Actual Christianity

The idea that Israelis, Jews, or “God’s chosen people” are inherently of greater value than anyone else creates a hierarchy within the human family, suggesting that some people are more important in God’s eyes than others. Yet the message of Jesus points in the opposite direction: that we are all equal, all children of God, and all reflections of the divine.

There are many ideas and teachings found in the Old Testament that Jesus effectively rendered obsolete, and I believe this is one of them. The passages that elevate one ethnic group above another are better understood as products of tribalism and human ego than as timeless expressions of God’s nature. The Old Testament contains numerous examples of this, yet many continue to treat these writings as beyond question simply because they are part of the Bible and are assumed to be flawless.

But any text that presents God as commanding people to kill others for infractions such as being gay, committing adultery, working on the Sabbath, and other offenses cannot be reconciled with the teachings of Jesus. Those commands stand in direct tension with his consistent message of mercy, forgiveness, compassion, and love. Rather than reflecting the perfect will of God, they suggest that parts of the Torah and other Old Testament writings were shaped by the cultural biases and limitations of the people who recorded them.

For that reason, I reject the claim that passages portraying the Jewish people as inherently superior or uniquely more valuable in God’s eyes remain authoritative. Jesus’ teachings nullify the notion that one nation or ethnicity possesses greater worth before God than another. Clinging to those older ideas has also had real-world consequences, leading some American Christians to give the Israeli government a moral free pass, believing that opposing inhumane or violent crimes against humanity is simply wrong simply because they view Israel as permanently occupying a uniquely favored status in God’s eyes. This is something that cannot stand morally and ethically, especially if someone claims to be a follower of Jesus.

Below you’ll find a list of war crimes committed by the leader of Israel and its remarkable that there is a leader of a nation in which there a warrant for his arrest yet continues to be defended by Americans for religious reasons.

• restricted food, water, fuel, medicine, and humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza
• Intentionally directed attacks against civilians
• contributed to civilian deaths through deprivation of essential necessities.
• deprived a significant portion of Gaza’s civilian population of fundamental rights on political and/or national grounds.
• caused great suffering by restricting access to medical supplies, including anesthetics and other essential treatment

Are these actions that any follower of Jesus can honestly endorse? Much in the same way many Christians have been misled to endorse the unethical and brazenly racist actions of president Trump, many Christians have completely lost the script of what it means to be a follower of Jesus

It is important to note that, while I have focused primarily on the war crimes committed by Israel and the perception among some of its supporters that such actions are divinely sanctioned, the Muslim-majority countries and organizations involved in the region’s conflicts with Israel are far from innocent themselves. If anything, that should provide even greater incentive for peace to be pursued and meaningfully brokered between the parties. Unfortunately, peace becomes considerably more difficult to achieve when either side believes that God is on its side in matters of human politics and military action.

This is, in many ways, a recurring pattern throughout Western history: nations and leaders have repeatedly claimed that their political ambitions, wars, and even atrocities were ordained or sanctioned by God. That mindset is dangerous and destructive regardless of which nation or religion adopts it.

Criticizing a country or organization for committing war crimes is not inherently “woke”; it is a matter of applying the same moral standard to everyone. At the same time, acknowledging Israel’s wrongdoing should not require ignoring the atrocities committed by Hamas or other actors in the region. There are no completely innocent parties among the principal actors in the current conflicts surrounding Israel. Ultimately, it is extraordinarily difficult to reason with someone who believes their actions are divinely commanded, and that principle applies equally whether the actor is an individual, a religious movement, or a state. That said, it is worth documenting war crimes on both sides of the conflict in the interest of fairness.

Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups — October 7, 2023: The UN Commission of Inquiry found war crimes including intentionally attacking civilians, murder/willful killing, torture, cruel or inhuman treatment, destruction or seizure of property, outrages upon personal dignity, and hostage-taking. It also found patterns indicative of sexual violence. United Nations+1

Indiscriminate rocket attacks: Palestinian armed groups have repeatedly fired rockets and other projectiles toward populated Israeli areas without distinguishing between military and civilian targets. The UN Commission specifically characterized the indiscriminate firing of projectiles toward populated areas during October 7 as a war crime. United Nations

Hostage-taking: Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups’ abduction and detention of Israeli civilians and others constitutes a war crime under international humanitarian law. The UN has explicitly characterized the hostage-taking as such. 

Killing and mistreatment of civilians: During October 7, attackers entered civilian communities and killed residents, including women, children, and elderly people. The UN investigation concluded that these attacks constituted war crimes. 

Sexual violence: The UN Commission reported patterns indicative of sexual violence committed by Palestinian perpetrators at several locations on October 7, primarily against Israeli women. 

In closing,

I believe it is impossible for someone who earnestly embraces the teachings of Jesus to also maintain the idea that one group of people is uniquely preferred by God. The very concept of a “chosen people,” when interpreted to mean that God favors one ethnic or religious group above others, undermines the idea that God loves all people equally.

Anyone who has genuinely adopted the teachings of Jesus should have difficulty reconciling such a hierarchy with his message. Jesus repeatedly broke through tribal, ethnic, religious, and social boundaries, teaching people to recognize one another as brothers and sisters under one Father. That vision points toward unity, not a divine ranking of human beings in which one group occupies a privileged position in God’s eyes.

The insistence on preserving this interpretation of “chosen people” seems to me largely an attempt to uphold an Old Testament framework that should instead be examined critically in light of what Jesus taught. The notion that one group is inherently preferred over another also perpetuates tribalism, the deeply human tendency to divide ourselves into “us” and “them,” to separate rather than unite, and to elevate our own group above others. These impulses are products of the ego and its constant need for identity, separation, and superiority.

For those who fear that rejecting the idea of Jewish people as uniquely favored by God will somehow earn them eternal punishment, I would argue that you are on much firmer spiritual ground loving all of your brothers and sisters equally than constructing a hierarchy in which some are closer to God by virtue of their ancestry. The moment “chosen” is understood to mean preferred, everyone outside that category is implicitly placed beneath it. Even when that judgment is never spoken aloud, the hierarchy remains built into the belief itself.

And these ideas do not remain confined to theology. Religious beliefs about divine preference can influence how people understand nations, political conflicts, and even warfare. Once we convince ourselves that God has elevated one people above another, it becomes dangerously easy to view political allegiance as a sacred obligation and violence as divinely justified.

If God is truly the Father of us all, then there can ultimately be no superior people and no inferior people, only brothers and sisters. The path Jesus taught leads away from tribalism and separation and toward precisely that recognition of our shared humanity.