By: Callie Mitchell, SAVED News International Correspondent, Jerusalem, Israel
Friends, we are currently facing the strong possibility of a devastating piece of legislation passing in our Knesset. The Bill is called The Proposed Penal Law: Amendment – Prohibition of Solicitation for Religious Conversion – 2023.
This is legislation that would make sharing one’s personal faith in an evangelical context a crime. The bill states the following: “…someone who solicits a person, directly, digitally, by mail, or online in order to convert his religion, the punishment – one-year imprisonment; and if the person was a minor, the punishment – two years imprisonment.”
Reading through the document, it is intentionally written about “missionary groups, mainly Christians” and applies equally to international Gentile Christians as well as local Messianic Jewish believers, or Gentile Christians like me, who have Israeli citizenship.
Historically, the religious Jewish community has encouraged banning evangelism and proselytization as legal matters because of a history of forced conversion from the Catholic Church. They want the Jewish state to be a safe haven for them to pass down their values and remain Jewish, as a history of antisemitism has caused the church to require Jewish believers to renounce their Jewish identity.
I can have compassion on their painful history of the church, but this compassion does not override my concern for their eternal destiny and standing before a holy God.
In my gifts, I’m very much an evangelist who loves to share my faith. When I read this, I have to be honest with you all that I tremble in fear that if it were to pass, I would have to choose between hiding the Light of Yeshua in my heart over the needs of my four young children, and I weep.
Most of the international Christian ministries present in Israel sign non-proselytization agreements with the government to have a presence in the land. Evangelism cannot be part of their ministry program. This bill elevates that limitation to how people interact with neighbors in their private lives. In the case that it is to pass, I could not casually share with a non-believing friend the reason for the hope that I have, even in an authentic, relational way, without the risk of breaking the law.
It is undemocratic in that it censors free speech but my personal concern is less about politics, as much as it is about the consequence of limiting our ability to share the gospel freely.
Concerns that this could actually pass are not exaggerated. Prime Minister Netanyahu’s current coalition is made up of nearly all Ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties who support this legislation. They have the power to coerce him to agree, as the stability of his coalition rests on their shoulders.
PM Netanyahu has historically enjoyed a warm friendship with the Evangelical Christian community in the United States and abroad. For that reason, as an Israeli citizen, I would like to invite you to join us not only in prayers but in communicating with our PM your heartfelt concern over this legislation. You can contact his office via bn********@kn*****.il.
No matter the outcome, we know the Lord is on the throne. Amen.
About The Author
