The Practicing Progressive

Issue 8
January 29, 2007

I have a good friend who is convinced that the only solution to the Palestinian problem is to relocate Israel. He’s crazy, of course.

The only problem is he’s not. He is bright, articulate, enormously creative and courageous to boot so I am reluctant to dismiss his “crazy” idea as so many others do. After the exclamations of “Impossible!” and “Ridiculous!” come the discomforting charges of “Anti-Semite!” and “Racist!” He is neither. He is a citizen of the world who is deeply concerned about this planet’s future. He envisions a world where his children and grandchildren can live in peace, even the precarious peace we now share. He is convinced, along with millions of others, that unless and until a solution is found for Israel and Palestine any hope for a peaceful planet is microscopic. And so he proffers his opinion to others…and is resoundingly rejected.

There are a myriad of reasons why his argument appears futile and I will leave it to others to invoke them but, as a Progressive Christian, I would like to address one aspect of his argumentation that, it seems to me, makes abundant sense.

It is, not surprisingly, the theological argument.

Unless you are a Biblical literalist, you must acknowledge that the Hebrew Scripture is an attempt by a particular culture to describe a particular understanding of God. The Hebrew Bible was written by Jews for Jews. It was written, as it were, from the bottom up rather than visa versa. It is divine not because it comes from God but because the people declare it so. The same is true for any sacred book, of course. The Hebrew Bible, the Christian Bible, the Koran, etc. are all human attempts to describe God rather than God’s attempts to describe God. This should all go without saying but it is important that we make that distinction when we pursue the theological argument for Israel’s relocation.

Hebrew Scripture is primarily shaped around a powerful myth that encapsulates stories of divine blessing, horrific enslavement, dramatic exodus, eventual conquest, sorrowful defeats and prophetic hope. It is the story of a people trying to make sense of their history. Its underlying assumption is that Israel and its religious tradition exists because of God’s benefaction. They are the “chosen people”. It is a beautiful and moving collection that has served as inspiration for millions of people over thousands of years.

The problem is there is little, if any, evidence that many of the stories related in the Bible have any connection to factual data. We have no archaeological or historical records, for instance, of thousands of people fleeing from an Egyptian pharaoh. We have no archaeological or historical records of burning bushes, divinely inscribed stone tablets or, for that matter, of a charismatic leader named Moses. What we do have is a collection of stories written by a particular group offering their interpretation of whom they are and how they got where they are.

The problem comes, of course, when this collection of parochial writings becomes politically authoritative. The argument that claims Israel’s divine right to the land they occupy, even a divine right to exist at all, because it is guaranteed in the Bible, is fallacious and, obviously, self-serving.

I certainly believe that the Jewish people, who have suffered in incalculable ways, deserve a place of refuge and security. I do not believe, however, that a particular piece of real estate in the Middle East has somehow been divinely foreordained to belong to Israel. The current boundaries may, indeed, be the best place for Israel’s continuing existence but an argument based on any divine right deserves to be dismissed forthwith.

Recently a parent of a student in the Seattle public schools threatened to sue the school district if they continued to show Al Gore’s film on the environmental crisis: “An Inconvenient Truth”, without offering a contradicting position. The parent is an evangelical Christian who believes that global warming is a sign of the imminent return of Jesus. Indeed, one could assume that this parent finds the disconcerting Gore film quite concerting. What is disconcerting to me, however, is the willingness of the school board, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, to make room for religious-based pseudo-science in their classrooms. Yes, there are those convinced that the world is but 6000 years old and others who are certain they’ve been abducted by aliens but such claims are scientifically unverifiable. One may sincerely believe the moon is made of cheese or the angel Moroni paid a visit to Joseph Smith but such sincerity does not make it worthy of inclusion in science or history textbooks.

Although religious understandings of reality can be enormously helpful in deciphering a constructive worldview and healthy lifestyle, any political argument that claims divine sanction is inherently deceptive because it is based on faith not facts.

So there is one argument against Israel’s displacement fairly disputed. Disputing the others I’ll leave to my friend.