Why I Am Not a Christian Zionist
May 31, 2021
Graylan Scott Hagler
Christian Zionism is a distortion of scripture used for the advancement of a colonial Zionist state in Palestine. People who are interested in the bible are tempted to read it literally and to seek to follow its every word, apart from the context in which it was written. This has been the conditioning of fundamentalism. Fundamentalists have taught that every word in the scripture is literally—not contextually or metaphorically—true and that the surface (or superficial) meaning of each bible story is inerrant. This point of view has permeated believing constituencies and has generally not been challenged as preachers and teachers choose to leave well enough alone, not wanting to rock the theological boat or to roil up their followers.
This means that scriptures are not being thoroughly explored, and blanks are filled in, according to the biases of the reader, where there seem to be glaring inconsistencies in the text or where a prophecy is yet unfulfilled. This has resulted in Christians believing that Jews are God’s chosen people, gentiles are grafted into the promise of God, and the land of Israel belongs to the Jews as promised to them by God. Furthermore, it is argued that not only does the land belong to the Jews, but Jews must be repatriated for Jesus to return, and then, at the time when Jesus will judge the righteous and unrighteous, Jews must recognize Jesus as the Christ so that the promise of the reign of God can be fulfilled. In general, these beliefs are known as Christian Zionism.
Christian Zionism is based on cherry-picked scriptures where God promises Abraham the land as a perpetual possession. Christian Zionists will cite Genesis 17.7-8 as justification for this viewpoint:
“I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding; and I will be their God.”
Never mind that a literal, myopic, and self-aggrandizing reading of the text separates it from its original tone and intent, and that the intent was to lend a sense of place and roots to a diverse group of peoples who could identify with the narrative. This applied then; but today there is no tangible and meaningful application to the Zionists in that place other than to advance a colonial, genocidal agenda under the excuse that God willed it.
In fact, Genesis is a series of anthropological myths in which the storytellers try to convey common identity, origin, and purpose, while constructing a narrative that diverse peoples can existentially incorporate to become a self-identified people. But this has to do with then, and now it has little value other than the magical and ultimately destructive pronouncements that supplant another people’s history for a history that is contrived and misappropriated. Christian Zionism therefore is an apostasy that strips the scriptures of its ethical qualities and its justice-mindedness. The rationale of Christian Zionism renders God as the architect of life-negating, even murderous, pogroms that destroy people, culture, place, and history for a particular people over any other people. This is a poor and grossly racist reading of scriptures. Christian Zionism is therefore void of responsible and meaningful biblical literacy.
However, I find that I cannot speak about Zionism or Christian Zionism without acknowledging white supremacy. I choose to call white supremacy white idolatry. This designation is biblical in orientation and points to the fact that an idol is worshipped because of the narrative that has been constructed and enforced by norms, cultures, institutions, and brute force. An idol is perceived as having power, just as white supremacy (idolatry) maintains its power through constructed perceptions that are enforced by the norms and mores of the culture. Though we are not conditioned to think of Zionism as a manifestation of white supremacy, yet in its contemporary context it fits the model. All forms of supremacy are exceptionalism, meaning that supremacists believe that they are the exception to the limitations imposed by humanity, nature, and history. In general, the belief is that they possess a purpose and meaning greater than any other purpose or meaning. Supremacists of all kinds do not recognize anything more important than themselves and therefore believe that all things did not exist or were not made possible until they brought it into fruition or discovered it. The theology of being “chosen” makes Zionists and their boosters, Christian Zionists, on a par with the worst of white supremacy because it is believed to have come directly from God.
Zionism, including Christian Zionism, stands alongside ideologies that justify atrocities by citing a higher calling like the “white man’s burden,” “manifest destiny,” the Christianization of Africans and other Indigenous peoples, and the lust to “civilize” so-called “uncivilized” peoples by destroying their cultures and stealing their lands. This is what is going on today in Palestine. The ideology of white idolatry justifies the subjugation and oppression of Palestinians just as it sought to justify the oppression of South Africans under apartheid, the enslavement of Africans in the Americas, and the genocidal practices against Indigenous peoples throughout the Americas and in the world.
This means that those of us who believe in the scriptures, teach scripture, and preach from scripture must be more responsible and deliberate about what we teach. It is imperative that we remind people that God is not a real estate agent, and does not assign, sell, or direct the occupation of lands. We also must remind people that God is not a homicidal maniac that wants the extermination of some for the benefit of others. We need to inform people that the people of the bible are not the same as the people of today, and that the Israel and Judah mentioned in the scriptures have ceased to exist. To claim that the land of Palestine is an eternal gift for those who came out of Germany, Russia, Poland, England, France, and the United States reminds me of the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885, when European powers met in Berlin to agree on the division of the continent of Africa, informed by their greed and from a sense that they were entitled to do so. This is the moral bankruptcy of Zionism with its supporters, Christian Zionists, because it points to an archaic and racist way of viewing the world, interpreting the scriptures, and manipulating the idea of God for no other purpose than occupying and stealing lands. Christian Zionism replaces the justice and rightness of God, the demand to regard each person as a reflection of God (since humankind was made by God), with an economy that renders everything and everyone, and particularly Palestinians in this case, subservient to the purpose and being of Zionism and the pronouncements of the Christian Zionists.
The Reverend Graylan S. Hagler has served as Senior Minister of Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ in Washington, DC, since 1992. Prior to his arrival in Washington, he pursued active ministries in Chicago and Boston. In all of these cities, he has organized, advocated, marched, and mobilized on behalf of the poor, the homeless, the addicted, the unemployed, and victims of discrimination. A graduate of Oberlin College in Ohio, he earned the Master of Divinity degree at the Chicago Theological Seminary in 1979.