It is a source of great frustration, even pain, among liberal American
Jews that Israel finds such stalwart support among American evangelical
Protestants, with whom they share very little. It is, of course, a
source of great comfort to Israeli politicians such as Benjamin
Netanyahu and to his even more right-wing colleagues, that evangelical
support for Israel is so strong. Evangelical support always struck me as
a narrow reed on which to rest Israel's fortunes in America, and not
only because many evangelicals, in my experience, have no love for Jews
as autonomous people, but merely as vehicles for the Christian
redemption. I also thought it was odd to build a strategy around
evangelicals because evangelicals don't represent a majority of
Americans.
Now, according to an important op-ed in The Times
by a young evangelical pastor, it seems as if evangelicals represent
fewer Americans than ever. I hope those Israelis who believe they can
ignore the wishes of their liberal brethren (and their
increasingly-former allies among non-Jewish liberals in the U.S.) read
the whole thing. Here's an excerpt:
In 2012 we witnessed a
collapse in American evangelicalism. The old religious right largely
failed to affect the Republican primaries, much less the presidential
election. Last month, Americans voted in favor of same-sex marriage in
four states, while Florida voters rejected an amendment to restrict
abortion.
Much has been said about conservative Christians and
their need to retool politically. But that is a smaller story, riding on
the back of a larger reality: Evangelicalism as we knew it in the 20th
century is disintegrating.
In 2011 the Pew Forum on Religion and
Public Life polled church leaders from around the world. Evangelical
ministers from the United States reported a greater loss of influence
than church leaders from any other country -- with some 82 percent
indicating that their movement was losing ground.
I grew up
hearing tales of my grandfather, a pastor, praying with President Ronald
Reagan at the White House. My father, also a pastor, prayed with George
W. Bush in 2000. I now minister to my own congregation, which has grown
to about 500, a tenfold increase, in the last four years (by God's
favor and grace, I believe). But, like most young evangelical ministers,
I am less concerned with politics than with the exodus of my generation
from the church.
Studies from established evangelical polling
organizations -- LifeWay Research, an affiliate of the Southern Baptist
Convention, and the Barna Group -- have found that a majority of young
people raised as evangelicals are quitting church, and often the faith,
entirely.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/12/israel-relies-on-evangelicals-at-its-moral-and-political-peril/266398/
Tuesday 18 December 2012
Israel Relies on Evangelicals at its Moral and Political Peril
Posted @ 15:43
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