One-Part Harmony

on May 5, 2008

The Rev. Dr. Mark Hanson, Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), proclaimed a “renewed resolve to join with others in daily praying for, consistently advocating for, and continually working for a lasting just Middle East peace.” Delivering the keynote address to the annual Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) conference April 20, Bishop Hanson called on Christians of all persuasions to join hands in common cause: “I don’t think we need more soloists when it comes to pursuing peace in the Middle East. I think we need a multi-voiced, full-force, four-part harmony choir.”


“[W]hen it comes to pursuing peace in the Middle East, I think we need a multi-voiced, full-force, four-part harmony choir,” ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson told the Churches for Middle East Peace Conference in Washington, DC. (File photo)

Hanson, who also serves as President of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), spoke to a crowd of 100-150 church activists at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC. He made a strong theological case for churches to invest themselves in peacemaking efforts. But his specific comments about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict fell short of the balanced “four-part harmony” to which he aspired. Repeatedly, the bishop evinced a partiality toward the Palestinian Authority and against Israel. The would-be peacemaker also sharply criticized fellow U.S. Christians, including members and pastors of his own denomination, who did not share his political commitments regarding the Mideast.

Hanson began with theological affirmations. He worried that “[t]oo often people hear our affirmations only about public policy issues” but “they don’t hear how they are grounded for us in Scripture and in our faith.” So the bishop declared:

The God who creates all things, the God of all creation, is the God of the people and places in the land we call holy. We are bold to affirm what we believe: that the God who makes promises is faithful to those promises . . . . We are bold to affirm that God isn’t holding out and the land we call holy is not now God-forsaken.

It is “God’s will to hold heaven and earth in a single shalom, a single salaam, a single peace,” Hanson said. He reflected on how baptism and the Eucharist show that “the finite is capable of bearing the infinite to the world.” The top ELCA and LWF official then pivoted quickly from Christian doctrine to Mideast politics: “On the basis of that we Christians are bold to advocate for peace and justice in the Middle East, to stand and accompany our Palestinian sisters and brothers in their humanitarian suffering, and to work to alleviate that suffering because we are literally being glimpses of the Messiah. We are being the presence of the risen Christ in the world.” He did not explain how his universalist-tinged theology (or any Christian theology) would justify accompanying only “our Palestinian sisters and brothers” and not their Jewish counterparts.

‘Love Your Enemies’ = Negotiate with Hamas
Hanson showed more balance in calling for “our continued, clear, public, and persistent reaffirmation of our commitment to a two-state solution.” He cited his Lutheran colleague in Jerusalem, Bishop Munib Younan, as insisting, “A viable, contiguous, free Palestine living side-by-side in peace with a secure, free Israel is the only solution for us to affirm.” He also advocated “the internationalization of Jerusalem”—a proposal that Israel vehemently rejects, and that might be difficult to implement in practice.

Hanson interpreted Jesus’ command, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” as mandating negotiations with the Islamist Hamas movement that seeks Israel’s destruction. “More specifically,” he asked, “doesn’t that mean that at the same time we admonish Hamas for their unwillingness to recognize the right of Israel to exist and their failure to clearly reject and rein in acts of violence, we also must affirm publicly that any final status negotiations must include and engage Hamas, since all Palestinians must be represented at the table for there to be a reconciled, lasting peace.”

The bishop seemed to be rejecting the insistence by the United States and other western powers that Hamas, if it wished to participate in negotiations, would have to meet preconditions: that it recognize Israel’s right to exist, that it accept previous Mideast peace agreements, and that it renounce terrorist tactics. Hanson was apparently willing to “admonish” Hamas over these matters, but not require it to change. Indeed, his admonitions seriously understated the problems that the Islamist movement poses. It is not merely “unwilling to recognize the right of Israel to exist”; the Hamas charter states that “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it” and “[t]here is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad.” Hamas does more than “fail to clearly reject and rein in acts of violence”; it prepares, orders, and carries out daily rocket attacks against Israeli civilians.

Confronting Only Some Barriers
Hanson asserted that the church’s “ministry of reconciliation” means that “we will publicly name and confront the barriers that exist that cause us to stand in need of reconciliation.” He seemed more ready to confront Israel than the Palestinian leadership. The ELCA head called for Christians to engage in “communal lament [that] names problems, seeks justice, and hopes for God’s deliverance.” As an example, he cited a LWF delegation protesting the Israeli security barrier against terrorist attacks:

On our last day, we went to the separation wall—that massive structure that for many Israelis is at least a sign of security and for many Palestinians an intrusive barrier, a sign of occupation. We placed our hands—hands of persons that had come from all over the world—on the wall and with the psalmist we prayed psalms of lament. Tears streamed down our cheeks as we recalled Jesus’ weeping over Jerusalem who knows not what makes for peace.

The bishop also recalled how he “lost it” in an angry conversation with then-Israeli President Moshe Katsav. Katsav had made the claim that “there is no humanitarian suffering among the Palestinian people except for the suffering they have brought upon themselves as a consequence of their violence.” According to Hanson:

I blurted out in a very bad bishop’s moment, “You have got to be kidding. Have you been to the refugee camps? Have you walked the streets of Gaza?” I proceeded to lecture the president of Israel about the humanitarian suffering that is a consequence of [Israeli] occupation, not just violence.

The bishop did not mention any similar outbursts directed at Palestinian officials, or any LWF protests against injustices perpetrated by the Palestinian Authority.

No Persecution Here
The bishop certainly has not lectured Palestinian officials about the treatment of the dwindling Christian minority in the West Bank and Gaza. Indeed, he dismissed such concerns, calling for “the public rejection of all attempts to turn Palestinian Christians into political footballs, especially efforts to blame Islamists for their supposed persecution, thus further vilifying Muslims in their Western context.” Hanson commended CMEP for helping to “sidetrack legislation aimed at blaming the Palestinian Authority for the systematic destruction of the oldest Christian community in the world.”

Apparently, Hanson believes that any persecution of Christians at the hands of Islamists is merely “supposed.” (Perhaps the bishop is unaware of sources such as Justus Reid Weiner’s masterful monograph, Human Rights of Christians in Palestinian Society. More recent reports are available from Compass Direct News Service.) And even if there might be persecution, he wants to avoid saying anything that might “vilify Muslims.”

On the contrary, the ELCA leader took care to speak highly of Islam. He commended the 2007 “Common Word” statement from Muslim scholars as an “invitation to find within our sacred texts that which we can affirm together as the three Abrahamic faiths.” He added, “I think it’s awful that we as Christian leaders in the world have not been able to give a shared response.”

Hanson spoke glowingly of a meeting with Jordanian Prince Ghazi, one of the signers of “A Common Word.” He remembered how the prince, “a learned man,” expressed hope for an interfaith dialogue in which “each would have the confidence and the freedom to speak the truth of our most deeply held convictions and also, he contends, the truth of the heresies we hear in the most deeply held convictions of the other.” But the Lutheran bishop did not seem ready to discuss any false teachings that Christians might find in Islam. His subsequent example of “speaking the truth” in interfaith dialogue was his own outburst against the Israeli president.

Admonitions to Fellow Christians
Likewise, Hanson did not hesitate to denounce fellow Christians who disagreed with him on Middle East issues. “Let us as Christians admonish and challenge—publicly and face-to-face—those fellow Christians who espouse the ideology called Christian Zionism,” the bishop told his CMEP audience. He regretted that “[t]he fundamentalist reading of scripture prevails as the dominant, default position of this culture.” (It would probably surprise many fundamentalists to be informed that they hold any “dominant position” in American culture today.) “We’ve got to do some catch up work to teach people that there is another way to read scripture,” Hanson said. In that endeavor he read a trenchant quote from Lutheran theologian Barbara Rossing about how “[t]he rapture is a racket” and “[t]his theology is not biblical.”

The ELCA head made cutting remarks about average church members and pastors who do not share his activist agenda. “Our admonition must first be spoken to members of our own churches who remain silent [about the Middle East] because they believe the issues are too complex or they are afraid that if they even put a toe in the troubled waters they immediately will be in over their heads,” he said. Citing the ELCA rite of confirmation, he contended, “Such an attitude [of silence] is a complete abdication of our vocation—given us in baptism—as peacemakers.”

Hanson also wished to “admonish the leaders in our churches who think that, given all the pressure, conflict, and uncertainties people face, tranquility in the church is what we seek to maintain.” Referring to the ELCA standards for ordained clergy and rostered lay leaders, he asked pointedly, “How can one say that I am living in the power and gifts of the Holy Spirit and conclude the end of the Christian life should be tranquility?” The bishop wanted church leaders to engage Middle East issues even at the risk of bringing new conflicts into their congregations.

Hanson took a similarly jaundiced view of the mass of the American people. Here was his description of their current spiritual state: “Locked behind closed doors in our post 9-11 world, we have been socialized, politicized, and enculturated into being afraid.”

Holding the Bush Administration Accountable
The bishop made positive comments about the Bush administration’s Middle East peace initiatives. “I encourage those who are on the Hill,” he said, “to affirm publicly the commitments of this administration that were made in Annapolis [at the November 2007 Mideast peace conference] and encourage Congress to hold this administration accountable to those commitments.” Hanson added that was “thankful that Secretary [of State Condoleezza] Rice has been willing to meet with us [religious leaders] on a fairly regular basis.”

Toward the end of his speech, Hanson noted, “I am delighted that our 65 [ELCA] bishops are going to the Middle East, Jerusalem, and the West Bank in January 2009 for our annual continuing education event to build awareness, accompany, and advocate.” One wonders whether the awareness, accompaniment, and advocacy will show a greater sense of balance.

Churches for Middle East Peace is a coalition of 22 religious bodies, including oldline Protestant and Eastern Orthodox denominations as well as Roman Catholic religious orders. CMEP reports that it “began its work in 1984 out of the conviction that the policy perspectives and long Middle East experience of our member bodies should be more widely known in the public policy arena.”

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