David Goldman is one of those rare polymaths capable of startling observations in multiple fields — economics demographics religion music — and the ability to weave them all together in fascinating ways. A recent document produced by the Church of Scotland “An Inheritance of Abraham? ” a veritable potpourri of reasons for rejecting the Jewish claim of a historical connection to the Land of Israel occasioned a typical Goldman apercu: “The most successful Christian communities embrace the State of Israel while the least successful abhor it.”
Ironically the Church of Scotland was once a hotbed of Christian Zionism. It was a Church of Scotland cleric who coined the phrase “A land without people for a people without a land.” But that was more than a century ago when the Church ofScotland and the Calvinism it embodied was far more vibrant than today. Since 1956 the Church of Scotland has shed two-thirds of its members and continues to lose them at a rate of five percent a year.
Things are not much better for the Church of England. Less that 40 percent of Britons say they believe in G-d and more British Muslims than British Christians attend weekly religious services. Like the Church of Scotland the Church of England has increasingly descended into mindless political correctness.Israelhas often bore the brunt of that political correctness in the form of resolutions for disinvestment.
The religious energy in Americahas shifted dramatically from the old mainstream churches — Episcopalians and Presbyterians — towards evangelicals. Here too Goldman’s observation holds up. Both the Episcopalians and Presbyterians have passed disinvestment resolutions in recent years (though the Presbyterians subsequently rescinded theirs). Meanwhile the evangelicals have proven to be the most stalwart supporters of Israel often citing the Biblical verse “And I will bless them that bless you and curse him that curses you; and in you shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (Bereishis 12:3).
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