This summit took place on June 25 -27 and is old news, but since it failed to make it into U.S. media, I think it is worth noting. Also, the blurring of the lines between end times prophecy and foreign policy will continue with the CUFI Summit in Washington D.C.  on July 20 -22.  This follows Hagee’s release of his new book Can America Survive:  Ten Prophetic Signs That We Are The Terminal Generation,” which includes the graphic description of the end of Judaism and the forced conversion of the state of Israel. Nevertheless, Jewish politicians (Democratic and Republican), Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren, and other Jewish leaders will speak at the event.

Grant Jeffrey is author of Shadow Government, How the Global Elite Plan to Destroy your Democracy and Freedom, also made into a “documentary” film by Cloud Ten Pictures in Ontario, the producers of the Left Behind movie series and John Hagee’sVanished: In the Twinkling of an Eye. I’ve written previously about Cloud Ten Pictures and Hagee’s portrayals of the Antichrist as the head of the European Union inVanished and other media.

Jeffrey is also one of the featured speakers on God TV’s series “Apocalypse and the End Times.”  Link to trailers for the series including interviews with David Ray Griffin, Mike Bickle, Paul McGuire, Tim LaHaye, Gary Kah, Mark Hitchcock, and Larry Bates.

Marci McDonald, author of Armageddon: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada (published 2010), wrote the following in a Canadian magazine article in 2006 titled “Stephen Harper and the Theo-Cons:”

“McVety’s ideological muscle-flexing has provoked charges that he’s financed by the US Christian right. ‘We haven’t seen one American greenback,’ he retorts. Still, his critics could be forgiven for leaping to conclusions. Canada Christian College houses nearly two dozen evangelical tenants, including Oral Roberts Ministries, and just down the hall from McVety’s own office he runs John Hagee’s Canadian command post, dispensing books and DVDs that he claims brings in $1 million a year.”

McDonald continues,

“Then last December, still smarting from their failure to stop Bill C-38 [Civil Marriage Act], McVety and Ben-Ami [Joseph Ben-Ami] launched the Institute for Canadian Values with a gala dinner tutorial from Ralph Reed, the boyish tactical wizard behind Pat Robertson’s Christian Coalition, which succeeded Falwell’s Moral Majority and helped mobilize the South for Bush.”
- Walrus Magazine, 2006

Karl Rove’s speech at the “Faith and Business” summit is not available, but he did provide a separate interview with the press and one Toronto reporter described him as “confidently declaring the Democrats would soon suffer a ‘whupping.’” Afterwards, Rove wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal titled “Obama and the Fiscal ‘Road to Hell.’” However, there was no mention of the end times prophecy aspects of this road to hell.

The ongoing blurring of the line between policy and end times prophecy will continue this week as John Hagee hosts his CUFI Summit in Washington D.C. on July 20 -22. Hagee’s latest book Can America Survive: Ten Prophetic Signs That We Are The Terminal Generation was released at the end of June and soared up to #2 on the Wall Street Journal’s “Best Selling Books” in the non-fiction category. As in other books, Hagee describes current events through the prism of end times prophecy and claims that the end of the natural world is imminent. The ultimate purpose of all this end times horror and bloodshed, including the death of one third of the world’s population, is to convince Jews to accept Jesus.

“There is comfort and consolation in Ezekiel’s prophetic portrait of the world tomorrow. The message is that God is in total control of what appears to be a hopeless situation for Israel. He has deliberately dragged these anti-Semitic nations into Israel to crush them so that the Jews of Israel and the nations of the world will know that He is the Lord and there is no other. America and Europe will not save Israel… God will!”
(Page 146)

This is Hagee’s description of the end of today’s world as we know it and the horrific events that will force the surviving Jews of the world to repent of Judaism. This forced conversion of Israel is the trigger which begins the glorious 1000 year Christian Millennium. In the chapter titled “Armageddon: The Final Battle for Planet Earth” there is a subsection titled “The Jewish People Turn to God.” This is slightly veiled code language for rejecting Judaism and accepting Jesus as messiah.
“Note carefully that the Jewish people at this point in time do not recognize Jesus as the Messiah. The Bible is very clear that this will happen at the end of the Tribulation, when the Jewish people…
“will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for his firstborn.”
-Zechariah 12:10

That is the day, the Scripture declares, when ‘all Israel will be saved.’ (Romans 11:26)
Because of this colossal battle on the soil of Israel, the Jewish people will abandon their disastrous relationship with the Antichrist and begin turning toward the Most High God.”
(page 243)

Of course, as Hagee has pointed out in other books, such as Jerusalem Countdown, “all Israel” does not mean all Jews!  In this chapter Hagee again states that the Antichrist will be the leader of the European Union, a claim like many others in his media, that undoubtedly impact his audiences views of current world events.

Undeterred by Hagee’s continued international promotion of a graphic narrative of the end of Judaism and the forced conversion of Israel, a  number of Jewish politicians and leaders will speak at  the CUFI Summit including: Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren; Rep. Shelley Berkley(D-Nev.);  Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA);  Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations; and Mortimer Zuckerman, Editor-in Chief of U.S. News and World Report and publisher of the New York Daily News.

I wonder if any of these Jewish leaders have read Hagee’s latest book? If you are represented by, or have access to, one of these Jewish leaders, you might want to ask them.

Talk2Action

I have reported previously about the National House of Prayer (NHOP) in Ottawa. As I write this, Rob and Fran Parker, the husband and wife team who lead NHOP, are planning what they describe as a prayer walk to Israel in late March into April. On March 13-14th the Parkers are also guest speakers at a Calgary conference of a group called the International Christian Chamber of Commerce.

Mr. Parker has written on the NHOP’s blog in recent weeks about his plans. “Recently God has confirmed to me it is now time to Prayer-Walk Israel,” he wrote in February. “It seems that everywhere you turn these days you are hearing that there’s a growing sense of acceleration of God’s purposes. Many Christian leaders are preaching that we have entered into the ‘Signs of the Times’ that Jesus referred to around his Second Coming. In different ways in Canada we believe we are ‘touching’ things for God’s purposes that are massive in light of the days we are living.”

This is not the first time that the Parkers believe they have been called by God to undertake a project. Ron Parker has a long association with Watchmen for the Nations, a pro-Israel Christian right group based in the U.S. and Canada. After a Watchmen gathering in 1996, Parker organized a prayer-walk from Calgary to Ottawa. He and his wife felt they were being called to set up an intercessory house of prayer in the nation’s capital. In 2004, they purchased a former convent not far from Parliament Hill for $900,000. They’ve added staff and volunteers and regularly host groups, including youth, from across the country to engage in formation as prayer leaders and also to visit select MPs. The NHOP personnel appear to have ready access to Parliament Hill. They attend Question Period, sit in on parliamentary committee meetings and lead parliamentary prayer groups. The people who organize the National Prayer Breakfast, held by parliamentarians once a year, have invited the Parkers to lead workshops following the meal.

Parker, in his blog postings, described the focus of the upcoming Israel walk in the following ways: “To pray for a preparation around the events of the Second Coming of Christ. For a blessing on all those who live in the land and on those who labour for God’s kingdom in Israel. To pray for the safety for the people of Israel as they face any possible threats of war from nations hostile to them.” There is no mention, however, of praying for those in the region who are threatened by hostile actions at the hands of the Israeli military.

The NHOP exists within a fundamentalist and charismatic network known for its emotional and enthusiastic forms of worship, including speaking in tongues, holy laughter, and a belief in powers of prophecy and healing. Many in the movement are Christian reconstructionists who believe that “God governs” and that government and all of society must submit to the bible’s moral principles. There are those who call this a recipe for theocracy. A good part of the ardour on display arises from a millenarian belief that we are approaching end times, when Christ will return to reward the righteous and punish sinners.

Reconstructionists believe that the return of Jews from around the world to Israel and establishing an Israeli state in 1948 were the fulfillment of a biblical prophecy, and a foreshadowing of the second coming. This unfortunate merging of biblical mythology about chosen people and nations with current political events explains the unyielding support for any and all Israeli state policies among Christian reconstructionists in the U.S. and Canada.

The NHOP first came to my attention in 2006 when it was advertising a tour to Israel in September-October of that year. The advertisement invited potential tourists to: “Ignite your passion and intercession for Israel, the land, the people for God’s end-time purposes.” The advertisement quoted Psalm 102, saying, “The appointed time to favor Zion has come.” The tour had to be cancelled because hostilities broke out between Israel and groups in Lebanon in the summer of 2006.

The Conservatives were elected in Canada in January 2006, and certain Christian groups made common cause with Canadian Jewish organizations in lobbying the Harper government to take a pro-Israel position in the conflict. The prime minister did not disappoint, when he described an Israeli campaign that took 1,000 lives as a “measured response” to the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers. The Canadian government has since 2006 jettisoned Canada’s previous role as an honest broker in the Middle East and has tilted our foreign policy entirely in Israel’s favour, including unconditional support for the deadly invasion of Gaza in January 2009.

Canada’s pro-Israel support has now worked its way back into our domestic politics as well, in the most unpleasant of ways. Late in 2009, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) abruptly withdrew funding and severed a long-standing relationship with KAIROS, an inter-church human rights group. Speaking at a conference in Jerusalem in December 2009, Jason Kenney, Canada’s immigration minister, accused KAIROS of being anti-Semitic and of supporting an economic boycott of Israel. KAIROS and its members, including Catholic, United, Anglican, and Lutheran churches, the Mennonite Central Committee and Quakers, hotly denied those claims.

Then, early in 2010 Canada’s respected Rights and Democracy organization imploded after new board members appointed by the Conservative government forced the resignation of the organization’s president Rémy Beauregard at a particularly nasty meeting. Mr. Beauregard died of a heart attack later that day. Conservative appointees to the board of Rights and Democracy accused the organization of being anti-Israel. Senior staff members have now been fired and Rights and Democracy has closed a Geneva-based office that which worked in proximity to several United Nations agencies.

The government’s ham-fisted actions against KAIROS and Rights and Democracy have sent an intended chill through Canada’s church and development communities. Question the policies of the Israeli government and you are called anti-Semitic. Question the policies of the Canadian government and you will be punished. These attacks have led others, including former Canadian diplomat Harry Stirling, to question why the kind of debate that occurs regularly within Israel about the country’s policies toward its neighbours is labelled as anti-Semitic when it occurs in Canada.

A common analysis is that in its policies and practices the Harper government is attempting to win the support of Jewish organizations and voters in this country. It may be, however, that an even more important reason for the government’s one-sided policy is its desire to appease its base among the Christian right – those who actually believe that a biblical prophecy of end times will be fulfilled by the Israeli hegemony in the Middle East.

Some of those people will gather at a weekend meeting sponsored by the International Christian Chamber of Commerce at the Hyatt Regency in Calgary on March 12-13th. They will talk about God’s plan for Israel and Rob and Fran Parker are featured as guest speakers. The ICCC advertisement invites registrants to: “Come and hear about our unique relationship with the government of Israel. Come and hear how you can stand in a practical way with Israel in Her call to be a blessing to many nations.” The ad quotes the bible’s book of Genesis regarding Israel: “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.’’

Interestingly, Christian reconstructionists believe that only those who have accepted Christ as their personal saviour will be saved in the Last Judgement. Others, and one assumes this includes people of Jewish faith, will be damned if they have not accepted Christ. This is, to say the least, an odd basis for a pro-Israel coalition.

Pulpits & Politics

Your twin accusations that I accused the advocacy group KAIROS of anti-Semitism and that this is why the Canada International Development Agency did not approve a cost-sharing program with the group are false.

I did not accuse KAIROS of being anti-Semitic. What I said was that KAIROS has taken “a leadership role in the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign (against Israel).” In fact, Toronto Star columnist Rosie DiManno’s own research led her to the same conclusion. She wrote that KAIROS has taken “a leading role in divestment, sanctions and targeted boycotts of Israel,” and said those who deny that are “disingenuous and dissembling.”

While I disagree with the nature of KAIROS’s militant stance toward the Jewish homeland, that is not the reason their request for taxpayer funding was denied. International Cooperation Minister Bev Oda – not me – is responsible for the Canada International Development Agency. And she has been clear that a cost-sharing program with KAIROS was not approved because it did not meet CIDA’s current priorities, such as increased food aid.

Our government continues to support the many worthwhile charitable endeavours undertaken by churches and other organizations that are members of KAIROS, particularly those that make a real difference in the lives of those living in poverty in developing countries.

So what did Jason Kenney actually say at the Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism in Jerusalem?
From BigCityLib Strikes Back:

What Prime Minister Harper witnessed in Mumbai, what happened at the same time in Calgary, were practical expressions of the new anti-Semitism. Even though Canada is celebrated around the world as being a successful model of mutual coexistence and tolerance, we too have seen a troubling increase in incidents of anti-Semitism. B’Nai Brith Canada publishes the authoritative registry of anti-Semitic incidents in Canada. In 2008, they received reports of 1,135 incidents of anti-Semitic instances, the highest number recorded in 28 years of the study, an increase of 8.9% over 2007.

[...]

So how have we addressed these growing incidents of anti-Semitism? Well first of all, on the domestic level, our government has worked with the Jewish community to begin a program of recognizing our own history of official anti-Semitism.

[...]

We have articulated and implemented a zero tolerance approach to anti-Semitism. What does this mean? It means that we eliminated the government funding relationship with organizations like for example, the Canadian Arab Federation, whose leadership apologized for terrorism or extremism, or who promote hatred, in particular anti-Semitism.

We have ended government contact with like-minded organizations like the Canadian Islamic Congress, whose President notoriously said that all Israelis over the age of 18 are legitimate targets for assassination. We have defunded organizations, most recently like KAIROS, who are taking a leadership role in the boycott. And we’re receiving a lot of criticism for these decisions. I can’t recall how many times I’ve been sued for some of the decisions that we have taken, but we believe that we’ve done these things for the right reasons and we stand by these decisions.

The full text of the speech can be found at MP Rick Rick Dykstra’s site.

The funding would have been 40% of a four year project which effects KAIROS work in six countries. The objection is more about politicalizing aid work and not honouring government legislation.  You may chose to interpret Kenney’s remarks any way you want.  Bev Oda’s decision flies in the face of Bill C-393. The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada:

If you wanted to tick off the Roman Catholic Church, the mainline Protestant denominations and Evangelicals while undoing a longstanding relationship that has fostered improved human rights and strengthened sustainable development opportunities around the world, what single step could you take as the Government of Canada? Until Monday of this week, that was a question that hadn’t occurred to anyone. But on Monday, Bev Oda, Minister for International Cooperation, delivered the answer by ending a 35 year relationship with KAIROS with a phone call.

The core groups of KAIROS are:

KAIROS Member Churches are:
The Anglican Church of Canada
The Christian Reformed Church in North America
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada
The Presbyterian Church in Canada
The United Church of Canada
The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)
The Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace
The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops
The Canadian Religious Conference
The Mennonite Central Committee of Canada
The Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF)

The support is flooding in for KAIROS from all over the world and from very diverse groups across Canada.

KAIROS
Scott Tribe
Western Standard
Dennis Gruending
Pushed to the Left and Loving it: has background on Charles McVety, Canadian Christian College, Christians United for Israel (CUFI)

Charles McVety denouncing KAIROS
LifeSite: Alfonse de Valk
Ezra Levant: Would you lie for 7 million?

I have never seen Canadian protestant denominations, other faith groups, partners and citizens join together to take such a strong stand against this pathetic behavior by the Canadian Government and it’s ministers.

An article in last year’s summer edition of the Jewish progressive magazine Outlook, written by Concordia historian Stephen Scheinberg, explores the relationships between Jewish advocacy organization B’nai Brith Canada and the Christian right. In “Partners for Imperium: B’nai Brith Canada and the Christian Right” (link goes to PDF – an HTML text version is available at Mostly Water, Scheinberg argues that the Canadian branch of B’nai Brith has shrunk significantly, while simultaneously drifting right during the last decade.

A former B’nai Brith officer himself, Scheinberg points to the decision to seek common ground with the Christian right, especially Charles McVety and the Canada Christian College – fundamentalists preaching the literal inerrancy of the Scriptures, traditional roles for women, the prohibition of gay marriage, the criminalization of abortion – and the Christian Zionist philosophy that God’s original covenant with Israel remains in effect and must be respected by all nations. He ably links these Canadians to the similar teachings of American preachers such as John Hagee, John Tweedie, and Dean Bye.

Scheinberg starts from a valuable premise – connections to the Christian right – and is in a position to speak authoritatively on B’nai Brith Canada, given his own experience in that organization. Unfortunately the bulk of the article moves on to explore something quite different – the disturbing politics of Christian Zionism. Still, the latter is a fascinating and chilling topic in its own right.

The purported CIC strategy document, reproduced at Dawg’s Blawg, is titled “Destabilizing the Opponent” and has as its objective to “define and discredit the radical Islamist movement and agenda in Canada and its non-Islamist allies; link their enmity and war on Israel with their shared hostility to Canadian (Western) values and society.” It goes on to specify activities with respect to advocacy, media monitoring, combating youth indoctrination and political NGOs, and a “counterstrike” against Islamic Monitor by distributing “moderate voices from Arab and Muslim countries.”

One of the areas of activity would seem to call for surveillance of, and attacks on, non-Islamist Canadian groups:

Fifth Column: the collusion of the “anti-imperialist” Left and radical Islamism

Expose ideological and personal ties between local actors and foreign radical/terror groups (e.g. Cairo Conferences, etc.) and highlight common hatred of Canadian (Western) society (CAIA, Tadamon, Canadian Peace Alliance, International Socialists, etc.), monitor activities and publications.

Background information on a few of the CIC’s directors is provided by Terrible Depths.