Being Christian After the Desolation of Gaza
- Ethics, Culture & Social Issues
- Publisher: Cascade Books (Wipf and Stock)
- Published: 2025
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Publisher's Description
What explains the fervent support among America's Christians for Israel's murderous assault on Gaza's Palestinians? Dying children cry beneath the rubble; doctors testify to atrocities; journalists and medics face sniper fire; experts cry genocide; Jewish Americans decry Israel's ethnic cleansing; protesting college students jeopardize their careers. Yet millions of Americans who profess allegiance to Jesus continue defending the desolation of Gaza, or refuse to speak against it. In these essays you will read stories and hear cries from Christians--American, Latin American, Jewish, Palestinian--who have spent years listening, laboring, and praying for a durable, equitable peace between Palestinians and their Jewish neighbors. Their perspectives have formed over years in the land, through lingering encounters, hard conversations, and troubling personal experiences. Disagree with them if you must, but first hear them out, and consider why so many of Israel's Christian partisans have confused a love for the Jewish people with a defense of the apocalypse Israel has unleashed since October 7, 2023. It may be too late to save Gaza's millions from starvation, amputation, displacement, and death. Is it too late to repent of our complicity? Too late to save our own souls? How should we be Christian after the desolation of Gaza? Chapter contributors: Mercy Aiken, Yousef Kamal AlKhouri, Daniel Bannoura, Donald D. Binder, Gary M. Burge, David M. Crump, Rob Dalrymple, Anton Deik, Bruce N. Fisk, Suzanne Watts Henderson, Lisa Loden, Lamma Mansour, Amy Yoder McGloughlin, Benjamin Norquist, Ruth Padilla DeBorst, and J. Ross Wagner.
Endorsements (14)
“An essential and deeply moving reckoning by Christians who—unlike so many of America’s political and religious leaders—know that the people of Gaza are the children of God, and we must all ultimately account for our role in their starvation and slaughter.”
“With great urgency, this book demands that we Christians examine our conscience and raise our voice against the continued carnage and destruction in Gaza. Whether we agree or disagree with the book’s diverse set of contributors, we can surely affirm with them that each life, Jewish or Palestinian, is of equal value, and that condemning the policies and actions of Israel can and should be accompanied by commitment to the wellbeing of the Jewish people.”
“Palestinian Christians look to the West and cry, ‘Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?’ This collection of eye-opening, heart-rending, meticulously documented essays challenges us to look past our comfortable ideologies about the modern state of Israel and our stereotypes about the Arab ‘other’ and to see the human cost of a modern nation’s quest for security and control, and the suffering that we casually accept as justified.”
“This interdisciplinary volume interrogates Western complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza—complicity manifested in political institutions, media discourse, and Christian theology. What does it mean to be Christian in the wake of Gaza’s devastation and Israel’s colonization of Palestinian land and people? Grappling with systemic violence and settler colonialism, this book models Christian responsibility, prophetic witness, and a hunger for justice in an age of global indifference.”
“This timely book confronts readers with truths that are suppressed by the narrative of unconditional support for Israel. It contests the simplistic thinking that casts the conflict as a war between good and evil. It sets the devastation of Gaza within historical and contemporary contexts. It humanizes the Palestinian people and presents unflinching accounts of their suffering. It exposes the twisted use of Christian Scripture and theology that justifies the massive violence Israel inflicts. Each essay is written with acuity and compassion. Together, the writers call us to reject Christian complicity with Israel’s campaign of bombing, starvation, and destruction and to pursue a just peace.”
“At once disturbing and eye-opening, Being Christian After the Desolation of Gaza unpacks the deadly error of uncritical Christian support for Israel’s war on Gaza and destruction of the Palestinian people. Thankfully, it offers us not just critique but also a vision for the future. It is one of the most important books for Christians of every tradition to read at this time.”
“I despair as Christian Zionists continue to dehumanize Palestinians and cheer on Gaza’s obliteration. Should we identify any longer with the ‘Christian’ brand? Whether these essays serve as prophetic indictment or final epitaph for the Christian faith remains to be seen. But I am grateful for this text and will be assigning it to prospective peacebuilders.”
“To be Christian does not entail the embrace of an aberrant eschatology used to justify war crimes; to be Christian is to walk this world in a deliberate attempt to imitate the Prince of Peace. And thus Being Christian After the Desolation of Gaza could not be more timely.”
“A bold, clear-eyed, and timely intervention at a moment of catastrophe for the Palestinian people. Exploring the theological props and political narratives that uphold genocide, ethnic cleansing, and occupation, the authors of Being Christian After the Desolation of Gaza convict the church to declare ‘no more.’”
“Being Christian After the Desolation of Gaza gathers sixteen courageous Christian voices that expose Israel’s overwhelming violence against Palestinians and trace today’s conflict to seventy-five years of settler-colonial injustice, echoing Indigenous North American histories. I urge Jesus-followers to respond with open hearts and courageous action to this clarion call for a just and non-violent peace.”
“This book challenges evangelical Christians’ relentless support for the state of Israel’s war against Palestinians. These pages testify to God’s love for all, while protesting the terror of bombs and tanks, and the weaponization of food and water. In these chapters we hear God’s call for peace and mercy.”
“Never has a book been so devastating, so painful, and so needed. Packed with Christian prophets, exemplifying the courage and conviction of Jeremiah, this book challenges any would-be-follower of Jesus with a moral reckoning that seeks to rescue a people in crisis, bring needed peace to a region, and save our warmongering, complicit souls.”
“Through personal stories and analysis of the Bible and popular American Christian discourse, these authors powerfully demonstrate that once again how Western Christians interpret the Bible and who we regard as not fully human is leading to death and destruction. They join the Christian leaders of the past in pointing the way to conviction, repentance, and change.”
“Concerned for all peoples of the land, committed to Christ-centered ethics, free of Christian Zionist distortion, rooted in the authors’ lived experience in Israel/Palestine, this book critiques Israel’s morally disastrous devastation of Gaza since October 7 but doesn't minimize Hamas’s morally disastrous attacks on October 7.”
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