When Christian organizations gamble with Jewish safety in secret - by Dexter Van Zile

If these church institutions had said, “Yes, we know the Iranian regime is profoundly hostile to Jews and Israel, but we still think this deal is a risk worth taking,” then fine. But instead of promoting an honest assessment of the risks and rewards of negotiating with Iran, these church institutions, under FCNL’s leadership, made such an analysis more difficult. If Christian leaders are going to roll the dice with Jewish lives and safety, let them do so out in the open, not in secret. And if they can’t do it out in the open, then let them not do it at all.

Obama administration official
Ben Rhodes

Dexter Van Zile..
JNS.org..
22 May '16..

Earlier this month, Ben Rhodes, a national security official in the Obama administration, admitted in a New York Times profile that he used non-governmental groups to create an “echo chamber” to garner cover for the nuclear deal with Iran. Rhodes stated that his efforts to manipulate media coverage of the deal were made easier by the youth and ignorance of journalists who cover foreign policy.

The implications are appalling. The whole point of having a free (and competent) press is to give the American people the information they need to exercise oversight over their elected (and non-elected) officials. It is one of the essential tools of American self-governance.

Journalists are not the only people who were implicated as a result of Ben Rhodes’s stunning admission. Christian churches and para-church organizations were an important part of the echo chamber that Rhodes created.

Christian organizations such as the National Council of Churches, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the United Church of Christ, the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church (USA), and the Mennonite Central Committee repeated, relayed, and affirmed messages that came out of the echo chamber to their supporters. By behaving in such a manner, these institutions did harm to the civil society in which they operate and to their own reputations.

(Continue to Full Post)

Related articles:

Ben Rhodes’ Echo Chamber on Iran Had Many Supporters and A Guide to the Perplexed: Ploughshares and the Iran Deal Echo Chamber

Dexter Van Zile is a Christian media analyst for the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA). His opinions are his own.

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work as well as a big vote to follow our good friend Kay Wilson on Twitter.

.