Understanding Christian Zionism

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General Introduction

Culture, Religion, Apocalypse, and Middle East Foreign Policy
By Chip Berlet and Nikhil Aziz - Right Web

Evangelicals and Israel
Theological Roots of a Political Alliance
Donald Wagner
The Christian Century, November 4, 1998, pp. 1020-1026.

Understanding America's Right Wing
History of the "New Right," and how its positions on Israel have been influenced by the Christian Right, by Dr. James Zogby

Part I - May 13, 2002
Part II - June 3, 2002

"Zion's Christian Soldiers," CBS News, 2003, 60 Minutes, online

Religion and Politics in the United States: Nuances You Should Know
By Chip Berlet
Adapted from The Public Eye Magazine, Summer 2003

Critical of Christian Zionists

A MARRIAGE MADE FOR HEAVEN
By Daniel Levitas
Reform Judaism Magazine, SUMMER 2003 Vol. 31, No. 4

Religious Right Relishing Road Map's Collapse:
Fundamentalist Leaders Want Bush To Add Palestinians To List Of Targets For War Against Terrorism
By Bill Berkowitz
Online column, Working for Change, November 21, 2003.

Gershom Gorenberg, 2002, "Unorthodox Alliance: Israeli And Jewish Interests Are Better Served By Keeping A Polite Distance From The Christian Right," Washington Post, October 11, p. A37, online archive, http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A10067-2002Oct10

Ann E. Hafften, 2003, "Challenge the Implications of 'Christian Zionism,'" Journal of Lutheran Ethics, February 19, online http://www.elca.org/jle/articles/contemporary_issues/article.hafften_ann_e.html

Corinne Whitlatch, 2003, "Christian Commitment to Peacemaking is Distorted by Christian Zionists," Churches for Middle East Peace Newsletter, online http://www.cmep.org/newsletter/2003June.htm

Practice Safe Politics
Conceptual Art Action
Jewish Women Watching

Meet the new Zionists
The Guardian/UK
The members of the Christian Coalition of America are some of the most passionate defenders of Israel in the United States. There's just one catch: they want to convert all Jews to Christianity. Matthew Engel reports on an unholy alliance.

Unorthodox Alliance
Israeli and Jewish interests are better served by keeping a polite distance from the Christian right.
By Gershom Gorenberg

Will fundamentalist Christians and Jews ignite apocalypse?
By MARGOT PATTERSON
National Catholic reporter

An Unholy Alliance in Support of Israel
by Jo-Ann Mort

Why do Christian Zionists support Israel?
Palestine Facts

The Rapture Factor:
Why conservative Christians' love of Israel is intertwined with the Battle of Armageddon
By Deborah Caldwell

Supportive of Christian Zionists

"Pat Robertson Forms Alliance with Mayor of Jerusalem," _Religion News Service, November 11, online at http://www.baptiststandard.com/2002/11_11/print/robertson.html.

Aparna Kumar, 2002. "Christian Coalition Calls for Solidarity with Israel," Religion News Service, November 11, online at http://www.baptiststandard.com/2002/11_11/print/israel.html

Women in Green/US
Why Christians should be worried about the fate of Jerusalem!

Christian Coalition
CHRISTIAN SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL PETITION

Israel welcomes Christian support in battle for survival, Sharon aide says
CHRISTIAN TIMES

STRONG CHRISTIAN SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL
by Gary Bauer

Jewish Internet Association
Christian Zionism
List of Christian Organizations that Support Israel

Christian Action for Israel

BIBLICAL REASONS FOR CHRISTIAN SUPPORT OF ISRAEL
by Alan C. Lazerte B.A., LL.B.

More Resources

George W. Bush, Christian Evangelicals, and Apocalypticism

See the book: Stephen Mansfield, 2003, The Faith of George W. Bush, (New York: J. P. Tarcher);

Matthew Rothschild, 2003, "Bush's Messiah Complex," The Progressive, February, pp. 8-10, online at http://www.progressive.org/feb03/comm0203.html

Andrew Austin, 2003, "Faith Matters: George Bush and Providence," online essay, http://www.publiceye.org/apocalyptic/bush-2003/austin-providence.html

Bill Berkowitz, 2003, "Bush's Faith-Filled Life," online column, Working for Change, November 5, http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=15937

Chip Berlet, 2003, "Religion and Politics in the United States: Nuances You Should Know," Public Eye, Vol. 17, No. 2, Summer, pp. 13-16, revised version online http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v17n2/evangelical-demographics.htm

Looking for Anti-Semitism Where It Isn't
by Salim Muwakkil

Kees van der Pijl, 2003, "The Aesthetics of Empire and the Defeat of the Left," first press: writing in the critical social sciences, online journal, http://www.theglobalsite.ac.uk/press/

Jerusalem and the Temple Mount/Noble Sanctuary

American Committee on Jerusalem, (no date), "The Religious Significance of Jerusalem," http://www.acj.org/articles/article.php?article_id=32(December 1, 2003).

There is a webcam view of the Western Wall (Wailing Wall) below the Temple Mount maintained by Aish HaTorah, http://www.aish.com/wallcam/Window_on_the_Wall.asp (December 1, 2003).

Gershom Gorenberg, (no date), "Ariel Sharon: Messenger of Abrahamic Apocalypse? Consider his controversial visit to a contested Jerusalem holy site from a Muslim end-times perspective," BeliefNet, http://www.beliefnet.com/story/56/story_5673_1.html (December 1, 2003).

Neoconservatives, the Christian Right, and Apocalypticism

Khurram Husain, 2003, "Neocons: The Men Behind The Curtain," Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, November/December, Vol. 59, No. 6, pp. 62–71; http://www.thebulletin.org/issues/2003/nd03/nd03husain.html

Apocalypticism

Chip Berlet, 1998, "Dances with Devils: How Apocalyptic and Millennialist Themes Influence Right Wing Scapegoating and Conspiracism," The Public Eye, Vol. 12, Nos. 2 & 3, Fall, revised version online, http://www.publiceye.org/apocalyptic/Dances_with_Devils_1.html

There are still some Protestant apocalyptics that see the Vatican as controlled by the Devil, see, for example, "Conclusive Proof From The Bible That The Pope Is The Antichrist," http://www.pacinst.com/antichri.htm

More on Apocalypticism and Millennialism

Selected Books

Paul Boyer. 1992. When Time Shall Be No More: Prophecy Belief in Modern American Culture. Cambridge, MA: Belknap/Harvard University Press.

Dale Aukerman. 1993. Reckoning with Apocalypse. New York: Crossroad.

Paul Thigpen. 2001. The Rapture Trap: A Catholic Response to a Deceptive Doctrine. West Chester, PA: Ascension Press.

More Books

The Left Behind Series and Jerusalem

Gershom Gorenberg, 2000, The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount, (New York: The Free Press);

Muslim Apocalypticism

For how some Muslims apply their apocalyptic views to politics in the Middle East, see:

Catherine Wessinger, 2001, "Bin Laden and Revolutionary Millennialism," New Orleans Times-Picayune, October 10, http://www.mille.org/cmshome/wessladen.html

Jean E. Rosenfeld, 2001, "The Religion of Usamah bin Ladin: Terror As the Hand of God," The Public Eye online, October 9, http://www.publiceye.org/frontpage/911/Islam/rosenfeld2001.htm

Chip Berlet, 2001, "Terminology: Use with Caution," Public Eye, Vol. 15, No. 3, Fall, pp. 14-17, revised version online http://www.publiceye.org/frontpage/911/clerical-911.htm

Dave Cook, 2001, "Jihad and Martyrdom Operations as Apocalyptic Events," paper presented at the Fifth Annual Center for Millennial Studies Conference, Boston University, November;

David Cook, 1996, "Muslim Apocalyptic and Jihad," Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, Vol. 20, pp. 66-104;

David Cook, 2002, "America, the Second 'Ad: The Perception of the United States in Modern Muslim Apocalyptic Literature," Yale Center for International and Area Studies Publication 5: pp. 150-93.

On Islamic fundamentalism, see:

Bassam Tibi, 2002, The Challenge of Fundamentalism: Political Islam and the New World Disorder (Berkeley: University of California).

Ahmed Rashid, 2001, Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil, and Fundamentalism in Central Asia (New Haven: Yale Nota Bene).

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