Church criticized over support of Israel

BY TOM DAVIS
Writer

PARAMUS — A Christian church's pro-Israeli views
came under fire Sunday when a small group of
protesters picketed during worship services,
carrying signs that said "No More Wars for Israel."

With police looking on, members of the anti-Zionist
group Project Strait Gate marched outside the
Maranatha Church of the Nazarene to protest
what they believe is the church's "destructive"
support of Israel.

The four demonstrators engaged little, if at all,
with parishioners as they marched the Midland
Avenue sidewalk for three hours, targeting the
church's display of an Israeli flag next to an
American flag in its front windows.

Rich Siegel of Teaneck, a protest organizer who wore a
"Free Palestine" button and a scarf displaying the
Palestinian flag, said the group sought to peacefully
protest Israel's efforts to maintain its sovereignty
over the Palestinians.

He equated those efforts with an "extreme"
form of Zionism.

"Zionism has taken over Judaism, Zionism has
taken over the country, and now Zionism has
taken over Christianity," said Siegel who, like
some other Strait Gate members, is Jewish.

The church, led by the Rev. Charles Rizzo, did little
to respond to the protests other than handing out
a yellow flier that explains its pro-Israel positions.

"You have your right to protest and the sidewalk is
yours," wrote Rizzo, who did not allow the marchers
to move onto church property.

"Acts of war always are tragic," Rizzo wrote. "
No matter how hard you try to avoid civilian
casualties, they will occur. If I read you correctly,
you seem to suggest that no Christian can bear
the sword?"

Rizzo, whose church also displays an Israeli flag
inside its sanctuary, said the marchers had a right
to protest even if its motives were questionable.

Project Strait Gate is a national group that protests
the "inability or unwillingness of some Christian
church leaders to act out their God-ordained
mandate to be peacemakers," according to its
Web site.

Rizzo, however, said the Web site preaches
"hatred" because it takes views that are anti-Israel,
but appear to be latent anti-Semitic.

"The problem is that the wrong people hear it,"
Rizzo said.

Rizzo said his church's pro-Israeli views have
prompted anti-Israeli, and anti-Semitic protests
in the past. Swastikas were once painted on the
building, and motorists occasionally slow down
to hurl anti-Semitic taunts at the church and
its members.

But those acts have never prompted the church to
reconsider its views, he said. Rizzo and other
evangelical Christians believe that the 1948
establishment of Israel is fulfillment of biblical
prophecy that Jews will return to the Holy Land
before the second coming of Jesus Christ.

"I believe in the literal fulfillment of biblical
prophecy," Rizzo said in an interview Friday.

The protesters said the church had crossed a
line in supporting countries that, in their view,
support "death and destruction." Motorists who
slowed for a look at the protest had a different
view of things, calling the sign-carrying group
"anti-Semitic."

But the protesters were unswayed. "Christian
churches should not be displaying the flags of
foreign countries," said Howard Rothman of
Bridgeport, Conn., who carried a sign that said,
"Jesus Did Not Teach Ethnic Cleansing."

Staff Writer John Chadwick contributed to
this article. E-mail: davist@northjersey.com