Many American Christians demonstrate a mindless support for Israel. Their support is mindless in that if an action is carried out by Israel, they automatically support it. Many of these same Christians show the same kind of support for actions carried out by the U.S.
The motive for much of this mindless support might be honorable. These fellow Christians practice such a support because they feel they are defending morals, principles, and values. Unfortunately, their actions fall short of their motives. The reason for their failure is that they
identify good and evil with groups rather than in actions practiced. Thus they see Israel and America groups as embodying good and those who oppose Israel and America as evil incarnate.
Much of the theology of these Christians is based on giving a literal interpretation of the Old Testament precedence over the New Testament--this explains why they believe that the land of Palestine belongs to the Jews because they are the physical descendants of Abraham. But there is an Old Testament lesson to be learned here that Jesus had mentioned. That is, in the Old Testament, the chosen people of God often rejected and killed the prophets whom God sent.
When American Christians are so easily offended by the neoprophets, they could be partially reliving the mistakes made by the Jews of the Old Testament. For though these neoprophets are speaking from a rational understanding of Old Testament values rather than from an inspired state; they are often still speaking God's Word to us.
Neoprophets include people like Albert Einstein who saw great dangers in nationalism and war, Noam Chomsky who points out the hypocrisy of America's and Israel's actions, Rev Wright who itemizes America's moral failures, and Martin Luther King who fought for economic justice, a very relevant topic for today, and against militarism. Neoprophets like these are often ignored, denounced, or selectively listened to.
Unfortunately, there is a price to pay for rejecting or ignoring these neoprophets just as there was a price to pay when God's people ignored the prophets of old. Chalmers Johnson, another neoprophet, stated that we would go bankrupt because of the military expenses of maintaining our empire. Worldwide terrorism has been increasing since the invasion of Iraq and we, because of our economy, are becoming more vulnerable. Finally, what will we do once technology fulfills its promise of giving us a war to end all wars? Will this final war occur because we have refused to learn from history? All of these current and future trials have been predicted by the neoprophets.
There is a solution. That solution is to cut the cord that we have artificially constructed between our countries and our values. That means we are to have a Biblical view of people. The Bible says that all have sinned and that all are equally subject to God's laws. Another way to describe the solution is to quote another neoprophet, Norman Finkelstein, when he said:
"I don't support states, I support principles." (watch Finkelstein's comments on Gaza).
When we join Finkelstein as he makes the distinction between states and principles, we will have broken with the pattern that many Old Testament Israelis followed; that is we will have listened and repented after hearing messengers from God. Hopefully, it is not too late.
