Black Christians’ competing solidarities with Israelis and Palestinians
Divergent biblical interpretations and shared histories lead to different answers to the same question: Who are “the oppressed”?
Century illustration (Source images: Getty)
In the days and weeks following October 7, 2023, my email inboxes and social media feeds prominently featured statements, media appearances, essays, calls to action, and teach-ins aiming to educate, persuade, and mobilize African American Christians at a moment when the issue of Israel and Palestine had quickly become more fraught and polarizing globally than it has been in recent memory.
Michael Stevens, a North Carolina pastor in the Black Pentecostal Church of God in Christ denomination, lamented that “Israel is at war, and the Black church finds itself silent again.” He continued: “Unfortunately, many Black pastors and leaders have a mixed level of apathy and resistance toward Israel as well as empathy [for] the Palestinian struggle. . . . If any organization or group of people should be standing with unwavering support for Israel during these difficult days, it should be the Black church.”
In contrast, Iva Carruthers, general secretary of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference (a network of progressive African American clergy, activists, and faith leaders), offered this: “The truth is that Jesus was a Palestinian Jew, Bethlehem is in Palestine, and there are many Christian Palestinians. The biblical Israel is not today’s political Israel.”
