Stories from the Other Side of the Wall: Daniel Bannoura

“Tell people our story.” Shireen Awwad, Bethlehem Bible College

This is an excerpt from Daniel Bannoura’s talk at Christ at the Checkpoint Conference. I encourage you to put yourself in Daniel’s shoes as you read his story.

A few days before the war broke out, a few of us got together—myself, Tony Deik, whom I think some of you know, and Yousef AlKouri. As friends, theologians, and young scholars, Palestinian Christians, we decided to get together to lament and grieve what's been happening in Gaza. We were driven by our grief and shock at the devastating footage coming out of Gaza. Quickly, our conversations became ones of lament and hopelessness.

But then Tony, the ever-optimist and faithful person of the group, kept telling us, "Guys, let us pray. Guys, let us pray." We prayed. Personally, I couldn't pray. I didn't have the words. I couldn't muster the words that would allow me to pray to God about what was happening in Gaza. But we quickly went to the Psalms and the prophets. We went to the Psalms for comfort, believing in the God who doesn't leave his people, and to the prophets for consolation, as they stood up, spoke truth to power, and challenged oppression and violence.

Then we started seeing articles written by notable evangelical leaders, people that we loved and respected, who came out very strongly supporting the war. I think the first article that horrified us was by Russell Moore, a well-known evangelical ethicist. He opined in Christianity Today that Christians need to have moral clarity by supporting the Israeli war on Gaza. When Russell uses the phrase "moral clarity," it lacks any nuance or understanding of the context of oppression and what war does to people under oppression.

Mind you, this is the same Russell Moore who, in 2023, published the book "Losing Our Religion: An Altar Call for Evangelical America," where he bemoaned that American evangelical Christianity has lost its way, and its witness is diminished beyond recognition. He said congregations are torn over Donald Trump, Christian nationalism, racial injustice, and sexual predation. He recounted telling many megachurch folks, "Hey folks, what do you think about the Sermon on the Mount?" They would come back to him and say, "That's too weak. We don't believe in the Sermon on the Mount. This is not the kind of life we want to live in the midst of the culture war that the media had thrown at us."

Ironically, Russell Moore also failed to quote the Sermon on the Mount in his statement supporting the war. How can you quote "love your enemy" while also supporting killing the enemy? Russell Moore couldn't do it. Jesus was too weak for Russell Moore. But, you know, Russell Moore is a very busy man. He just took over the role of being the Editor in Chief of Christianity Today. He's too busy fighting MAGA or the Southern Baptist Convention. Maybe he didn't read his [own] book, so it's fine—it could happen.

But then it kept happening. The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, also part of the SBC, issued their own evangelical statement in support of Israel. It affirmed the so-called legitimacy of Israel's right to respond by referencing Just War Theory and Romans 13. And I'm like, "Come on, evangelicals. You love the Gospel, now you are referencing Catholic traditions? What happened to Jesus that you all follow and love?" Right? Personally, I detest Just War Theory. I think it's an error and a way to justify and defend colonial Christianity. But even those who believe in Just War Theory would not use its arguments to justify what was happening in Gaza. Yet, our vanguards of ethics and religious liberty are telling us this is the way we should do it.

Then the Gospel Coalition, another favorite resource, published an article telling us that Hamas is like the Amalekites. This was before Netanyahu made that reference to the Amalekites. So, it wasn't that Netanyahu was quoting the Hebrew Bible to justify the war in Gaza. It was Christians, the Gospel Coalition, first, that weaponized the Bible to justify the ethnic cleansing and the genocide in Gaza, as has happened to the Amalekites. Following this, pastors, Christian leaders, and conservative Christian politicians made their genocidal and racist statements about Gaza and Gazans. You've heard the statements: "Kill them all," "Flatten it," "Make it into a parking lot," "Drop a nuclear bomb," all said by Christians—pastors, politicians, evangelicals, and so on. As we say, the rest is a history of Christians supporting genocide.