A woman weeps at the Nova Healing Concert in Tel Aviv, Israel, on June 27, 2024: According to a presenter at Exiles, the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, were a reaction by the poor of Gaza to the wealth of those celebrating in Israel, writes Kevin Sawyer. (Ohad Zwigenberg/The Associated Press)

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When you grow up Christian, you get accustomed to evangelical cringe. Attention-starved faith leaders seeking to be the biggest fish in our little pond have subjected me to everything from sermons delivered in “Braveheart” costumes to Christian boybands to the “Left Behind” media universe. A tagline for my old church was “a church with sax appeal.”

I can hear you wincing.

When I heard that the high-profile Exiles in Babylon conference, which brings together prominent evangelical voices from across the world to discuss hot-button issues, was coming to the Church of the Open Door in Maple Grove on April 3-5, I had a chuckle. The Shoppes at Arbor Lakes, nexus of the Babylonian empire? Alas, event organizers aren’t content to simply induce groans.

Exiles, which bills itself as a “collective of Christians and seekers who crave curious dialogues,” is put on by Preston Sprinkle, an acolyte of Darryl Cooper, who recently made headlines by appearing on Tucker Carlson’s Twitter program to espouse Holocaust denial. Sprinkle cites Cooper’s “Martyr Made” podcast as the fairest and most thorough review of the Israel-Palestine conflict. It has clearly imbued Sprinkle with a passion for the topic, and it is unsurprising, if disappointing, that Sprinkle has tapped Munther Isaac as a keynote speaker.

In the aftermath of the 10/7 terrorist attacks, Isaac asserted that the rape, kidnapping and murder of men, women and children was the logical response to Israel’s ostensible oppression. In his telling, the besieged poor of Gaza exposed the hypocrisy of the world by attacking the “wealthy people celebrating” at the Nova music festival. Like Cooper, he also took to Tucker’s show to dissemble about Israel, absurdly accuse Israelis of driving Christians out of Bethlehem (which is neither in Gaza nor under Israeli control). His own biannual conference, Christ at the Checkpoint, featured an ISIS flag superimposed on the Israeli flag, spreading the blood libel that Israel created the terrorist organization.

Exiles promises to “confront the demons that hold the American church back … when it comes to Palestine-Israel and against violence from which we benefit.” I asked Dave Brickey, lead pastor at Church of the Open Door, what demons need confronting. He suggested they were metaphorical, and that the conference will provide a safe space for Christians to enter into difficult conversations.

A metaphor for what? Safe from whom? In my experience, Jewish people are quite capable of cordially discussing foreign policy involving Israel. I have yet to experience demonic possession as a result, metaphorical or otherwise.

Worse, Isaac serves on the board of Kairos Palestine, an organization that dismisses the Torah as a “dead letter.” I exhort Christians in attendance to examine the toxic history of this sentiment. The Nazis famously proposed (and churches agreed) to remove the Old Testament from bibles entirely to defenestrate scripture of Jewishness. To reject the Torah is to dismiss the gospel.

I wish I could chalk this up to a single misguided church or a coalition of fringe elements. But I’ve witnessed firsthand the rise of antisemitism, couched as Christian nationalism or anti-Zionism, that is spreading unchecked throughout our institutions. Conference sponsors include Bethel, the largest Christian university in Minnesota, local organizations such as Transform Minnesota, and even the company that produces my church’s Sunday School curriculum. If ours is a little pond, this conference is a barracuda.

According to the itinerary, the conference is planning an after party at George Floyd Square (I hear you wincing again). I pray that attendees pause in their reveries to reflect: We establish these memorials not only to honor victims, but also to ensure that “never again” means never again.

George Floyd was not a hot-button issue; he was a human being, made in the image of God. So are Jews. I would humbly submit that evangelicals do not need a safe space to debate the merits of Jewish self-defense. Nobody is sitting around waiting for us to unfurl insights on hot-button topics. Why would they?

Maybe the church should just stick to cringe after all. “Left Behind 2: Hulk Hogan Boogaloo,” anyone?

Kevin Sawyer is a freelance writer living in New Hope.