We have to work on reconciliation with those other communions if we are going to resolve this because the Israeli Government can continue to say ‘well Evangelicals aren’t even accepted by other Christian communions’. If that were no longer an excuse, then I think it would put additional pressure on the Israeli Government to change the status of Evangelicals.
CT: How is the situation for Christians in Gaza?
GT: The circumstances of the people in Gaza are very difficult. There aren’t many Evangelical Christians there but last October the head of the Bible Society in Gaza was murdered and there have been ongoing threats and violence there. Some of the families have had to flee and they are now in Bethlehem. The pastor of the church in Gaza is in Bethlehem right now and he wants to go back to his congregation in Gaza but his permit is being blocked by the Israeli Government. They won’t let him travel.
So I met with the Gaza Christians there to encourage them but also to reassure them that someone will take up their concerns. I said to the Israeli Government, here are some people that want to go back as people of reconciliation into a very difficult place and it would be very easy for them to stay out but they want to help and they are being impacted by the fact that the Israeli Government won’t give them a permit to travel.
I think if there was greater official status for Evangelicals it would allow for the greater ease of movement and that’s one of the things we are going to follow up on.
CT: What shape will the work of the WEA in the Holy Land take in the long-term?
GT: I think the WEA has to continue to be a megaphone for the voices of our brothers and sisters in the region to the greater global church, because oftentimes those voices are not heard or they are misunderstood. Evangelicals also have to be committed to reconciliation and promoting peace but looking at the whole land and the whole of the issues. We tend to look at them with a certain set of glasses and we know that within the Evangelical community there are different theological positions on the land and we accept that but we have to ask, how do we look at issues around justice?
I think we need to have this balanced approach when looking at it and I think if we can step back and look at the whole land and not just one perspective that could be very helpful for us.
Not only that, but Judaism and Islam and Christianity all come together in the same place, so we have to look at how we are going to promote harmony and religious freedom for all of us. I think that will be a challenge.
I am not naive to think this is going to be resolved over night. But we have to continue to be hopeful and work towards this. And there are signs of hope. We are seeing some wonderful ministries of reconciliation between Arab Christians and Jewish Christians but we just don’t hear those stories. We listen to the BBC and CNN and we hear what they have to say, and so some of those stories are lost. The question is: how can we promote those stories?
One of the outcomes of my visit was the possibility of appointing an ambassador to the Holy Land that would represent Evangelical issues, both to the government and Christians and other faith communities. That’s something we are going to continue to work on in the long-term.
