NEW YORK (RNS) — On Thursday (April 25), Christian nationalist activist and musician Sean Feucht, pastor Russell Johnson and conservative author Eric Metaxas headed a pro-Israel rally at Columbia University in response to the “Gaza solidarity encampment” established by students a week ago.The “United for Israel” rally, advertised on social media beginning on Wednesday, was intended to show support for Israel, Jewish students and faculties. It drew a crowd of a few hundred, who circled the Columbia campus singing hymns and praying without entering its gates, instead trading shouted slogans and threats through the Upper Manhattan school’s iron fences.
The rally was a sign of political evangelicalism’s increasing interest in campus politics writ large and the pro-Palestinian campus protests in particular. Earlier in the week, House Speaker Mike Johnson, an evangelical Christian, made an appearance at Columbia to decry antisemitism on the campus and meet with school officials to demand the resignation of Columbia President Minouche Shafik.
The rally was billed as an attempt to “redeem Columbia University,” in the words of Feucht, who gained notoriety during the COVID-19 pandemic for holding worship concerts to protest restrictions on gathering. He organized the rally with Russell Johnson, the conservative lead pastor of Pursuit NW Church, and Metaxas, a 2020 election denier and supporter of former President Donald Trump. Metaxas, who wrote a 2010 biography of the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was executed for oppo …
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The rally was a sign of political evangelicalism’s increasing interest in campus politics writ large and the pro-Palestinian campus protests in particular. Earlier in the week, House Speaker Mike Johnson, an evangelical Christian, made an appearance at Columbia to decry antisemitism on the campus and meet with school officials to demand the resignation of Columbia President Minouche Shafik.
The rally was billed as an attempt to “redeem Columbia University,” in the words of Feucht, who gained notoriety during the COVID-19 pandemic for holding worship concerts to protest restrictions on gathering. He organized the rally with Russell Johnson, the conservative lead pastor of Pursuit NW Church, and Metaxas, a 2020 election denier and supporter of former President Donald Trump. Metaxas, who wrote a 2010 biography of the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was executed for oppo …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]