Why I Am Not a Christian Zionist

 

By Destiny Magnett

 Reprinted with permission; originally published for ChristianZionism.org, https://www.christianzionism.org/whynot-essay-magnett?;

June 10, 2025

 

 I grew up in the heartland of America – Topeka, Kansas. The landscape was a melting pot of Evangelical Christianities that steeped into the culture. I knew few people from non-Christian traditions and found myself defaulting to interpretations of the world that were the same as those around me, boiling down to an Evangelical worldview. Looking back, Christian Zionism was not an especially active force in the world I knew, but it was certainly still influential. It was not uncommon for maps to leave out the occupied Palestinian territory, or for the people around me to make conflations between Biblical Israel and the modern day nation state. This was not something I initially questioned. After all, Israel/Palestine felt so very far away.

 This was until, as an undergraduate studying religion, I traveled to Jordan. I went to Jordan to study Arabic and the contours of religious freedom, but when I met Palestinian refugees, I was deeply troubled by the ways complicity–of both the U.S. and the church–appeared in their stories of expulsion and persecution. In this, the long-held narrative of the state of Israel’s founding and stature that I had always, even if passively, absorbed began to unravel. But I still had much to (un)learn. While living in Jordan, I felt called to cross the river into the West Bank–but it did not yet feel like the right time. I felt that I needed to travel thoughtfully and with the tools to make my experience really “matter.”

 Still grappling, I headed to Harvard Divinity School to pursue a master’s degree and continue to ask questions about the way religion can be used in pursuit of just peace. I came to Harvard, in part, because of the Religion, Conflict, and Peace Initiative (RCPI), a program in the midst of a multi-year case study on Israel/Palestine. RCPI’s flagship course brought together students from across Harvard’s graduate schools to, as the syllabus states, “examine a diversity of narratives regarding displacement and belonging in Israel/Palestine…through direct encounters with an array of organizations and other interlocutors.” The seminar, called Narratives of Displacement and Belonging in Palestine/Israel, culminated in a two-week trip to the region. It was the kind of opportunity I had yearned for, and I felt God telling me that this was the time to go and see.

 The seminar changed my life, and the week spent examining Christian Zionism is one I will never forget. After watching the film, ‘Til Kingdom Come, which follows one Kentucky congregation’s relationship with the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews to give the viewer an in-depth look at the relationship between Evangelical Christians and the state of Israel, I wrote this reflection:

 “The documentary unsettled me. For a few days after the film, I reflected on why this film impacted me so    deeply... I came to realize that I was unsettled because the subjects of the film reminded me of home. The rural landscapes sprinkled with religious billboards, the predictable cadence of the hymns, and even the content of many of the sermons were eerily familiar, landing somewhere between guilty nostalgia and impending dread.”

 This was a revelation. It was with this in mind that I traveled alongside my classmates and instructors in the West Bank and Israel. It was with this in mind that I spent ten more weeks in Bethlehem as a fellow with Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) – an ecumenical Christian nonprofit dedicated to pursuing sustainable, just peace for all people in the Middle East. And it was with this in mind that I felt called to return to the U.S. to help other Christians like me recognize and unlearn the ways that Christian Zionism has become not only a theological, but a cultural phenomenon in our communities and work toward reconciling the harms it perpetuates.

 In September 2023, I started a new role leading CMEP’s church engagement. Just a month later, my work would change forever with the horrors of the October 7th attacks and subsequent obliteration of the Gaza Strip. Having the opportunity to walk alongside churches, pastors, and lay leaders through this time has been one of the most difficult and most meaningful chapters of my life. I have been so grateful for the hard conversations around this issue because, unlike many of the environments I grew up in, those conversations mean silence hasn’t won. While I am deeply appreciative of the communities who are engaging in this work, the American church has been largely silent. Palestinian Christians feel betrayed by the church. As a believer in the solidarity and mercy of Christ with the vulnerable, marginalized, and oppressed, I am heartbroken. And yet, this heartbreak is only more reason to continue dismantling the systems which Christian Zionism supports and which enable this shameful silence.

 As I write this essay in Spring 2025, the program that was fundamental in shaping why I am not a Christian Zionist – the Religion, Conflict and Peace Initiative at Harvard - has been systematically dismantled. How could a program that shaped the lives of so many be taken away on a whim? The answer is the same one as why so many churches have been silent in the face of atrocities committed in Palestine, and why I am not a Christian Zionist.

 Those in power want our silence. Silence enables them to continue to shape culture and consciousness and reinforce uncomplicated narratives and binaries over nuanced understandings of the world. I am not a Christian Zionist, because I cannot be complicit in these systems anymore. This decision is grounded deeply in my faith. I believe God calls us to love one another (John 13:34) without exception. I believe the life of Jesus calls us to act courageously on behalf of the oppressed and disinherited. (Isaiah 1:17) I believe we each have a role to play in this urgent work. (1 Corinthians 12:12-31) May it be so.

 

Destiny Magnett is the Programs and Outreach Manager at Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) where she serves as the primary liaison for church partners. Grounded in deep commitments to justice, she draws from her own ecumenical Christian identity to help diverse American Christian communities deepen their understandings of the Middle East. Destiny holds a Masters in Theological Studies and a Religion & Public Life Certificate from Harvard Divinity School. She also holds a B.A. in Religious Studies from Grinnell College.