The Sydney Harbour Bridge March

 

I see something interesting happening in right leaning and conservative circles. Partly encouraging, but partly tragic.

Many of you know that there was the march across the bridge in Sydney harbour on the weekend.

…Firstly, I think anyone who burns our flag should be charged and/or deported. There is no way such an action should be tolerated in our country. That it is tolerated dishonours our heritage…

But as to the march itself, it was a pro-Palestine march. Really it was an anti-war march. The march was inspired by the tragic scenes of civilian deaths in Gaza. But it also is following a wave of popular sentiment highlighting how vulnerable the Palestinian people have been for decades to many people who were not aware of this until the last couple of years.

But what many modern conservatives saw, and I can resonate with this myself to some degree, is that a largely Muslim group marched in solidarity with a largely Muslim people in the Middle East. This is a vast over-simplification, of course, but it is not without some element of truth. And this fulfils a long-held concern of many Australian Christians: that Islam, because of immigration, would rise in this country, and one day become dominant. You have all probably seen the demographic breakdowns, how few children we have compared to Islamic peoples, and how Muhammed is now one of the most popular baby names in parts of the West, and stuff like that. We are all well aware of the Rotterdam situation, and many other examples like this. Many people are rightly concerned about the rise of Islam in the West.

So, many on the Christian right and among conservatives are primed to see this rally as part of a growing Muslim takeover or at least growing influence. There are even some prominent Christian leaders pushing this message; that if the Church does not wake up, Islam is going to rise. Again, I can sympathize with these guys. They come from the same theological and even political circles I am involved in. We probably agree on almost every problem our culture is facing, and I have spoken out against mass immigration more than most. Probably more times and more consistently than many of these leaders to be honest. I am encouraged to see Christian leaders increasingly offering concerns about mass immigration that they might have kept quiet before. This is part of our duty of loving our neighbour to warn about potential issues in this area.

But this is where this situation gets to what is tragic. This need not be a choice between being concerned about growing Islamic evidence in the a west and saying Israel has gone too far. Both can be true. It should be a no brainer for the church to call for a cease of military action against civilians in Gaza. I have not hesitated to condemn Hamas’ actions, continually, since this has started. But many Christians in the Church not only refuse to condemn Israel’s clear overreaction there are many who would deny it is an overreaction or go even further. Some have supported it vocally or in public statements. Many Christians have reduced the war down to a false binary choice between Islam and Israel and for a variety of reasons they have chosen Israel over Islam. Some of these reasons are theological, others are because of concerns about the influence of Islam in our society.

But tying an important issue: bad mass immigration to supporting what Israel is doing in Gaza is to doubly destroy the Church’s witness. Look at the image in this post. Look at how support for Israel’s actions is dropping, especially among younger people. This is not because all these people are haters - I’m sure that element were in that crowd as well - but this outcry is largely driven by condemnation of actions being done by a government and military overseas. Some Christians are basically creating a situation where many young people look at older Christians and a lot of the evangelical church and then look at these pro-Palestinian rallies and they conclude: “Wow, the Muslims in these rallies are actually against what I am against, the crimes against civilians.” In other words, Christians are making the Church look worse on this issue than those people many Christians think they are morally superior to. 

But this is key to understanding morality: it is not determined by who is making the moral claim. Morality is determined by what is true and it is supposed to be judged impartially. 

I know Hamas has committed horrible crimes. That should never be denied. But saying people protesting Israel’s crimes are just coming from a fundamentalists Islamic agenda or a position of hate is foolish. Many of the people in that march were probably your fellow Australians, maybe even some Christians. The march was actually very diverse in makeup from every image I have seen.

I realize my message on this issue has been incredibly unpopular amongst many of my peers who are leaders in Christian circles. Many who are far more prominent than myself. But I am used to this. It seems to happen on many issues. Because I never base my opinion on what “my side” thinks, ever. But on what is good, beautiful and true. And what Hamas did was evil, and you know what, Israel’s response has also gone far beyond rational, and there is an international outcry pouring out because of this. And painting a rally about standing against ethnic cleansing in Gaza as just a pro-Islam agenda is going to fall flatter than an air balloon that has run out of helium. And it will make the church look like it is blind to the evils of one side. It is a sin to judge with unjust weights, remember.

I also agree with every single person who says we should care as much about other crimes against humanity happening overseas right now. Like Christians in Nigeria who are being persecuted (here is a link so you can investigate possibly even helping these Christians in Nigeria). Or the plight of Christians in North Korea, or other tragedies. But there is a simple reason the situation in Israel is getting so much traction: both the leaders of Israel and Christian Zionists, through their influence in the US politics, are the main drivers of this situation and both claim the name of God’s people and therefore both get a higher level of judgement from society. It has always been this way for the people who claim to be of God.

Society will hold the church more responsible for its response to what is happening than any other group. They always do. And the evangelical church is not going to come out the other side of this with a good report among their fellow citizens. But even more importantly God does not like it when his church judges with weighted measures (cf. James 2).