Tag Archives: Christ at the Checkpoint 2010

Colin Chapman: Hezbollah leader has a “very genuine” spirituality

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Meet antizionist theologian and Hassan Nasrallah fan Colin Chapman, who will speak at Christ at the Checkpoint 2012:

Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah is the leader of Hezbollah.

Nasrallah has called for death to Israel, death to America, the destruction of the West, considers Jews as the enemies of Allah, and glorifies and encourages Islamist martyrdom.

Here’s a compilation of some of his diatribes:

Nasrallah is the leader of Hezbollah, a jihadist group which murders Jews around the world.

Here’s Colin Chapman writing about Nasrallah’s “very genuine” spirituality:

Sheikh Nasrallah is an incredibly charismatic and gifted orator who can hold crowds spellbound for hours (I have often watched him on television) not only by talking politics, but by expounding the Qur’an and communicating a very genuine Shi’ite spirituality.

Chapman also attempts to place Nasrallah’s vile comments about Israel within the context of “Israeli occupation” – a somewhat shakey argument which seems to ignore Hezbollah’s name and charter, the fact that Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000, and Hezbollah’s suspected murder of Jews in Argentina in 1994.

Here Chapman has much in common with Ben White, who considers Hezbollah a nationalist rather than an Islamist movement, linking to an article in which Syrian Christian leader Elias Zahlawi encouraged his congregation to:

“Pray for the resistance, pray for Hassan Nasrallah. He is defending justice.”

Neither Colin Chapman or Ben White care to mention how Hezbollah was using Christian villages as shields in its war against Israel. Colin Chapman and Ben White frequently write for Fulcrum about the Middle East.

Chapman’s article on the Israel-Hezbollah war started off comparing Beirut with the Biblical account in Lamentations of the destruction of Jerusalem. Chapman’s is the father of modern UK Christian anti-Zionist movement, and his 1983 book Whose Promised Land? introduced Jewish power theories back into Christianity.

Ben White, meanwhile, has claimed that he understands why some peole are antisemites, and that Israel is to blame for two of the three causes of the rise of antisemitism in Europe.

It is unsurprising that both men will address Christ at the Checkpoint 2012, given that Stephen Sizer is conference organiser:

Christ at the Checkpoint 2010: Hamas and Hezbollah will soften themselves!

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Colin Chapman on Hamas and Hezbollah at CATC 2010:

The Constitution of Hamas and the documents of Hizbollah are uncompromising in the way they state their objectives and the Islamic principles on which they are based. But from my reading of books about these organisations and recent press reports I am sure that there is a strong pragmatic streak in every Islamist leader. In the context of decades of violence in Northern Ireland, the breakthrough came when the British government stopped talking only with the moderates and started drawing the so-called extremists into the negotiations. It is desperately important that the outside world allows the space and time for Islamist ideology to be softened and modified by pragmatism.

Here are some excerpts from the Hamas charter that Chapman refers to:

“The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (evidently a certain kind of tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews.” (related by al-Bukhari and Moslem).

[...]

The day that enemies usurp part of Moslem land, Jihad becomes the individual duty of every Moslem. In face of the Jews’ usurpation of Palestine, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised. To do this requires the diffusion of Islamic consciousness among the masses, both on the regional, Arab and Islamic levels. It is necessary to instill the spirit of Jihad in the heart of the nation so that they would confront the enemies and join the ranks of the fighters.

[...]

Israel, Judaism and Jews challenge Islam and the Moslem people. “May the cowards never sleep.”

[...]

The Islamic Resistance Movement consider itself to be the spearhead of the circle of struggle with world Zionism and a step on the road. The Movement adds its efforts to the efforts of all those who are active in the Palestinian arena. Arab and Islamic Peoples should augment by further steps on their part; Islamic groupings all over the Arab world should also do the same, since all of these are the best-equipped for the future role in the fight with the warmongering Jews.

Here is a Hezbollah document on resistance:

When Hizbullah resists in Lebanon against the Zionist Jewish occupation lying heavily on its soil in the South and West Bekaa, it is exercising its legitimate and sacred right that was once exercised by the French and American peoples.

Considering Hizbullah’s resistance to the Zionist Jewish occupation as “terrorism” is a kind of injustice, discrimination besides being a renunciation of the Bill of Human rights and the Charter of the United Nations.

Therefore, we call on the peoples of the world to distinguish between aggression, which is none other than terrorism, and the honest resistance that is the only way to deter the aggression and confront the terrorism resulting from that aggression. Israel is an aggressive entity that practices terrorism; occupation is one of the forms of terrorism. Hizbullah of Lebanon is a popular resisting trend against occupation and terrorism.

What reason do we have to believe Colin Chapman here, over the words of Hamas and Hezbollah?

What evidence do we have of Islamist ideology being, or becoming, pragmatist?

Christ at the Checkpoint 2012 and Abdul Fattah Hamayel

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Arabic news agency Abouna reported in 2010, that Bethlehem governor Abdul Fattah Hamayel was present at the original Christ at the Checkpoint conference.

What do we know about Hamayel? According to Passia.org:

Born in Kufr Malik in 1950; attended Military College in Baghdad; Fateh member and activist, for which he was imprisoned for 17 years in Israeli jails; released in a prisoner exchange in 1985 but re-imprisoned in 1990 and deported to Jordan in 1992; has published Lullabies Behind Bars, a collection of Arabic poetry written while in prison; was allowed to return to Palestine in 1994; served as Fateh Sec.-Gen. in the Ramallah district; was elected PLC member (Fateh) for the Ramallah constituency in the Jan. 1996 elections; member of the PLC Interior and the Budget and Financial Affairs Committees; became a Minister of State without portfolio in the cabinet of PM Mahmoud Abbas on 30 April 2003 (until Oct. 2003).

During this time, Fatah was responsible for multiple terror attacks in Israel.

Hamayel hit the headlines in the UK in 2003, when he admitted to the BBC that the PA funded the terror group, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades.

As govenor of Bethlehem, Hamayel has since put a man on trial for “slander and defamation”, just for criticising PA medical facilities.

Here is Hamayel praising the murderer of 3 Israelis, Amer Abu Sarhan:

Will Haayel be at Christ at the Checkpoint 2012?

If so, then I wonder if Wayne Hilsden or Evan Thomas will still consider this delightful conference to be about peace and reconciliation.

Messianic Jewish speaker for CATC 2012: “I oppose all forms of anti-Semitism”

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This is hugely significant.

Richard Harvey, a key Messianic Jewish participant in Christ at the Checkpoint 2012, has told the print edition of Israel Today:

My participation doesn’t mean that I agree with all the aims of the conference or the views of the conference organizers. In fact, as I will be saying in my paper, I believe in God’s continuing election of the Jewish people, which includes the Land promises, and oppose all forms of anti-Judaism, anti-Semitism and supersessionism . I am going to meet my Arab brothers and sisters in Christ to talk, listen and pray with them, to seek to model the reconciliation between enemies and the unity that we have in the Gospel.

When the CATC papers are made public following the conference, it will be very straightforward to assess the extent, to which Richard Harvey does assert his opposition to “all forms of anti-Judaism, anti-Semitism and supersessionism.”

It will also be straightforward to see how clear his challenge is, to the Checkpoint 2012 organisers and participants who are responsible for pushing theological antisemitism.

Of course, there are many forms of antisemitism to oppose at Christ at the Checkpoint 2012.

There is Shane Claiborne, who thinks “the cross lost” when Bonhoeffer tried to kill Hitler. CATC 2012 awarded its blogging prize to Keith Giles, who compares Israel with Pharisees who just persecute Christians. CATC 2012 allies with Dr Jim West, who admires Nazi theologian Kittel.

CATC is being organised by Alex Awad, who has previously shared a platform with terrorist reps and a Holocaust denier, and Rev Stephen Sizer, whose writings have recently been scrutinised and critiqued for anti-Jewish racism by Rev Nick Howard in the British magazine Standpoint.

Richard Harvey will have to share a platform with Ben White, who has previously stated:

I do not consider myself an anti-Semite, yet I can also understand why some are.

It seems to me that Richard Harvey has given himself an impossible task – not least because Checkpoint 2012 organiser Sizer appears to see Richard Harvey as a heretic due to his Zionism.

So it is difficult to see how Dr Harvey can oppose “all forms of anti-Semitism” at Checkpoint 2012, without tackling the antisemitism of Christ at the Checkpoint itself.

Shane Claiborne: when Bonhoeffer tried to kill Hitler “the cross lost”

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Meet Christian speaker Shane Claiborne:

“With tears and laughter, Shane Claiborne unveils the tragic messes we’ve made of our world and the tangible hope that another world is possible.”

Claiborne is scheduled to speak at the Christ at the Checkpoint 2012 conference, which Stephen Sizer is organising, and where Ben White is also speaking. The conference will take place next month (March 5-9, 2012).

Here is Claiborne speaking about theology and war. Watch from 02:13, when Claiborne begins speaking about German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s role in the attempt to assassinate Hitler:

“I think even Bonhoeffer was wrong. There’s an interview with Hitler’s secretary in a movie called Blind Spot, and she tells about when the assassination attempt failed, and Hitler was very interestingly protected from the bomb, he was convinced at that point, more than ever before, that God was protecting him and his mission, and he went forward with renewed vigilence like ever before. So I would say on the day that Bonhoeffer did that, the cross lost, and that violence just perpetuated.”

According to Claiborne, when Bonhoeffer tried to assassinate Hitler “the cross lost”.

For many Christians, the cross cannot lose, because there Jesus finally defeated death on the cross. Christ’s sacrifice was the once-and-for-all victory over sin.

But surely, if the cross could lose, it would have “lost” when Hitler began to exterminate Jews and Gypsies, and many other innocent people. If Claiborne is correct, then the cross was winning throughout Hitler’s reign, until someone tried to kill Hitler, when the cross “lost”.

This, combined was Claiborne’s language about Hitler being “very interestingly protected” from the attempt on his life, appears to be very disturbing theology. Claiborne later denounces Hitler’s genocide of Jews as “really really terrible theology” and a “skewed theology” – however, he does not claim that “the cross lost” when Hitler killed Jews, in the way that he claims “the cross lost” when Bonhoeffer tried to put an end to Hitler.

Recently, Christ at the Checkpoint 2012 has been courting the support of Dr. Jim West, an American theologian who admires the Nazi theologian Kittel.

There are many other reasons to be concerned about antisemitism at Christ at the Checkpoint 2012.

Also attending this conference, are American megachurch pastor Joel Hunter, the President of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference Samuel Rodriguez, popular US preacher (and former “spiritual adviser” to Bill Clinton) Tony Campolo, and President of the World Evangelical Alliance, Sang-Bok David Kim.

The conference recently awarded its blogging prize to a man named Keith Giles, who has previously stated:

Finally, I would like to ask what the fundamental difference is between today’s secular Jewish nation of Israel and the Pharisees of Jesus’ day? Both reject Christ as the Messiah and persecute Christians in Palestine. Should we support a government, any government, who persecutes our brothers and sisters in Christ?

At the last Christ at the Checkpoint conference in 2010, Lutheran pastor Mitri Raheb argued in a speech that Jews are not native to Palestine:

I’m sure if we were to do a DNA test between David, who was a Bethlehemite, and Jesus, born in Bethlehem, and Mitri, born just across the street from where Jesus was born, I’m sure the DNA will show that there is a trace. While, if you put King David, Jesus and Netanyahu, you will get nothing, because Netanyahu comes from an East European tribe who converted to Judaism in the Middle Ages.

Christ at the Checkpoint 2012 is doing what it can to bring antisemitic theology back into the lifeblood of mainstream Christian theology.

Israel slams award for pastor exposed by the Rosh Pina Project

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In October 2011, RPP broke the story of Mitri Raheb’s racist theory about Jewish blood, espoused during a paper which he delivered at Christ at the Checkpoint. Since then, our research was highlighted by the Hudson Institute and the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

The state of Israel has now seen fit to comment on Pastor Raheb’s conduct.

Now in February 2012, the Jerusalem Post reports:

BERLIN – Israeli Embassy representatives expressed dismay with the decision of a German media NGO and former German president Roman Herzog to honor the Bethlehem- based Rev. Mitri Raheb, because of what they term his efforts to delegitimize the Jewish state’s existence.

Israeli diplomatic sources in Berlin told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday that “Raheb is connected to a document – ‘Cairo Palestine’ – that defines Israel as an Apartheid state and calls for a boycott of Israel. It is an extremist and racist document which does not contribute to reconciliation and peace between the Palestinians and Israelis. We regret that one of its authors is receiving acknowledgment in Germany.”

Last week, the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor and the Simon Wiesenthal Center sharply criticized The Media Control, the German NGO responsible for the award, and Herzog’s decision to deliver a keynote speech in Raheb’s honor in late February.

According to the Wiesenthal Center, “in speeches given to various religious symposia and church summits (including the infamous 2004 US Presbyterian assembly that approved a boycott and divestment campaign against Israel), Raheb promoted a ‘Palestinian theology’ that purports that Jews are not the Chosen People and therefore have no right to the Holy Land.”

German-Israeli friendship groups urged Herzog, who served as president of Germany from 1994-1999, to reconsider his participation at the event honoring Raheb. In an early February letter from the German-Israeli friendship society (or DIG) in Freiburg, its representative Andrea Lauser noted that Herzog’s life motto was “Truth and Clarity,” and expressed hope “that you follow this motto in connection with Dr. Raheb.”

DIG Freiburg said that Raheb had made “racist statements about Israel and Jews” and that his anti-Israel comments contradicted the message of the German media prize for “Alternatives to Violence and Radicalization.” As such, the letter stated, it made no sense that Raheb had been chosen for the award.

The letter also cited Herzog’s speech at the Bergen- Belsen extermination camp in Poland in 1995, in which he said the “history of failure began not after the [Nazis’] seizure of power in 1933,” but long before. He also said in that speech that the “danger of totalitarianism is always present – and not only in Germany, but in the entire world” – a statement that DIG said showed Raheb’s views represented a fascist outlook.

The Rhein-Neckar/Mannheim DIG appears to be the first group to have called for Herzog to pull the plug on his participation because of Raheb’s stance on Israel. In a late January letter to the former president, the group described Raheb as “a prominent Palestinian Christian who delegitimizes the Jewish people and fights the existence of the State of Israel.”

Post e-mails and telephone calls to Herzog were not immediately returned.

Herzog has so far refused to issue responses to the growing German and international criticism of his decision to honor Raheb.

The Media Control group, which awarded the prize to Raheb because his “acts are a symbol of humanity,” defended the award in an e-mail to the Post.

“The German Media prize [has worked] 20 years for neutrality, balance and peace. And that is why [former prime minister] Yitzhak Rabin and [President] Shimon Peres were honored,” wrote Karlheinz Kögel, the founder of the Medien prize. He added that he has “generously supported the Peres Center for Peace.”

“In this year, we will make sure that the [award ceremony] event supports the coming peace process,” he continued. “The prize ceremony will not be misused for one-sided statements.”

Christ at the Checkpoint 2012 promotes more theological antisemitism via blogging prize

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Meet Keith Giles:

Finally, I would like to ask what the fundamental difference is between today’s secular Jewish nation of Israel and the Pharisees of Jesus’ day? Both reject Christ as the Messiah and persecute Christians in Palestine. Should we support a government, any government, who persecutes our brothers and sisters in Christ?

So the Jews are basically, bad evil Pharisees.

Keith Giles must have missed that Paul identified as a Pharisee, long after becoming a disciple of Yeshua. Yeshua himself moved amongst the Pharisees, some warned him of Herod’s evil intentions against him, and the Pharisee Joseph of Arimathea even gave Yeshua a proper burial tomb.

Here is Keith Giles interviewing Christ at the Checkpoint 2012 social media organiser and tweeter, Porter Speakman Jr:

PORTER: The Old Testament is full of that sort of thing. God constantly addressed ideas of justice with the Jews all the time. Even the King of Israel couldn’t oppress non-Jews without incurring God’s wrath. Today we want to give Israel carte blanche and allow them to do whatever they want without ever questioning what is being done, and frankly that’s not being a very good friend to Israel.

KEITH: No it’s not.

PORTER: We need to love them enough to say that what they’re doing is wrong and try to help them find better responses.

KEITH: In Psalms 50 God calls the Jews “my Holy Ones” and later he says to the same people, “you wicked” because they cast God’s words aside. So, “chosen ones” or not, the whole point of being blessed of God is to bless all the Nations. Even as Jesus pointed out, there were many lepers in Israel but the prophets were sent to the pagans.

PORTER: Yes, it’s not just that Christ was the Messiah, but that he was the Messiah for all nations and not just for the Jewish people.

Basically, Jews can’t be trusted to do “whatever they want”, so they need Gentile Christians like Porter Speakman to hold them in check.

Israel’s chosenness is deliberately used against Jews, in this interview. The underlying assumption, is that Jews think they have a right to persecute non-Jews, because they are “chosen ones”.

This interview won the Christ at the Checkpoint 2012 blogging prize, despite its pushing more antisemitic theology. Fitting.

Christ at Palestinian checkpoints?

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Munther Isaac writes, of his trip to Gaza:

 First we went through a Hamas checkpoint, were they registered our names. Then we went to the Fatah checkpoint, which coordinates and the checks with the Israelis about every traveler before letting us go through to the Israeli point. There we went through a very long and complicated search as if we were in an airport and even worst! They have very advanced technology and they also opened the bags and searched them piece by piece.

Obviously only the Israeli checkpoint is a theological problem or a sin!

Christ at the Checkpoint 2012 speaker: when Bonhoeffer tried to assassinate Hitler “the cross lost”

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Here is Shane Claiborne, who will speak at the Christ at the Checkpoint 2012 conference:

Amongst its allies, CATC counts Dr Jim West,  who admires the Nazi theologian Kittel. Kittel discussed extermination of the Jews, as a possible answer to the “Jewish question”.

Tony Campolo’s conversion to proxy anti-Zionism

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Tony Campolo wrote an emotionally charged article titled Christian Zionism: Theology that Legitimates Oppression for Sojourners. This one article highlights why Christ at the Checkpoint is so keen to get influential evangelical leaders to their 2012 conference. They want to woo and win them for the Palestinian political cause and convert their theology from a pro-Israel one to one that delegitimizes Israel and especially her Christian supporters. 

Campolo also repeats the lie that the exodus of Christians from Bethlehem is due to Israel rather than the Palestinian Authority that rules the West Bank and the Islamic fundamentalist that are pushing Christians out. He falsely blames Zionists by using the devise of putting words into their communal mouths by claiming they say “good riddance” to Christians. If the Zionists are the cause for the Christian Exodus from Palestinian Authority controlled areas, why then are Christians flourishing and growing in Israel!

 I recently returned from a speaking engagement at the Bethlehem Bible College; and what I witnessed firsthand sent chills up my back. Listening to the horror stories told to me by oppressed Palestinians elicited feelings ranging from indignation to compassion. What was particularly upsetting were the pained questions of an elderly Christian Palestinian woman, who asked, “Why don’t our Christian brothers and sisters in America care about what is happening to us? Do they even know we exist? Do they know that their tax dollars paid for the Israeli tanks that destroyed my house and the houses of my neighbors?”

Twenty-five years ago, Bethlehem was 70 percent Christian. Today less than 15 percent of its population is Christian. Sometimes heartless and dehumanizing treatment that Bethlehem Christians have had to endure over the years has led most of them to emigrate to other countries. To this exodus, many religious Zionists say, “Good riddance!” Presently, 42 percent of all Israeli citizens believe that all Palestinians should be removed from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The most serious threats to the well-being of the Palestinians in general, and to the Christian Palestinians in particular, come not from the Jews, but from Christian Zionists here in the United States. They are armed with a theology created in the middle of the 19th century by a disaffected Anglican clergyman named John Nelson Darby in Plymouth, England. With this theology, called “Dispensationalism,” they argue that according to their interpretation of Genesis 15:18-21, the Holy Land should belong exclusively to the Jews. They contend that all of this land is what was promised to “the seed of Abraham” and, according to their interpretation of biblical prophecies, Jesus cannot return until all of this land is occupied by Jews, and all others are forced to leave.

Of course, the Darbyites completely ignore the fact that the Arab peoples are also the seed of Abraham, having descended to the present day from Hagar, one of Abraham’s servants. They fail to notice that Abraham affirmed both Isaac (his son by Sarah) and Ishmael (his son by Hagar) as his seed and called both to be present to bury their common father (Genesis 25:9). Furthermore, they are also prone to ignore that the land that Christian Zionists argue should be occupied only by Jews stretches from the Euphrates River to the Nile (Genesis 15:18-21). This includes the land now occupied by Arabs in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt. That would mean that all of the Arabs in those countries would have to be forced to leave their homelands. I need not spell out the ramifications of what that would mean.

It should be noted that no prominent theologians until Darby (i.e., Calvin, Luther, Augustine, Aquinas) ever mentioned anything remotely resembling these claims made by dispensationalists. This Johnny-come-lately theology of John Nelson Darby has permeated American Protestantism via the publication in 1908 of the incredibly popular Scofield Reference Study Bible. Too often Evangelicals have treated the Scofield reference notes at the bottom of each page of scripture with almost as much reverence as they do the holy writ at the top of each page. So prevalent is Darby’s dispensationalist theology that most Evangelicals would be surprised to learn that his prophecies of a “rapture” and the historical events that he taught would accompany the rapture are nowhere to be found in Christian theology prior to the mid-19th century. Darby’s prophecies make the early church fathers, along with the apostle Paul, seem stupid since Christ could not possibly have returned during their own times, as they were prone to expect.

Darby’s influence on American Protestantism has recently received an enormous boost with the publication of theLeft Behind series of books by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. Their series of books which are imagined accounts of events leading up to the rapture have sold more than 100 million copies.

You can gain some idea of the huge ideological support Christian Zionists have gained as of late by considering the extremist claims of television evangelist Pat Robertson, who says that Palestinian Christians have no right at all to any part of the Holy Land, even though in many instances it has been land that their ancestors have lived on for generations.

There are those who blame the Jewish lobbies for the 30 percent of all U.S. foreign aid that has gone to the State of Israel and which has enabled the Israelis to create the fourth most powerful army in the world. In reality, however, it is the Christian Zionists, led by such powerful televangelists as John Hagee who have been the primary sources of pressure on the U.S. Congress to financially back the Israeli military that has made the injustices I have described possible.

The following video is Campolo being interviewed by Stephen Sizer where Campolo blames “Christian Zionists” for the problem rather than “Jewish Zionists”! He then conflates his theological disagreements with Dispensationalism with the complex politics and history of the Israeli-Arab conflict. Long dead Christian preachers John Darby and Cyrus Ingerson Scofield are blamed for “the mess” and not a word is said about any wrongs done by the Arab world. So according to Campolo the Arabs are not to blame, the Jews are not to blame, it is really all Darby and Scofield’s fault! Campolo hold a proxy anti-Zionism, blaming his fellow Christians, who are Christian Zionists rather than taking aim at Jewish Zionists and whitewashing the Arab Palestinians of any blame. 

Whence comes Campolo’s confidence…? Well he claims that God is on his side.