I am, in general, supportive of religion. My own religious views are syncretic, but I think religion is one of our oldest impulses and anytime religious faith is destroyed, rather than being replaced by something even more noble, it tends to be replaced with consumerism and other less noble ideas.
You knew this was coming … BUT … I get annoyed at people who put the label of a particular religion on themselves yet believe in a version of it that has been deliberately twisted to their own detriment.
I have seen God’s promise to Abraham cited about a zillion times, by self-described Christians, as the reason why Americans in general and Christians particularly must support the modern state of Israel.
This is theology that is so bad it is beyond even wrong. Now look, if you wanna support some foreign country, that is your right. But don’t claim it to be your religious obligation unless you are Jewish, because Christianity says the opposite.
Error 1: Constraining the children of Abraham to ONLY apply to Jews.
Break out your Bible. Abraham had more than one child. That other one? Oh yeah — his descendants are called Arabs today. So even taking it literally, it does not mean one must support Israel at the expense of Arabs. And if the two are in conflict? It would be impossible for us to intervene.
Error 2: Ignoring the New Testament.
The New Testament clarifies that the children of Abraham are not a genetic thing, but a spiritual thing and that, specifically, it is Christians who are inheritors of the promise:
Paul states quite explicitly in Galatians 3:29: “If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.”
Error 3: Thinking its all about genetics.
Paul makes it clear in Romans 4:13 this is a spiritual thing: “For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.”
Again, admonishing the Jews and explaining that it is a spiritual rather than genetic connection, Jesus says in Luke 3:8: “Therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.”
And Jesus comes straight out and tells certain Jews that their genes don’t cut the mustard, because it is all about faith. Jesus, in John 8:39, says to Jewish authorities: “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did.”
So going back to God’s covenant with Abraham, a whole-Bible understanding of this means that those who bless Christians will be blessed and those who curse Christians will be cursed. It is NOT a commandment that people must somehow support a secular and wholly modern state in the Middle East that is home to the “gayest city on earth.”
You can support them if you want. But don’t blame God.