GT: Certainly the Evangelical Palestinian leaders I spoke to said they sensed a growing concern for their situation.
It confuses them, however, that some Evangelical groups in the West are strongly supporting orthodox Jewish groups in their resettlement and investing money in that kind of initiative when our own brothers and sisters have been neglected. At the same time those orthodox groups have put pressure on Evangelicals in Israel, whether the Messianic congregations or other Christians, and so Evangelicals have been funding enterprises that are promoting religious intolerance in the Holy Land. That confuses the Evangelicals there but it also confuses the Messianic Christians in the land.
There are a number of complex issues, therefore, that we need to be thinking about. One of my questions is: how do we care for our brothers and sisters in the land? We need to encourage the 13 Christian communions that were officially established pre-1948 by British mandate to embrace Evangelical Christians more openly and accept them as equals. There has been some resistance to that, so we will be in conversation through other communions, like the World Council of Churches and the Vatican, to influence an acceptance of Evangelical Christians in the land and work towards achieving full acceptance.
CT: What kind of support do Evangelical Christians receive from the Israeli Government?
GT: The Israeli Government understands clearly that Evangelical Christians are discriminated against but they say simply that it would be difficult to change the status quo. Our position is that, yes, that can be difficult but if Israel is committed to being a democracy and promoting religious liberty then it needs to take action and bring equality for those who are minority groups within their country.
One example is that they are working on a curriculum for their public school on Christianity and no Evangelical Christians were consulted on the texts. Worldwide, there are around 420 million Evangelicals. That’s around 25 per cent of the world’s two billion Christians. In the Holy Land, there are probably 8,000 messianic Christians and around 5- or 6,000 Arab Evangelical Christians there. So there is a strong case for Evangelical representation.
CT: You met representatives of the Israeli Government. Did you raise that with them?
GT: There was some warmth towards us. The Israeli Government acknowledged that Evangelical Christians have been significant supporters of the state of Israel, and they say Evangelicals are their best friends in the world. My question is: is this how you treat your best friend?
I met with Mrs Olmert, the Prime Minister’s wife, and we had a very warm meeting, with the primary focus on the refugee crisis in Israel. Thousands of Africans have come as refugees to Israel, including Darfurians from Sudan and Mrs Olmut asked our community for help in assimilating those who are being accepted into Israeli society and in the screening process.
And that’s the challenge of it all because on the one hand the Israeli Government wants the support of Evangelicals for the state of Israel and help in responding to this crisis, and we are people of good will who have an obligation to do that. But at the same time we are looking for the status of Evangelicals in the land to be changed and that relates to how other churches view Evangelicals. I know there is some fear there and some of the bishops in the other communions have spoken loudly against Evangelicals.
