<<http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0420/perlstein.php>>
The Jesus Landing Pad
by Rick Perlstein
May 18th, 2004 10:00 AM
It was an e-mail we weren't meant to see. Not for our eyes were the notes
that showed White House staffers taking two-hour meetings with Christian
fundamentalists, where they passed off bogus social science on gay
marriage as if it were holy writ and issued fiery warnings that "the
Presidents [sic] Administration and current Government is engaged in
cultural, economical, and social struggle on every level"�this to a group
whose representative in Israel believed herself to have been attacked by
witchcraft unleashed by proximity to a volume of Harry Potter. Most of
all, apparently, we're not supposed to know the National Security
Council's top Middle East aide consults with apocalyptic Christians eager
to ensure American policy on Israel conforms with their sectarian
doomsday scenarios.
But now we know.
"Everything that you're discussing is information you're not supposed to
have," barked Pentecostal minister Robert G. Upton when asked about the
off-the-record briefing his delegation received on March 25. Details of
that meeting appear in a confidential memo signed by Upton and obtained
by the Voice.
The e-mailed meeting summary reveals NSC Near East and North African
Affairs director Elliott Abrams sitting down with the Apostolic Congress
and massaging their theological concerns. Claiming to be "the Christian
Voice in the Nation's Capital," the members vociferously oppose the idea
of a Palestinian state. They fear an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza might
enable just that, and they object on the grounds that all of Old
Testament Israel belongs to the Jews. Until Israel is intact and David's
temple rebuilt, they believe, Christ won't come back to earth.
Abrams attempted to assuage their concerns by stating that "the Gaza
Strip had no significant Biblical influence such as Joseph's tomb or
Rachel's tomb and therefore is a piece of land that can be sacrificed for
the cause of peace."
Three weeks after the confab, President George W. Bush reversed
long-standing U.S. policy, endorsing Israeli sovereignty over parts of
the West Bank in exchange for Israel'sdisengagement from the Gaza Strip.
In an interview with the Voice, Upton denied having written the document,
though it was sent out from an e-mail account of one of his staffers and
bears the organization's seal, which is nearly identical to the Great
Seal of the United States. Its idiosyncratic grammar and punctuation tics
also closely match those of texts on the Apostolic Congress's website,
and Upton verified key details it recounted, including the number of
participants in the meeting ("45 ministers including wives") and its
conclusion "with a heart-moving send-off of the President in his
Presidential helicopter."
Upton refused to confirm further details.
Affiliated with the United Pentecostal Church, the Apostolic Congress is
part of an important and disciplined political constituency courted by
recent Republican administrations. As a subset of the broader Christian
Zionist movement, it has a lengthy history of opposition to any proposal
that will not result in what it calls a "one-state solution" in Israel.
The White House's association with the congress, which has just posted a
new staffer in Israel who may be running afoul of Israel's strict
anti-missionary laws, also raises diplomatic concerns.
The staffer, Kim Hadassah Johnson, wrote in a report obtained by the
Voice, "We are establishing the Meet the Need Fund in Israel�'MNFI.' . .
. The fund will be an Interest Free Loan Fund that will enable us to loan
funds to new believers (others upon application) who need assistance.
They will have the opportunity to repay the loan (although it will not be
mandatory)." When that language was read to Moshe Fox, minister for
public and interreligious affairs at the Israeli Embassy in Washington,
he responded, "It sounds against the law which prohibits any kind of
money or material [inducement] to make people convert to another
religion. That's what it sounds like." (Fox's judgment was e-mailed to
Johnson, who did not return a request for comment.)
The Apostolic Congress dates its origins to 1981, when, according to its
website, "Brother Stan Wachtstetter was able to open the door to
Apostolic Christians into the White House." Apostolics, a sect of
Pentecostals, claim legitimacy as the heirs of the original church
because they, as the 12 apostles supposedly did, baptize converts in the
name of Jesus, not in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Ronald Reagan bore theological affinities with such Christians because of
his belief that the world would end in a fiery Armageddon. Reagan himself
referenced this belief explicitly a half-dozen times during his
presidency.
While the language of apocalyptic Christianity is absent from George W.
Bush's speeches, he has proven eager to work with apocalyptics�a point of
pride for Upton. "We're in constant contact with the White House," he
boasts. "I'm briefed at least once a week via telephone briefings. . . .
I was there about two weeks ago . . . At that time we met with the
president."
Last spring, after President Bush announced his Road Map plan for peace
in the Middle East, the Apostolic Congress co-sponsored an effort with
the Jewish group Americans for a Safe Israel that placed billboards in 23
cities with a quotation from Genesis ("Unto thy offspring will I give
this land") and the message, "Pray that President Bush Honors God's
Covenant with Israel. Call the White House with this message." It then
provided the White House phone number and the Apostolic Congress's Web
address.
In the interview with the Voice, Pastor Upton claimed personal
responsibility for directing 50,000 postcards to the White House opposing
the Road Map, which aims to create a Palestinian state. "I'm in total
disagreement with any form of Palestinian state," Upton said. "Within a
two-week period, getting 50,000 postcards saying the exact same thing
from places all over the country, that resonated with the White House.
That really caused [President Bush] to backpedal on the Road Map."
When I sought to confirm Upton's account of the meeting with the White
House, I was directed to National Security Council spokesman Frederick
Jones, whose initial response upon being read a list of the names of
White House staffers present was a curt, "You know half the people you
just mentioned are Jewish?"
When asked for comment on top White House staffers meeting with
representatives of an organization that may be breaking Israeli law,
Jones responded, "Why would the White House comment on that?"
When asked whose job it is in the administration to study the Bible to
discern what parts of Israel were or weren't acceptable sacrifices for
peace, Jones said that his previous statements had been off-the-record.
When Pastor Upton was asked to explain why the group's website describes
the Apostolic Congress as "the Christian Voice in the nation's capital,"
instead of simply a Christian voice in the nation's capital, he
responded, "There has been a real lack of leadership in having someone
emerge as a Christian voice, someone who doesn't speak for the right,
someone who doesn't speak for the left, but someone who speaks for the
people, and someone who speaks from a theocratical perspective."
When his words were repeated back to him to make sure he had said a
"theocratical" perspective, not a "theological" perspective, he said,
"Exactly. Exactly. We want to know what God would have us say or what God
would have us do in every issue."
------------------------------------------------------------
The Middle East was not the only issue discussed at the March 25 meeting.
James Wilkinson, deputy national security advisor for communications,
spoke first and is characterized as stating that the 9-11 Commission "is
portraying those who have given their all to protect this nation as 'weak
on terrorism,' " that "99 percent of all the men and women protecting us
in this fight against terrorism are career citizens," and offered the
example of Frances Town-send, deputy national security adviser for
combating terrorism, "who sacrificed Christmas to do a 'security video'
conference."
Tim Goeglein, deputy director of public liaison and the White House's
point man with evangelical Christians, moderated, and he also spoke on
the issue of same-sex marriage. According to the memo, he asked the
rhetorical questions: "What will happen to our country if that actually
happens? What do those pushing such hope to gain?" His answer: "They want
to change America." How so? He quoted the research of Hoover Institute
senior fellow Stanley Kurtz, who holds that since gay marriage was
legalized in Scandinavia, marriage itself has virtually ceased to exist.
(In fact, since Sweden instituted a registered-partnership law for
same-sex couples in the mid '90s, there has been no overall change in the
marriage and divorce rates there.)
It is Matt Schlapp, White House political director and Karl Rove's chief
lieutenant, who was paraphrased as stating "that the Presidents
Administration and current Government is engaged in cultural, economical,
and social struggle on every level."
Also present at the meeting was Kristen Silverberg, deputy assistant to
the president for domestic policy. (None of the participants responded to
interview requests.)
The meeting was closed by Goeglein, who was asked, "What can we do to
assist in this fight for these issues and our nations [sic] foundation
and values?" and who reportedly responded, "Pray, pray, pray, pray."
------------------------------------------------------------
The Apostolic Congress's representative in Israel, Kim Johnson, is
ethnically Jewish, keeps kosher, and holds herself to the sumptuary
standards of Orthodox Jewish women, so as to better blend in to her
surroundings.
In one letter home obtained by the Voice she notes that many of the
Apostolic Christians she works with in Israel are Filipino women "married
to Jewish men�who on occasion accompany their wives to meetings. We are
planning to start a fellowship with this select group where we can meet
for dinners and get to know one another. Please Pray for the timing and
formation of such." Elsewhere she talks of a discussion with someone "on
the pitfalls and aggravations of Christians who missionize Jews." She
works often among the Jewish poor�the kind of people who might be
interested in interest-free loans�and is thrilled to "meet the outcasts
of this Land�how wonderful because they are in the in-casts for His
Kingdom."
An ecstatic figure who from her own reports appears to operate at the
edge of sanity ("Two of the three nights in my apartment I have been
attacked by a hair raising spirit of fear," she writes, noting the sublet
contained a Harry Potter book; "at this time I am associating it with
witchcraft"), Johnson has also met with Knesset member Gila Gamliel.
(Gamliel did not respond to interview requests.) She also boasted of an
imminent meeting with a "Knesset leader."
"At this point and for all future mails it is important for me to note
that this country has very stiff anti-missionary laws," she warns the
followers back home. [D]iscretion is required in all mails. This is
particularly important to understand when people write mails or ask about
organization efforts regarding such."
Her boss, Pastor Upton, displays a photograph on the Apostolic Congress
website of a meeting between himself and Beny Elon, Prime Minister
Sharon's tourism minister, famous in Israel for his advocacy of the
expulsion of Palestinians from Israeli-controlled lands.
His spokesman in the U.S., Ronn Torassian, affirmed that "Minister Elon
knows Mr. Upton well," but when asked whether he is aware that Mr.
Upton's staffer may be breaking Israel's anti-missionary laws, snapped:
"It's not something he's interested in discussing with The Village
Voice."
In addition to its work in Israel, the Apostolic Congress is part of the
increasingly Christian public face of pro-Israel activities in the United
States. Don Wagner, author of the book Anxious for Armageddon, has been
studying Christian Zionism for 15 years, and believes that the current
hard-line pro-Israel movement in the U.S. is "predominantly gentile."
Often, devotees work in concert with Jewish groups like Americans for a
Safe Israel, or AFSI, which set up a mostly Christian Committee for a
One-State Solution as the sponsor of last year's billboard campaign. The
committee's board included, in addition to Upton, such evangelical
luminaries as Gary Bauer and E.E. "Ed" McAteer of the Religious
Roundtable.
AFSI's executive director, Helen Freedman, confirms the increasingly
Christian cast of her coalition. "We have many good Jews, of course," she
says, "but they're in the minority." She adds, "The liberal Jew is unable
to believe the Arab when he says his goal is to Islamize the West. . . .
But I believe it. And evangelical Christians believe it."
Of Jews who might otherwise support her group's view of Jews' divine
right to Israel, she laments, "They're embarrassed about quoting the
Bible, about referring to the Covenant, about talking about the Promised
Land."
Pastor Upton is not embarrassed, and Helen Freedman is proud of her
association with him. She is wistful when asked if she, like Upton, has
been able to finagle a meeting with the president. "Pastor Upton is the
head of a whole Apostolic Congress," she laments. "It's a nationwide
group of evangelicals."
Upton has something Freedman covets: a voting bloc.
She laughs off concerns that, for Christian Zionists, actual Jews living
in Israel serve as mere props for their end-time scenario: "We have a
different conception of what [the end of the world] will be like . . .
Whoever is right will rejoice, and whoever was wrong will say, 'Whoops!'
"
She's not worried, either, about evangelical anti-Semitism: "I don't
think it exists," she says. She does say, however, that it would concern
her if she learned the Apostolic Congress had a representative in Israel
trying to win converts: "If we discovered that people were trying to
convert Jews to Christianity, we would be very upset."
------------------------------------------------------------
Kim Johnson doesn't call it converting Jews to Christianity. She calls it
"Circumcision of the Heart"�a spiritual circumcision Jews must undergo
because, she writes in paraphrase of Jeremiah, chapter 9, "God will
destroy all the uncircumcised nations along with the House of Israel,
because the House of Israel is uncircumcised in the heart . . . [I]t is
through the Gospel . . . that men's hearts are circumcised."
Apostolics believe that only 144,000 Jews who have not, prior to the
Second Coming of Christ, acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah will be saved
in the end times. Though even for those who do not believe in this
literal interpretation of the Bible�or for anyone who lives in Israel, or
who cares about Israel, or whose security might be affected by a
widespread conflagration in the Middle East, which is everyone�the
scriptural prophecies of the Christian Zionists should be the least of
their worries.
Instead, we should be worried about self-fulfilling prophecies.
"Biblically," stated one South Carolina minister in support of the
anti-Road Map billboard campaign, "there's always going to be a war."
Don Wagner, an evangelical, worries that in the Republican Party, people
who believe this "are dominating the discourse now, in an election year."
He calls the attempt to yoke Scripture to current events "a modern
heresy, with cultish proportions.
"I mean, it's appalling," he rails on. "And it also shows how
marginalized mainstream Christian thinking, and the majority of
evangelical thought, have become."
It demonstrates, he says, "the absolute convergence of the
neoconservatives with the Christian Zionists and the pro-Israel lobby,
driving U.S. Mideast policy."
The problem is not that George W. Bush is discussing policy with people
who press right-wing solutions to achieve peace in the Middle East, or
with devout Christians. It is that he is discussing policy with
Christians who might not care about peace at all�at least until the
rapture.
The Jewish pro-Israel lobby, in the interests of peace for those living
in the present, might want to consider a disengagement.
----
"As long as people believe in absurdities they will continue to commit
atrocities." - Voltaire
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