The Theology Of Liberation. Steve Williamson welcomes theologian Dr. Mitri Raheb, former pastor of the Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem and founder and president of Dar al-Kalima University in Bethlehem.
Raheb combines liberation theology with political action. He says, “The Bible itself, which really came out of Palestine, was written in the context of occupation…a Babylonian occupation, a Greek occupation, a Roman occupation and so the theme of the Bible, the main theme is liberation because of the context of occupation. And so, the Bible itself talks about liberation in the real sense of the word, which unfortunately later became the salvation of the soul which you don’t find in the Bible at all.”
Asked about Christian Zionists who believe Israel should dominate the Holy Land, Raheb replies, “We consider Christian Zionism to be a heresy because these are people who hijack the Bible for not only political ends…they are antisemitic, too. They want to bring all of the Jews to Palestine with the intention that two-thirds of the Jews will be killed, and the last third will convert to Christianity so that Jesus will come back.”
Raheb continues, “Palestinians have been living in Palestine for the last 3,000 years, and they are the native people of Palestine. They changed maybe over time their religion.” He adds, “Palestinian Jews were always part of the Palestinian people. Our problem is not with the Jewish people. Our problem is with European Zionists who came as settler colonialists to take the land and to replace the Palestinians.”