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Monthly Letter

Bad Theology Kills the Innocent

May 2026

Writing a fortnight before publication during a war is dangerous – things may have changed a lot. But, having been to Israel-Palestine 40 times, and being Chair of the Derby Friends of Hebron, I keep being asked about the current conflict.

In their blind support for Israel, some American Christians are aiding the erasure of the Christian community in Palestine. President Trump has surrounded himself with Christian Zionists, a contradiction in terms. Their politics may be pro-Israel, but their theology is actually anti-Semitic: they want the Jews to return to Palestine only so they can convert them to Christianity and, they believe, thereby bring about the return of Christ and the end of the world.

Bad theology gets people killed. If your theology justifies the killing of thousands of people to bring about the apocalypse and advance the second coming of Christ, it must be bad theology. God is not a bloodthirsty monster; God is love. God is with the widows and orphans, the mothers crying for their babies. God is with the vulnerable, the meek, the merciful. Jesus is the Prince of Peace; he blesses the peacemakers not the warmongers. He carried a cross not a gun. He loved his enemies so much he was willing to die for them.

While Iran and Lebanon have been in the headlines, I have been following the murderous assaults in the West Bank by illegal settlers, forced evictions in East Jerusalem and continued deadly attacks and blocking of aid into Gaza.Under international law no country can invoke the right to self-defence in an occupied territory. This includes East Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights and southern Lebanon. Amidst the illegal war on Iran launched by Israel and the US, the attacks on Palestinians have continued but with little or no media coverage. Israel is still holding more than 9,000 Palestinian hostages, despite the so-called ceasefire in Gaza.

The British government is, as ever, silent on the injustices perpetrated. The government and their friends in the arms industry do not want attention focussed on their crimes, which is why they are so keen to crack down on protest. Israel, the US and the UK have nuclear weapons. So why should Iran, a much older country than any of those three, not have them? No, abolish them all. Choose love. Love always wins.

Geoffrey Marshall