Evangelical Christians Lobbying for Israel

by Andrew Bast

AIPAC ain’t the only game in town. As of just a few months ago, there’s another political player in the Washington circles of the Israel lobby: Christians United for Israel, or CUFI.

On July 19th, at the height of the violence between Israel and Hezbollah, a force of 3,500 people descended on Washington to lobby for Israel. It was CUFI’s first formal push, and in a report book-ended with biblical quotes, Pastor George Pearsons called it: “God’s Impeccable Timing.” In the words of John Hagee, CUFI founder, “When 3,500 Christians go to Washington and interact with our Senators and Congressmen, that’s democracy in action.”

CUFI has been called the “Christian AIPAC.” Simply scanning the organization’s website, it’s clear that the groups have similar goals. CUFI’s development is based on cultivating a grassroots membership network across all fifty states. Only, Hagee comes from quite a different angle than the leaders of AIPAC.

The president of Global Evangelical Television, John Hagee has a 19,000-member congregation at his church in San Antonio.  The network is broadcast to more than 90 million homes and pays Hagee $1 million a year. He’s written a handful of books, the most recent of which is called, “Jerusalem Countdown: A Warning to the World.” It has reportedly sold 700,000 copies. It's a bestseller. Clearly, he’s a fervent supporter of Israel, and is in fact quite the hawk: during the fighting, Hagee argued fervently against a cease-fire, saying that Israel should not be restrained in routing Hezbollah from southern Lebanon.

Hagee makes no bones about the coming nuclear Armageddon. On CNN he said:

All of the events in the Middle East are recorded in the book of Ezekiel and Ezekiel gives a very clear history of what God intends for the future concerning the Middle East . . . But things are going to evolve into the future, where there become more military action and more nations involved in nuclear war and there will be a nuclear exchange. That’s very clearly described in the book of Zachariah.

Nuclear bombs in the bible? That’s for another time. What’s going on now, however, is that the White House has reportedly had a series of meetings with CUFI, according to David Brog, CUFI’s Washington lobbyist.

Hagee takes a hard-line stance against Iran. He’s called Iran a “threat to Western Civilization,” and said that it is America’s burden to bear. It would be “shameful for America, with all its military might, to allow Israel to fight our fight.”

Fighting, politically and militarily, is what the Christian leader wants.

(Image from flickr.)