NOTE: This piece was originally published at our Substack newsletter A Public Witness.
Rev. Munther Isaac doesn’t mince words when it comes to U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to “take over” Gaza, remove the people who live there, and turn it into “the Riviera of the Middle East.” A Lutheran pastor in Bethlehem — yes, that Bethlehem — Isaac denounced Trump’s proposal as “evil” on this week’s episode of Dangerous Dogma. But the Palestinian pastor and theologian also noted that Trump is just the latest example of an empire theology found among American politicians and churches.
“The fact that we have the most powerful person in the world casually suggesting taking someone else’s land and owning it,” Isaac explained, “and then casually suggesting removing or relocating the people of Gaza tells you how people look at Palestinians. But in reality, this is the essence of settler colonialism, which is you displace to replace.”
Screengrab as Brian Kaylor interviews Munther Isaac for this week’s episode of Dangerous Dogma.
Isaac, author of the forthcoming book Christ in the Rubble: Faith, the Bible, and the Genocide in Gaza, also responded to Trump’s sharing of an AI-generated video showing a remade Gaza that features a large golden statue of Trump. But for the pastor, the video raises even more concerns about his fellow Christians than about the politician who promoted it.
“Nothing surprises me about Trump anymore. He’s always been this egocentric person. It’s always been about him. And I’m sure when that video was shared with him and he saw the golden image of himself, he just loved it. That’s who he is,” Isaac told me. “What’s more shocking is the fact that you have people who still not just idealize him but worship him and can never bring themselves to criticize him — even Christians, evangelicals. I mean, what more do we need to do to stop supporting this guy? He’s basically making himself a god and creating a golden statue of himself.”
“This is the empire at display. And the logic of empire is that of ‘might is always right,’” Isaac added. “What worries me the most about the Church in the United States is that it has become part and parcel of that empire, whether it’s the church on the right or the church on the left. One has adopted one party line, the other has adopted the other party line. Because let’s not kid ourselves. It’s not as if the liberal sides are pro-justice because, come on, they have funded this genocide for the first months of it, they were silent when Gaza was going through a genocide.”
From Isaac’s perspective, popular U.S. Christian books show that too often U.S. churches are missing the critique of empire given by Jesus and the prophets in the Bible. He hopes more Christians will instead challenge the values and priorities of empire.
“It’s not just that the kingdom of Jesus was precisely that, a kingdom as opposed to the kingdoms of the world, as opposed to empire,” he told me. “Most of the Hebrew Scripture was written from within that perspective, challenging the empires that surrounded Palestine and presenting an alternative which was radically different. And ironically, when Israel demanded a king, God told them, ‘Why do you want to be like the other nations? Why do you want to mimic the other nations?’ There’s always this tension within the people of God to do what other nations do.”
“Jesus comes with this totally radically different concept of kingdom. A kingdom of meekness. A kingdom in which we are thirsty, not for power but thirsty for justice. A kingdom that avoids or challenges the use of religion or the weaponization of religion. Let’s not forget that those Jesus clashed the most with when he lived on Earth were the religious institution,” Isaac added. “The church in the United States needs to listen more to the Global South. And what it takes is a dose of humility, which sometimes, to be quite honest, is not always easy to find in your side of the world. Humility to recognize not just that others read the Bible differently and we can learn, but also humility to accept that your own theology is so much contextual, is so much based on the American Dream.”
A nativity scene inside the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church pastored by Munther Isaac in the West Bank town of Bethlehem with a figure symbolizing baby Jesus lying amid the rubble of Gaza on Dec. 10, 2023. (Mahmoud Illean/Associated Press)
Isaac noted that Jesus not only challenged empire but on the cross was “the victim of the violence of empire.” Thus, the pastor wants Christians to see Christ in the rubble in Gaza today and repent from siding with those manufacturing and dropping the bombs.
“When we’re watching [a genocide] being endorsed by theology or being justified by Scripture and we say nothing — or at least don’t call it out — it says a lot about us,” he told me. “That’s why I truly believe this is about the credibility of our Christian witness.”
You can hear more from Rev. Munther Isaac on this week’s episode of Dangerous Dogma. You can listen to the audio version here (or subscribe in your favorite podcast platform), and you can watch a video version here. You should also pre-order his forthcoming book, Christ in the Rubble: Faith, the Bible, and the Genocide in Gaza.
As a public witness,
Brian Kaylor
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