Liberty Minute September 16 2014

Representatives of displaced and persecuted Arab Christians gathered in Washington for a conference entitled In Defense of Christians. The keynote speaker, Republican presidential aspirant Ted Cruz, insisted that ?Christians have no greater ally than the Jewish state.? This provoked audible disapproval from some in attendance, whose view of the Arab-Israeli dispute differs from that of American Evangelicals and politicians seeking their favor.

Cruz conspicuously rebuked conference attendees, accusing them of displaying ?hatred? for Jews and proclaiming: ?If you will not stand with Israel and the Jews, then I will not stand with you.?

It is an act of monumental presumption to impose an ideological litmus test on persecuted Arab Christians. Whatever one's perspective on Israel, the founding and expansion of that state have contributed to the dispossession of Arab Christians, some of whom were evicted from lands and homes their families had owned for generations. Millions of others have been driven from Iraq by an Islamist regime brought to power in a war widely perceived in the region to have been waged for Israel's benefit.

Within hours of the incident, Cruz was using it in fund-raising appeals targeting Evangelical voters, which strongly suggests that he acted not out of solidarity for those who suffer, but out of a cynical desire to capitalize on the conflict.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.