Two years after Hamas instigated its latest terrible war with Israel, Christian Zionism remains a firm pillar of support for the state of Israel. Still to this day in America, 72% of white evangelical protestants have a favorable view of Israel with 57% of protestants in general also supporting the country’s right to exist. However, the Christian world is not immune to the current epidemic of misinformation.      

While my school, Oral Roberts University, has maintained a largely pro-Israel campus with students who are unafraid of having tough but honest conversations about what’s happening in the Middle East, Christian communities across the country have struggled to maintain healthy discourse. 

 Why have so many young Christians adopted unfounded beliefs when there are so many factual and religious reasons backing Zionism? One major explanation I’ve observed is that more than a few prominent institutions and thought leaders have been manipulating our shared religious identity to make outright falsehoods about Israel seem morally acceptable. People like Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson who rant about Israel wield great influence over millions in the Christian community and have effectively fueled a movement  against the only country in the region that actually protects its Christian citizens. 

Candace said, “Israel has been a terrorist state…Israel right now is imparting… a holocaust on the Gazan people.” She has previously shared she thinks Zionists are demon worshipers. She distorts  “Zionism,” portraying it as some demonic force, rather than as the right for Jews to live in their country peaceably and defend themselves from terrorists as any other nation would. She repeatedly accuses Israel of committing genocide, even while more aid has flowed into Gaza than any other wartorn region. Even the UN admitted that  “…it had secured Israeli approval for 190,000 tonnes of food, shelter items, medicine and other supplies to enter the Strip, 20,000 more than previously agreed.”  

But Candace doesn’t quite have the reach of Tucker, who recently interviewed an American nun  affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church with the St. Nicholas Convent named Mother Agapia Stephanopoulos. They unfortunately spent the entire interview not only pushing outright lies about Israel’s treatment of Christians in the region but attacking Christian Zionism as a movement. 

Of the many incredibly dishonest claims of hers that Carlson let her get away with on his Million+ strong platform, here are the most egregious:

• Argued that the state of Israel is persecuting Christian Palestinians through “apartheid like” land crossing regulations and permits
• Accused Israel of intentionally attacking Palestinian Christian places of worship without referencing the terrorists who violently exploited those cultural sites in the first place 
• Declares that Christian Zionism is to blame for the continued suffering of Palestinians

It is critical to understand that the “regulations” and security checkpoints she criticized were not born out of racism towards the Palestinians, but rather as a means to defend the people of Israel after the cafe and bus bombings during  the second intifadas relentless attacks which saw the deaths of more than 1,000 Israelis and the injuries of thousands more. In addition, she also failed to mention that Jewish and Palestinian-Israeli citizens also are subjected to those checkpoints when entering and exiting the makeshift borders of the country. Rather than acknowledge any of this, Mother Agapia demonized Israelis by stressing that, “What Israel likes to do is destroy. … Not only do they control the place, but they almost take glee.” 

        
She continued to distort history with her comments about the IDF’s 2002 actions in Bethlehem’s Church of Nativity after armed Jihadists took refuge, claiming that  Israelis were mercilessly attacking the Palestinians. She also failed to mention that this was just after a suicide bomber murdered over a hundred people attending a Passover meal in a hotel ballroom and Netanya Hotel and a terrorist murdered people attending a Bat-Mitzvah celebration.  Instead, this nun justified the murderers, saying that “they’re simply people fighting for their people, trying to protect their land.” 

Her claim that “Christian Zionists …[are] killing Christians in the Holy Land,” is just nonsense.  Christians believe in the protection of all humanity  which includes standing for the defense of the state of Israel. Zionism has nothing to do with the discrimination of Palestinians. Millions of Palestinian citizens in Israel enjoying equal rights are direct proof of this. The suffering the Palestinians continue to experience is a result of the violent anti-zionism Hamas embodies. While their suffering  does cause true grief to the Christian community, that is not a rational justification to vilify the Jews of Israel. 

In order to truly improve the state of the world and the way we relate to each other, it is critical we don’t give importance and authority to ignorant bigots in disguise who attempt to bring back the kind of antisemitism that has plagued our communities and scourged the world for millennia. Violence against Jews starts with the cultivation of inflammatory lies. As the Christian members of the world it is imperative we understand that our silence has never ended suffering and we have an obligation to act responsibly in these weighty times. 

Destiny Lugo is a student at Oral Roberts University studying International Relations and Journalism. She is nearly trilingual, and has traveled extensively to destinations including Israel, Spain, and Argentina. Destiny is also an aspiring world-class speaker, writer, and policy maker and plans to dedicate her life to fighting human-trafficking and associated societal problems.