christians merely support Israel to speed the second coming.
RAZ: That’s David Brog. He’s a former Republican congressional staffer, and now executive director of Christians United for Israel. He admits the messianic end-of-days scenario in Christianity is very different from the Jewish one. The religious Jewish view holds that the Messiah has yet to arrive. Christians believe he will eventually arrive for the second time. Both believe the process will be violent and bloody, in short, generally unpleasant - but that when it’s all over, a golden age of peace will settle over the Earth.
Rabbi Aryeh Scheinberg, Hagee’s close friend, says he and Hagee joke about this point. When the Messiah comes, says Scheinberg, the two men will ask him, is this your first time in Jerusalem, or your second?
Rabbi SCHEINBERG: Of course we recognize that we have different views, significantly different than end of days, but that doesn’t deter us from working together.
RAZ: Pastor Hagee believes Evangelicals like him will always have to persuade segments of the Jewish community that he has no alternative agenda, and besides, he adds, it doesn’t matter whether some Jewish leaders steer clear of his movement. I candidly do not care what they think, John Hagee says, as he looks upward. I’m only concerned with what God thinks. Guy Raz, NPR News.
SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC
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