NEW YORK (RNS) — Christian nationalist activist and musician Sean Feucht, pastor Russell Johnson, and conservative author Eric Metaxas spoke out in response to the Gaza Solidarity Encampment established by students a week ago. He led a pro-Israel rally at Columbia University.
The April 25 “Unite for Israel” rally was promoted on social media and aimed to show support for Israel, Jewish students and faculty.
A crowd of several hundred people gathered, surrounding Columbia’s campus without entering the gates, singing hymns and praying. Instead, they shouted slogans and made threats through the steel fence of the Upper Manhattan school.
This rally signaled the growing interest of political evangelicals in campus politics in general and pro-Palestinian campus protests in particular. Earlier this week, House Speaker Mike Johnson, an evangelical Christian, appeared at Columbia University to denounce anti-Semitism on campus and meet with school officials to demand the resignation of Columbia President Minouche Shafik.
The rally was billed as an attempt to “redeem Columbia University,” in Feucht’s words. Feucht gained notoriety during the COVID-19 pandemic by holding a church concert to protest restrictions on public gatherings.
He organized the rally with Russell Johnson, the conservative senior pastor of Pursuit NW Church, and Metaxas, a 2020 election denier and supporter of former President Donald Trump. Metaxas, who wrote a 2010 biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German theologian who was executed for opposing Hitler in World War II, held up a poster of Bonhoeffer’s portrait at Thursday’s event.
After blessing the crowd and praying for Israel, Feucht opened the event by singing the Christian hymn “How Great is Our God?”
“This is the last day.”
“Today, we say enough is enough. This anti-Christian, anti-Semitic agenda is rising in New York City and in universities,” he said.
A day earlier, Feucht said in a livestream that anti-Semitism was rising on campus due to pro-Palestinian student protests, a sign that the end times were near.
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“We are witnessing a rise and flood of anti-Semitism all over the world. These are the last days. …Now it’s the last day, and the second coming of Jesus is fast approaching,” he said.
Feucht added that the Israel-Hamas war is “one of the end-time issues” and said Christians need to stand by Israel and “make it right.”
Feucht read aloud a passage from the Bible’s Genesis chapter 12, which refers to God’s covenant with Abraham, and said it is the duty of Christians to support Israel.
Feucht then led protesters in a procession around Columbia University’s Morningside Heights campus. Their march, he claimed, mirrored the march of Joshua’s army around the walls of Jericho as described in the Book of Joshua.
Some demonstrators played the shofar, a musical horn used in Jewish religious ceremonies, imitating a Biblical story.
Noreen Siano, 63, a Christian from New Jersey, closed her eyes and prayed in tongues as she marched.
“I was praying for peace. I was praying for the Lord’s presence in this place,” she told Religion News Service.
A nondenominational Christian, Siano is a member of the International House of Prayer Eastern Gate Church and hosts a radio show. As a Christian, she said supporting Israel should be an easy decision because “the whole Bible is Israel-centered.”
contrasting perspectives
Some in the crowd waved Israeli and American flags and chanted “Go home,” referring to the estimated 130 hostages Hamas is said to have held since the Oct. 7 attack.
Along the way, the marchers encountered members of the anti-Zionist Hasidic group Neturei Karta, who held signs that read “Judaism rejects Zionism and the state of Israel.”
Pro-Palestinian Christian activists also clashed with the crowd, some holding placards that read: “Jesus lies beneath the rubble of Palestine.”
At the end of the rally, the marchers clashed with pro-Palestinian student demonstrators at the campus gates at Amsterdam Avenue and 116th Street, resulting in tense confrontations. The two groups shouted at each other through the gate, and the pro-Israel crowd sang the Israeli national anthem and “God Bless America.”
Members of the pro-Israel Christian group Passages, which organizes “Christian birthright trips” to the Holy Land, arrived carrying placards that read “Christians stand with Israel.”
Ariel Keohane, a Modern Orthodox Jew, marches during this time wearing a yarmulke with the name of the Jewish activist group Young Jewish Conservatives printed under a red hat that says “Trump Was Right.” He said that he was very grateful for the support given to Christian Zionists by the participants. war in Gaza.
He also praised the efforts of other evangelical groups, including Christians United for Israel and its leader John Hagee, who headlined a rally for Israel in Washington late last year.
“We share conservative political views and religious values. We are allies and we work together hand in hand. We hope they stand shoulder to shoulder with us. That’s really wonderful,” Kohane said.
Mr. Kohane, who lives near the Columbia campus, denounced the “Gaza Solidarity encampment” and said the situation should prompt donors to withdraw funds from the institution. He said Shafiq should resign because of his inadequate handling of the situation.
Anya Andreeva, a Christian living in Brooklyn, came to pray and support Israel. She learned about the rally on Facebook, but she said she made sure it was a peaceful demonstration centered around prayer before deciding to attend. She vetted the organizers before coming.
“I’ve seen enough to trust it. I’m keen not to side with anything that uses Christianity as propaganda for any kind of agenda,” she said.
The meeting ended with a prayer session. The crowd prayed for the hostages’ “salvation and safety” and blessed the Jewish participants.
“Lord, we are praying tonight for a miracle, a miracle throughout the Middle East,” Feucht said.
