DISQUS

Thank you. I agree wholeheartedly with your perspective on this; so much so that I have nothing else to add!

I have two comments on this:


First, jurisnaturalist:
While you are right that there are fundamentalist Christians who support Zionism as a result of Christian dispensationalism, I don't think this really accounts for U.S. support of Israel and I think it is damaging to the witness of the church to attribute US-Israeli alliances solely to theology for the following reasons:

1) It overstates the influence of fundamentalist Christianity on US politics. Certainly Barack Obama is no fundamentalist and his appointment of Israeli-hardliner Rahm Emmanuel is a good indication of his support of Zionism in the Middle East. Rahm Emmanuel has even criticized the Bush Administration (they are the fundamentalists, right?) for not being strong enough on their support of Israel.

2) It overlooks the historical and political factors of US-Israeli relations: Israel being seen as the only "modern democracy" in the Middle East by the U.S., the strength of AIPAC, and the stereotypical Islamophobia that pervades American culture (and not "Christianity" per se), which have little to do with dispensationalism.

Second,
As for your post Sam, I would highly recommend G.E. Ladd's The Gospel of the Kingdom, as it articulates a premillennial eschatology that the church is already incarnating the Kingdom of God but that the Kingdom is not fully consummated until the return of Christ. This has immense impact on ecclesiology as service toward the building of the Kingdom and in preaching the gospel so that others can join in the work of building the Kingdom. I know this idea is super hip for a lot of Emerging folks but Ladd already articulated this point of view a half-century ago.

any follow up on this?

Yes. It's frightening. As a former member of the United Students Against Sweatshops movement, I remember on at least two occasions listening to union leaders from Colombia talk about their experiences of intimidation, violence, torture, and murder.

One even described how a fellow union leader was dragged from his home, beheaded, and then the paramilitaries played soccer with his head. His presentation was in Spanish, and when I heard it I asked my friend sitting next to me if I had just heard him wrong. Unfortunately, I hadn't...

Sounds like a great book; I'll check the local library.

I shudder to think, though, that the CEO of Coca-Cola is endorsing a book on Christian discipleship, when Coca-Cola has many well documented human rights abuses in Colombia and El Salvador:

http://www.hrw.org/children/labor/elsalvador/

http://www.corporatecampaign.org/killer-coke/wh...