Here, he shares some of his thoughts on the present crisis and what Evangelicals can do in the reconciliation process.
CT: What prompted your visit to the Holy Land?
GT: The Holy Land is one of the WEA’s geographic priorities in the world; so much is impacted by what happens there. So, there were four things I was trying to do. One was to go as a learner; to continue to learn about the ongoing conflict situation on the ground there, as well as the situation for Christians; secondly, to be a real encouragement to Christian leaders in the land, both in Israel and in the Palestinian Authority; thirdly, to promote religious liberty, particularly for Evangelicals who are treated as second class cousins in many ways; fourthly, I was there to promote peaceful resolutions to the issues they are facing.
CT: Violence has escalated in the last few weeks. What is your response?
GT: We are very concerned about the escalating violence and any loss of life, whether that be the Palestinians who have been killed or the Jewish seminarians. It is deeply concerning and a great tragedy.
CT: What kind of role do you see Evangelicals playing in the present crisis?
GT: We have to pressure everybody in the region to promote peaceful resolutions to the current crisis. Otherwise we could get into a new cycle of violence. Violence breeds violence so we need to find a way of stepping back from that and encouraging political and religious leaders to stand for peaceful resolutions.
Obviously, extremism presents a great challenge. If you talk to the average Palestinian, they want to raise their families in peace and send their children to school and they want hope. And it’s the same for Israeli families. The majority of people really do want to live peaceful lives and they don’t want to see violence as a means of resolving the problem.
But there is extremism that will try to disrupt all peace purposes for its own good. As evangelical Christians we have to continue to promote reconciliation and the bridging of conversation that can bring some peaceful resolution. It is a huge challenge for us and also for the global community to know how to respond. How do we respond to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, for example?
