the largest share of low-paid jobs among rich countries. there is a glut of very low-paying jobs in this country. when scott talks about people being self-sufficient even though i think we all depend on each other in various ways, often we are thinking about people working. turns out lots of people are working and are paid poorly in the united states and that relates to the decline in unionization. we see more of a worker void and need to see more power. or been gains for people who have low income including especially for some communities of color but also for white americans with the lowest incomes. they pale in comparison to the gains at the very top and they also, in my view, they often are dependent on some of these programs and transfers even more than i would like.

i would like it to people's jobs were compensated such >> we will leave this program, but you can watch in its entirety on c-span.org. live with the reverend johnny moore, a former member of the u.s. commission on international religious freedom. he will talk about the israel hamas war at the zionist rabbinical annual conference in washington, d.c. >> whether it has been on college campuses, municipalities, streets in europe and elsewhere. it's important for us to know and that's one of the reasons we begin our program this afternoon, for us to know that we are not alone. fortunately there are allies who stand with us. it is my pleasure to open our program by inviting them to american evangelical leader, an author and businessman, a former two time commissioner of the

united states commission on international religious freedom, president of the congress of christian leaders. has been called one of america's most influential evangelical leaders and is especially known for his multistate work at the intersection of state and foreign policy. of interest to all of us, the fact he is the recipient of the simon weisenthal medal of valor, a founding member of the task force for minorities in the middle east. reverend johnny moore is about to speak with us and i heard him recently speak at the israeli embassy. anyone who has been there in recent months knows outside the embassy there are amplifiers and speakers with an air raid siren going 24/7 just about at 100 decibels. anything over 60 decibels is illegal, over 80 decibels can break your ears. they were protesting and i heard the reverend say, if they really

cared about human rights, they would turn their speakers the other direction so the chinese could hear their objections to the way the uighurs are treated. he said but obviously that is not really why they are here. please join me in welcoming johnny moore. rev. moore: ironically those protesters are standing on the sidewalk of the chinese embassy. it is wonderful to be with all of you. i have some old friends in the room, some new friends, and i hope to make many more new friends. my topic this afternoon is why

christian zionists love israel and the jewish people. it's not a sermon, i'm not going to preach, but i am an evangelical, so i decided to pick a text, and it is psalm 130 two, verse 13. the words say, for the lord has chosen zion. when i think of these sometimes complicated relationship between evangelicals and the jewish

community, especially in the united states, i often think of an occasion i personally witnessed. in my early 20's i was invited to a small event in this city organized by a jewish organization honoring a prominent evangelical for his support of israel. a small reception and then a brief ceremony to honor the individual. first a statement was to be made by an executive of the jewish organization, then an award presented to the evangelical. the evangelical would say thanks, then closing comments from a rabbi. short, sweet, elegant, done. that's not how it happened. the award was amazing. it wasn't that unusual for the occasion. it was stunning and perched on a beautiful stand. everything went just fine until the shofar was handed to the evangelical. as overzealous preachers sometimes do, he took to the podium and said some words of thanks i do not remember before he did something i will never forget.

he said, i only wish i knew how to play the shofar. that was when one no doubt well-meaning member of his delegation, a nice lady from somewhere in mississippi, stood up and said, i do, i used to play the trumpet. the evangelical, in a total lapse of judgment, which we are sometimes prone to do -- i'm sure none of you are -- he said, come up. she did. it quickly became apparent she could not play the shofar. her cheeks ballooned but she was getting more embarrassed so she would not quit. she turned bright red, nearly collapsed. i thought this poor lady was going to die before our eyes before the evangelical talked her out of it. he got the good sister to give up. then the rabbi assumed the podium to give his already prepared remarks, which began with a beautiful few sentences about how the shofar is rarely used except on the most sacred occasions. and there you have it in one story, the evangelical jewish experience together. [laughter] the truth is, we have actually been running in the same circles for a very long time. in 1897 in switzerland, when 200

delegates gathered for the first zionist world congress, many people believe only jews attended. and they are mainly right, but not entirely. since this is a zionist coalition, you may know theodore hartsell also invited 10 christian observers to the first zionist congress. he was not only one of the most influential figures in history, having ignited the zionist movement, he was also a dear friend of christians of the even gelcoat kind. it was he himself who first used the term christian zionist, and he used it to describe the commitment to israel exhibited by two of his christian friends. the first was a missionary with the british embassy in vienna.

he became fascinated by hartsell's influential work with the jewish state and became of one of his most zealous followers. he became a loyal disciple of herzl's teaching, which is ironic because herzl was secular. he commented on this in his diary. he said he considers my movement to be biblical even though i proceed rationally at all points. heckler was very influential leading up to the declaration. probably the first person to be called a christian zionist was henry the non-, -- henry, the founder of the red cross. his humanitarian ideas led not only to the founding of the red cross and also to geneva convention. he was awarded two nobel peace

prizes, including the first one in 1901. something to think about, as we watched in recent months the red cross and its interaction with hostages held by hamas, there founder, the father of humanitarianism, was also a passionate christian zionist, because of his belief in the bible. as early as 1866, he began advocating for the return of jews to the holy land. despite being personally invited by herzl to the conference, dunant was not able to attend because of an illness, but he was so important that herzl mentioned him by name in his closing remarks. on that very day, herzl dunant. -- herzl wrote to dunant. he said, on the day zionism is so secure that it can ponder its

origin, henry, for your efforts, will have the recognition they deserve for their astonishing foresight and true christian generosity. you have so many claims to everlasting gratitude from your fellow man. your place in the history of civilization is so exalted, so touched with glory, that your service, as prophetic as it is to the cause of zionism, may indeed be lost, given the scale of your other achievements. after all these years, more than a century since that occasion, the truth is we have no excuse not to know one another better, especially now. i am often asked, especially by my jewish friends, and especially since october 7, why evangelicals feel this way about

the jewish community. i think it's because of what we have done. we have spoken our community with moral clarity from october 7 and every day since, from d.c. to sao paulo, london to johannesburg, delhi to austria. we have shown up by the thousands to solidarity rallies globally. we have spoken every time the press asked us a question. we have dedicated our own television and radio outlets the countless hours of coverage on israel and against the rise of anti-semitism. we have advocated relentlessly for the hostages. i helped organize a rally outside the red cross and the human rights commission in geneva. i personally met on multiple occasions with those leaders and the leaders of the arab state. i was just in saudi arabia just over two weeks ago. i spoke to the eu parliament.

i raged for family members of the hostages to speak in front of 10,000 college students at liberty university in front of the largest evangelical congregations in the country. i spoke at pepperdine, wheatland college, and delivered the commencement address at wesleyan just a few weeks ago. i will be at stanford later this week. in two weeks, i will make my fourth solidarity visit to israel already this year. on my visits, i have a habit. at the end of every day in jerusalem, i visit the k otel. in january, that meant after an emotional shop at -- emotional shabbat dinner, it tested my commitment. i wanted to go to sleep and i was very far away. the gps is scrambled in israel.

it takes a while. as an evangelical, i couldn't imagine not going to the kotel to pray for israel at a moment like this. i am here to tell you that while a -- while i may spend more time in the middle east than most, i am not unusual. every leader in my community that i know has tried to do something to help israel and the jewish community since october 7. i do not know a single evangelical leader who has bowed under the pressure to abandon israel or to make excuses for anti-semitism exploding on our streets. [applause]

our faith doesn't allow us to balance pressure. our scripture says, our christian new testament, if you care about the opinions of people, you cannot be a servant of god. there are limitations to this, but generally we can't blink. we must hold our ground. god expects us to be strong and courageous against all the opposition in the world. ladies and gentlemen, we are especially suspicious of political correctness. -- corruptness. spiritual leaders have an obligation not to be swayed by political correctnes -- corruptness. jeremiah, isaiah, micah, none of them were swayed by the powerful political correctness of their day.

they knew, as you know, as we know, that we needed to be guided first by god's word. if you need any more evidence of the sinister effect of political correctness, just look at what happened yesterday and what also happened this morning before we gathered here. yesterday, two of the most objectively evil leaders in modern history, iran's president and foreign minister, met a surprising death because of bad weather in the mountains of iran. yet all morning the foreign ministers of countless countries have fallen over themselves, even in democratic countries, to issue statements warning the deaths of these sinister individuals. i his sentiment i think is correct. he said, i do not mourn the death of iran's leaders.

and he's right. with the foreign minister masterminded the ruthless murder of thousands in iran. they were serial killers. and when i sat on the u.s. commission for international religious freedom, we unanimously, democrat and republican appointee, agreed unanimously to demand the u.s. sangd raisi when he was the justice of the supreme court and the government did sanction him. they called him the butcher of tehran for a reason. because his blood lust was most satisfied by slaughtering the most vulnerable -- women and children, members of the lgbtq community, the teenage community of his own political adversary, countless religious minorities including the baha'i and the evangelicals, my community, in iran, and we keep growing.

we just grow in iran. today is not a day to mourn. it is a day that the long people suffering of iran celebrate. and if the u.s. gave them free internet right now we would hear their cries for help, for the world to free them from this evil regime but unfortunately, again and again, our leadership, democrat and republican, the u.n., e.u., year after year after year have closed their ears to their cries for too long. no longer can we close our ears to the cries of the people of iran. then, there's the news of this very morning. as yet another institution created in a system built precisely to prevent the atrocities of nazi germany made an outrageous decision that only helps those who dream of another

holocaust. to date, all good people in the world, whatever their faith, must speak with moral clarity, not political correctness, in response to the decision of the prosecutors of the corrupt international criminal court because that's what it is. it's corrupt. they have equated today while we were coming to this conference a democracy with a rule of law and with checks and balances and a robust judiciary to a terrorist organization which beheads babies. this is profane beyond comprehension. today, what we witnessed was a transparently corrupt decision made by white-collared anti-semites, anti-semites which enable terrorism while seeking to diminish -- and believe me, they will dismantle the sacred democratic institutions to which they owe their own existence and

which are meant to protect everything we cherish in the world. democratic countries must band together and exact a devastating cost from the i.c.c. for this. there are no both sides. we should sanction them for doing this. then, we should reform it or it should be shut down. [applause] reverend moore: because make no mistake, from october 7 until now -- and i want to say this as clearly as i know how and with respect, defending zionism has become a proxy for defending all of our western democratic values. and we will win this fight, but we must be diligent. there is no time left for complacency. you and i, our community and your community, we are living together in an existential

moment. it is a moment of choosing for all of us. and i should get back to my topic. so why do we love israel and the jewish people? is very simple. your book is our book. your heroes are our heroes. and your values are our values. i stand here today as a christian, blessed because of israel, blessed by the jewish people because the bible we love and the bible we cherish as christians is a jewish book. what we call the old testament is actually the hebrew bible. and every book in the christian new testament except for one was written by a jew. the christian new testament says

these words. which virtually every evangelical believes. the word of god is living, and it is active and it is sharper than any two-edged sword. it pierces to the very division of our soul and our spirit. it discerns even our thoughts and intents down in our hearts. your care for the hebrew bible, the diligent reverence through your scribes throughout history has changed our lives as christians, and we are in awe of the reverence they had and many of you have, all of you have, for the name of god and for god's very words. in fact, in history we loved this book and have loved this book so much that part of our christian story involves many people who died to preserve this

book and then to translate it into the languages of the world, including english. one of them was william tindell. william, a historian, wrote, was singularly dedicated to scripture his entire life. the king of england had him killed because he was translating the bible in order to get it to the masses. and what part of the bible was he translating? the hebrew part of the bible. the king made him stand on top of logs that had been dusted with gunpowder. then, they tied him to a post and set him on fire. but before they did, the guards asked tindale if he did have final words and he said i do have final words. he said, lord, he prayed, open the eyes of the king of england. and three years after his murder, the king's eyes were opened. he called tindale's assistant

and he ordered him to continue and finish what tindale had started. and there are countless stories like this in history. there's one that may be hipopricaful. voltaire is said to have boasted 100 years from this day that will not be a bible -- there will not be a bible on earth except for one that's looked upon by an ant squarian seeker. i don't know if the quote is accurate but i do know this part is accurate. within 50 years after voltaire's death, the very house in which he once lived and wrote was used by the evangelical society of geneva as a storehouse for bibles with printing presses to print bibles. [laughter] see, we as christians, we rely

on isiah 40:8. the grass withers and the flower fades but the word of our god stands forever. we pray the words of psalm 1:19, god, open our eyes so we may see your wondrous law. we believe the words of psalm 33, for the word of the lord is right and true and he's faithful in all he does. and by the word of the lord, the heavens were made in their stairy host by the breath of his -- starry host by the breath of his mouth. see, we believe the bible is the most important book in history because it has changed our lives and it has changed our world, and we are grateful to you for it. and your values are our values and i know, okay, that you, many of you do not endorse all of our views or all our of your

interpretation of your scripture but we profoundly share certain values. the values that undergird everything we love in the world. values which have helped held the world -- have held the world together for centuries, they were the ideas of god, and we believe they are also the ideas which inspired america itself. they are jewish values. we believe the history of america isn't a christian story. it is a judeo-christian story, flaws and all. [applause] this is a country where religious freedom is enshrined in the first clause of the first sentence of our first amendment for a reason. and the reason is our shared values. george washington recognized it, and when he did he recognized it to our nation's oldest jewish

congregation, as you know, when he said that here bigotry would have no sanction. and our founders were geniuses to put both the free exercise and the anti-establishment clauses in the same sentence. but underneath that genius was the wisdom of god's word. see, so many of our christian values, they are jewish values. our very concept of god, the idea there is good and evil, that our rights come from god. that every human being is made in the image of god. that there is a divine order to this crazy world. the concept of free will, which we believe. even the 10 commandments, with the exception of that bought, which we -- shabot, which we foolishly left behind, we memorized them as children and your heroes are our heroes. we teach our christian kids about your jewish heroes.

they are also our heroes. they didn't always get it right. when our 7-year-old he borrowed socks from my drawer and he got multicolored socks and he looked at my wife and said these socks are like joseph's socks. [laughter] and then my wife asked our little guy, well, can you tell me joseph's story? and alexander, with total confidence, not missing a beat, he said, yes. joseph had lots of colorful socks like these. then, his brothers threw him in jail but he broke out of the jail. then, he defeated goliath but then they threw him in the lion's den. the bible -- [laughter] but we tell our kids, we tell them to be like noah. even if it requires standing up to the criticism of the entire world because they can always

trust god. we tell them to be like moses. even when moses was washed up, depressed, on backside of the desert, god still had a plan for him. and it was the greatest plan in human history. he even had to send a burning bush to get mowses -- moses' attention and then he sent moses to set the captives free. among the friends thrown into the furnish of an unjust king. we tell our daughters to rise up in esther moments to rise up to the task. and we tell our sons to be like jonathan. we pray for the wisdom of solomon, the faith of abraham. and joseph's path for being bloodied and a slave to rising

to the very right hand of pharaoh himself because god takes what the enemy means for evil sometimes to use it for good. we believe god still parts red seas and we teach our children that the same bible, which teaches us about abraham, isiah, joseph,ester and daniel, is the same bible which commands and then commands us to be a friend of israel and to the jewish people, to bless israel and in the first book of the bible, nonetheless, in genesis chapter 12:3, i will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you i will curse and all the people's on earth will be blessed through you. we tell our kids that the word blessing in the text is an active verb, not a passive verb.

it doesn't just require warm sentiments or feelings. but action. tactless, i've learned. and we believe that the curse -- that to curse israel is a passive word. it doesn't require action. it could just be to be inactive,s to passive, to not care that much, to be distractive in other things. in other words, in our churches, we teach if you stay silent when israel is attacked, when our jewish neighbors are attacked, it is also an act of cursing israel and the jewish people. i felt this so strongly on october 7. that evening i was going to israel, the plane ticket booked. i was heading -- all packed, my suitcase ready at the door. and i had two profound emotions

when i woke up that morning. as i looked at my phone and i saw the images coming. i thought, first, of a dear observant friend of mine, a mentor of mine, a rabbi, in fact, who i knew because he lives here, this was a two-day holiday. not a one-day holiday. and i just didn't know how much he would know about everything that was going on. and i felt like i had to fill the gap. and as i saw those horrifying videos, i scrolled through my social media feed and at the beginning, as you remember, probably, there were so many videos -- many videos that have been taken down now. and i remember walking through yad vashin, i visited with my students and i dwelled on that trip and that little garden for

the righteous amongst the -- among the nations. and i decided in that moment that it was my time to answer the question -- what would i have done had i been alive during the holocaust? and i went to my wife and i said, i'm not going to israel but you're not going to see me for a few days and i locked myself in my office and i began to fight what i knew would be an information war even as we called churches all across america to pray. and secondly, in my personal case, i felt a profound concern that we were going to lose the momentum we had built toward peace which we've been building since the abraham accords. in fact, i was planning going from israel that very week on wednesday to saudi arabia that week in october.

most of my energy had been dedicated to peace making. other people were caring about other things. but over my dead body was i going to let these evil terrorists steal the promise of peace that we had been working on for years. and it's in that spirit that our entire community made a commitment in the aftermath of october 7 which persists to this very day, we decided that when hamas or those who make excuses for them incite anti-semitic attacks on jews anywhere in the world, especially in our own community, that we would speak up and we would act. when they called a day of rage, we would call for a day of prayer. when they spewed hate, we decided we would double down on our love for the jewish community. but i preached a sermon at one

of the most revered evangelical congregations in california. and i said in that sermon that we have the opportunity now to stand with the jewish people like never before since most of us have been alive and this is what god expects from us. it is also critical. together jews and christians can be an unstoppable force for good and for god, a force that will push back evil because evil is exactly what we saw on october 7. the world wants us to move on, but we must refuse to move on. hamas went village to village and home to home. we will not move on from october 7. they hunted jews because they were jewish. they slaughtered babies. they targeted the elderly including holocaust survivors. they decapitated children. they put a child in an oven. they abused women before their deceased husbands before they burned whole families alive.

those are the sanitized victims. the victims were from 40 countries. it was an attack on the entire world. it was demonic, it was satanic. as christians we must let our voice be heard and we must declare that we stand without reservation with the people of israel. we stand without reservation with the jewish community, wherever they are, especially in our country. we stand without vezer -- reservation in support of israel's just war of self-defense. [applause] and i told that congregation as i told many congregations that war is hell and like every war, it pains us to watch the innocents suffer, especially those hamas uses and continues to use as human shields. as richie torres said today, hamas is the cause of everything

tragic that has ensued since october 7, and hamas alone should be the target of criminal prosecution. there are no both sides here. this is a moment for choosing. israel's enemies, they don't want a two-state solution. this is about a final solution. and as others choose the cowardness of silence, as christians, we cannot remain silent. and if you have frd asked yourself, what would you have done had you been alive, this is the moment you answer the question. because you are seeing in front of your eyes history. and as we saw in such grotesque forms in the last few weeks that our most elite institutions, the demonization and the delegitimization, the double standards that were applied to the jewish community -- let me wrap this up.

in israel recently i had the privilege of visiting president herzog alone in his personal office. and we had an amazing conversation. he likes history like i do and so he took me over to the wall in his office and he has the halacic ruling his grandfather made to authorize the ethiopian jewish communities immigration to israel. i'm the vice chair of the board of the international fellowship of jews. and he has the letter from harry truman on his wall that was a gift to him, to israel by president biden. and when i sat with president herzog, i told him something i want to tell you, too. i said, mr. president, it may feel like 1938, but it isn't 1938 for at least two reasons.

the first reason, it's obvious. there's a state of israel. the second reason may be less obvious. there are over 600 million evangelicals all around the world, and we believe it is our responsibility to stand with the state of israel and jewish people everywhere. and what we have decided is if they're going to get to you, they have to get through us first. [applause] i know the jewish community is strong. i know you're probably strong enough to stand alone. and you're willing to stand alone. even as anti-semitism rages. but i want you to know, you don't have to. you're not alone. because somehow, despite this

terrible history between the christian and jewish communities of christian anti-semitism which caused your community so much pain and lives with our community as an eternal shame, god has also surprised us by giving us an unusual time in history. we're in a world rife with anti-semitism. there aren't 10 christian zionists go to the zionist world congress. there are hundreds of millions of us all over the world. and look, i live in america and i know that there are some members of the jewish community even in america who had' rather stand alone than stand alongside evangelicals and i get it. i don't even judge them for it. my friend, alecstein said to me.

said -- i'm trying to understand this. and she said, look, johnnie, every 75 years or so in history, someone decided to kill all the jews and for most of history, it was a christian. and she's right. i don't judge anyone in the jewish community for keeping their guard up when either a christian or more so a politician comes to you and says, i'm here to help. but i want to tell you, we are actually here to help. and let me be clear. like us or not, trust us or not, i am here to say, even if you don't like us and even if you don't trust us, it really doesn't matter. you can count on us. we will stand with you always.

[applause] and finally, i didn't come here to convert anyone. quite the opposite. i came here to thank you for converting us 2,000 years ago. we've learned so much from you. we have so much to learn from you. and we probably have a lot to learn from each other. and as i often do, i like to give my final words to the bible. and this time it will be second kings chapter 6:16 where it says, don't be afraid, the prophet said. those who are with us are more than those who are with them. in that sentiment -- and that sentiment may not have been true for most of history but it is truer now than ever. in our churches, there is a song we often sing, it's like a

contemporary song, a newer song. written in australia. and the song goes, based upon the scripture, it may look like i'm surrounded, god, but i know that i'm surrounded by you. and that's what i have to say about that. [applause] >> thank you so much. we are going to open for questions in just a moment. i want to share with you, right before passover, right before i shut down my computer, i saw this message and it said, my dear jewish friends, [speaking hebrew] while you're focused on passover, your non-jewish friends will be holding down the fort, capitalized, blessings,

johnnie moore. are there any questions they would like to pose for johnienie -- johnnie? please wait for the mic rone to -- microphone. >> thank you. what an incredible friend. how about the mainstream christian churches? we heard from you from the evangelicals. how about the liberal churches? we seem to have problems there, the methodists, presbyterians, perhaps what's going on in your outreach to them? reverend moore: i have three observations there. the first one is, the form of evangelical christian zionism that we're accustomed to, actually the main line denominations were zionist denominations. they carried this before we did.

and one of the things that's happening, i think, is there's a small group of leaders in those denominations that are trying their best to hold on but they don't have to become like us in order to do what's right. they have their own history and their own theology. many of them don't know it all. that's number one. number two, it's mainly i think politics has become so intertwined with religious practice that i think that many of them are making political decisions. they are not making decisions based on the bible or theology. sorry. that's my impression. and then number three, i would say -- and i'm sorry to say this. i want lots and lots of people around the world to be dedicated to their faith, but they're also in rapid, rapid decline. and so they are blending in to the rest of society while other movements, you know, are growing. and so i don't actually worry that much about them.

i -- you know, unfortunately, there are a lot of -- like we're seeing with our institutions. our academic institutions. there's a great historic heritage they inherited and includes a lot of assets of many situations. including, you know, large buildings in places like geneva, including, you know, very prominent seats at very prominent institutions, you know, around the world. the difference between evangelicals and between the main line denominations, they sit in the places of power but they don't really talk to very many people. we don't sit in places of power but we talk to hundreds of people. >> i like to follow up on that question. understanding what you said. but even so, within the context of some of the main line groups, methodists and presbyterians and

others, we sometimes hear statements so critical of israel and one of the questions would have to be, do they not realize what is being done to christians within so many of the muslim arab countries? how do they -- help us understand how they don't -- why they don't agree with you? reverend moore: i think it's -- i think it's a great question and total quandary to me. it's -- you know, i think maybe certain members of the jewish community that marched not only alongside many of our great black congregations in america but also our great main line denominations at critical moments in history. you may have more of an ability to communicate to them than we do. there are certain circumstances where we all are aligned together on certain issues. you know, the -- i've actually

had multiple meetings at the world council of churches when we talked about the prers kugs of those in the western part of africa, the -- the islamists have actually learned from what hamas did on october 7 and we're seeing and hearing more about these little christian congregations in the northeast of nigeria, you know, being the victim of these same types of atrocities. we've had some success aligning with them and working with them on those issues. but unfortunately when it comes to -- when it comes to israel, they're in a different -- they're in a different place. it's not because of the facts. i don't know what it is. and certainly not of the theology, either. >> yeah. hello. thank you very much. very passionate. my name is jan kaufman. i would like to know how you speak to the white supremacists among evangelicals.

the sentence jews will not replace us haunts me all the time. and many of those people claim to be -- i don't know if they claim to be evangelicals but they claim to be strong believers in the gospel and it's very frightening to me. reverend moore: it's very simple. they're hair particulars. they don't believe in the bible we believe in. they're not evangelicals either. some of them may come from communities, you know, where most christians are evangelical christians but they don't reflect our beliefs. i'd also say, there are a lot fewer of them than you think there are. there's a real concern about christian nationalism in the united states of america. i mean, i get to -- five minutes into a conversation with friends of mine who are -- who aren't evangelicals and this term christian nationalism pops up. you know, in my experience, just be clear. evangelicals, they do not have a vision for a theocracy in america. okay. evangelicals mainly just want to

be left alone, to have their religious freedom. okay. and this term christian nationalism is a political term, okay. it's not a -- you know, in the same way the decision of the i.c.c. today also -- some of the most interesting he said today. he said, this is not a legal decision. it's a political decision. and i think an attempt to brand every evangelical that wants to have a voice in the public square is being a -- as being a christian nationalist is a political tactics and doesn't reflect -- reflect the reality. evangelicals want religious freedom. they don't want america to be a theocracy. and when the white supremacists pop up, and they do in certain places. i'm from the deep south in the united states of america. it's -- every once in a while you hear or see these things. we condemn them. okay. it's very often our condemnations don't fit the political narrative and they are very hard to find in that public narrative. >> thank you very much for being

here today. a beautiful presentation. i'm still waiting from my neighboring christian churches to reach out and offer their support, condolences, anything. their silence has been deafening. can you speak to why so few are reaching out to their fellow clergy, their fellow houses of faith? reverend moore: i'd have to know about your individual situation, your individual -- where you live. these sorts of things. but i -- i think -- i think the same thing is true among evangelicals as it is, you know, within the jewish community. i think we -- first of all, i would question whether the -- if you reached out -- if you reached out to any evangelicals in your area, whether -- i think they would come. i think they would meet with you, participate with you. but they may think in certain -- sorry to say this. but many circumstances, because of our politics in the united states of america, you know,

there is this assumption that evangelicals are on one side of the aisle. everybody else is on the other side of the aisle. and it becomes about politics. and all it takes is one person crossing the bridge. and then all of a sudden, you know, what we end up finding, you know, in america, we can play a constructive role if we know one another. this is a country where we can still get great things done, you know, without forsaking our own individual convictions. but somebody's got to make the first step and i -- you should not have to make the first step during october 7. in the aftermath of october 7, but there are plenty of evangelicals that -- that are content to pray in their congregations on sunday morning, have their own prayer events, all of these things, but they don't reach out to the jewish community because they don't know them. we have to fix that. yes. >> hi. thank you for your remarks. it's well-known there's a

generation gap in america between younger voters and their views of the israeli-palestinian conflict. and older people. there was an article -- i don't know when it was when. maybe a year ago in "the new york times" claiming that younger evangelicals were beginning to question evangelical churches' relationship to israel and look at israel more critically and wonder if you could comment on that. >> yeah. a few things to say there. number one, when it's like 83% to 75%, like it's a decline statistically, it's a significant decline, but it's still like in the 70's and i think when you actually look at the data -- and actually one of the things we're discovering in the evangelical community after october 7 is a phenomenon i see among my jewish friends in israel is a lot of younger jews

in israel who the -- the historic period of these fights for -- for the jewish community and state of israel, their grandfathers fight, it was grandmothers or mothers of a previous generation, what's emerging now in the aftermath of october 7, there are these young patriotic israel east who -- israelis who, you know, are embodying zionism in themselves and maybe weren't passionate about it than their grandparents or parents. the heroes of this war won't be an additional chapter in the same story with the same players. there are new heroes emerging and i think you're seeing an increase in patriotism. i still think that's a good word which i am not willing to give away to the bad guys. i think you're seeing more of that in israel. and we're also seeing it as evangelicals. so in our own evangelical churches, there are many, many young people who never really prayed for israel or for the peace of jerusalem or all of

these things but since october 7 there has been this profound intersection with the humanitarian issues they're concerned about and not with hamas but with -- but with israel. and they -- you know, they sh -- they don't have a life-long acquaintance with the palestinian issue. they do have a life-long acquaint yens with the jewish -- acquaintians with the jewish comment. as a kid from south carolina, i am not aware i even met anyone that was jewish until i was an adult. okay. but my church just taught me this. it's inside of my d.n.a. and i think that's the case for many evangelicals. that's number one. number two, look, there has been a convergence. it's what i said in my talk, lecture a few minutes ago. to be anti-israel is to be anti-all western democratic values. you know, that's what's happening now. and you cannot underestimate

what's happening in the tiktok world. you know, in 2020, i was one of the early advocates for dealing with this issue in the united states. it's probably what got me sanctioned by the communist party of china. but what we saw at the beginning of this war when a letter by osama bin laden went viral among young people like, we need the united states government and the government of democratic countries to stop playing paddy cake and political correctness with real national security threats. and make no mistake, the adversaries of democracy who often do it under the auspices of democracy, okay, we've seen, you know, a corrupt form of democracy that is only synonymous with the popular vote be the primary strategy embraced by the muslim brotherhood. in countries all over the world. almost happened in kuwait a few days ago. okay. and we cannot underestimate that the most powerful countries in the world are trying to turn our values against us and they're using our technology, you know, to do it and it's also getting

to our community. so we have to pay attention to those things. and then number three, there's one prominent survey that came out. to give -- there is one prominent survey that came out a few years ago that showed a drastic decline of evangelicals and their support of israel. they asked whether they supported dispensational escotology. a lot of people reason why evangelicals support israel. they use it as a proxy if you believe in this, you support israel. if you don't believe in this you don't support israel. i think one of the survey questions are asked are giving a skewed result, frankly. anytime there is any indication of any of these things -- by the way, a lot of data on evangelicals is highly politicized. just look at the timing of evangelical surveys. they all happen right before election season. you know, in the united states of america.

and i think there's more nuance to the data. and i also think it's moving. you know, a lot -- the other thing that happens with all i think religious families, you grow up in a religious community. when you're younger, you go to college. you leave college. you get married. you drift away from church for a while. when you have children you go back to the congregation. and my 7-year-old who i told you the story about, i believe christianity and judaism there's no christianity without judaism. my 7 yorld has a mizuzah on his door. he learns about israel. learns about the jewish community in his sunday school class. there was a period of time in my career when i left the university and went to work in hollywood where we couldn't find a church. we were out of church for a little while. when we had a church and found a congregation we loved it's not just us teaching the faith, the

church is doing it. i think the numbers will change as they get older. we don't have the community infrastructure that -- sorry. there are so many questions. >> thank you very much for that touching talk. i was curious, my experience with evangelicals has been uniformly positive. in many sort of situations and the way you speak about it seems there is a uniform view in regards to israel. maybe other questions in the jewish people. but i was just curious, is that uniformity or consensus, is that sort of a bottom organic or could you give me a little insight into the -- is there some sort of organization where we as evangelicals are adopting certain positions and platforms and then that's what's being, you know, encouraged or taught or spread throughout the church? reverend moore: what is interesting about evangelicals

is that we're not like the catholic church, right? there are no bishop. there are some people that take the bishop. there is no hierarchy. bishop, archbishop. if you're an author, local community, that's why i always say in this town everyone talks about evangelicals within a political context. i always say, most people make up their beliefs about someone based upon who they know. their neighbor. their experience. in my case as a young kid, my family went through a traumatic situation. my -- i had lots of doubt about my faith because of the situation. a church was involved in that situation. and yeah, when i got kicked out of my private school because i couldn't pay the bill as a little kid and we're in poverty, i got put into this very violent public school, my youth pastor from the local church showed up once a week to have lunch with me. and that's how i formed my view about my faith. it's not all these other things

that are going on. by the way, that's also the case in the middle east. you know, the -- one of my favorite sort of unknown parts of the peace between israel and the arab countries in recent years is two stories i like to tell. the first one is in april, 1978, when the camp david process had fallen apart between egypt and israel. and there was a delegation of evangelicals that met with anwar sadat and put a message. they put it on his airplane, sent them to jordan and hand delivered a note. and these evangelicals you know, played a part in it. the other story i like to tell is the u.a.e. the first hospital in the u.a.e., the first one was started by two evangelicals. a husband and a wife. they got in an all-terrain

vehicle. in the desert they asked if they could start a hospital. and at the time a half a children and a third of mothers were dying at childbirth. and after that it changed entirely. and mohammed ben ziad, the foreign minister of the u.a.e. and the ambassador to the u.a.e. to the united states, they were all born in that hospital started by evangelicals. like, this is who we are around the world. but there is no hierarchy. so your best remedy, if your local evangelical church says something that makes you uncomfortable, intentionally or unintentionally, is go talk to them. and study the bible with them. you don't have to study our part of the bible. most of our bible is your part of the bible. and they don't teach us really hebrew in our seminaries in the way they should. hebrew context of the bible. i would say it's an advantage and a disadvantage.

there's no bishop that can make a single decision to change the course of everything. but that also means there is a certain authenticity to our beliefs all around the world and that's a reason why we grow like wildfire including one of the fastest growing churches in the islamic area of iran. on april 14, they were praying for israel as some of those -- as some of those munitions were flying in the sky toward israel. >> thank you, pastor, for your friendship and your support. and thank you, rabbi weinblatt for organizing this important conference. i'm with the american jewish international relation institute. we work on issues related to the u.n. and by the way, koebi barta is a very good friend of us. he is an israeli podcaster and academic who did his ph.d.

thesis on the history of christian support of israel and i think worked very closely with you in getting his information. my question is, i know about your tremendous efforts in peace making and you've been to saudi arabia. you were about to go to saudi arabia. clearly something has changed there that's positive but they've been very disappointing since october 7 and so have the arab countries that are supposedly at peace with israel including u.a.e. not one of them has clearly condemned hamas. they are all at the forefront of condemning israel and i know all the excuses about their masses and so forth. but if there's going to be peace there needs to be peace. it has to be real and they shouldn't find excuses to say the wrong thing. the second part of that is, africa, you alluded to what's happening in nigeria, which is horrible, and you mentioned in a different context about 600 million evangelical christians around the world, a lot of them are in africa. and africa is a very important

alliance for israel potentially. it started. but, again, there's a lot of cowardess, a lot of the african leaders are afraid to publicly align with israel. there's this myth of palestinian-african solidarity. and they've been silent since october 7. there's diplomatic relations but at the u.n. they are all bashing israel. my question to you, both as far as the arab countries and as far as the african countries, especially, mobilizing evangelicals there on behalf of israel. reverend moore: so a big question. i will answer it as succinctly as i can. i view it slightly differently. there's still peace with egypt. there's still with jordan. the abraham accords have held. i don't like all the statements, lots and lots of statements i don't like. i have a very long-standing commitment to privately criticize and publicly praise

with -- prays with my friends but there are plenty of things i don't like at all. but i would say the fundamentals haven't changed. but what makes all of this much more difficult is u.s. policy. you know, the suez canal, 50% of the revenue egypt was getting from the suez canal is gone. iran is rich now. it's trading hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars of oil, mainly to china. all these different aspects of american policy that sometimes makes it much more difficult for our friends to do things that they want to and need to do. i had -- i will say -- i won't be specific but -- and there are several examples of condemning hamas i could point to but i had a quite lively conversation -- i am not going to say with who but quite lively conversation with a friend of mine, arab friend of mine in the region and i said to this person, i said, my views on

hamas didn't come from my israeli friends. they came from you. and yet, you know, the united states of america, whether it wants to be or whether it believes itself still to be is still the sole superpower in the world militarily, economically, there is no comparison. and we need in the aftermath of several events, you know, in recent months, like, we need a significant change in our foreign policy. that's not a democrat or a republican thing. anybody can make that -- anybody can make that change. but it's making it very, very difficult. and all that to say, there will be peace and the peace will expand and the terrorists will lose. i have zero doubt about that. and then, our corrupt international institutions need to be fixed. you know, we created an --

[applause] an entire infrastructure which only enables the bad guys and we can't be polite any longer. a good friend of mine -- i don't like the public light very much. i'm a -- i like to write and sit in my study. for fun in covid i got into a ph.d. program. i am almost done with my ph.d. i am actually an introvert. but a good friend of mine before he died, he was almost 90. he was an influential evangelical figure, globally influential. he said to me, he said, johnnie, if god blesses you with influence, you must use it or you'll lose it and it's the stewardship -- you have to be a good steward of your financial resources and other things. and i would say that to the united states of america. god has blessed us with more influence and more resources and more power and the pristine democracy, you know, that we inherited from people that are far smarter than anyone in politics here today, perhaps,

and we need to be a better steward of that influence because everything we want for israel and for the broader middle east is on the table for us if we just make the right decisions and those decisions are actually moral decisions. it's about clearly seeing right and wrong and not being scared of american power. you can be multilingual and not understand a culture. by the way, you can be the average american and not speak another language and you can understand a culture. and i think we have a lot of people in very powerful places in our government that think their education and their -- you know, the ability to speak multiple languages make them an expert. and sometimes the bully rule applies, specifically applies with iran. you know, sometimes you have to recognize someone's the bad guy and make it much, much more difficult and, you know, never

bribe them. it never works. thank you. [applause] >> many of us have been in israel in the last few months as have you and you know many of the signs there said [speaking hebrew] which means together -- together we will prevail. and i think that together with you having you and your evangelical community mean so much to us and that's why we call this program "we are not alone." thank you for that. thank you for your friendship. [applause] this concludes our program here for this afternoon. we'll be resuming at 7:00 at the st. gregory hotel on the first floor where we will have dumasati washington speaking to us and we will be resuming tomorrow morning as well.