Christ in the rubble: faith, the Bible, and the genocide in Gaza

Palestinian pastor Isaac (The Other Side of the Wall) offers an impassioned indictment of Western faith communities' lackluster response to the conflict in Gaza. Delving into the region's history, Isaac contends that the foundations of modern Israel lie in a settler-colonial project that established an apartheid state through ethnic cleansing. He frames the Israel-Hamas war less as a response to the October 7 Hamas attack than "a textbook case of genocide" fueled by long-running imperialist ideologies, including a Christian Zionism that uses the Bible to justify Israel's designation as the Jewish homeland. Such an ideology constitutes both an attempt to "subordinate Jewish people" to Christian end-times "fantasies" and a violent "betrayal of love and justice that Jesus embodies," according to Issac. Yet few Christian organizations have called for a ceasefire, he notes, and those that have did so in "toothless" statements that refrain from taking sides. Instead, faith communities must "speak truth to power" by demanding the cessation of aid to Israel and the investigation of war crimes. Despite a few head-scratchers (as when he compares Jim Crow laws to Israel's right of return), Isaac's up-close perspective undergirds his convincing case for the urgent need to apply faith principles to the pursuit of peace. The result is a thought-provoking dissection of the complicated relationship between power, politics, and identity. (Apr.)

Palestinian pastor Isaac (The Other Side of the Wall) offers an impassioned indictment of Western faith communities' lackluster response to the conflict in Gaza. Delving into the region's history, Isaac contends that the foundations of modern Israel lie in a settler-colonial project that established an apartheid state through ethnic cleansing. He frames the Israel-Hamas war less as a response to the October 7 Hamas attack than "a textbook case of genocide" fueled by long-running imperialist ideologies, including a Christian Zionism that uses the Bible to justify Israel's designation as the Jewish homeland. Such an ideology constitutes both an attempt to "subordinate Jewish people" to Christian end-times "fantasies" and a violent "betrayal of love and justice that Jesus embodies," according to Issac. Yet few Christian organizations have called for a ceasefire, he notes, and those that have did so in "toothless" statements that refrain from taking sides. Instead, faith communities must "speak truth to power" by demanding the cessation of aid to Israel and the investigation of war crimes. Despite a few head-scratchers (as when he compares Jim Crow laws to Israel's right of return), Isaac's up-close perspective undergirds his convincing case for the urgent need to apply faith principles to the pursuit of peace. The result is a thought-provoking dissection of the complicated relationship between power, politics, and identity. (Apr.)