The dehumanization of hell, Part 2

As in heaven, so on earth

This is the second of two posts in which I try to make sense of the public support that Evangelical Christians have expressed for the assault on Gaza, through the lens of the theology I grew up believing.

In Part 1, I discussed how Evangelical predictions about the End Times intersect with current events. However, as I said at the end of that post, that’s only part of the explanation. It doesn’t go far enough.

Hence Part 2. Today, we’re going to have to deal with a very uncomfortable truth: supporting a geopolitical conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives — even if it ushers the return of Jesus—is only possible if the victims of that conflict are somehow less human than we are. And end-times eschatology is insufficient to explain that.

Passive dehumanization

For adherents of a love-thy-neighbor religion to so readily shut their eyes to—and sometimes even celebrate!—30,000 dead Palestinians, pediatric amputations without anesthesia, and intentional starvation seems mind-bogglingly dehumanizing.

And it is—dehumanizing, that is. But is it mind-boggling?

Here’s where I’m going to get into a lot of trouble from my Evangelical friends, because I think the answer is no…