“Dudes can’t be chicks, period. This trans agenda is pure evil, and disgusting” writes Kirby Calhoun, a campus organizer for Christians United for Israel, on his Instagram story just days before speaking at an event sponsored by UConn Hillel Feb. 5 at 6 p.m.
Calhoun’s social media feed is littered with praise for Donald Trump, appeals to American exceptionalism, Christian Nationalist preaching and the assertion that “church is essential, and marriage is between a man and a woman.” UConn Hillel will partner with Huskies for Israel to bring Calhoun to speak on campus.
For “the Center for Jewish Life,” claiming to embrace “all kinds of Jewish”– supposedly including LGBTQ Jews – an alliance with a staunchly anti-LGBTQ Christian Nationalist seems downright bizarre.
Christians United for Israel, commonly abbreviated “CUFI,” is the largest Zionist organization in the country – if not the world – self-reporting over 10 million members, outnumbering the total Jewish population of America. Its leadership and membership draw from America’s white Evangelical Christian right, the primary support base of Trump’s MAGA movement. Some two-thirds of white Evangelicals support or sympathize with Christian Nationalism, a movement seeking to force the American government to bend the knee to the Christian church. As Sarah Posner writing for MSNBC states, “At the heart of Christian Zionism is not a love for Israel but rather Christian nationalism.”
What bridges the gap between Christian Zionism and Christian Nationalism is often dispensationalist theology, the belief that God will bestow favor on America for supporting the State of Israel, which Christian Zionists dangerously believe is synonymous with Jews. Others look to Christian doomsday prophecy, believing that the success of the State of Israel is essential to bringing about armageddon, the end of days in which Jews and Muslims alike will either accept Christ or be annihilated.
Concern for the wellbeing of Jews – or anyone other than white Evangelical Christian Americans – is a non-factor, and it shows.
“God sent Adolf Hitler to help the Jews reach the promised land,” said pastor John Hagee, founder and current national chairman of CUFI, in a 1999 sermon. He wouldn’t apologize for this unambiguously pro-Hitler statement until nearly a decade later in 2008, years after he founded CUFI. As for the State of Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, Hagee thinks that a peace deal bringing an end to the onslaught would be the work of the actual Anti-Christ – an Anti-Christ he believes will be a “half-Jew homosexual.” Support for Hitler’s extermination of Jews and the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza converge at the bewildering crossroads of Christian Zionism.
So why is Hillel bringing an anti-LGBTQ Christian Nationalist to campus? What does “the Center for Jewish Life,” an antisemitic pastor and an anti-woke crusader have in common? Unquestioning support for the State of Israel.
Organizations like Hillel, which tend to frame themselves in liberal terms, are forging an unholy alliance with the fascist right to defend the state of Israel at all costs. This alliance stands to hurt us all.
UConn Hillel has willingly become just one small part of a much larger Christian Nationalist project, one that simultaneously peddles antisemitism while claiming to be the defender of the Jews.
For example, after Trump’s right-hand man Elon Musk made a pair of Nazi salutes – which the ADL wasted no time defending – and string of Nazi jokes, Trump told Jewish Americans “I will be your defender, your protector and I will be the best friend Jewish Americans have ever had” as he promised to deport international students involved in last year’s pro-Palestine student protests. The Heritage Foundation, the same group that created Project 2025, also made a Christian Zionist companion entitled Project Esther for adoption by the Trump administration. It simultaneously claims to “combat antisemitism” while blaming “American Jewish complacency” and Jewish philanthropist George Soros for anti-Americanism.
Meanwhile, these same Christian Nationalists who UConn Hillel supports have bigger plans: A nation where women “are only meant to be mothers and bear children,” so says Hagee. A nation without the “disgusting” and “evil” “trans agenda”, and where “marriage is between a man and a woman,” so says Calhoun. A nation without Jews – after all, Hagee believes that Israel is “the only home God ever intended for the Jews to have” and who are we to question his God? A world without Palestinians, whose deaths are so essential to Hagee’s Christian Zionist project that any attempt at peace would surely be the work of the Anti-Christ.
We must not sit idly by. Do not make the mistake of overlooking events like these and thinking to yourself “this doesn’t affect me.” An injury to one is an injury to all, so the century-old solidaristic slogan goes. Our freedom is intertwined, from UConn to Palestine, from the Jewish struggle against antisemitic Christian Nationalists to the Queer struggle for autonomy and so much more. When our institutions fail us, it’s on us to forge a new path forward – together.
Fabulous article, nice work!
The author equating the genocide of Jews in World War Two with the farcical belief of a “genocide” of Palestinians is more extremist than the Christian Zionist guy he is criticizing. There is no comparison. It’s also pretty weird that he is mostly citing some other people and organizations instead of the guy who the article is supposedly about. Why can’t he just cite Kirby Calhoun’s own works to make his point?
Hi Lou, thank you for reading my article. I quote Kirby Calhoun in several places – including the very first words of the article. Additionally, Calhoun is a representative of Christians United for Israel, the organization I reference in the article. John Hagee is Christians United for Israel’s founder and national chairman – Calhoun’s boss and the face of the organization he represents. As for the comments on Elon Musk, Musk just had a joint meeting with Trump, Hagee, and Netanyahu the other day, so the connection couldn’t be clearer. I think the citations in my article are all directly relevant to the issue at hand.
Thanks for the clarification, Nathan. You make a couple of good points about CUFI. But why the antisemitic comparison of Gaza deaths with the Holocaust? Do you not know what happened to Jews (and others) in WW2, who were stripped of citizenship, rights and property and then rounded up and systematically murdered? Your comparison of this to Gaza is either totally ignorant or intentional propaganda. Also, at the end you hail Palestine. Have you read their founding documents and their law/policies? Their state charter reads as genocidal. LGBTQ Palestinians are regularly oppressed or murdered, both under Hamas and the PA. Meanwhile, Israel remains a free and open society for LGBTQ people- even the Arabs who would be murdered in the Palestinian Territories for who they are. You don’t have to support a corrupt Palestinian State in order to support the basic rights of Gazans and everyone else.
Hey lou,
Genocide denial is always a bad look. Nathan is not discounting the horrors of the holocaust as you suggest. Rather, it seems that they are drawing attention to the alliances that CUFI has made with actual nazis and a state credibly accused of genocide against a people. Never again means never again for anyone. If zionists need to align themselves with nazis to meet their goal… maybe thats telling
Hi “anti genocide”, claiming there is genocide against gazans doesn’t make it so. Even by Hamas’ own accounts, 2% of the population died after the invasion sparked by Hamas’ massacre of Israeli civilians. Half of those are combatants. While the collateral deaths of innocent Gazans is tragic and sad, it is hardly a genocide. Meanwhile, the Palestinian governments that you apparently support openly call for genocide of Jews and other Israelis. It’s in their charters (both the PA and Hamas), in their policies and in their actions. It is clear from October 7 that if they had the power, they would do it. You should live up to your handle and condemn Hamas and their supporters for the sake of the innocents in the region- Jewish Israelis, non-Jewish Israelis, and Palestinian Arabs alike.