Pastor John Hagee
In terms of slavery in America in the 18th and 19th centuries, Catholic Archbishop John Carroll of Baltimore was a slave owner and Patrick Lynch, bishop of Charleston not only was a slaver owner, but published a pamphlet in defense of slavery. Additionally, it is reported that the Jesuits (The Society of Jesus) had more than 400 slaves working on their Maryland plantations.
The Roman Catholic Church was also involved in the genocide and Stolen Generations of the Aboriginals in Australia which prompted Pope John Paul II to offer an official apology in November 2001.
It’s been said of Apartheid in South Africa that without the support of the Dutch Reformed Church, it would not have survived as long as it did. While there were many members of the clergy and representatives of churches that challenged apartheid, the Dutch Reformed Church was helping to prop it up. In fact, the South African Prime Minister who led the campaign for complete segregation, Daniel Francois Malan, was a Dutch Reformed Minister.
A few years ago, I was deeply moved to read the confession of Father George Zabelka. He was the Airforce Chaplain for the U.S. airmen who dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. He was the one who used God’s name to quiet the conscience of conflicted airmen as they prepared to murder en masse. Years after, he came to deeply regret his role in using the cross of Jesus Christ to justify the annihalation of innocent civilians and penned his conversion in a piece entitled, “Blessing the Bombs.”
I am becoming more and more convinced that Pastor John Hagee will one day be viewed as being a part of this unfortunate fraternity of clergy who were trusted to preach the truth of God and instead proclaimed a lie. For his personal and political gain, he is preaching a message of separation, discrimination, and occupation in light of Palestinian people. Apartheid literally means “separateness“.
And what I saw while in Palestine/Israel with Interfaith Peace Builders was state-sponsored separateness based on ethnicity. There are different laws in Israel based on your ethnicity alone. For example, there are Israeli-only roads that Palestinians are prohibited from driving on. (Imagine the outcry if there were “White-only” highways in today’s American cities.)
SOURCE: Annainthemiddleeast.com
Furthermore, Palestinians have a white and green license plate on their car. If you’re Israeli you have a yellow license plate. If you’re a Palestinian driver you are subjected to checkpoints (stationary and “flying checkpoints”) where you must stop and present information to an Israeli soldier about who you are, where you’re going and your car may be subjected to a search just because you’re Palestinian. Even with all of this the soldier still may not allow you pass the checkpoint – no matter the urgency of your situation. These are just two of the MANY discriminatory practices that hound Palestinian lives.
Just being a Palestinian is a crime in Israel and there are a mountain of laws to prosecute you for that “crime”. The laws that Israel has enacted to occupy the lives of Palestinians in Palestine/Israel is in many instances identical to the Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws that Africans in America endured.
There is growing international awareness of the occupation and oppression of Palestinians. The Government of South Africa funded and coordinated an International Legal Study entitled “Is Israel an Apartheid State? Do Israel’s Practices in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Amount to Crimes of Apartheid under International Law?” The conclusion was that Israel’s practices in these territories constitute both colonialism and apartheid.
This is the system that Pastor John Hagee is staunchly defending. In his role as pastor and televangelist, he is invoking the name of God on the suffering and murder of innocent people and while he should be censured by responsible clergy, he is welcomed into pulpits across America.
(In fact, this weekend, Bishops in the Baltimore area – Bishop Harry Jackson and Bishop Clifford Johnson are opening the doors of the Black Church to his apartheid sermon. How sad and ironic it is that the descendants of American slaves are providing sanctuary to a sermon of state-sponsored segregation!)
Future days will show that Pastor John Hagee is decidedly on the wrong side of history and is the vocal leader of an egregious movement to affix God’s stamp of approval on this devastating social sin.
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i’d like to make a special prayer request,,,i’ve got cancer in both lungs & in my limpnotes,,it’s all over me,,,please pray a prayer of faith to our god for me,,i’d love to call, but i can’t find your phone no.
Pastor Hagee is preaching the Word of God. The information he is sharing on the Palestinian/Israeli conflict comes from the Bible, not from John Hagee.
Hi Barbara. Thanks for the comment. I would only say that Hagee is preaching an INTERPRETATION or one angle from the Bible as it relates to the Israeli Occupation of Palestine. We must recognize that there are other sound Christian interpretations of what sacred scripture might suggest toward this situation.
WHERE IN THE BIBLE DOES GOD CALL WOMEN TO PREACH, IT TELLS US THAT GOD CALLED MEN TO PREACH THE GOSPEL NOT WOMEN.
Hi McBride. Thanks for the comment. Just a quick question – where in the Bible does God call "men" to preach?
All the time you put in to defamation to John Hagee…you obviously dont realise that God is a God of grace….While you so desperately trying to tell the world that John Hagee is evil and not speaking the word…he is adding value, healing hearts, giving hope…Everyones account for God….my hope is that you will find it in your heart and change like Paul did and see that there are many homes for each of us…do you really have to add to the war to focus on the differences…. such a pity…since it seems like you really do believe in God…. who cares if God ordered men or women to preach…..God is a reality and we are all at different stages getting to know him, why should ordinary people be wealthy but not a preacher…if you walking around with a hammer everything will look like nails.. hope today you will find some form or space where God will work in you to bestow love rather than this road of defamation towards people unlike yourself…. Jesus brothers didnt even believed in him …yet He went on and preach the Gospel…them….just a reality of His life! God Bless
Good Morning Laura,
Thank you for your comment and your prayers. To the degree that there is anything in me that distracts from the good news of God; I pray that God remove it from me. I appreciate your concern.
At the same time, I find it interesting that you did not make mention one time of the topic on which I wrote – choosing instead just to focus on the man who you obviously have admiration for.
Do you have a word or opinion about Palestinians and their suffering in light of occupation? Anything at all to say about the separate roads based on ethnicity in Israel? the innumerable check points which frustrate their daily lives? the apartheid wall which cuts off and contains their community like a cage?
It’s fine that you like Hagee. I get that. But what is God saying to you about Palestinians who are living under the boot of a well-funded occupation in Palestine/Israel? Should these women, men, and children be forgotten or overlooked as bastards of God’s grace?
Hello Rev. Heber: thank you for your work. I am the one who saw your video on youtube, contacted IFBP and went to Palestine. In Jesus’ Name, I bless you. Returning from Palestine, I don’t know how Pastor Hagee and his team sleep at night. He even employed a Black pastor to reach African Americans for his organization, whom I have asked not to do Israel’s colonial bidding. Seeing the situation on the ground there, I cried so hard that I thought I would faint. Absolutely beautiful, innocent children have died by the thousands, and Hagee’s message is if you talk about God’s chosen people, you’ll be cursed! I never heard him preach, however, that these chosen folk implemented Law 5738-1977 which forbids Christians to proselytize in Israel and if caught, you could spend 5 years in prison, along with the convert. Yet, some Christians give millions to help Israel steal land from the Palestinians and build settlements for Jews on stolen property. The U.S. taxpayers prop up the cruel and dehumanizing occupation, and fund israel’s war machines aimed at an unarmed civilian population. I would urge any Christian to go to Palestine before you ever support errant theology that blesses the oppressor and upholds criminal and barbaric treatment of people God created. Despite these things, we hope in the God of all gods. Keep up the good work.