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The Pentecostalization of Christian Zionism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2015
Abstract
This essay highlights U.S. pentecostals' and charismatics' cultivation of more experiential forms of identification with Jews and with Israel that in turn played a crucial role in the global growth of Christian Zionism. Already at the turn of the twentieth century, key figures experimented with “Judeo-centric” forms of ritual and dress, merging eschatological concerns inherited from nineteenth-century Protestantism with British Israelite ideas equating Anglo-Saxons with the lost tribes of Israel. In subsequent decades these racial notions were pushed to the fringes of the pentecostal movement, but the intense sense of identification with Israel remained. Building on the emergent mythology in the midcentury U.S. of a shared “Judeo-Christian tradition,” adherents increasingly stressed their religious and cultural (as opposed to racial) connections with God's “chosen people.” And by the late twentieth century, the 1960s counterculture, a burgeoning emphasis on the therapeutic, and growing religious diversity all facilitated pentecostals' and charismatics' renewed experimentation with “exotic” Israel-themed rituals. Significantly, believers' appropriation of Jewish-based religious practices and identities transcended nationalistic categories, and reinforced post-American sensibilities in important respects. As such, U.S.-based evangelists and broadcast ministries were able to disseminate pentecostalized expressions of Christian Zionism well beyond North America, and help catalyze a transnational, global movement.
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References
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5 Use of the term transnationalism here builds on the types of insights articulated by M. Kearney regarding the distinction between globalization and transnationalism. “Whereas global process are largely decentered from specific national territories and take place in a global space,” Kearney explains, “transnational processes are anchored in and transcend one or more nation-states.” Kearney, M., “The Local and the Global: The Anthropology of Globalization and Transnationalism,” Annual Review of Anthropology 24, no. 1 (October 1995): 548CrossRefGoogle Scholar. As Faydra Shapiro notes, Christian Zionism by its very nature reinforces transnational trends. It is “a movement that is deeply embedded in two nation states at the same time: adherents' countries of residence (which might be anywhere in the world) and the state of Israel.” For Christian Zionists, Shapiro continues, “it is via transnational attachment to Israel that the local nation state is redeemed, through a flow of resources—both material and symbolic—into and out of Israel,” Shapiro, Faydra L., “‘Thank You Israel, for Supporting America’: The Transnational Flow of Christian Zionist Resources,” Identities 19, no. 5 (September 1, 2012): 619CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The specific history detailed in this essay adds to Shapiro's analysis regarding the transnational dimensions of Christian Zionism. In particular, it illuminates how pentecostals' and charismatics' more literal, experience-based sense of identification with Israel and Jews played a crucial role in the emergence of transnational networks of believers from around the world who were united by a shared commitment to the Israeli state.
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46 Parham, Voice Crying in the Wilderness, 104, 120. Here, Parham foreshadowed similar (controversial) ideas promoted by the prominent late twentieth-century Christian Zionist, John Hagee. For his part, Sandford believed in conversion efforts aimed at Jews. See Sandford, “Judah First,” 464.
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55 Mark Silk notes, “After the revelations of the Nazi death camps, a phrase like ‘our Christian civilization’ seemed ominously exclusive; greater comprehensiveness was needed for proclaiming the spirituality of the American Way.” With the emergence of the Cold War, such rhetoric was also easily enlisted on behalf of anti-Communist campaigns. Indicative of the sheer reach of these changes, notable public figures who helped popularize this new language ranged from the neo-orthodox theologian Reinhold Niebuhr to Will Herberg, author of Protestant Catholic Jew (1955), as well as President Eisenhower. Silk, Mark, “Notes on the Judeo-Christian Tradition in America,” American Quarterly 36, no. 1 (Spring 1984): 69CrossRefGoogle Scholar. President Eisenhower is quoted on page 65. As Kevin Schultz observes, “Judeo-Christian” rhetoric was eventually “co-opted” by the Religious Right even as the concept lost much of its luster in other circles. See Schultz, Kevin M., Tri-Faith America: How Catholics and Jews Held Postwar America to Its Protestant Promise (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 200–202.Google Scholar
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64 The fact that many “prosperity” preachers were also staunch Christian Zionists provides further confirmation of the close connection between American therapeutic culture and Israel-themed ritual and rhetoric in pentecostal and charismatic circles. See Bowler, Blessed, 201–202.
65 For a history of the Jesus People, as well as the movement's close ties to pentecostal-style spirituality, see Eskridge, Larry, God's Forever Family: The Jesus People Movement in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), 77–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Daniel Juster and Peter Hocken briefly discuss the Jesus People movement's ability to attract Jewish adherents in The Messianic Jewish Movement: An Introduction (Toward Jerusalem Council II, 2004), 15–16.
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70 Hocken, Challenges of the Pentecostal, Charismatic, and Messianic Jewish Movements, 97.
71 Pentecostal and charismatic publications closely followed, for example, a 1989 decision by Israeli courts that denied Messianic Jews the “right of return” to Israel, rejecting their identity as Jews given their conversion to Christianity. As one article noted, “[A]uthorities in Jerusalem have for many years courted evangelicals in the United States because American Christians spend millions of dollars in Israel during Holy Land pilgrimages . . . Yet Messianic Jews inside Israel are treated like second-class citizens.” Grady, Lee and Wolfe, Brian, “Grasping for the Peace of Jerusalem,” Charisma 17, no. 10 (May 1992): 54.Google Scholar
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74 See Zechariah 14:16. Also see Verdase, Danae, “Israel, You Are Not Alone,” Charisma 8, no. 10 (June 1983): 8–14Google Scholar; John Black, “Sukkot and the Gentiles,” October 25, 2012, http://int.icej.org/news/commentary/sukkot-and-gentiles.
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77 The language of “one new man” derived from the words of the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 2:15.
78 See for example Peter Manseau, “Fake Rabbi Showdown,” Religion Dispatches, February 4, 2012, http://religiondispatches.org/archive/culture/5647/fake_rabbi_showdown___culture___/.
79 See Luiza Oleszczuk, “Paula White Wrapped in Torah Scroll by Rabbi Ralph Messer in 2009 Video,” http://www.christianpost.com/news/paula-white-wrapped-in-torah-scroll-by-rabbi-ralph-messer-in-2009-video-68866/.
80 Guth, James L. et al. , “Religion and Foreign Policy Attitudes: The Case of Christian Zionism,” in Religion and the Culture Wars: Dispatches from the Front (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 1996), 338–350.Google Scholar
81 See for example the following video excerpt from CUFI event in Washington, D.C., which originally aired on the Christian Daystar television network, “Christians United for Israel Part 2,” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3viYdG-WMX8.
82 See Bell, Catherine M., Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992)Google Scholar, 183.
83 A Charisma article featuring John Hagee's ministry, for example, addressed the controversy caused by his claim that Christians need not work to convert Jews, “A Staunch Defender of Israel,” Charisma 29, no. 9 (April 2004): 50.Google Scholar
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85 See Schwartz, “Israel, You Are Not Alone.” The close ties between the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem and the pentecostal-charismatic movement is readily apparent when looking at the religious backgrounds and training of the Embassy's leadership. See “ICEJ Headquarters,” http://int.icej.org/icej-headquarters.
86 Stahl, Julie, “Christians Honor Israel,” Charisma 19, no. 5 (December 1993): 73Google Scholar; Strang, Stephen, “Feast of Tabernacles Draws Record Crowds,” Charisma 33, no. 5 (December 2007): 27.Google Scholar
87 Miller, Donald E., “Pentecostalism as a Global Phenomenon,” in Spirit and Power: The Growth and Global Impact of Pentecostalism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 2.
88 Strang, “Feast of Tabernacles Draws Record Crowds,” 27.
89 Not all of the successful Messianic broadcasters directly identified with the penetecostal-charismatic movement. Zola Levitt's views, for example, placed him closer to the Southern Baptist Convention than to traditional pentecostal or charismatic churches and denominations. Even so, pentecostal and charismatic media outlets provided the most significant outlet for Levitt's television program, Zola Levitt Presents. Beginning in the early 1980s the pentecostal and charismatic-oriented Trinity Broadcast Network (TBN) gave the Messianic Jewish figure a prime-time slot for his show, which featured content focused on “Israel, prophecy, and the Jewish roots of Christianity.” And years later Levitt's television manager made it clear that for over two decades TBN as well as Pat Robertson's CBN provided the “backbone of the viewership necessary to sustain an ongoing national ministry.” See “Personal Letter,” September 2006, http://www.levitt.com/letters/2006-09. Also see Zola Levitt Ministries, “About Us,” http://www.levitt.com/about.
90 In the U.S., “Le Chayim” was broadcast by Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcast Network (CBN) and Jim and Tammy Bakker's Praise the Lord network (PTL). See Ojarovsky, Ted, “Good News for Modern Jews,” Charisma 12, no. 3 (September 1986): 66Google Scholar; “Messianic Jewish Voices,” Charisma 22, no. 9 (April 1997): 55–56Google Scholar. 65
91 See Jewish Voice Ministries International, “Jewish Festivals of Music & Dance,” http://www.jewishvoice.org/outreaches/festivals/.
92 Ojarovsky, “Good News for Modern Jews,” 65–66.
93 See “About the Ministry,” http://sidroth.org/about/about-ministry.
94 Lugo, Luis et al. , Spirit and Power: A 10-Country Survey of Pentecostals (Washington, D.C.: Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, October 2006), 71–72.Google Scholar
95 Parham pushed the transnational implications of early pentecostal British Israelism even further by broadening his definition of the ten tribes of Israel to include more than just Anglo-Saxons. See Parham, Voice Crying in the Wilderness, 106–107.
96 Other scholars have noted the growing transnational sensibility evident among late-twentieth-century evangelicals in the U.S. David Swartz stresses the emergence of an evangelical left beginning largely in the 1960s and 1970s that consistently critiqued U.S.-centric perspectives. Molly Worthen likewise notes how the global scope of the pentecostal movement “demands a cross-cultural, multiracial perspective.” See Swartz, David R., Moral Minority: The Evangelical Left in an Age of Conservatism (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Worthen, Molly, Apostles of Reason: The Crisis of Authority in American Evangelicalism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014Google Scholar, 264. The history of pentecostal Zionism, on the other hand, reveals the extent to which transnational, post-American emphases were nurtured in conservative pentecostal circles in the U.S., and initially took shape before pentecostalism's explosive growth caught the attention of fellow evangelicals.
97 See, for example, Smith, More Desired than Our Owne Salvation.
98 Jack Hayford quoted in Brad A. Greenberg, “Evangelical Prayer Banquet Promotes Love for Israel,” Jewish Journal, May 24, 2007, http://www.jewishjournal.com/community_briefs/article/evangelical_prayer_banquet_promotes_love_for_israel_20070525.
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