Comhlámh’s Justice for Palestine member group is beginning a series of blog posts sharing reflections, resources and perspectives emerging from the group’s discussions and engagement with Palestine. The series will include book reviews, reflections on current affairs and contributions that invite further learning and discussion.
In the first post, group member Tom O’Connor reviews Christ in the Rubble by Palestinian theologian and pastor Munther Isaac. Tom explores Isaac’s challenge to Western churches, the use of theology to justify oppression, and the responsibility to speak out against injustice and complicity. He also reflects on the importance of grassroots movements, solidarity and holding on to hope.
Review of Isaac, Munther (2025) Christ in the Rubble – faith, the bible, and the genocide in Gaza. (Eerdmans)
Munther Isaac is a theologian and pastor who became internationally known for his ‘Christ in the Rubble’ sermon at Christmas 2024. In his church, the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem, he used a baby doll, representing Jesus, in a kaffiyeh, lying in a bed of rubble, not straw. And the image went viral. He held that if Jesus was born today, he might be one of the babies pulled out of the rubble in Gaza. More particularly, in his book of that name, he points out the similarities today to Jesus’ time. Palestine was then occupied by the Roman empire. In keeping with the control exercised by the empire, his parents had to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Like today the empire thought nothing of murdering babies – male babies in Herod’s case, self-styled ‘Herod the Great’ – and Jesus’ family became refugees in Egypt. Think of the comparisons with today.
He expresses his disgust at the glitter and excess consumption associated with Christmas in the global north, with no attention paid to the poor, the oppressed, nor the violence of empire, which is his language.
The first half of his book is a great resource. He goes through the history of Palestine, the Nakba and the occupation and oppression by the Zionists. Chapter 4’s title is “Coloniality, Racism & Empire Theology”, showing that his analysis is highly political.
But the key target in his book is the Christian churches in the global north. He says the leaders might take supportive positions in private but only speak inane stuff about ‘peace’ and ‘cease-fire’, without condemning the perpetrator, the state of Israel. Thus they are complicit in the genocide.
In the end he says the important issue is not a one-state or a two-state solution but rather the BDS campaign. Israel needs to be boycotted.
In is the Epilogue where he wonders, aloud, about expressing hope. He lists several painful events, such as the death of thousands of children. A major concern, as a theologian, is “How can we hope when the Bible continues to be weaponized against the Palestinian people?” But you turn the page and he says, “When we stop hoping, we declare that we give in to tyranny and oppression, allowing the oppressors of the empire to shape our reality”. “We cannot leave the task of imagination to oppressors” p260. So he goes on and explains the concept of Sumud. He quotes the poem many will have heard by Refaat Alareer, murdered in an Israeli air strike, “If I must die, you must live…”
Chapter 5 is entitled The Theology of Genocide. “My argument is simple: a genocide took place in Gaza, and many Western Christians and churches have been complicit in it, whether by supporting and justifying it or by remaining silent” p137. The infamous quote by Netanyahu, about destroying the Amalekites, was first used by the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem. Being a theologian, he knows his bible and knows how Christian Evangelical religious leaders have distorted its readings in the service of Israel and empire. He argues against the use of ‘just war theory’ by Christian Zionists – just as it was used to excuse the mass murder of innocent civilians by the dropping of the atomic bombs in Japan. Israeli exceptionalism follows on from white American exceptionalism.
He points out that the UK Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, within days of 7th Oct. referred to Israel’s right to defend itself, thus parroting Western empire. The archbishop withdrew his offer to meet Isaac when he heard Isaac was due to address a mass gathering in Trafalgar Sq. The archbishop went on to say people accusing Israel of genocide have “no understanding of what [they] are saying”. P153. ‘Church diplomacy’ is what he calls the tendency by churches to be neutral, avoid controversy and not offend any of the vested interests… by this logic, Palestinians are always the first to be sacrificed. Later he says that leaders at the top of churches are just speaking to ‘the top’, not to rank and file followers.
However Palestinian Christian churches are first stunned at the callousness of their fellow Christian churches in the global north and then argue back. Isaac quotes on group of Anglicans in Ramallah “What we would expect from our church is to fully condemn the systematic denial of our rights and calls to annihilate our people, especially as these are being publicly expressed by the current fascist Israeli government, rather than attempting to create a balance between the oppressed and oppressor” p152
The Church of Sweden virtually justified the genocide. So many church statements refer to ‘Israel’s right to defend itself’, but never any suggesting that Palestinians have a right to defend themselves. There are calls for Hamas to release the hostages (the book was published in 2025) but never any reference to the thousands of Palestinian hostages under ‘administrative arrest’, which we know better as internment.
The Roman Catholic Pope Francis did refer to the IOF actions as terrorism and in a call to President Herzog said it is forbidden to respond to terror with terror. However, the current Pope, Leo XIV, invited Hertzog to the Vatican in 2025 and rowed back on the language used by Francis. He called for the ‘release of all hostages’, but it is not clear if this includes Palestinians.
Isaac brings us back to the South African Kairos Document of 1985 which defined ‘state theology’ as “The theological justification of the status quo with its racism, capitalism and totalitarianism. It blesses injustice, canonizes the will of the powerful and reduces the poor to passivity, obedience and apathy…. It does it by misusing theological concepts and biblical texts for its own political purposes” p164. This is the “theology of empire. A disguise for superiority, supremacy, ‘chosenness’, and entitlement. It is sometimes given a nice cover using words like mission and evangelism, fulfilment of prophecy and spreading freedom and liberty… it divides people into ‘us’ and ‘them’. It dehumanizes and demonizes” p179
In chapter 6 – a call to repentance – he laments the humanization of Israeli Jews while dehumanizing Palestinians, often by Christians. “It seems to us that this double standard reflects an entrenched colonial discourse that has weaponized the Bible to justify the ethnic cleansing of indigenous peoples in the Americas, Oceania, and elsewhere, the slavery of Africans and the transatlantic slave trade, and decades of apartheid in South Africa” p173.
In Ch 7 Christ in the Rubble, he refers to the massacre of people taking shelter in the Church of St. Porphyrius in Gaza in October 2023, believing it would be a place of sanctuary. This event tested his faith, and he often asked God where was he when the Palestinians were being massacred? But he places the blame on ourselves. “We have created and nurtured cultures of hate, revenge, and supremacy. We chose to be silent in the face of injustice. We chose neutrality. We idealized might and pride. We allow the weapons industry to control governments and entire economies. We enable modern coloniality. We allow lobby groups to buy politicians. We sold ourselves to gain power and influence” p218 and answers this, as he does several times, with a quote from the bible.
But he interprets the bible in an activist way. This coincides with the interpretation of the Beatitudes in Mathew’s bible. I didn’t see a reference to this in the book, but it is argued that Jesus’ language, Aramaic, is much more activist than the translations into European languages. For example, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’ doesn’t mean just keeping the peace. It is creating peace, confronting violence, and building reconciliation. This is activist language: peace is something you do, not something you avoid.
He encourages the mobilization of people in the streets, places of worship, and campuses as being essential. “These grassroots movements have become a source of hope in a world that seems to be numb to violence and resigned to accepting the death of children.” p226
Towards the end he quotes the Franciscan Blessing “May God bless you with anger, at injustice, (and) oppression… May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer… and may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in the world…” p230-1
Over the years Christians have turned passages from the bible around, and have managed to shape-shift the teaching of Jesus to determine a good Christian church “to privilege how orthodox our doctrines are, the size of our churches or the wealth we accumulate”. P232.
He says Christians are supposed to speak truth to power and did so himself, when accepting an award from the city of Philadelphia he referred to their recent contribution of $24m to Israel, saying it would be used for war and revenge, not an investment in peace. “You could have heard a pin drop”.
Finally, returning to political resolutions, he quotes the resolution passed in the Knesset in 2024 “the establishment of a Palestinian state in the heart of the Land of Israel would constitute an existential threat to the State of Israel”, i.e. no intention of pursuing a two-state solution. He points out several times that this is not a ‘conflict’ and certainly not a ‘religious conflict’. It is settler colonialism, which requires ethnic cleansing. That is what must be tackled.
My one disappointment with this amazing book is that he doesn’t often refer to the death and slaughter of Muslim Palestinians. Admittedly he is concerned with his dwindling flock of Christians. But he does criticize the leaders in Arab states for staying silent. As far as I can see the book has not been translated into Arabic, as happened with his earlier books. That would be a great service.
The ideas, opinions, and comments within this blog are entirely the responsibility of its author and do not necessarily represent or reflect Comhlámh policy.