Tag Archives: Christ at the Checkpoint 2012

Jewish Chronicle on CaTC 2012

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Its provocative name was matched by the provocative logo of a church behind barbed wire, next to Israel’s security barrier. Last week, some 600 Christian clerics, activists and academics gathered in Bethlehem for the Christ at the Checkpoint conference.

They discussed why, in their view, Christians who support Zionism have got it wrong. There were sessions with titles such as ‘Seven Biblical Answers to Popular Zionist Assumptions’. This was delivered by the programme director Stephen Sizer, pastor of Christ Church in Surrey and author of Christian Zionism: Roadmap to Armageddon.

There was predicable outrage in Jewish circles. The B’nai B’rith World Centre criticised the gathering “because of the clear anti-Israel and anti-Jewish posture of the event”. Abraham Cooper and Yitzchok Adlerstein, rabbis at the Wiesenthal Centre, wrote in the Jerusalem Post that it promotes “toxic theology”. But internal criticism from within the Christian community has been even stronger. Jürgen Bühler, executive director of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, said in a statement that the theological approach of the conference “can easily lend itself to antisemitism and anti-Israel propaganda”.

Read article here 

One day after CATC2012, pro-Israel church deemed “no longer legitimate” by PA

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Christ at the Checkpoint 2012 ended 9th March 2011. The conference programmer was Stephen Sizer, who wishes to use police resources to silence critics of his views.

It invited the Palestinian Authority prime minister Salim Fayyad, and the PFLP-supporting mayor of Bethlehem Victor Batarseh. Batarseh was blacklisted by the USA for funding the PFLP. Camera notes:

The PFLP, one of the largest factions in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) after Fatah, staged 122 attacks, murdering 18 Israelis, in 1991 alone. In 2006, the PFLP criticized Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for condemning a terrorist attack in Tel Aviv, claimed responsibility for attacking Israeli border guards after a failed attempt to kidnap a soldier, and reportedly joined with Palestinian Islamic Jihad in terrorist attempts.

Only last month, Batarseh attended a PFLP-led commemoration of the life of its founder George Habash, whom Time Magazine has called “Terrorism’s Christian Godfather.”

We previously noted how CATC 2010 welcomed Bethlehem governor Abdul Fattah Hamayel, a former Fatah member who recently put a man on trial for criticising PA medical services. We wondered why Christ at the Checkpoint was associating itself with these authoritarian, pro-violence figures.

This week we have discovered some appalling news from the Palestinian Authority which is overseen by the likes of Fayyad, Batarseh and Hamayel. Algeimer now reports:

A week after Prime Minister Salam Fayyad told an audience of Evangelical Protestants from across the world that his government respected the rights of its Christian minorities, officials from the Palestinian Authority have informed Bethlehem pastor Rev. Naim Khoury that his church lacked the authority to function as a religious institution under the PA.

The church can still gather to pray, for now, but the PA’s decision conveyed on Saturday will have a real impact on the members of First Baptist, which endured numerous bomb attacks during the First Intifada.

“They said that our legitimacy as a church from a governmental point of view is not approved,” said Khoury’s son, Steven, who serves as an assistant pastor at First Baptist. “They said they will not recognize any legal paper work from our church. That includes birth certificates, wedding certificates and death certificates. Children are not even considered to be legitimate if they don’t have recognized paperwork.”

The irony, Steven said, is that the PA’s announcement comes right after the Christ at the Checkpoint Conference. This conference, which took place from March 5 through March 9, 2012 was a gathering of approximately 600 Evangelical Protestants from across the globe (mostly from the United States) to discuss the theology of Christian Zionism, which some Evangelicals believe increases the prospect of violence in the Middle East and gives support to Israeli policies that they do not like.

During the opening night of the conference, Palestinian Prime Minister Fayyad told the assembly that his government respected the rights of Christians. Palestinians celebrate religious holidays together, PA officials attend Christmas celebrations and even attend Midnight Mass for Christmas, Fayyad said.

Russ Resnik writes:

After a further conversation with Pastor Steven Khoury, I realize that the church was told that the Palestinian Authority no longer considers them legitimate and will no longer accept any paper work from them, such as baptismal or wedding certificates.

Our question is this: why does the PA no longer consider Khoury’s church to be legitimate?

Wayne Hilsden challenges CATC2012 statement

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Wayne Hilsden comments, somewhat cryptically:

I have received confirmation that what Sami Awad said in fact true. He will be able to explain that himself. But, as I stated previously, I was not aware that the organizers would publish any official statements and I was not personally involved in giving any input.

Compare this to the Christ at the Checkpoint 2012 statement:

 The Statement and Manifesto were presented to the conference participants on the last day but were only agreed on and endorsed by the Conference Organizers.

According to Hilsden, there was no statement on the last day shown to participants.

According to CATC, there was a statement on the last day shown to participants.

They can’t both be right.

Also, how can Sami Awad’s statement about Messianic input into the manifesto be true, if Wayne H was one of the Messianic leaders but did not edit or contribute to the manifesto? I doubt Richard Harvey did either, so how can this be true?

There are many contradictory posts, tweets and press releases coming from Christ at the Checkpoint 2012 speakers and organisers. What are we supposed to think?

Sami Awad claims that Messianic Jews were consulted about CATC2012 manifesto

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Christ at the Checkpoint 2012 organiser Sami Awad

Christ at the Checkpoint 2012 organiser Sami Awad

Earlier today, we carried the news that Christ at the Checkpoint 2012 issued a conference statement without consulting the delegation of Messianic leaders it invited, yet still named these Messianics in their conference “manifesto”.

Here is the ending of the manifesto, as it still appears on Stephen Sizer’s blog (although not for much longer probably):

Now this section of the manifesto, reads on the CATC website:

The Statement and Manifesto were presented to the conference participants on the last day but were only agreed on and endorsed by the Conference Organizers.

Conference Organizers: John Angle, Alex Awad, Bishara Awad, Sami Awad, Steve Haas, Munther Isaac, Yohanna Katanacho, Manfred Kohl, Salim Munayer, Jack Sara, Stephen Sizer

This news was picked up by Israel Today, and then by the Jnews Reader. Christ at the Checkpoint 2012 organiser Sami Awad reacted to this news on Twitter.

Here is a series of tweets that followed:

Sami Awad claims that the Messianic leaders were consulted about the manifesto, and had “full freedom to edit and input” into the manifesto.

However, according to the information on the CATC website, only the organisers – including Sami Awad himself “agreed on” the conference manifesto.

Which version of events is correct?

Sami Awad’s version, or the official CATC version?

Furthermore, how is anyone supposed to take the CATC manifesto seriously, if the organisers themselves do not appear to agree upon the sequence of events that led to the publication of the manifesto?

How do Messianic CATC participants Wayne Hilsden, Evan Thomas and Richard Harvey feel about the way they are being portrayed by the conference organisers?

These are questions which deserve urgent attention, clarifications and explanations, because the information coming out of CATC2012 participants and organisers appears to be conflicting, confusing and contradictory.

The Checkpoint Manifesto

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I bet that the Messianic Jews who attended CaTC are not so thrilled that their names are forever attached to this conference Manifesto, in fact it turns out the they were not even aware that such a Manifesto was being produced and it was not submitted to the conference to be agreed to by delegates. Hence delegates are stuck with being associated with this heavily slanted statement that promotes Replacement Theology and justifies their delegitimization of Israel, irrespective of what was said at the CaTC 2012 conference. Many it seems will be delighted as it reaffirms the prejudice they attended the conference with. However it is a clear slight to Hilsden, Harvey and Thomas.

Why call it a Manifesto and not just a normal conference statement, do they think, or wish this will be monumental like the Communist Manifesto! Probably however, it is because they were either too lazy or too dictatorial to put it before the conference for a vote in order for it to actually be a conference statement.

How do Harvey, Thomas and Hilsden feel about the manifesto point 3, I doubt very much that they agree with it, in fact it is obvious that the hand of Sizer is behind this Manifesto as it takes advantage of the huge gesture of good will these three took to attend a conference whose track record is so dubiously anti-Israel and replacementist.

3 “Racial ethnicity alone does not guarantee the benefits of the Abrahamic Covenant.”

Point 3 is pure replacement theology, implying that Jews who are not believers in Jesus are no longer recipients of God’s Covenant with Abraham as found in Genesis 12-17. Protestations during the conference that CaTC was not a gathering of replacement theology, is nonsense in the light of this point.

Manifesto point 10 is a case of them having their cake and eating it:

10 “Any challenge of the injustices taking place in the Holy Land must be done in Christian love. Criticism of Israel and the occupation cannot be confused with anti-Semitism and the delegitimization of the State of Israel.”

Therefore they claim that because they attack Israel with a smile on their face, a dog collar round their neck with dulcet tones and careful chosen incendiary words, somehow it is automatically NOT anti-Semitic!

Point 11 is an attempt to make CaTC 2012 seem ground-breaking where in fact Messianic Jews in Israel have had many years of relationships, Congregational visits, shared conferences, sharing foreign speakers with Palestinian Christian congregations.

Here is the CaTC Manifesto and its authors. All I have to say to those from the Messianic community that attended and spoke is, told you so! You have been played.

Conference Organizers:
John Angle, Alex Awad, Bishara Awad, Sami Awad, Steve Haas, Munther Isaac, Yohanna Katanacho, Manfred Kohl, Salim Munayer, Jack Sara, Stephen Sizer

The Christ at the Checkpoint Manifesto

  1. The Kingdom of God has come. Evangelicals must reclaim the prophetic role in bringing peace, justice and reconciliation in Palestine and Israel.
  2. Reconciliation recognizes God’s image in one another.
  3. Racial ethnicity alone does not guarantee the benefits of the Abrahamic Covenant.
  4. The Church in the land of the Holy One, has born witness to Christ since the days of Pentecost. It must be empowered to continue to be light and salt in the region, if there is to be hope in the midst of conflict.
  5. Any exclusive claim to land of the Bible in the name of God is not in line with the teaching of Scripture.
  6. All forms of violence must be refuted unequivocally.
  7. Palestinian Christians must not lose the capacity to self-criticism if they wish to remain prophetic.
  8. There are real injustices taking place in the Palestinian territories and the suffering of the Palestinian people can no longer be ignored. Any solution must respect the equity and rights of Israel and Palestinian communities.
  9. For Palestinian Christians, the occupation is the core issue of the conflict.
  10. Any challenge of the injustices taking place in the Holy Land must be done in Christian love. Criticism of Israel and the occupation cannot be confused with anti-Semitism and the delegitimization of the State of Israel.
  11. Respectful dialogue between Palestinian and Messianic believers must continue. Though we may disagree on secondary matters of theology, the Gospel of Jesus and his ethical teaching take precedence.
  12. Christians must understand the global context for the rise of extremist Islam. We challenge stereotyping of all faith forms that betray God’s commandment to love our neighbors and enemies.

UPDATE
The Christ at the Checkpoint organizers have been forced to clarify:
“The Statement and Manifesto were presented to the conference participants on the last day but were ONLY agreed on and endorsed by the Conference ORGANIZERS (my emphasis).”

“Conference Organizers: John Angle, Alex Awad, Bishara Awad, Sami Awad, Steve Haas, Munther Isaac, Yohanna Katanacho, Manfred Kohl, Salim Munayer, Jack Sara, Stephen Sizer”

UPDATE

OK this is what seems to have happened, Harvey and Hilsden had already left CaTC when Thomas and another couple from his congregation were approached, out of courtesy, and shown the Manifesto. One of them offered some grammatical suggestions, but did not feel the need to challenge anything in the Manifesto that he may have disagreed with because it was “a Palestinian conference”! OK, fine, we might have done different and challenged a fair bit, but that was their choice. However the CaTC Manifesto authors claim that there was Messianic Jewish input from leaders of the Israel Messianic Jewish community, and if they mean that grammatical advice was offered, then it can be stretched to that. However only one of the three CaTC speakers from the “pro-Israel” camp saw the draft. The three that saw the draft are all from the same Messianic congregation, so it is hardly representatives of the Messianic community, as each of the speakers made it very clear that they were there on an individual basis and represented no one but themselves.

The pro-Israel/Messianic Jewish contingent statement, which surprisingly included those who were not speakers at the conference issued a statement to clarify things -

Some of us were shown this statement during the editorial process, out of respect and appreciation for our involvement, and out of acknowledgment of the bridges that were built during the conference. While a few of us offered advice on the composition of these documents, we do not in fact endorse all the points that were finally presented. Nor were we asked by the organizers to endorse them.

However Stephen Sizer, the CaTC Programme director claims:

Before releasing the Conference Statement and Manifesto, the organising committee invited local Messianic leaders to read and comment on it.

So the “local Messianic leaders” who turn out to be only one of the CaTC Messianic speakers and another from the same congregation, were in fact invited to comment on it. This is hardly local Messianic leaders, which gives the impression that it was more than it really was! Anyway they chose to only offer grammatical advice, fine that is their decision, but a bit more clarity would have been helpful.

Jerusalem Post on CaTC: Christians angry over ‘anti-Semitic’ parley

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Christ at the Checkpoint conference has been taking place in Bethlehem. Writes Jeremy Sharon today.

Several Christian groups have expressed opposition to the Christ at the Checkpoint conference that has been taking place in Bethlehem during the past week, accusing it of promoting doctrines that have inspired anti-Semitism.

Bethlehem Bible College, an institute associated with the Evangelical Christian movement, organized the five-day conference.

Dr. Jürgen Bühler, executive director of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ), said in a statement ahead of the event that the conference’s theological stance “can easily lend itself to anti-Semitism and anti-Israel propaganda, as some of the Checkpoint speakers have proven in the past.”

The ICEJ, which is also an Evangelical organization, accused the conference of promoting a “cloaked” version of Replacement Theology, which says the Christian Church became the “new Israel” and all of God’s promises to the people of Israel were transferred to Christianity.

Bühler also criticized the neglect of “Christian friends of Israel… [for] our Arab brothers in the Holy Land and beyond,” arguing that being pro-Israel “does not mean being anti-Arab.”

Several Catholic leaders in Ireland also denounced the conference, claiming that it seeks to advance Replacement Theology.

Paddy Monaghan, a Catholic lay leader, said that leaders of Bethlehem Bible College have promoted Replacement Theology, and said that he and other Catholic leaders in Ireland “strongly oppose that doctrine.”

Additionally, a group of four Messianic Jewish groups issued a statement before the conference began, protesting the “supersessionist theology that underlies their conference agenda, and which has been a source of anti-Semitism and even anti-Jewish violence for centuries.”

Dr. Bishawa Awad, founder and president of Bethlehem Bible College, denied that the conference espouses Replacement Theology or that there was any political agenda.

“This is a Biblical conference, to study what the bible says about the land,” Awad told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. “Nothing at all has been mentioned about Replacement Theology or the destruction of Israel. These are unfounded claims.”

The aim of the conference is “to show Christians how they can bring peace to this part of the world and how Christians around the world can promote ways through which the two peoples can live together in peace and tranquillity,” Awad said.

According to a conference program, the assembly seeks to “expose the injustices of occupation and create awareness of the obstacles to reconciliation and peace,” and “present a coherent Biblical challenge to Christian Zionism and offer an alternative perspective.”

Awad said: “Many Christians support Israel whether it is right or wrong, but don’t look into the issues of peace and justice. If that’s being political then fine, but unfortunately, some people, instead of coming and listening and participating, just attack us. We want to have serious engagement with Zionist groups, and have open forum for ongoing dialogue. We may disagree but that doesn’t mean we are enemies and hate each other. As Christians, we love and we are called by Jesus to love even enemies.”

Among the speakers is British Pastor Rev. Stephen Sizer, who has spoken out harshly against Israel and met with Hezbollah military commander Sheikh Nabil, and Ben White, an anti-Zionist political commentator.

Read at source here

Sizer, Programme Director of CaTC 2012 equates the Holocaust to the Nakba

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I suppose I should not be surprised by now at some of the things that Stephen Sizer comes out with, but this one is a shocker even by his standards. The Holocaust and the Nakba are not similar, 6 million Palestinians have not been industrially murdered in gas chambers or shot in mass death pits. The Palestinians are not going through their Holocaust. It is a conflict that has caused wars, terror and suffering to innocent civilians on both sides of the divide, but it is not a Holocaust. To try to utilize the Holocaust this way is disguising, even more so on Iranian TV!  Shame on Sizer.