Bartholomew's Notes

Tucson-based television news channel KVOA reports on a Greek Orthodox monastery in the Arizona desert that has been a source of controversy (link added):

For the past 8 months, the Eyewitness News 4 Investigators have been documenting several families’ claims of brainwashing and inappropriate teachings at St. Anthony’s Greek Orthodox Monastery.

The monastery is one of eighteen in the USA founded by Father Ephraim of Philotheou, a Greek monk who lived for years on Mount Athos, Greece’s famous monastic centre. The report focuses on complaints from parents unhappy that their young adult children have chosen the monastic life, and includes input from a disaffected ex-member, David Smith:

He says, he was told to live with his wife like brother and sister. He also says, his spiritual advisor, Father Ephraim’s second-in-command, told him to whip himself when he thought of sex.

DAVID SMITH: “[Ephraim’s second-in-command] told me I should cut the electrical cord, which I did, and he told me to do it on an inconspicuous part of my body. I chose, you know, my upper thighs…In confession, I was told about the protocols [of the Elders of Zion]. It’s where I was taught that the end of the world is coming, that there’s a shadow government that controls the United States, that FEMA had concentration camps set up to destroy families with.”

Smith’s website can be seen here. It certainly does seem strange that a monastery would encourage a married man to embrace celibacy (especially as the Greek Orthodox Church has married priests). As for the Protocols:

The Eyewitness News 4 Investigators found, Father Ephraim himself makes reference to The Protocols of Zion. That’s a book that claims there’s a secret Jewish conspiracy for world domination.

In one of his own writings, Father Ephraim references the Protocols. He calls the Zionists “infamous” and the Protocols “notorious”, but, religious experts say, any reference at all to that writing goes against Greek Orthodox faith.

The full quote, from A Call from the Holy Mountain, is provided on a hostile website set up by some of the parents:

“One Sunday, a preacher delivered a sermon on “love your enemies”. On the Sunday after, he spoke against alcohol addiction – about the havoc it wrought among Christian peoples. Incidently [sic], the infamous Zionists greatly boast about this in their notorious ‘Protocols’.

A blog set up to oppose Smith, Joyful Light, offers a defence:

It is important to note, in the quotes cited by Smith, Elder Ephraim speaks against the Zionists, not Judaism or the Jewish people…Many people of greatly varied political and religious views are opposed to Zionism for many different reasons, and it would be ridiculous to claim that all of them are anti-Semites. There are even Jewish people and organizations that oppose Zionism. Are they also anti-Semites? This is plainly ridiculous.

Well, I’d agree with some of that – but the question is why Ephraim speaks “against the Zionists”, not why someone else might. First, and most obviously, why does Ephraim cite a forged document composed by Russian anti-Semites? And this quote provides a bit more insight into his thinking:

Papists, Protestants, Jehovah Witnesses, Freemasons, Unionists, Ecumenists and any other “root of bitterness” – all these have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. These shall make war with Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them; for He is the Lord of Lords, and King of Kings; and they that are with Him are called, and chosen, and faithful.

It seems pretty clear that Ephraim’s opposition to Zionism has nothing to do with Palestinian rights, but rather is rooted in conspiracy theories and a wider hostility against anything outside of Greek Orthodoxy. And given that Ephraim first entered Mt Athos at the age of 19 in 1948, I wouldn’t really expect much else. Anti-Semitism has always been part of the religious culture of Mount Athos; Christopher Merrill’s book Looking for God on the Holy Mountain shows that it is still present. However, Joyful Light claims that

…the Elder’s own personal medical doctor in Phoenix is a Jew. A lawyer that the Monastery uses is also a Jew. In addition, there are a number of Monks who are from Jewish backgrounds, and at least one of the Orthodox Priests who regularly visits St. Anthony’s Monastery is a Jewish convert to Christianity. I know two of these people quite well, and they have never complained of any anti-Semitic teaching coming from Elder Ephraim.

Ephraim’s spokesman Father Anthony tells KVOA that “the monastery prays for Israel and the United States every day.”

KVOA also raises the question of the financing of the American monasteries. The response from Fr Anthony is somewhat shifty and vague:

[Kristi] TEDESCO: How much money was spent building the monastery in Florence [Arizona]?

FATHER ANTHONY: A few thousand dollars.

TEDESCO: How much?

FATHER ANTHONY: A few thousand, I don’t know how many.

TEDESCO: A few thousand? Wouldn’t you say closer to millions?

FATHER ANTHONY: Probably.

…TEDESCO: Where is the money coming from?…

FATHER ANTHONY: From the United States. From people… From believers. I don’t know from where.

On the other hand, some of the complaints made are a bit weak. Here’s one of the parents:

JOHN PANTANIZOPOULOS: “Their brain is run by the monastery. They can’t read whatever they want to read. They have to ask for permission for everything they do.”

KVOA responds to that, and to Smith’s claims of self-flagellation, by noting that:

All of this may seem bizarre, but religious experts say it’s all very typical of monasticism. It’s how novices and monks are disciplined in their religion.

It’s a shame we don’t hear a bit more from these “religious experts”, who could have provided a bit more context. The only expert we actually see is a hostile commentator; this is Bradley Nassif, who works in Evangelical-Orthodox dialogue. A short profile elsewhere notes:

A consultant for Time and Christianity Today magazines, he has been a television commentator for the documentary series “Christianity: The First Thousand Years” and “The Jesus Experience: Jesus Among the Slavs.” Much of his work over the past 30 years has been devoted to introducing evangelical students and faculty to the riches of the Orthodox tradition.

Rick Ross has gathered together some earlier news reports on Ephraim.

(Hat tip: Cult News Network)

(Name variations: Father Ephraim, Father Ephrem, Elder Ephraim, Elder Ephrem, Geronda Ephraim)

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(expanded 11 April 2006; edited June 2006 due to legal threat)

The Religion News Service posts a press release detailing the latest volley in the Israel divestment wars:

CHRISTIANS FOR FAIR WITNESS ON THE MIDDLE EAST and a coalition of Christian groups will appear at the National Press Club on the morning of Feb. 17, 2006 to warn churches not to embrace the anti-Israel message promoted by the Palestine Solidarity Movement (PSM). The PSM is hosting a Divestment Conference at Georgetown University this weekend.

“The Palestinian Solidarity Movement is not working toward a just peace in the Middle East; it seeks to delegitimize the State of Israel,” says Sr. Ruth Lautt, O.P., Esq.” “We want to warn Christians about PSM’s efforts to portray the Arab/Israeli conflict in a manner that blames the Jewish State as the sole source of the conflict. Our goal is not to stifle debate, but to insist that it be based on facts, not anti-Jewish rhetoric.”

“Christians for a Fair Witness on the Middle East” was founded in October last year to counter efforts by Palestinian Christians to seek support from mainstream churches. A previous press release gives some details (link added):

Christians for Fair Witness on the Middle East (Fair Witness), has gathered mainline Protestant and Catholic clergy and lay leaders to counter the ill-informed criticism and one-sided condemnation of Israel by some American churches. According to Sr.Ruth Lautt, O.P., Esq., National Director of Fair Witness, a radical Jerusalem-based Palestinian Christian group known as Sabeel has become a driving force behind the anti-Israel orientation growing in some American churches.

“Naim Ateek, Sabeel’s founder, has said that the creation of Israel constituted a ‘grievous injustice’ and has repeatedly pointed to Israel as the sole cause of the conflict – while failing to hold the Palestinian leadership accountable for their history of violence against Israelis and their role in creating the conflict that exists today,” she said. “There is an agenda here that is neither just nor Christian.”

Of course, this is breathtakingly hypocritical – Lautt finds Christian support for Palestinian aspirations “anti-Jewish” and unbalanced, but she has apparently has absolutely no problem with the millions of Christian Zionists who believe that Palestinian dispossession is actually the will of God, and that the Israeli right should enjoy unquestioning and unconditional support in all circumstances. However, her own group is not Christian Zionist, and her supporters are willing to make token statements about Palestinian rights (link added):

“Our goal is to help churches find a constructive voice that reflects the Christian obligation to justice, embracing both Palestinians and Israelis in their respective fears, hopes, and aspirations,” said Rev. James Loughran, SA, Director of the Graymoor Ecumenical & Interreligious Institute in New York City. “Israel’s right to exist within secure borders and to defend itself from attack are as fundamental as the dignity of Palestinian life and the need for Palestinian national self-expression.”

I look forward to seeing some evidence that the two are equally important, or that Fair Witness is actually willing to do anything to support “the dignity of Palestinian life”.

Meanwhile, the General Synod of the Church of England (backed by Archbishop Rowan Williams) has recently called for divestment from Caterpiller, the bulldozer company that supplies the Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank (one of Caterpiller’s bulldozers, it should be recalled, was used to kill the American protestor Rachel Corrie in 2003, although it’s not known if that was mentioned in the Synod debate). This has provoked a backlash, with former Archbishop George Carey condemning the move. Ruth Gledhill adds in The Times:

No time was made to debate an amending motion put forward by Anglicans for Israel, the new and influential pro-Israel lobby group.

Gledhill doesn’t explain why Anglicans for Israel should be called “influential”, but she is herself highly supportive, which explains her angle on the subject. In her blog she adds:

As an Anglican myself, this decision provokes anger and shock in me, allied with shame and embarrassment. Have 2000 years of anti-Semitism, the Holocaust and the horrific death toll of suicide bombings in Israel taught us nothing?

Fortunately, Anglicans such as myself who are unashamedly, although decidedly not blindly, pro-Israeli have a new organisation, Anglicans for Israel, to fight Israel’s corner, and this synod decision shows just how small and tight that corner is.

Clearly, the purported religion correspondent Gledhill has never met a Christian Zionist if she thinks Israel is in a “tight corner” thanks to the Synod. And is she seriously arguing that someone like Rowan Williams knows nothing of the horrors she enumerates?

Anglicans for Israel is run by Simon McIlwaine, a Tory libertarian. Back in the 1980s he headed up Peace Now in Southern Africa, about which details are scarce; however, a 1986 Guardian report found by David Bloom at World War 4 Report gives some indication of its likely perspective (link added):

A compassionate thought this morning for exminister Patrick Jenkin, who will spend the day chairing the AGM of the Greater London Young Conservatives. A clutch of tumultuous rightwingers, some with their roots in the notorious Federation of Conservative Students, is making a bid for power under its banners of support for Ulster, Nicaragua, South Africa, the Association for a Free Russia etc etc. Geoff Winnard, a Monday Clubber, is their candidate for chairman, with Simon McIlwaine for vice-chairman and Huw Shooter (he of the CND submarine incident) for treasurer.

There is no evidence that McIlwaine was ever himself a member of the Federation of Conservative Students (famous for its “Hang Nelson Mandela” badges), and some of his various Conservative associations are given on his high-school alumni profile. However, that profile neglects to mention that he was once himself a member of the very right-wing Monday Club; a report in the Times from 1984 relates that he resigned from the Club over its extremism, but that this was after he had been “suspended for behaviour deemed unacceptable by the executive committee” (1). His alumni profile does, though, tell us that he was at one time chaplain of the William Alexander Memorial L.O.L. – the acronym here meaning “Loyal Orange Lodge”. This lodge is part of the Grand Orange Lodge of England. The “Orange Orders” blend Freemasonry and Protestant fundamentalism, and the Orange Order of Ireland expresses the traditions (and, some would say, sense of sectarian superiority) of the Unionist (Protestant) majority community in Northern Ireland.

Huw Shooter, meanwhile, is now Anglicans for Israel’s “Campaign Director”; the “CND submarine incident” took place during the 1984 Conservative Party conference in Brighton, when Shooter (then aged 24) was part of a mob of forty Young Conservatives who attacked and damaged a model Trident that CND had placed opposite the venue. The Times described Shooter as “very right-wing”, and as a member of the Young Conservatives and Young Monday Club (he declined to give other memberships “to save them embarrassment”). Despite comparing his actions to anti-nuclear protestors cutting fences at the air-base at Greenham Common, he was expelled from Lewisham Conservative Association (2).

UPDATE: I’ve also just noticed that Anglicans For Israel’s patrons include Prof. David Marsland, a man who favours summary executions and imprisoning journalists as the means to winning the “War on Terror”. He gave his thoughts at the Springbok Club, a network for disaffected white South Africans and Rhodesians living in the UK. A fuller account is given in my blog entry for today.

(Hat tip to Jews Sans Frontieres for Gledhill links. Back in 2004 the Institute on Religion and Democracy produced a report critical of mainstream churches’ support for the Palestinians; I critiqued that here.)

***

(1) See The Times 19/July/1984 page 12A

(2) See The Times 10/Oct/1984 pages 4C and 14A; 26/Oct/1984 page 16A

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The Observer reports on the continuing tragedy of children accused of witchcraft in Congo:

Tens of thousands of children live in the cemeteries, markets and streets of Kinshasa feeding on rubbish, begging and stealing. Most are there because of witchcraft accusations – mostly from their own families.

So why is this happening?

…As Congolese society has disintegrated, undermined by the country’s rulers and ravaged by Aids and poverty, the family has collapsed. Children have been the main victims, often accused of witchcraft when families suffer misfortunes.

But the reporter also points the finger at specific religious ideas:

The roots lie in a distorted development of African culture…Traditionally in Congo, every community had mediums who communicated with spirits in the other world.

…Then there are the new fundamentalist Christian sects, of which there are thousands in Kinshasa. They make money out of identifying ‘witches’ and increasingly parents bring troublesome children to the pastors.

…Children who do well in school can also be accused of witchcraft. The common charge is they have been seen flying or eating human flesh. Their confessions of killing and eating relatives are broadcast live on TV channels owned by evangelical churches. What once seemed aberrations from extremist sects now seem to be becoming commonplace.

The Observer report comes a week after an essay the Sunday Times by Africanist Richard Hoskins, who has been following the problem for a while:

I knew about the dark side of some Christian revivalist churches and the exorcisms carried out on west and central African children in London either by the churches or on their say-so. I had heard rumours that British children were being taken to Africa, particularly to Kinshasa, for exorcism, and I knew of at least one case where the child was snatched off a London street and taken unwillingly.

…I travelled to Kinshasa and reported back on what happened in these “deliverance” ceremonies…I went from church centre to church centre, seeing evidence of exorcisms. I saw children cut with razors, stamped on, beaten, shouted at and forced to drink pigeons’ blood. Chillingly, I was often given open and unfettered access to these scenes by pastors and practitioners who plainly believed that what they were doing was in the name of God and thus could do no harm to the children.

The Congo witch-hunting problem has been on the radar for a while now (and I very briefly blogged the same phenomenon in Angola back in July). A bit of religious context was provided in the New Humanist in 2004:

On almost every street in Kinshasa there are small churches where preachers and pastors say that Satan and witches are the source of all ills. Congo has four main religious groupings: Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, and the Kimbangists, who blend traditional African beliefs with Christian worship. It is mostly the newly emerging Protestant churches and the Kimbangists who advocate belief in witchcraft and identify children as witches.

The magazine also noted the antics of one those directly responsible for the suffering, a certain Prophet Onokoko:

Prophet Onokoko is one of many Christian ministers in Kinshasa offering to exorcise children. He prefers to purge children of demons by making them take laxatives and emetics. They are forced to swallow and later regurgitate foreign objects, which Onokoko then displays as proof of demonic possession. He told BBC investigators: “We had a girl here who vomited a large prawn. When it came out she was at peace.” Prophet Onokoko has over 200 children on his books that have either undergone or are awaiting exorcism.

Mahimbo Mdoe, a Save the Children representative in Kinshasa, told the BBC: “[in Onokoko’s church] children are made to vomit up things that have been inserted into them unnaturally. Two eyewitnesses have told us of objects like bars of soap being inserted into the anuses of children. It all shows just how vulnerable children in Kinshasa are if they get thrown out of their families accused of being child witches.”

The BBC report cited dates from 1999. A 2003 follow-up notes that some efforts were being made to counter the abuse (link added):

A group of former street kids turned musicians are now trying to do something about the situation.

Their band, called La Chytoura, backed by a Unites States NGO Centre Lokole, has released a song and a video to change people’s attitudes.

A British documentary on the subject has also just been made, while Hoskins’ investigations are due to be broadcast on BBC television.

One church that Hoskins is particularly concerned about is Combat Spirituel, which has 50,000 members and a branch in London. He discusses the case of Sita Kisanga, a Congolese immigrant to the UK currently in prison for torturing a girl – Kisanga claims she was only following the instructions of Combat Spirituel, which had diagnosed witchcraft. He also tells us about Londres, a boy similarly diagnosed by the same church in London and taken by his mother to the main church in Kinshasa, where he was held for a month and given very little to eat. Combat Spirituel, however, denies connections to abuse:

Back in England I asked Pastor Raph about the matter. He denied that the church had any involvement with the Londres case.

When I confronted him with my knowledge of the life of the church and its belief in exorcism and what this entailed, he immediately stopped the interview.

Mr Molobo, president of Combat Spirituel in Kinshasa, believes that witchcraft is clearly attested in the Bible, but he insists that it is completely against the doctrine of the church to harm children in any way or to force them to undergo deliverance ceremonies.

That view was repeated to me by one official after another of Combat Spirtuel, including its founders and global leaders, Mama and Papa Olangi, with whom I gained an exclusive interview.

Details about “Mama and Papa Olangi” in English are scarce, but an anonymous 2004 report on “Christian fundamentalist groups” in Africa notes that:

Today in Kinshasa, poorest of the African metropoles, priests and pop stars are the idols of the youth. It’s only logical that Congo’s biggest singing star, Papa Wemba, joined forces with the biggest female church leader, Maman Elisabeth Olangi, whose gigantic mass events are frequently visited by the higher ranks of politicians.

A Christian attack on Maman Olangi’s teachings can be seen in French here. On the other hand, a glowing account of the Olangis is given on the website of the South African branch of ETHSA (End Time Handmaidens and Servants International, link added):

Mama and Papa Olangi…are transforming this nation. They have a ministry here that is incredible. The Olangi foundation reaches into over 35 nations, and sponsors branches, orphanages, Bible schools, Aid’s [sic] care, and churches. People are taught to pray and fast and are delivered from the bonds of witchcraft. The Olangis are changing the face of this nation, one person at a time. This is not a nation of darkness, but where the light of Christ is emerging.

This first ETHSA Congo Convention hosted by Papa and Mama Olangi was held at the “Stadium of the Martyrs” which is the largest outdoor stadium seating 200 000 people. There were about 70 000 people present and how exciting to be a part of the worship of these people here in the middle of Africa! The theme was “The Light has Come”. Bishop Tudor Bismark preached an apostolic message on dominion that seemed to blow the heavenlies apart!…Sister Gwen [Shaw] encouraged us all with her messages on vision and the prophetic word.

This is particularly interesting as Gwen Shaw, the founder of ETHSA, is a white American neo-Pentecostal whose organisation is based in the Ozarks. Unfortunately, most of the information about her available on-line comes from hostile sources connected to anti-Pentecostal Christian strands (I prefer more neutral sources), but it does seem that she is pretty prominent within the movement. Let Us Reason provides a list of “the current members of the Apostolic Council of Prophetic Elders in 2003”:

Beth Alves, Mike Bickle, Paul Cain (honorary member), Stacey Campbell, Wesley Campbell, Joseph Garlington, Ernest Gentile, Mary Glazier, James Goll, Bill Hamon, Cindy Jacobs, Mike Jacobs, Jim Laffoon, David McCracken, Bart Pierce, Chuck Pierce, Rick Ridings, John Sandford, Paula Sandford, Michael Schiffman, Gwen Shaw, Dutch Sheets, Jean Steffenson, Steve Shultz, Sharon Stone, Tommy Tenney, Hector Torres, Doris Wagner, Peter Wagner, Barbara Wentroble, Dominic Yeo, Barbara Yoder.

Wagner in particular is famous for his teachings about demons and the need for Christian “deliverance”, and I profiled him here. The link between Shaw and Olangi raises an important issue: it’s clear that social upheaval has caused traditional beliefs about witchcraft to have become more extreme, but is there another element in the dynamic? Have heavily-supernaturalist neo-Pentecostal teachings (and perhaps fundamentalist “Satanic conspiracy” literature) from abroad also played a role in this new development?

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With Nigeria facing many so many social, economic, and political problems, it’s good to know that the authorities in the city of Kano are putting their resources into what’s really important. The Vanguard (via All Africa) reported last month:

CHAIRMAN of Kano State Sharia enforcement agency, Sheikh Yahaya Farouk Chedi has his board have arrested about 2,000 commercial motorcycle riders and confiscated them for various offences committed against the new state road traffic law banning commercial motorcycle riders from carrying female passengers in the state.

…However, the Hisba [=Shariah police] boss explained that having achieved over 90 per cent successes in the entire exercise most of the riders accept the teachigns of Islam and know that they are obeying Allah not hisba men, and noted that cases of clashes have reduced drastically.

The clashes were noted back in December, in the Middle Eastern Times:

Fighting broke out on the frenetic streets of this commercial city when the hisbah began to enforce the state’s ban on women riding on taxi mopeds, a common and speedy means of transportation in Nigerian cities.

Hundreds of hisbah took positions at strategic locations in the city, forcing women passengers to get off mopeds. This angered the moped operators who mobilized and launched attacks on the hisbah.

Armed with clubs and stones, the achaba attacked the green-uniformed hisbah and public tricycles, leaving at least 11 people injured and two dozen tricycles damaged.

But two months later, the achaba apparently now understand that “they are obeying Allah not hisba men”, and have given up fighting back. Funny, that.

The make-up of the Hisbah is described on Global Security:

…The newer and more fundamentalist sects include the Izala and the Shiites. The Izala in particular tend to attract educated young people, both men and women. The Shiites and sometimes the Izala are said to oppose applying shari’a in Nigeria until such time as religious leaders have taken over political leadership of the country. Whereas the hisba includes representatives of all sects, in Kano it tends to be dominated by Izalas and Da’awa.

The Hisbah in Kano, however, is allegedly anti-Shiite. This undated report from Gamji makes a complaint:

Since Malam Ibrahim Shekarau assumed office as the third civilian governor of Kano state on May 29, 2003 Shia followers in this Sunni-dominated city have been under threat of attack from blood thirsty Wahabis that have taken control of machinery of government.

…Having failed to pitch the Sunnis of Kano against their Shia brethren, the government has devised a new tactic of using its 9,000 Hisbah or Sharia enforcers to unleash mayhem on the Shia as officials of the state’s Sharia Commission which controls the Hisbah have started a vigorous campaign against the Shia, stigmatizing them as ‘Maitatsine’, a heretic militant group that caused a bloody unrest in the city in 1982 that claimed thousands of lives and wrought large-scale destruction on the city…It is no coincidence that [Permanent Secretary in the state’s Sharia Commission, Abdullahi] Tanko made this statement a day after Al-Zarqawi, the leader of the terrorists in Iraq from whom the Wahabis take lead in fighting Shias all over the world, declared a war against the Shia in Iraq.

However, a couple of days ago the excesses of the Hisbah led to its being banned by the local chief of police. But now Governor Shekarau has intervened; the Daily Trust (again, via All Africa) reports:

…Governor Shekarau challenged the federal government to take the matter to court.

…Shekarau therefore said as far as Kano state government was concerned the Inspector-General’s announcement is unconstitutional and unacceptable and therefore, the state government will not obey it.

…Daily Trust however learnt that the banning of the Hisbah may not be unconnected with statement made by the former Kano state governor, Alhaji Musa Kwankwaso which compared the Hisbah guards to the dreaded Odua Peoples Congress (OPC) [a Yoruba militia group].

Shekarau has a history of backing Islamism. I’ve previously charted how he was responsible for the return of polio to the country due to Islamist objections to the vaccine.

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If you want to find out Israel’s policy on Iran, apparently you need to consult a new book by Christian Zionist pastor John Hagee. Christian Retailing reports in its 23 January edition (paper only, page 8):

Texas pastor and author John Hagee has sounded the alarm in his new book on the gathering war against Israel, which he says will have worldwide ramifications.

With an initial printing of 250,000 for its Jan. 17 release, Jerusalem Countdown provides detailed information that Hagee has received from top Israeli government officials concerning a nuclear showdown between Iran and Israel.

…The world is “standing on the brink of a nuclear Armageddon,” Hagee wrote. “We are on a countdown to crisis. The coming nuclear showdown with Iran is a certainty…That war will affect every nation on earth, including America, and will affect every person on planet earth.”

Of course, it’s difficult to judge how much of this Hagee really got from “top Israeli government officials”, and how much is his particular “prophecy based” apocalyptic spin on the subject. It’s also a rather odd way for Israeli officials to communicate their intentions; one would have thought that keeping their own citizens informed would have been more of a priority. But on the face of it, it looks rather alarming.

Hagee’s book is published by Strang, the Pentecostal publisher that is responsible for Charisma magazine (and Christian Retailing itself, as it happens). The owner, Stephen Strang, is a greatly supportive of Christian Zionism, and he uses his powerful position to promote the doctrine among Pentecostals and Charismatics (although Charisma’s editor, Lee Grady, has a rather more thoughtful approach, as I blogged on here). The report also tells us (link added):

…In addition to an aggressive direct-marketing campaign, Strang is teaming up with El Al, the national airline of Israel, to promote Hagee’s new geopolitical book. El Al is offering two trips for two to Israel in a sweepstakes promotion…Strang’s promotion campaign will include the authors [i.e. Hagee and other Christian Zionist writers] in a brochure about Israel featuring scriptural reasons for supporting the country…The campaign will also be featured during the Azuza Street Centennial celebration in Los Angeles, April 25-29.

(“Azuza Street” is commonly regarded as the birthplace of Pentecostalism in 1906)

One of Hagee’s previous books is discussed in Gershom Gorenberg’s The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount:

Hagee…starts by praising Rabin’s brilliance and personal warmth. But then he gives the backdrop to Rabin’s murder. Israel, he says, is divided between religious Jews who think they have a “holy deed to the land” and Jews who “put more faith in man than in the God of their fathers.”…And, he says, Rabin’s assassin, Yigal Amir, belonged to the religious side of Israel. From there, readers are left to draw their own conclusions.

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ASSIST Ministries has published a two-parter on “The Persecution of Palestinian Christians”, penned by Elizabeth Kendal of the World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission. Part one is a précis of a new monograph by Justus Reid Weiner, of the Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs. The plight of Palestinian Christians has been a subject of particular concern since the recent election of Hamas, but Weiner’s Human Rights of Christians in Palestinian Society brings together reports and interviews that highlight terrible abuses and discrimination at the hands of the Palestinian Authority and Islamists going back several years. These include, in Kendal’s summary:

…The deliberate and strategic marginalisation of Christians…economic hardship as Muslims boycott their businesses…The practice of extortion of Christian businesses…impunity granted to those who attack Christians and Christian property [which] only encourages Muslim criminals to break in to churches and monasteries to steal valuable items.

And most seriously of all:

According to Weiner’s research, violence against Christian women in the Palestinian Territories was rare before the PA took control. Christian women testify that before 1993, security was such that they could walk the streets in safety. However, after the PA took control, Christian women could be attacked with impunity…Once again, Muslim criminals know they can rape Christian women without fear of retaliation or legal consequence.

…One Palestinian Christian girl (aged 23) told Prof. Weiner that Muslim men often rape Christian women purely to render them undesirable to Christian men. “She can’t get married, at all, after that,” she said.

Weiner also accuses Palestinian Christian leaders of downplaying the persecution for their own purposes.

Those familiar with Weiner’s best-known previous work – a notorious screed against Edward Said described by Christopher Hitchens as not “deserv[ing] to be called a hatchet job because it is so inept” – might well be tempted to dismiss the concerns raised out-of-hand. There were also claims of persecution in 1998 that were criticized as politically motivated. Palestinian Anglican Naim Ateek noted at the time:

…Fourteen Evangelical clergy, scholars, journalists, and charity leaders led by the Rev. Dr. Don Wagner came in May 1998 to investigate the allegations of persecution of Christians by the PNA. They toured the land and met with a broad number of people on all sides of the political and religious spectrum. At the end of their visit they released a press statement in which they adamantly rejected those allegations. They found the reports of abuse “to be alarmist, oversimplified, politically motivated, and inaccurate.” They wrote, “Systematic persecution of Christians by the Palestinian Authority cannot be substantiated … If Christians are being persecuted for their faith, then we wanted to document it and do all we could to stop it. What we found instead was an intense desire for harmony among both Christians and Muslims from Galilee to Gaza. There are a handful of very isolated, personal incidents, but no indication of an anti-Christian tide rising.” (Please see – EMEU Report…)

However, 1998 was a long time ago, and Weiner provides sources and interviews which amount to a serious case to answer. Weiner is indeed a poor messenger, and shows of concern for Palestinian Christians from the pro-Israel right are invariably driven by an ulterior motive – but if Islamists and corrupt PA officials are so willing to provide propaganda points to the other side, just ignoring the problem is not going to help.

Inevitably, though, Weiner;s work is marred. The basic problem, as expected, is that he has very little to say about the role of the Occupation in undermining the centuries of co-existence between Palestinian Christians and Muslims. In fact, he dismisses the Occupation in one paragraph:

Because there have been no opinion polls taken of departing Palestinian Christians, it is possible to claim that the recent wave of massive Christian emigration is a result of the Israeli occupation and the resulting political and economic instability. As one Catholic leader commented, “The principal reason for the dramatic rise in Christian emigration has been the continuing military occupation and the denial of the sovereignty of a Palestinian state wherein Christian Arabs could feel at home economically, politically, culturally and spiritually.” (Shavit and Bana 2001*) The stated “dramatic rise” in Christian emigration, however, could not have resulted from a “continuing” condition. An explanation of the dramatic rise in Christian emigration from PA-controlled territories should therefore include a phenomenon that has only recently emerged in order to account for the rise in emigration patterns that does not reflect the normative political timeline.

Weiner instead points the finger at increased Islamism, which is reasonable – but his response to “the Catholic leader” is playing with words: a situation can be both “continuing” and increasingly intolerable. The question is how we should balance the various pressures on Palestinian Christians – but for ideological reasons Weiner is not willing to discuss suffering caused by the Occupation in any detail.

Another issue Weiner skirts over quickly:

…The growing strength of Islamic fundamentalism within the Palestinian national movement poses problems for Christians in that they might be deemed opponents of Islam and risk becoming targets for attacks by Muslim fundamentalists. Attacks against Christians might also result from perceptions that Christianity is associated with Zionism and Western imperialism. (Nammar 2002**)

That may well be the case, and for Muslim fundamentalists to attack Palestinian Christians on such a misidentification shows their stupidity (although the EMEU report suggests that some Palestinian ex-Muslim converts to Christianity are pro-Zionist). But it might help matters a lot if there weren’t large numbers of Western Christians who do associate Christianity not just with Zionism, but with the far-right Messianic Zionism of the settlers. In fact, two of Weiner’s informants are William Murray and David Ortiz, both of whom are American pastors who live in illegal West Bank settlements in order to show solidarity with the Israeli far-right (a detail Weiner ignores).

Bizarrely, Weiner also includes a paragraph of commentary from Joseph Farah of WorldNetDaily – a demagogue who presides over a news source which is virulently anti-Palestinian and which often provides sympathetic profiles of far-right Israeli extremists (as charted on ConWebWatch). Given that the paragraph he cites merely repeats generalities and offers no new information, one wonders what the point of including it is, except to advertise WND to readers.

On the other hand, Weiner is able to cite sources he probably doesn’t have much in common with in a way that is fair. He quotes from the Anglican Bishop Riah El-Assal, and writes neutrally about the EMEU:

The Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding (EMEU), an organization of North American churches, agencies, and individuals that seek to foster cooperation and understanding among different religious groups in the Middle Eastern region, is monitoring the PA’s inclusion of Sharia as “the primary source of legislation” and “is particularly wary of anything the PA might do to limit the practice and observance of any faith including the open discussion of theological issues.”

But, as with other pro-Israel “defenders” of Palestinian Christians, he’s not open to their complaints about the Occupation. Here’s a couple of quotes, which I gathered for a previous entry:

Lutheran pastor Mitri Raheb, on the separation wall: “Once it is completed, there will be only three gates and the keys will be controlled by the Israeli military,” he said. “Our little town of Bethlehem is being transformed into a big prison.”

(Raheb has also spoken out recently against Hamas)

Bishara Awad, the dean of Bethlehem’s Bible College: “We, Muslims and Christians alike, have been on the receiving end of oppression since 1967. The occupation is the root cause of economic deterioration. Some people can’t live under constant pressure for a long time; so they emigrate when they are no longer able or willing to withstand oppression.”

Weiner claims that such statements merely reflect the biases of a pro-Arafat religious leadership; but to make such a dismissal and then complain that “the voice of one very significant minority, that of the autochthonous Palestinian Christian community, is often disregarded”, is a bit much.

Part Two of Kendal’s report for ASSIST gets off to a bad start:

PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES – 2. WHAT NOW FOR THE CHRISTIANS OF HAMASTAN?

“Hamastan”? I suppose that must make Israel “Zionistia”, but maybe silly insults like that are best avoided altogether. Kendal intones:

Hamas’ electoral win is not a surprise result that cannot be explained. Hamas will not radicalise Palestinian Muslims. Hamas won the elections because the Palestinian Authority has already radicalised Muslim society to the extent that it freely elected a terrorist organisation as its government. Hamas’ win is the culmination of decades of growing discontent – with the economy, violence and corruption – coupled with the increased radicalisation of Palestinian Muslim society.

The trouble is, how do we define “coupled”? Does increased radicalisation account for 50% of the change, or more, or less? Does the fact that 55.55% of those who voted chose other parties count for nothing? I’ll happily agree with Kendal that Hamas is bad news, and its landslide of seats won is likely to be a disaster for Palestinian civil society. But I also recall a country next door that has been radicalised to the extent that it freely elected a man found indirectly responsible for war crimes as its Prime Minister (and notorious for much else besides) – and is likely to very soon be voting in a man very much to the right of him. I believe it’s called a spiral of hate.

UPDATE (17 February): I note a specific example of where the Occupation is responsible for creating problems for Palestinian Christians today.

*****

*Shavit, Uriya and Bana, Jalal (2001). “The Secret Exodus.” Ha’aretz. Oct. 3: 15

**Nammar, Jacob (2002). “Palestinian Christians in Holy Land Are Forgotten.” San Antonio Express, Oct. 26

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AsiaNews reports from Turkey, in the wake of the murder of Catholic priest Andrea Santoro in the Black Sea town of Trebizond/Trabzon (link added):

The religious leader of Rize [a town near Trebizond] stated without hesitation that ‘ the number of Christian religious coming to our city is on the rise, they have a different intent to ours, we must, our nation must, stay united against them’. The chief party spokesman for the Grey Wolves (MHP) also commented: ‘The priests who arrive in our area want to re-establish the Christian Greek-Orthodox state that was here before, there are spies among these priests, working for the West, they are trying to destroy our peace, the people from the Black Sea are conservatives by nature’.

I actually noted the same accusation last year – although then it was Protestant missionaries who were supposedly plotting to create the Christian state. Islam Online reported the views of a supposed “key researcher into religious affairs”:

“As 39 churches have been built in Istanbul alone during the last five years, the missionaries seek to revive the ancient Christian ‘Bontos State’ that had existed along the Black Sea coast in the 11th Century,” said [Altin] Tonish.

The “Bontos State” must be the Empire of Trebizond, which was set up by Greeks after Constantinople was conquered by Roman Catholics in 1204, and which was defeated by the Ottomans in 1461. The Greek Orthodox Church, of course, has no interest in resurrecting the entity – and to include Roman Catholic priests and Protestant missionaries in the plot is even more bizarre. The area was, however, ethnically cleansed of Armenians and other non-Turks during the First World War – perhaps the paranoid far-rightists who almost certainly inspired the murder of Santoro have a guilty conscience, and are projecting.

(PS – while we’re on the subject of Turkey, there’s a dramatization of Orhan Pamuk’s novel Snow currently available on BBC Radio 3.)

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I’ve often wondered what it must be like to live near somewhere like Oswiecim, the Polish town forever known to history by its German name, Auschwitz. A bit heavy, I’d always supposed. However, it’s not all doom and gloom, thanks to a US pastor. ASSIST reports (links added):

Pastor Mike MacIntosh, the senior pastor of Horizon Christian Fellowship in San Diego, California, is planning again to bring his “message of life” to a Polish town close to Auschwitz, the infamous “City of Death.”

The American pastor is returning again to Wisla from July 16-26 for his unique Festival of Life outreach. His previous Festival of Life was in July 2004 and included clowns, musicians, Kids Games, seminars and even an outreach to alcoholics.

…The horror of Auschwitz still is stamped in the consciousness of much of the world, but at last some good news has come to the area that hasn’t seen too much of it, in the form of this loving Festival of Life led by Mike MacIntosh.

…[MacIntosh] went on to say, “Festival of Life 2006 is building on the 2004 Festival. This time the people caught the vision for what our ministry does. The City officials have agreed to install 10.000 new seats to accommodate the crowds this year. We are hoping to set the vision for thousands more to participate in evangelism.”

But that’s not all:

…Now Henryk E. Krol, who runs a chain of Christian radio stations in Poland, including one in Auschwitz, will be one of the main organizers of the upcoming festival.

ASSIST gave some further details about that last year:

Henry Krol, the head of the Radio CCM network, said in an interview at the NRB 2003 in Nashville, Tennessee, “Our first transmitter of Radio CCM started its operation in 1998 and the antenna is mounted on a chimney of a chemical factory where the poison gas, Zyklon-B, was manufactured and used by Nazis in the death camp. We are a voice of reconciliation in such a symbolic place.”

Actually, this had been reported on UCB at the time – I tipped off  the Guardian Diary column (this was before my blogging days), which ran a short piece on it. However, there’s more to the Evangelical symbolic appropriation of Poland’s historic tragedies than just this:

Krol, who along with his family were deeply in involved in Billy Graham’s historic visit to Poland in the 1970s, said that another of his radio stations is based in Gliwice and the radio antenna is placed on a historical timber radio tower, the exact place where World War II started with so-called Gliwice German provocation.

“Our radio studio is based in a building where, for over 40 years, the communist party regional headquarters was placed. The radio president sits in a room used once by the first secretary of the Communist party,” Krol added.

The “Festival of Life” will be coming a couple of months after a massive Evangelical campaign in Rwanda timed to coincide with the anniversary of the 1994 atrocities. I blogged on that here. Horizon Christian Fellowship is affiliated with Chuck Smith’s Calvary Chapel network of mega-churches; I’ve noted some of Calvary’s overseas evangelistic activities here and here.

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Charisma magazine is backing a pastor-candidate for the US Senate:

Ordinarily a national publication such as Charisma makes endorsements only for president and vice president-the only offices voted on by all Americans. But Charisma is endorsing Keith Butler for U.S. Senate from the state of Michigan. We urge all our readers to support his candidacy.

Butler had announced his run for office last year; a Charisma profile from back then tells us a bit about his religious work (links added):

A native of Detroit, Butler was a liberal arts major at the University of Michigan, studying social sciences and minoring in political science. He worked at IBM and General Motors before he founded Word of Faith with his wife, Deborah, after attending RHEMA Bible Training Center. Today the church has more than 20,000 members and has planted 15 satellite churches across the United States, and in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Scotland and London. Butler also oversees some 950 ministers through his Word of Faith Ministerial Alliance.

The Rhema Bible Training Center was founded by the late Kenneth Hagin, and promotes the “Prosperity Gospel” of wealth for faithful believers. According to this hostile site, Butler was ordained by Hagin’s son-in-law, Buddy Harrison. A 2001 report in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin provides some quotes from Butler on the subject of wealth:

From Psalm 50: “The beasts are mine, the world is mine and the fullness thereof is mine,” and, said the preacher, “that includes the money in your pocket. God has placed his prized possessions in our hands. He’s saying, ‘I give you the ability to get it.’ He is making us stewards of it.

“I’ve got a Mercedes, my wife has a Mercedes, my daughter has a Mercedes. It all belongs to God and he’s letting me use it,” said Butler. “There is nothing wrong with having a large house and car, with taking trips around the world … as long as you do what God wants you to with it.”

…He referred them [his audience] to the Book of Malachi: “See if I do not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out an abundant blessing for you. I shall forbid the locust to destroy the produce of your soil. All the nations will call you blessed for you will be a land of delights.” And he quoted Psalm 75: “God is judging the upright, bringing some down and raising others.”

Butler also believes that 2006 is a prophetic year, during which “complete fulfillment” will take place. Fellow prosperity-preacher Kenneth Copeland explains:

What we saw in 2005 were the very first manifestations of some major, major changes in the world. I’m not talking about just the blessing of God. I am talking about breakthrough that has to do with God’s properties—breakthrough of the reservoirs of God’s goods that have been dammed up by Satan. Release of the things he has stolen through his schemes and threats—things he conned people into yielding to him by giving up their authority.

The cracks are already in the dams that are holding back God’s goods, God’s money, God’s properties. Those who listen can become wealthy beyond their wildest imagination.

In the spring of 2005, I heard Bishop Keith Butler say by the Spirit that 2006 is the year of total fulfillment. And that word literally exploded in my heart. It has been ringing in my spiritual ears ever since. The year 2006 is the year of more overflow—the year of complete fulfillment, the year of the glory.

What we have seen in 2005 is not going to stop.

Butler is a member of the “Arlington Group“, a Christian right lobbying-group founded by Paul Weyrich and Don Wildmon, and he has political experience going back to the 80s:

In 1984, Mr. Butler ran for the office of Precinct Delegate and won. In that same year, Michigan Reagan/Bush Chairman, Mr. Paul Gadola, appointed Mr. Butler to be the State Chairman of Blacks for Reagan/Bush. Two years later, Mr. Butler served as Statewide Director of the Urban Coalition for Bill Lucas for Governor campaign. He was also selected one of Five Outstanding Michiganians in 1988 by the Michigan Junior Chamber of Commerce… In 1989, Mr. Butler was elected in a city-wide vote to the Detroit City Council… President George H.W. Bush also selected Mr. Butler to be Deputy Chair of the Republican National Convention. At the convention, Mr. Butler also delivered the introductory speech for then Congressman, Newt Gingrich.

His views on “the issues” can be seen here.

If Butler gets the nomination, he will be up against Debbie Stabenow, a Methodist who has been a Senator since 2000. His current Republican rivals are Jerry Zandstra – himself a pastor with the Christian Reformed Church and a director of the Acton Institute (a conservative Christian “free enterprise” think-tank) – and Sheriff Mike Bouchard.

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The Hartford Institute for Religion Research has published an interesting report: Megachurches Today 2005. The data, which is concerned exclusively with US megachurches, claims to have exploded a number of “myths” about the phenomenon, and charts a “shocking” growth rate. Some salient findings:

At latest count, there are 1,210 Protestant churches in the United States with weekly attendance over 2,000, nearly double the number that existed 5 years ago…The four states with the greatest concentrations of megachurches are California (14%), Texas (13%), Florida (7%) and Georgia (6%).

…When asked to describe the theological identity of the congregation, the majority of churches chose Evangelical (56%). This was followed by 16% who claimed Pentecostal (8%) or Charismatic (8%). Seven percent chose “moderate” and that many also chose “seeker.” “Other” designations (7%) traditional (5%) and Fundamentalist (2%) accounted for the rest.

Compared to the study of 5 years ago, this new data indicated considerably more churches choosing an evangelical label, while fewer claim the Pentecostal, charismatic and moderate theological designation.

…Only 16% of churches claimed they partnered with other churches in political involvement activities in the past 5 years and three quarters of churches (76%) say they have never done this.

…Megachurches are well known for offering a wide variety of activities and ministry programs. Our previous study asked the types of programs the megachurches are engaged in and at what rates. This survey, however, asked which of these programs were “key activities” for the congregation. As would be expected religious activities were most highly rated as key activities. Activities such as study and discussion groups (79%), religious education (71%), and prayer and faith sharing groups (66%) scored the highest percentages as key functions within megachurches. Contrary to popular ideas about megachurches being solely concerned with fundraising, this activity garnered the lowest score on the list.

Read the whole thing. The survey from 2000 can be seen here.

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