From the late 19th century, different groups of American Christians shifted their theo-political perspective toward Jews and Arabs in Palestine based on emerging theological ideologies, political actions, and other considerations. However, contemporary scholarship has vastly oversimplified the historic attitude of American Christians toward the Jewish Zionist movement and the land of Palestine. Religious historians have considered the question of American Protestant Christian attitudes toward the Holy Land and its people from a dualistic perspective. When considering the relationship between American Christians and Israel, scholars have incorrectly bifurcated the engagement of American Protestants and Catholics into two categories – pro-Zionists and anti-Zionist. This paper shows how American Christian attitudes of Protestant conservatives, evangelicals, fundamentalists, and liberals are much more complex than previously studied. Cannon argues that American Christian beliefs and actions toward Israel/Palestine are influenced and determined by racial ideology, theological assumptions, an imperialistic framework, and different Christian understandings about
justice.
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