Why You Should Care about the End Times: Christian Zionism & its Outsized Influence on American Policy with Aidan Orly

In this episode, Koki is joined by Aidan Orly, one of a handful of U.S.-based researchers writing and speaking about Christian Zionism: the right-wing domestic and international movements that use a Christian biblical interpretation to promote and endorse Jewish nationalism. Christian Zionism forms the largest political base of support for the state of Israel in the U.S. Koki and Aidan focus on the authoritarian nature of Christian Zionist movements, and discuss their key leaders, organizations, and financial and cultural engines (including tourism and popular media). They also speak to the ways the Left can both unintentionally spread Christian Zionist policies and actions and also how the Left can identify and call those out, and thus push back against the broader Christian Right’s efforts. Orly is a writer, researcher, and fundraiser at Political Research Associates. 

EPISODE RESOURCES

• 101: Christian Zionism by Aidan Orly, Political Research Associates, 2024.
• The Jewish Federation is Marching with Christian Antisemites Out of Support for Israel, Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg and Rev. Allyn Maxfield-Steele, Mondoweiss, 2023.
• Progressive Movements Cannot Afford to Ignore the Role of Christian Zionism in the Dispossession of Palestinians, Jonathan Brenneman and Aidan Orly, Political Research Associates, 2021.
• End Times Antisemitism: Christian Zionism, Christian Nationalism, and the Threat to Democracy, Steven Gardiner, Political Research Associates, 2020.
• The New Christian Zionism and the Jews: A Love-Hate Relationship, Rachel Tabachnik, Political Research Associates, 2010.
• For Many Christian Zionists, Israeli Protesters are a Threat to God’s Plan, Aidan Orly, Religion Dispatches, 2023. 
• What’s Next for American Christian Zionists?, Colum Lynch, Foreign Policy, 2021.
• This is How the Republican Party Became So Strongly Pro-Israel, Danielle Kurtzlebe, NPR Morning Edition, 2023.
• Israel-Hamas is Not a Religious War and this is Not Your Rapture, Thomas Lecaque, Religion Dispatches, 2023.
• Taking Evangelical Support for Israel at Face Value is a Terrible Idea: a Response, Chrissy Stroop, Religion Dispatches, 2019.
• The Pentecostalization of Christian Zionism, Joseph Williams, Church History 84, no. 1 (2015): 159–94.
• Explaining Christian Zionism to Israelis, by Sarah Posner, Religion Dispatches, 2015. 

--------- EPISODE KEYWORDS ---------

Anti-Muslim, Christian Nationalism, Christian Zionism, Israel, Jerry Falwell, Jerry Falwell Jr., Jewish State, Jewish Zionism, The Late Great Planet Earth, Left Behind Series, Mike Huckabee, Zionism