WASHINGTON — A majority of American evangelical Christians support the Israeli government’s decision to withdraw from the Gaza Strip, Southern Baptist ethicist Richard Land estimated to members of a prominent foreign policy organization.
In a meeting with members of the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, Land said of evangelicals’ response to the Aug.–Sept. removal of Israeli settlers from that land, “You don’t bless the Jews by asking more for the Jews than they’re asking for themselves. And if the Israeli government elected by the Israeli people believes that this is in the best interest of … the Jews who are in the land, then far be it from us to try to force upon them something which they think is counter-productive for themselves.”
Forum moderator Luis Lugo, director of the Washington-based Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, had expressed surprise to Land that there was not more protest from American evangelicals about Israel’s withdrawal from land it controlled. There are “maybe 20 to 25 percent” of evangelicals who strongly support Israel and are “very disturbed by the withdrawal from Gaza,” estimated Land, president of The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
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