In the documentary, “With God On Our Side”,
there is a scene which impacted me on a very emotional level. Palestinian
Christian Pastor, Salim Muyaner, was talking about his visit to a Christian
church in Houston, Texas. After he spoke to the congregation several people
came up to him to shake his hand. One man said to him, “I love the Jewish
people! I’ve always wanted to meet a real Jew from Israel.” Salim shook the man’s
hand and said, “I too love the Jewish people, but I am not a Jew, I am a
Palestinian.” At those words the man yanked his hand away from Salim and
without saying another word turned and walked away, leaving Salim awe struck
and speechless.
This foolish response illustrates perfectly
how many Christians in America are programmed to respond to the words, “Palestinian”
and “Israel”. If we can treat another
brother in Christ like this, based solely on our political ideologies, then we
have a very serious problem.
Like many Christians in Palestine, Salim
Muyaner can trace his family lineage all the way back to the indigenous
community of Christians that developed after Pentecost. Some are Jewish, some
are Arabic, some are Greek, and some of them are Palestinian, but together,
they are all followers of Jesus.
“Many of us are Greek Orthodox, or Byzantium
Christians,” says Salim. “In recent years there has been a movement, led by
both indigenous Christians in Palestine, and also the ‘Jews to Jesus’ Christians
in the States, to share Christ. So there are an increasing number of people in
Palestine who would label themselves as Christians, or as Messianic Jews.
Approximately 8,000 from Jewish descent in recent years, have come to
Christ. Among the Palestinian Muslims right
now, around 200 people have recently come to Christ in Israel and Palestine. In
Galilee it’s around 100 people. There is a growing movement of Palestinian
Muslims who are coming to Christ,” he says.
In fact, all over the Middle East there are a
large number of people who are coming to put their faith in Christ. “Mostly in
Iran,” Salim says. “About half a million, to a million – the number is disputed
– but this is largely a reaction to the Islamic regime of Iran. Also in Algeria
there is a big movement to the Lord. And also bigger one in Egypt, which is in
reaction to the Muslim Brotherhood there.”
While these Muslims are open to embracing
Jesus, not many of them are as open to the baggage that sometimes comes along
with the Gospel. “We call it MBB, or Muslim Believers Background,” he says. “The
American evangelical church has embraced a lot of American culture values.
Because of this, many Christians (in America) are very Republican, Conservative,
etc. In the last 20 years, American Christians have really hindered the Gospel.
Especially some prominent evangelical leaders who have a very militant
expression about Palestinian people.”
For many of these Muslims, this
politicization of Christianity has driven them to avoid the name “Christian”,
preferring instead to say that they are Muslims who follow Jesus, or “Isa”.
BAD
THEOLOGY AND POLITICS
This same politicization of Christianity is
where Salim’s negative experience in Houston finds its roots. Because American
Christians are largely influenced more by their politics than by their Bibles,
they can justify treating a fellow Christian like an outsider simply because
they are Palestinian (and therefore an enemy of the Jews who are assumed to be “God’s
chosen people.”)
“There is a kind of fear to criticize and
challenge that premise in the media,” notes Salim. “The documentary (“With God
On Our Side”) came about to alert Christians, but as you know there was a big
backlash to this in certain Christian circles.”
This backlash is fueled by a dominant
theology known as “Dispensationalism” which is the most commonly taught
doctrine in America today. This doctrine (which only surfaced in the 1800’s
under the teaching of a man named John Nelson Darby) suggests that Israel (the
Jews) are separate from the Church in God’s eyes. This new teaching – which no
Christian prior to the 1800’s ever believed – gave rise to Christian Zionism
and propagated the idea that the Jews must rebuild their Temple in Jerusalem in
order to fulfill prophecies in the New Testament.
The real problem with this theology is that
it therefore pits American Christians against Palestinian Christians, which in
itself should be enough for us to see how flawed it really is. At worse,
following Dispensationalism to its logical conclusions involves cheering on the
systematic oppression of an entire nation of people (the Palestinians) so that the
Jewish Nation can dominate the land and Jesus can return to earth.
““The problem with Dispensationalism is more
political than theological. It’s largely popularized by the likes of Hal Lindsay,
Moody Bible College, Dallas Theological Seminary, Tim LaHaye’s “Left Behind”
Series, and the Scofield Bible where we see an end times theology that is all
about the world coming to an end. As a result, many Palestinian Christians feel
they have no voice in American Evangelical Churches,” says Salim. “As you read (in
a recent Charisma magazine report), different Christian groups in America have
raised up to $210 million dollars to help fund secular Jewish activities that
oppress Christians and Muslims in Palestine. Who are these Christians? People like
John Hagee, and the Fellowship of Jews and Christians.”
IT
MEANS RECONCILIATION
Another blind spot for American Christians is
that there is a genuine Palestinian Christian church in the land of Israel
today, and they desperately need our support. “We are actively seeking
reconciliation and actively evangelizing,” he says. “We want to be a source of
blessing to our neighbors. We are seeking a ministry of reconciliation.” To
that end, Salim started a ministry known as Musalaha which works towards
reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians based on the Biblical
principles of peace, justice, and love. The name Musalaha comes from the Arabic
word for 'reconciliation'. The mission statement from their official website
states:
"Musalaha is a non-profit organization
that seeks to promote reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians as
demonstrated in the life and teaching of Jesus. We seek to be an encouragement
and facilitator of reconciliation, first among Palestinian Christians and
Messianic Israelis, and then beyond to our respective communities."
Salim started Musalaha in the ‘90’s after the
first Intifada against Israeli army caused a split in the believing community
in Palestine. “My faith is built on the cross of Jesus and how we are called to
love each other,” he says. “We cannot deny the centrality of unity in the Body.
Jesus prayed that we would be one. How can you say that you love God who you
don’t see, but you hate your brother and sister that you do see? In this
divided land the Church of Jesus is here and is called to be peacemakers and to
love our enemy. As believers in the Messiah we are called to bring people
together - Jews and Palestinians together who follow Jesus, and then Muslims
and Jews.”
As passionate as he is about this calling, Salim
knows that the task ahead of them is much greater than they can imagine. “The
gap is huge,” he admits. “How do you bring people out of hatred and mistrust? Our
future depends on our relationship to our neighbors. We cannot do this. We
cannot, but Jesus can. We also cannot outsource our responsibility. The body
needs to embrace its calling to be the hands and feet of Jesus.”
IN
THE DESERT
One of the major reasons for the success of
Musalaha is that they have brought together Messianic Jews and Palestinian
Christians and Muslims to something called ‘The Desert Forum’. “These are
opportunities for people who come from different backgrounds and faiths to
neutralize the hatred and to bring people to look into each other’s eyes and see
they are all created in God’s image,” he says.
These Desert Forums have allowed people from
different faiths to see one another as people made in the image of God, and to
develop empathy for one another as members of the human race. What’s more,
whether they are Jewish or Palestinian, Christian or Muslim or Jew, they all
share a feeling of being oppressed and in danger. By sharing these experiences
with one another they are empowered to help one another.
“As you know, Jesus from the cross reconciled,
not just individuals, but also the Greek, the Roman, the Jew, the Barbarian. Paul,
in Ephesians speaks very clearly about ethnic hostility and how Jesus heals all
of this from the cross,” he says. “As much as radical Islam has divided the
Muslim world, it has also split the Christian world in how it reacts. We have
churches, mainly evangelical, with a theology about the Jews in the end times
that develops a bipolar view which sees only Jews and Christians versus
everyone else who is on the side of Satan. If you try to pray for Palestinian
Christians (in many churches) you will meet a challenge,” he says.
FEAR AND LOATHING
The average person is not aware of American
Foreign policy in the Middle East and how it hurts people. “People (in the
States) need to know that when you have negative Christian words spoken in
America they are immediately spread across the Middle East. It’s not a healthy
situation. As a result you find that many Middle Eastern people in general like
American people for their generosity for their hospitality, but as they perceive
Americans supporting Israel (which oppresses them) they are confused.”
One problem with this brand of end times
biblical theology is that it breeds fear and paralyzes Christians from doing
anything for their brothers and sisters in Christ who happen to live in the
wrong part of the world. “The worst aspect of this is when we divorce people
and nations from ethical responsibility. Many evangelical churches are not
relevant in society and many young people are upset about that. We are the
people of Wilbeforce,” says Salim, “but now we have withdrawn from society.
We’ve lost our ability to become salt and light. People are surprised now that the
church has no influence on society anymore. Ask ourselves why are there poor
people? What about our system? Why isn’t the Church leading the way to solve
these problems?”
The other challenge to American Christianity
today is that being a Christian is much more about what you believe and not who
you are. “The church lost its prophetic voice. In the bible you have the
priest, the king and the prophet. Once the church lost influence in society but
continued to grow in size and amass wealth, we began to fall into the seductiveness
of political leaders and now they think that they will win influence. But
politicians want our money but not our ethical influence,” he says. “Prophets
need to speak to power but power corrupts. We’ve been mesmerized by power like
someone blinded by strong light. That process creates confusion.”
As the Christian church aligns itself more
with political powers, the mission becomes blurred. “We have become like the
radical Muslims and the Rabbinical Jews who want to put laws in place to force
people to behave in certain ways, but this is not from the heart. American
society is now quite a bit divided. God is giving an opportunity to the
American church to be transformational to society. That’s the direction we are
called to. The solution won’t be by laws or fighting by certain laws to change
society. We need to get out of our nice suburbs and into the places where the
people are suffering.”
WHAT
MAJOR CHALLENGE?
“It’s difficult to be a voice for God’s kingdom. The
pressure we are under is between the empires (western Christianity and Israel
and radical islam). We need to embrace the Kingdom of God. The seductiveness of
western empire and fear of radical Islam will lead to escapism. We need to stay
here and be a witness and to be awakened to the call upon us to present the Kingdom
of God and not be overwhelmed by the pressure of the two empires,” he says.
It is a fact that not too many aware that
there are Palestinian Christians. There’s no place for us in the Middle East. We
are not welcome and we’ve been told that by all parties. The church here needs
to be encouraged,” he admits.
“We don’t need to be flooded with money. That
will spoil us. We need a wise engagement in areas where we can contribute to a
better understanding of how to reach our neighbors and find an area where you
can be involved with us like leadership training, youth ministry, women’s
ministry, etc.
“Saying that, we are having problems with
political groups from outside which are threatening to split us. There are
groups (Joel Rosenburg and the United Christians for Israel) who hold conferences
with thousands of people, and others that have concerns with a justice-oriented
approach who want to advocate for the Palestinian Christian church but the
danger is that then you become like those you advocate against,” he warns.
WHAT
ABOUT NON-VIOLENCE?
“We have embraced that for a long time. Historically, we
were not holding on by choice, but by necessity to survive. The Anabaptist
position is embraced by all Palestinian Christians. With the 2nd
Intifada the church took a position against weapons and suicide bombers. Non-violent
engagement is our position. Myself and others have spoken very strongly against
that.
“The nonviolent position is very strong among Palestinian Christians, but we
need to be careful not to fall into the victim of the battle. For example, we
had a conference called “Christ At The Checkpoint” and one Christian writer
came and wrote against us because Tony Campolo was a guest. We are more than
just one person. Musahala has hundreds of messianic Christians and Jews
involved in the reconciliation process. The Christian media in the US refuses
to give us a voice there because in certain circles we are called humanistic
and others want to only promote their Christian Zionist agendas,” he says.
“You cannot have justice without
reconciliation. Justice is a byproduct of people sitting together and settling
their grievances and if you only talk about that you won’t settle the issue.
Social Justice is closer to the biblical view but we want biblical justice.”
Interview by Keith Giles
