Two articles below:
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”
Reposted from IMEMC
Jerusalem — By Archbishop Atallah Hanna, Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Sebastia, December 8, 2025:
Jerusalem has in recent days witnessed a deeply provocative incident that struck at the heart of Christian values and the mission of the Church—a mission that has always been one of peace, love, and defense of the oppressed and suffering.
Nearly one thousand individuals, most of them from the United States and claiming to be pastors, arrived in Jerusalem.
[Editor’s note: The visit was organized by Mike Evans, a Christian Zionist Evangelical, originally Jewish, whose life’s work has been to defend Israel and to convince Christians to do the same. He writes that he brought 1,000 American pastors to Israel to fight an ideological war. The Jerusalem Post reports that in 1979 Evans struck an enduring friendship with then-prime minister Menachem Begin (a former terrorist) that “transformed the relationship between Evangelical Christians and the State of Israel forever.” The post quotes Evans: “Modern Christian Zionism was birthed through Menachem Begin. He is father of the modern Christian Zionist movement.”]
Their visit was not intended to meet Palestinian Christians, nor to visit the holy sites of Bethlehem as Christmas approaches.
Instead, they came to express solidarity with Israel and its oppressive policies against the Palestinian people.
Such a stance strips them of any genuine Christian identity. How can one claim to be a pastor and a follower of Christ while standing with those who kill, dispossess, and degrade an entire people?
These visitors went to the Western Wall but ignored the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a site central to Christian faith.
Their itinerary was wholly aligned with the occupation’s narrative, blessing crimes and grave violations committed against Palestinians. Their presence was not pastoral but political, serving as a mouthpiece for propaganda.
They did not seek time to meet local Christian leaders, nor to visit the Church of the Nativity or the Holy Sepulcher.
Their focus was instead on illegal settlements and solidarity with colonizers—those who attack Palestinians in the West Bank and destroy olive trees, symbols of peace and of the deep-rooted Palestinian presence in this land.
How can anyone claim Christianity while siding with the oppressor against the oppressed, justifying crimes against humanity, including the ongoing genocide in Gaza?
This phenomenon is a manifestation of political Zionism, not Christianity. Those who cloak themselves in religion while endorsing injustice are not true Christians.
I call upon them to repent sincerely and correct their grave errors. As long as they remain complicit in this distortion of Christianity, they cannot be considered followers of Christ.
We do not condemn them—there is a just Judge we believe in—but we urge them to turn away from complicity in crimes. To justify or bless such acts is to share responsibility for them.
These individuals do not represent Christianity or the Church. Their rhetoric and actions are hostile to the faith, seeking to distort its message and principles.
Those who disregard the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Church of the Nativity while prioritizing political agendas at the Western Wall cannot claim to be Christians. They are serving colonial interests, not the Gospel.
We pray for them, and for all who are lost, knowing that their visit was not only an affront to Palestinians but also an insult to the churches and Christian communities of this land. To support the occupation is to become part of its violent, colonial machinery.
This dangerous phenomenon undermines the purity of Christian values and true faith. Churches everywhere must rise to their responsibility: to proclaim authentic Christianity, to stand with the oppressed, and to reject the distortion of the Gospel for political ends.
Their visit left no mark on the Christian presence here, nor on the justice of the Palestinian cause. Palestinian Christians remain steadfast in their faith, their identity, and their homeland, while the justice of Palestine endures despite propaganda and distortion.
The Holy Bible is divine and must not be manipulated for political agendas. It is a book of love and mercy, not of violence, racism, or oppression.
To twist its teachings into a justification for injustice is to betray its heavenly message of God’s boundless compassion for humanity.
We pray that these individuals return to their senses and rediscover their humanity, so they may become true Christians rather than enemies of Christianity in its name.
If You Are One of the 1,000: Aren’t You Ashamed!!
A prophetic appeal to the 1000 pastors who visited Israel but ignored the Body of Christ in Palestine
By Jack Sara, reposted from Come and See, Dec. 7, 2025
Last week, around one thousand pastors—mostly from the United States—entered Israel on a highly publicized tour. They came declaring solidarity, proclaiming blessing, and taking photos at holy sites. Yet in all their proclamations, one thing was painfully absent: any acknowledgment of the living, suffering Body of Christ in this land.
You walked where Jesus walked—but refused to walk beside His followers who are struggling to survive here. You prayed at stones—but ignored the living stones who bear witness to Christ today. You blessed a state—but looked away from the people being displaced, bombed, or silenced.
Here are ten I ask you questions:
1. Aren’t you ashamed to visit the birthplace of Christianity without meeting the Christians who still bear Christ’s name here?
“If one member suffers, all suffer together.” (1 Corinthians 12:26)
2. Aren’t you ashamed to speak of “blessing Israel” while overlooking the biblical command to do justice? Or speak blessings over Palestine ?
“Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)
3. Aren’t you ashamed to stand where Jesus preached the Beatitudes while remaining silent toward those who mourn?
4. Aren’t you ashamed to teach the Good Samaritan while passing by today’s wounded along the road?
5. Aren’t you ashamed to celebrate ancient stones while ignoring the living stones whose communities are being erased?
“You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house.” (1 Peter 2:5)
6. Aren’t you ashamed to proclaim a gospel of reconciliation while embracing political narratives that divide? That’s is one sided?
Christ entrusted to us a ministry of reconciliation, not political alignment.
7. Aren’t you ashamed that the cries of Palestinian children—those whom Jesus welcomed—do not move you to speak?
Tens of thousands of Palestinian children have been killed or traumatized, and you stayed silent.
8. Aren’t you ashamed to preach love for your neighbor yet ignore your Palestinian neighbors?
9. Aren’t you ashamed to champion ‘religious freedom’ in America while ignoring the shrinking freedoms of Palestinian Christians?
10. Aren’t you ashamed that you came to the Holy Land and listened only to politicians—and not to the church that has carried the Gospel here for two millennia?
A Prophetic Word for This Hour:
Your visit could have brought encouragement, solidarity, and healing. Instead, it resembled a pilgrimage to political power rather than to the kingdom of God.
The prophets confronted kings. Jesus wept over Jerusalem. The apostles stood with the persecuted. Yet too many pastors today stand only with the privileged, the powerful and the oppressors.
Meanwhile, the land cries out with suffering—bloodshed, displacement, fear, and loss. Churches shrink. Families are shattered. Communities disappear. And the pastors of America came… but did not see.
A Call for all of us to Repentance:
Let us Repent of selective compassion.
Let us Repent of choosing political comfort over the Cross.
Let us Repent of ignoring the suffering of your brothers and sisters in Christ.
Let us Repent of using Scripture to justify silence and Complicity instead of justice.
“Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” (Amos 5:24)
The doors of repentance are open.
The witness of this land still calls out.
The Spirit still convicts.
And Christ still weeps over Jerusalem.
Dr. Jack Sara is the President of Bethlehem Bible College and Pastor with the Christian and Missionary Alliance church in the Holy Land
Related:
- The Scofield Bible: The Book That Made Zionists of America’s Evangelical Christians
- Israeli forces abduct Palestinians, strike Gaza, injure students, attack Coptic priests, etc
- Palestine urges global churches to stop Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza
- A Cry from the Heart: an Episcopal priest talks about Gaza
- The suppression of Christianity in Jerusalem – its birthplace
