\n<\/p>\n
Since the outbreak of war after unprecedented terror attacks on Israel by Hamas, Middle Eastern churches, councils, and leaders have expressed their outrage over the killing of thousands of innocent civilians.<\/p>\n
Many Arab Christian groups have issued public statements. Most emphasized the Christian call to be peacemakers. Several have been criticized for what some see as calls not specifically addressing the suffering of civilian Jews targeted for death by terrorists.<\/p>\n
Originating from Palestine, Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon\u2014with most prompted by the tragic bombing<\/a> of the Anglican hospital in Gaza\u2014the public statements range in focus and intensity. Some assert the international community overlooks the context of occupation by the Israeli state; others remind the global church of the continued Christian presence in the land.<\/p>\n CT studied texts from nine Arab and four Western organizations, most of evangelical conviction, and queried the perspective of an Israeli Messianic Jew and a Lebanese Armenian evangelical. The review found that few Middle Eastern statements have named Hamas as the perpetrator of terrorism, while many specifically criticize Israel itself.<\/p>\n One of the most recent statements is from Musalaha, which names both.<\/p>\n The Jerusalem-based reconciliation ministry works with Israelis and Palestinians from diverse religious backgrounds using biblical principles to engage the issues that divide them in pursuit of peace. After two weeks painfully watching the widespread carnage, its public statement centered on \u201clament\u201d and called for a reconciling response.<\/p>\n \u201cWe lament people who, in the name of justice, have allowed rage to perpetuate the cycle of dehumanization and excuse bloodshed; as seen with Hamas\u2019 attacks and the Israeli army\u2019s response,\u201d stated<\/a> Musalaha. \u201cWe invite both Palestinians and Israelis to see the dignity and humanity of the other by non-violently co-resisting together for a better future.\u201d<\/p>\n The region\u2019s most representative Christian body, however, was bluntly specific about the suffering it asserts the Jewish nation-state is imposing on Gaza.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat the Palestinian people are exposed to in Gaza is not a military reaction to a military action,\u201d stated<\/a> the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC), \u201cbut rather a genocide and ethnic cleansing, targeting the detainees of the largest prison in human history\u2014and with premeditation.\u201d<\/p>\n Its statement, the starkest of the nine Arab ones surveyed, called the war a \u201cwar of extermination,\u201d and called for \u201call honorable people\u201d to intervene.<\/p>\n Michel Abs, secretary general of the MECC, told CT he recognized that what he calls \u201cthe Zionist entity\u201d was attacked and responded\u2014and that it should have stopped there.<\/p>\n The MECC focused on denouncing Israel for cutting off water in the densely populated coastal strip, the destruction of medical infrastructure, and the collateral deaths of defenseless citizens. It called to stop the aggression, to lift the siege of Gaza, and to hold what Abs called \u201cthe occupying forces\u201d accountable.<\/p>\n Member churches in the MECC include Catholic, Orthodox, and many Protestant denominations<\/a>\u2014most of which are called \u201cEvangelical,\u201d per local usage. Yet while \u201cmainline\u201d differences known in the American Christian landscape are not as distinct in the Arab world, the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) incorporates bodies not represented in the MECC.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are generally in agreement [with the MECC statement], without necessarily adhering to each word,\u201d said Paul Haidostian, acting president of the Union of Armenian Evangelical Churches in the Near East, a reformed church of pietistic expression and not a WEA affiliate. \u201cBut are there elements of extermination in the current war? I would think yes.\u201d<\/p>\n Jack Sara, general secretary of the regional Middle East and North Africa evangelical alliance, helped craft the official WEA response<\/a> to the \u201cHoly Land conflict.\u201d But he agreed with the MECC statement as well.<\/p>\n \u201cWith thousands of Palestinians dying nonstop, it clearly describes the facts on the ground,\u201d he said. \u201cIf anything, it falls short in beseeching the world to intervene.\u201d<\/p>\n Analysts have noted that Hamas embeds itself in civilian areas, and that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) often issues warnings before striking residential structures. In preparation of an anticipated ground invasion, the IDF called on noncombatants to evacuate northern Gaza; Hamas told them to remain in place.<\/p>\n The United Nations, however, has stated that Gaza already represents a humanitarian catastrophe with more than 6,500 killed and a million displaced as of October 26, according<\/a> to the Hamas-run Palestinian Health Ministry. Responding to Hamas terrorism and the deaths of 1,400 citizens, mostly civilians, Israel\u2019s dilemma is stark, as the urban warfare necessary to pursue terrorist leaders in Gaza will further deteriorate local conditions and increasingly inflame much global opinion.<\/p>\n But watching many in the United States and wider evangelical world rally behind Israel, Sara\u2019s Bethlehem Bible College (BBC) cosigned a Palestinian Christian statement<\/a> of significant rebuke, calling \u201cWestern church leaders and theologians\u201d to repent.<\/p>\n It opened by quoting the prophet Isaiah: Learn to do right; seek justice; defend the oppressed <\/em>(1:17).<\/p>\n \u201cWestern attitudes towards Palestine\u2013Israel suffer from a glaring double standard that humanizes Israeli Jews while insisting on dehumanizing Palestinians and whitewashing their suffering,\u201d it stated. \u201cWith a broken heart, we hold [such leaders] accountable for their theological and political complicity.\u201d<\/p>\n While grieving the \u201crenewed cycle of violence\u201d and condemning \u201call attacks on civilians,\u201d it chided the failure of Christian leaders to mention the \u201cwider context and root causes\u201d of the war\u2014including ongoing occupation and 17 years of the Gaza blockade. And three-quarters of the local population, it reminded, is descended<\/a> from Palestinians displaced in the conflict that followed the 1948 establishment of Israel, which denies their proclaimed right of return.<\/p>\n Sara complained that in the months prior to the war, extremist Jews and Israeli settlers increased attacks on local churches, spitting at priests while international Christians said little. Believers, he said, often feel that they are a \u201cnuisance\u201d to Western proponents of End Times theology, or else of their government\u2019s narrative on the region.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are praying that the church would be the church, and not a political body that takes sides,\u201d said<\/a> Sara in a YouTube message. \u201cIt is no longer the ethnic background that matters to God\u2014Jesus is no longer only a Jew, he is everything to everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n One Messianic Jewish leader called the joint statement \u201creprehensible.\u201d<\/p>\n Not only did the Palestinian Christians fail to denounce or mention Hamas or terrorism, stated<\/a> Michael Brown, host of the nationally syndicated Line of Fire radio program, their statement repeated \u201clibelous claims\u201d that Israel intentionally bombed al-Ahli Arab hospital<\/a> on October 17 as well as St. Porphyrius Greek Orthodox church<\/a> on October 19. (The IDF determined the hospital deaths were caused by a misfired rocket from Islamic Jihad militants, while acknowledging the church deaths were caused by one of its missiles targeted at a nearby building.)<\/p>\n Furthermore, Brown critiqued the statement for engaging in \u201cstandard leftwing tropes\u201d that equate settler colonialism with the return of Jews to their ancient homeland.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to show solidarity as brothers and sisters in Jesus,\u201d said Brown, who has participated<\/a> in BBC\u2019s Christ at the Checkpoint conferences. \u201c[But] repent of this deeply flawed call to repentance so that together, we can pursue righteousness, goodness, equity, and mercy.\u201d<\/p>\n The president of the Evangelical Alliance of Israel compared signatories to a battered wife.<\/p>\n \u201cMost Middle Eastern Christians are not at liberty to speak out and condemn Islamist violence,\u201d said Danny Kopp. \u201cThe social, and often physical, cost is just too high to contemplate.\u201d<\/p>\n Instead, they stay silent, deflect, or blame others. Traumatic abuse distorts the capacity for sound moral judgment, he said. But having witnessed the \u201cworst mass murder of Jews in a single day since the Holocaust,\u201d Arab believers are at a critical inflection point.<\/p>\n \u201cAt just the moment when Christians could have offered a rare ray of light of truth,\u201d Kopp said, \u201cthe church has largely relegated itself to a state of moral decay and irrelevance.\u201d<\/p>\n Egyptian evangelicals\u2014however evaluated\u2014spoke out from the beginning.<\/p>\n The Presidency of the Protestant Churches of Egypt (PCE), a member of both the MECC and WEA, was one of the first regional bodies to issue a statement. Only one day after the Hamas massacre on October 7, it issued<\/a> a nonspecific condemnation of \u201call forms of violence and armed conflict between Palestinians and Israelis,\u201d noting the attacks on innocent civilians.<\/p>\n A second statement, the PCE said, backed Egyptian government policy to supply humanitarian aid. But three statements next followed in quick succession, shifting the focus to Israeli abuses. The PCE condemned the bombing of the Gaza hospital, then rejected handling the Palestinian case with military tools. And following the attack that partially destroyed the Gaza church, it expressed \u201cdeep concern about the violence directed at residential areas, since the very beginning of the outbreak of events.\u201d<\/p>\n Egypt was the first Arab nation to make a peace treaty with Israel. Israel\u2019s criticism elsewhere may have led to a shift in certain statements.<\/p>\n What incensed many Arab Christians was that the hospital bombing took place on a day that the Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem (PHCJ) called<\/a> to devote for fasting and prayer. And two days prior, in response to Israel\u2019s call to evacuate the north of Gaza, the PHCJ reflected an awareness of Jewish anger as it warned<\/a> against a \u201cnew cycle of violence\u201d that began \u201cwith an unjustifiable attack against civilians in Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n The Jerusalem Christian leaders still did not denounce or mention Hamas, but this statement varied the language from their first reaction the day of the terrorist atrocities. With Israel still reeling from the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust, the PHCJ had advocated against any harm to \u201cboth Palestinian and Israeli civilians.\u201d<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s envoy to the Vatican was outraged<\/a> by the \u201cimmoral linguistic ambiguity.\u201d<\/p>\n Do Jordan\u2019s evangelicals merit the same reply?<\/p>\n On October 14, the Jordanian Evangelical Alliance (JEC), a member of the WEA but not the MECC, issued<\/a> a statement to endorse the PHCJ invitation to prayer. But reflecting the will of its five-church constituency, the JEC general assembly voted to avoid specific mention of either Israel or Hamas.<\/p>\n A strong minority wanted to name Israel.<\/p>\n Hamas, said Nabeeh Abbassi, president of the Jordanian Baptist Convention, a JEC member denomination, is viewed as a \u201cliberator\u201d by many Palestinians in Jordan, who make up a significant but contested percentage of the kingdom\u2019s population. Wishing not to be viewed as against this sentiment, the evangelical alliance chose to \u201cnot go into politics\u201d and instead focus on a common humanity.<\/p>\n The JEC statement condemned the current \u201ccycle of violence and counterviolence,\u201d though it specified \u201caggression against the Palestinian people.\u201d Nonetheless, the Sermon of the Mount calls believers be peacemakers, with dialogue and negotiation the necessary means to end an ongoing but unnamed Israeli policy of settlement expansion.<\/p>\n \u201cViolence begets violence,\u201d the JEC stated, \u201coccupation creates resistance, and siege results in explosion.\u201d<\/p>\n This sentence is explanation, Abbassi explained, not justification.<\/p>\n \u201cThe one who started the trouble is Hamas,\u201d he continued. \u201cIsrael has the right to defend itself. But then did much worse.\u201d<\/p>\n Abbassi believes too many Western Christians support Israel from a faulty application of theology. A dispensationalist himself, the Jordanian pastor said that it is not the job of believers to hurry along God\u2019s eschatological timetable.<\/p>\n He referenced Acts 1:6\u20138, in which the disciples asked the resurrected Jesus if he would then restore the kingdom to Israel. Abbassi pointed to Jesus\u2019 refusal to answer the question, instead calling the believers to be his witnesses.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we want to help God, this is what we should do,\u201d Abbassi said. \u201cNot to take sides, but to love both, and share the gospel with all.\u201d<\/p>\n But following what he said was a \u201cbrutal raid\u201d on the Anglican hospital, Abbassi said his convention felt compelled to issue<\/a> a statement of its own, and was later grieved by the strike at the Greek Orthodox church. It blamed an Israeli \u201cwar machine\u201d policy that targets Muslims and Christians alike, without differentiating between civilians and military personnel.<\/p>\n \u201cHamas is a group, Israel is a state,\u201d Abbassi said. \u201cHamas is expected to do anything, but I expect Israel to do the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n The Jordanian denominational statement, he said, came from a rare moment of local appreciation. Nearly all Jordanian media called the Gaza hospital \u201cBaptist,\u201d reflecting the popular sentiment<\/a> established during its administrative identity in the 1967 war.<\/p>\n It was a moment to \u201cshow our heart\u201d to the average Jordanian\u2014Abbassi gave three TV interviews after the wake\u2014as well as local Christian agreement with a government policy that defends Palestinian rights while maintaining peace with Israel, with King Abdullah\u2019s Hashemite kingdom as the historic custodian of Muslim and Christian religious sites in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n Lebanese evangelicals had varying objectives.<\/p>\n \u201cSome wanted a statement to show the government, some to show the Muslims,\u201d said Joseph Kassab, president of the Supreme Council of the Evangelical Community in Syria and Lebanon. \u201cBut I wanted it simply to reflect our faith and theology.\u201d<\/p>\n Encouraged by several local leaders to speak out after the hospital explosion, the Lebanese document<\/a> referenced the \u201ceye for eye\u201d ethic repudiated by Jesus but present, Kassab said, among Jews and Muslims. According to such logic, the statement argued, Hamas\u2019s terrorism might merit equal response, but not double. However Israel, he said, has upped it ten times in scale.<\/p>\n While deterrence through disproportionate response is part of basic Israeli military strategy<\/a>, Kassab believes Christians should have a different metric.<\/p>\n \u201cYou cannot work for peace and reconciliation,\u201d he said, \u201cand give your unconditional support to anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n Instead, in seeking to focus on the need for a just solution for the overall Israeli\u2013Palestinian conflict, the Lebanese statement did not name either Israel or Hamas as adversaries.<\/p>\n What if Iran enters the war, Kassab said, or the United States?<\/p>\n Speculating the \u201csad and unfortunate\u201d actions of Hamas were meant to disrupt the recent pattern<\/a> of Arab normalization efforts<\/a> with Israel\u2014known as the Abraham Accords<\/a>\u2014Kassab stated clearly that neither Palestine nor the region has a future if Islamist ideology succeeds to rule.<\/p>\n Israel, however, has multiplied atrocities, he said. Kassab mentioned the thousands of Gazan apartment buildings destroyed, and the call for refugees\u2014later revised<\/a>\u2014to \u201cget out\u201d and flee through the strip\u2019s southern border to Egypt. Previous displacements of Palestinians in 1948 and 1967 have become permanent.<\/p>\n Even so, he said the MECC statement is not fully warranted.<\/p>\n \u201cIt might not be the intention of Israel to exterminate, but if they continue to act this way it will lead to that end,\u201d said Kassab. \u201cIf you don\u2019t like the word, substitute another\u2014but this will not change the scale of violence.\u201d<\/p>\n Munir Kakish, president of the Council of Local Evangelical Churches in the Holy Land (CLEC), a WEA affiliate, distanced himself from the MECC statement altogether.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we are invited to their meetings,\u201d he said, \u201cthen I can put in an opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n Emphasizing the calling to be a bridge of peace and reconciliation, his October 18 statement<\/a> was non-specific in all directions. While focused on Gaza alone, it mentioned neither Hamas nor Israel and called for immediate humanitarian aid and a comprehensive peace treaty.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat happened to hospitals and schools in Gaza is unacceptable by all international laws and customs,\u201d stated the council, which then echoed 1 Timothy 2:2. \u201cWe appeal to all parties for an immediate cessation of the war \u2026 so that we may live a peaceful life in all piety and dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n But also to preach the gospel. Kakish saw current events as part of the \u201cwars and rumors of wars\u201d that Jesus predicted before the end times. Evil is increasing, he said, as in the times of Noah\u2014and the ark door will soon be shut.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is time for the church to wake up and fulfill the great commission,\u201d he said, \u201cinstead of being distracted by other things.\u201d<\/p>\n But Arab Christians are not the only ones to make statements.<\/p>\n Unlike their counterparts in the Middle East, the Southern Baptist Convention\u2019s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) in the US, and the WEA promptly<\/a> condemned<\/a> Hamas by name<\/a>.<\/p>\n The ERLC issued the strongest pro-Israel pronouncement.<\/p>\n Recognizing varying theological positions on the relation between Israel and the church, the Southern Baptist\u2013led statement<\/a> recognized how the Jewish people have \u201clong endured genocidal attempts to eradicate them and to destroy [their] state.\u201d Citing Israel as a \u201crare example of democracy\u201d in the region, the ERLC referenced Romans 13 in support for the Israeli government to \u201cbear the sword\u201d against acts of evil toward innocent life.<\/p>\n Furthermore, the ERLC statement recognized the \u201cdignity and personhood of all persons living in the Middle East, and prayed for the \u201cdifficult ministry of Jewish and Palestinian believers who labor for the gospel.\u201d<\/p>\n [Editor\u2019s note: CT editor-in-chief Russell Moore, a former ERLC president, signed the statement alongside 2,000 other leaders.]<\/p>\n Counterparts in the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) focused on Palestine, noting the al-Ahli hospital\u2019s Southern Baptist heritage as it \u201cplead[s] for the protection of all citizens and the establishment of genuine peace.\u201d<\/p>\n Counting 17 Baptist churches in Israel and 13 in the Palestinian Territories\u2014including one in Gaza\u2014the BWA called<\/a> for \u201cpaths of peacemaking that unequivocally reject terrorism.\u201d And \u201cin the midst of complexity\u201d it urged the \u201cpursuit of restorative justice and peace.\u201d<\/p>\n General secretary Elijah Brown offered the BWA prayer guide<\/a> as an example.<\/p>\n \u201cBelieving that as ambassadors of peace we are not to emphasize approaches of political antagonism,\u201d he told CT, \u201cwe must work to model a shared voice of common engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n The NAE also recognized<\/a> Israel\u2019s right to defend itself. But it also warned Israel about undermining its own security by going beyond this to \u201ctake revenge\u201d and inflict further suffering on innocent civilians. The WEA expressed<\/a> \u201cbewilderment\u201d at demonstrations that appeared to rejoice over the initial killings, while encouraging all efforts to deescalate violence.<\/p>\n Both called for a just peace\u2014a phrase not used by the ERLC\u2014but neither have issued an evaluative statement since then. Given the NAE\u2019s reiteration of the evangelical role to \u201cconstructively critique government leaders,\u201d is it required now?<\/p>\n \u201cThe doctrine of just war, by its very nature, has a framework with limits on how war may be waged, including a prohibition on targeting innocent civilians,\u201d ERLC president Brent Leatherwood told CT. \u201cOur concern for the vulnerable has no borders, but we must remain clear-eyed about who is at fault in this conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n NAE president Walter Kim also cited Christian tradition.<\/p>\n \u201cMost evangelicals look to classic just-war principles in pursuing justice while restraining violence. Israel has the right to defend itself against Hamas, which continues its attack,\u201d he said. \u201cOther just war principles include just intent, limited retribution, long-term peacemaking, and protection of innocents.\u201d<\/p>\n He left evaluation for the reader to decide.<\/p>\n Thomas Schirrmacher, general secretary of the WEA, already has.<\/p>\n \u201cIsrael is still in the parameter of self-defense,\u201d he said. \u201cAs those attacking clearly state, they want to kill all Jews and wipe Israel off the map.\u201d<\/p>\n Raising strong doubts about Israel\u2019s culpability for the hospital bombing, Schirrmacher blamed Palestinian leaders\u2014in the West Bank, governed by the Palestinian Authority, as well as in Hamas-controlled Gaza\u2014for failing to build a functioning state. With Hamas committed to terrorism, in Gaza the two are mutually exclusive.<\/p>\n He emphasized, however, that all comments are offered in his personal capacity. The WEA represents national alliances and partnerships in 173 countries, including the ones led by Kakish, Kopp, and a second affiliate focused on Arab citizens of Israel.<\/p>\n The regional Middle East and North Africa alliance is at odds with the WEA\u2019s regional European alliance over the specifics<\/a> of an antisemitism definition, he said, while an alliance in Azerbaijan is pinched by WEA condemnation of the Caucasus nation\u2019s human rights abuses against Armenians in a contested<\/a> enclave.<\/p>\n He also tries to balance between fellow believers in Ukraine and Russia.<\/p>\n Balanced also is the aid provided. The WEA is working through its alliance in Israel to provide shelters in Ashdod and Ashkelon near the Gaza border. Partnering with the affiliated Synod of the Nile in Egypt, relief will be given at the crossing in Rafah. And with its Palestinian alliance, cash support is being provided to rebuild the Anglican hospital in Gaza.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore we speak, we engage all sides,\u201d Schirrmacher said. \u201cIt means we are slow, but better able to contribute toward peace and positive change than quickly issuing a statement that would later have to be revised.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cStatement-making is not the most critical task of the church,\u201d said Haidostian, whose Armenian evangelical union has not commented officially on the war. \u201cMore important is the task of educating about peace, justice, and historical grievances, not only current affairs.\u201d<\/p>\n But Arab Christians make them, he said, from concern in two directions.<\/p>\n First, he said, they appeal to a relationship of trust with international partners in the West, to counter \u201cthe unbalanced and unconditionally favorable\u201d view of Israel often conveyed by the mainstream media.<\/p>\n And second, to show the region that they are not simple bystanders. Haidostian agreed that they may face local pressure from Muslims or Jews, adding that they often feel an existential hopelessness at the dwindling state of the Christian community.<\/p>\n But their statements assert that they, like Palestinians, are not illegitimate children of the land, nor foreign to it.<\/p>\n \u201cArab Christians are often victims too,\u201d Haidostian said. \u201cTo blame them for partiality is simplistic.\u201d<\/p>\n And though he has a strong opinion about this current conflict, the Armenian leader urged Christians not to view the region as a monolith. Believers should be careful not to conflate biblical Israel with the modern state, he said, nor allow government and media rhetoric to shape their faith commitments.<\/p>\n What does Christ desire of us now?<\/em> he asked. Inasmuch as the Holy Land is the cradle of Christian faith, in John 17 Jesus made clear his desire stretches far beyond.<\/p>\n \u201cPeace in any part of the world depends upon peace elsewhere,\u201d Haidostian said. \u201cAnd the vibrancy of the church in Middle East is critical to the global unity of the body of Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n Additional reporting by Jeremy Weber.<\/em><\/p>\n