Transcript
Apocalyptic Omission
June 14, 2002
MIKE PESCA: Each day that the news out of the Middle East is about violence and strife and grief, more interest groups in America state their cases to the media about who they support and why. One coalition firmly supporting Israel has surprised many people for its seemingly odd combination -- an alliance between Jews and Evangelical Christians. It turns out that the relationship is an old one with roots in the Bible, but it's also one that has caught the media short as journalists and pundits try to place it in context -ideological, historical and theological --well some of the theological. For instance, NPR's Mara Liasson reported recently that Christians recognize the status of Jews as God's chosen people, and a report last week in the New York Times said simply that evangelicals were driven by a mixture of biblical prophecy and ideology. But what those reports didn't mention is any explanation of what prophecy is exactly. Gustav Niebuhr was the national religion reporter for the New York Times from 1994 through 2001 and is now a visiting fellow for the Center of the Study of Religion at Princeton University. He says that the current practice of explaining the theological underpinnings of evangelical beliefs by simply writing the word "prophecy" is a dodge.
GUSTAV NIEBUHR: It's a shorthand that I don't think tells you very much unless you're aware of this popular interest in what's called "Bible prophecy," and that is how you can read certain texts in the Bible as a way of looking into the future.
JANET PARSHALL: People who read "the Bible" - who believe in Genesis, who believe in Matthew, also have to believe in Revelation.
MIKE PESCA: Janet Parshall, who spoke at a large pro-Israel rally in Washington in April hosts a Christian radio program heard on more than a hundred stations.
JANET PARSHALL: Revelations says declaratively, oh you bet Israel is going to be the place, which by the way is another reason why I think my audience sits up and takes notice in this issue because no one knows exactly when it's going to end, but we do know where it's going to end.
MIKE PESCA:The "end" that she's talking about is the end of the world, the Second Coming of Christ, also known as the End of Times. There are many different interpretations as to when this will happen and how, but that it will happen is a given in evangelical faiths, and for the end to come, Israel must be inhabited by Jews. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Seminary, discussed biblical prophecy on the Newshour with Jim Lehrer.
ALBERT MOHLER: We will see as the New Testament tells us, a vast turning to Jesus Christ, to Christianity, to the gospel on the part of Jewish people. And then there are specific New Testament prophecies related to Jerusalem and to the coming reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a clear consensus of support for Israel and the understanding that God is not finished with the Jewish people.
MIKE PESCA:Southern Baptists make up the second largest religious denomination in America after Roman Catholics. A recent AP poll revealed that 40 percent of Christians thought that Jesus would return in the 21st Century. That may account for why the best selling book of last year was another in the left behind series of novels --a take on the Second Coming set in the near future which many faithful regard as the truth. In those books which have sold a total of 50 million copies, the conversion of Jews is essential to the return of Christ, but that's a message that leaders like former Christian Coalition Chairman Ralph Reed are careful to de-emphasize as happened in the face of this grilling from Hardball host Chris Matthews.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Isn't there a religious reason why your group's - the Evangelical Christians - want to have Israel re-established as it has been revived since 1948 so that, so that the Second Coming can occur and you can have the Apocalypse, the end of the world and the general judgment. Isn't that a religious conviction of the evangelicals that some people adhere to and that's why they support the State of Israel as it is?
RALPH REED: I will tell you that I think the notion that this is based on eschatology or it's based on a particular view of the End Times is, is really hogwash. I don't, I don't find that-- [BOTH SPEAK AT ONCE]
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Well I'm glad to hear you say that. Let me ask you--
MIKE PESCA: Journalist Gustav Niebuhr says that unlike Matthews, most members of the media don't take a rooting interest in the Second Coming. They just don't understand how pervasive the belief is among many religious Americans. He also thinks that to fully engage the issue takes reporters down a path they're often reluctant to travel.
GUSTAV NIEBUHR: If you talk about evangelicals and Jews forging some kind of alliance, then it raises the question of well -- how's this going to play out in the next election? If you bring in the theology, you're talking about something else, and the reaction to it is going to be considerably different. It's going to be well you're talking about people's beliefs -- some people are going to agree -some people are going to disagree. But I think that makes it less accessible --less fitting within the standard news paradigm.
MIKE PESCA:And less revealing of the real story. Niebuhr's point is that reporters would rather look at historical facts and political motivations and come up with a fairly simple way of describing the partnership. But it's more than facts and motivations that reverberate from the pulpits of evangelical churches. It's often word of the Second Coming or End Times -- concepts journalists usually ignore. And because of that, the media's explanations come off as something less than gospel.
BOB GARFIELD: Coming up -- now that Brooke is safely out of earshot -- the first of 3 sports-related segments and Chris Lydon goes to Ghana.
MIKE PESCA: This is On the Media from National Public Radio.