Left Behind

I was having a conversation recently with my pastor about the plight of the many Palestinian Christians who are ignored to a large extent by evangelicals in the West. Then I was reading about Christians United for Israel (CUFI) who recently held their Washington/Israel summit. CUFI finds support not only in religious leaders like founder John Hagee, but also in politicians like Tom DeLay and Joe Lieberman. A young Jewish man, Max Blumenthal, attended and reports about what he heard and saw (the 10-minute video is worth watching). It is sad (and scary) to see the passion and blind devotion so many have toward the Jewish political state. As Ben Witherington points out

What is perhaps most disturbing about this video is not how many Christians have bought this horribly distorted view of the Gospel and the future, and fervently believe it too, but how very clear it is that the mixing together of bad theology with bad politics results in a Devil's brew which makes the Gospel say just the opposite of what it says.

And that includes what the Gospel has to say about who God's people are in the Middle East. Bad Theology has contributed to the carelessness with which so many Arab believers are ignored by Christians in the West.

As my pastor said to me, "Brings new meaning to 'Left Behind.'"