A panel on Israel/Palestine, speakers who dabble in antisemitism, and a conference host connected to a Holocaust denier are part of the annual Exiles in Babylon conference being hosted at the Church of the Open Door in Maple Grove from April 3-5.
The conference, which is “designed to engage the most polarizing topics in the church today,” is hosted by Preston Sprinkle, who has been described as an acolyte of Darryl Cooper. Cooper was on Joe Rogan’s podcast last month where he falsely claimed that Hitler opposed Kristallnacht. And in a September interview by conservative talk show host Tucker Carlson, Cooper suggested that the murder of millions of Jews was an unintended consequence of Hitler’s unpreparedness for war, and that the Jews killed in concentration camps “ended up dead there.”
One of the speakers that is part of a breakout session as well as one of the full-conference panels is the Rev. Munther Isaac. Isaac is a Bethlehem-based, Lutheran pastor who has taken a supersessionist – or replacement theology – view of Israel, which some believe is antisemitic.
Isaac is on the breakout panel titled “The Cost of Solidarity: How Israel/Palestine Uncovers an Evangelical Crisis of Discipleship,” with Ben Norquist and Soong-Chan Rah.
Calls to some of the sponsors, including Bethel College in St. Paul, were not returned. Carl Nelson, the president and CEO of Transform Minnesota, which calls itself is “a network of churches” that “provide(s) a space for pastors and Christian leaders to wrestle through complex issues from a biblical perspective,” said that generally, evangelical Christians tend to be supporters of Israel.
“I would say that evangelical Christians continue to be strong supporters of Israel and her right to self-defense, and also want to support Arab Christians who live in the region and are caught up in this war against terrorism,” Nelson said. “In an effort to do that. I think what this conference is doing is allowing a voice of an Arab Christian to speak into that.”
Steve Hunegs, the executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, said he spoke with Nelson and was heartened to hear if his support for Israel.
“He’s a well-respected, authoritative voice in the Minnesota evangelical community,” he said. “However, we are concerned that Isaac is significantly engaged with the group Kairos Palestine, whose supersessionist beliefs anchor their anti-zionism.”
Nelson reiterated that his group is a sponsor of the event – not a planner. But if it were, he might have made different choices with respect to panels and speakers.
“I think we would probably make a choice to have a balanced platform with voices that represent a more diverse range of perspectives on the conflict,” he said. “We recognize it’s a very complicated, long-standing thing. Headlines are insufficient for trying to understand it.”
