Replacement Theology, Replacement Theory, and the Assault on Israel
Last week’s post discussed how a democracy of terror facilitates the ambition to replace Israeli Jews by Palestinian Arabs as sole rightful inheritors of the Holy Land. The following examines theology and theory shaping that stratagem.
There’s an impulse, which has been growing and gaining traction since Jews came out of the ghettos and shtetls in the modern era, to shed our characteristic ethnic identity. No longer tagged “a people that dwells apart” (Numbers 23:9), we would free ourselves of constraints that the heritage of Jewish teachings and laws has imposed on us, and of their reputation of spiritual elitism that arouses widespread resentment, hostility and stigma.
Finally sloughing off a historical burden of tribal insularity that defines us as a nation, the wish is, we could blend in, assimilate, and join with the rest of humankind to embrace the true universal good and contribute to future global peace and prosperity.
This Universalistic creed, whether in conservative or liberal guise, reflects a decidedly Christian mindset (see Galatians 3:28). A theological term for the doctrine is “Replacement Theology”; otherwise, “Supersessionism.”
“Jews will not replace us!” – that’s the marching slogan of tiki-torch-wielding Christian nationalists among other hardcore white racist ideologues in the deadly 2017 Charlottesville march.1 They’re in a defensive posture: These violent right-wing fanatics are registering anxiety about whether their shaky position of superiority and dominance will hold. They’re circling the wagons.
It’s Replacement Theory – Replacement Theology’s delinquent younger sibling. At the ideological spectrum’s other end is the anti-Israel movement. It too peddles in Replacement Theology/Theory.
This version is politically Progressive-style projection, onto a contemporary Islamist supremacist screen, of ancient Supersessionist fantasies.2 Thus, although many anti-Israel Progressives profess to be unreligious, they rely on classic Christian anti-Jewish tropes. Its rhetoric superficially, selectively and inconsistently anti-ethno-nationalist, the movement blurs Zionist commitment with racist ideation.
The feint is self-contradictory. It conflates incompatible ideas: rejecting (on a Universalistic basis) ethnicity (in favor of individuality) as a social organizing principle yet (while denying that Jews count as an ethnicity) affirming ethnicity as a social organizing principle, notably for Palestinians.
Pretending to reject indigeneity on principle, Progressive anti-Zionists who routinely decry the “ethno-state” nevertheless champion indigenous people’s rights while calling Jews liars for saying we are indigenous to the Holy Land. Jews who reject Israel are welcome to participate. Jews who advocate for inter-cultural dialogue and conciliation but support Israel’s existence are not welcome.
The movement’s factitious tagline: Jews, who are white European colonialist interlopers, will (as Replacement Theory dictates) not replace Palestinians, the “actual,” “legitimate” indigenous population of “Palestine.” The motive (in keeping with Replacement Theology) is to erase the historical identity of Jews as an ethnic and national group.
When one points out any of this doubletalk, those same Progressive activists quickly try to change the subject. Liberal Christian critics who are not clamoring for Israel’s dismantling but appalled at its alleged war crimes and human rights abuses scramble awkwardly and nervously to distance themselves from overtly anti-Zionist manifestations of left-wing protest, in which the flavor of old-fashioned Jew-hatred is palpable and unmistakable.
Whether secularized on the left or racialized on the right, Supersessionism is right there on either end of Christianity’s political-ideological spectrum.
In the democracy of terror, Israelis/Jews may not claim victimhood status. That’s reserved exclusively for Palestinians, who’ve suffered more material damage than Israelis have and must therefore be declared winner – the Elect, the true Chosen People – in a winner-take-all vote over which side deserves public solace and encouragement. Cheering the contest’s result, leftist extremists have cultivated an elaborate solipsistic rationale.
Death and destruction in Gaza infuriate Progressives and undermine efforts of Israel’s liberal well-wishers to rally behind it, their sympathy tempered – if not weakened or altogether nullified – by the Jewish State’s perceived criminal conduct as witnessed in the gruesome spectacle with its massive Palestinian casualties.
When one pushes back to point out how and why the war came about (remember the horror show on October 7?), a default response is to cite statistical data documenting “atrocities” of Israel’s Gaza campaign.
Never mind the eliminationist aim driving Palestinian political ambitions; or the Supersessionist vision – commitment to a “peaceful,” Jew-free future – underlying them. (That attitude is congruent with the designs of Palestinian nationalism; among them hatred of Jews is nearly universal.3 )
How will a global culture schooled in anti-Jewish ideation that – whether religious or secular in tone – reflects Christian doctrine respond to the IDF strike on Iran?
Initial responses from church platforms give an indication. Prominent Fundamentalist Evangelical voices, speaking on their favorite right-wing media platforms, are, predictably, lining up in support of Israel’s action.4
Mainline and left-leaning denominations just as predictably oppose it as this statement from a major umbrella organization, referring to Israel’s “aggression,” indicates: “The World Council of Churches (WCC) strongly condemns the Israeli military attack on Iranian territory – an unlawful act that violates international law and the sovereignty of a nation-state.”5 The statement offers no comment on the Islamic Republic of Iran’s long-held commitment to wipe out Israel.
Christian Replacement Theology and Replacement Theory, both now on permanent loan to Jew-hating jihadists, are alive and well.
See for example https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/post/bad-faith-documentary-shows-dangers-of-christian-nationalism/ . Note reference to the view expressed in “replacement theory, prominent in the Charlottesville Klan rally of July 2017, that Jews and racial minorities are out to replace white Christians.”
The role of Islamist interpretations of Muslim teaching to advance the vision of a global caliphate is a related matter, one worth exploring scrupulously.
https://atlas.adl.org/#/Palestine / Because readers might suspect bias in ADL’s figure, I looked for a more obviously neutral recent statistical source citation but could not find any. However, this earlier one from Pew is consistent with ADL’s current data: https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2010/02/04/chapter-3-views-of-religious-groups/ .
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/bible-students-should-be-paying-close-attention-christian-leaders-react-to-israels-attack-on-iran/ar-AA1GG7KV ; https://www.foxnews.com/world/evangelical-leaders-praise-trumps-continued-support-israel-amid-war-iran .
https://www.oikoumene.org/resources/documents/statement-on-the-israeli-military-attack-on-iran