Regarding the recent CUFI pro-Israel rally in Rochester: I do not support the work of "Christians United for Israel" even though I am a Christian minister and support the right of Israel to exist and be recognized.

I believe that the approach of this group neither helps Israel nor is faithful to Christ, whom its members say they honor. In the short term, the political support they garner for Israel may result in more aid from the United States. In the long term, their desire is for a Middle East war, a nuclear confrontation with Iran. They are motivated by their understanding of prophecy in the Bible, not by any love of Israel, not by any thoughtful understanding of Judaism, not by respect for Jewish much less Palestinian people.

For them, the establishment of Israel is a part of God's master plan to bring Christ's return. They believe that the Jewish Temple must also be rebuilt on Mt. Zion before Christ returns. That means, of course, that the Dome of the Rock mosque now occupying that land must be destroyed.

This a zero-sum theology. Some will win. Others will die. Winners are chosen not by the purity of their hearts but by the orthodoxy of their doctrine. In their script, any Jew who does not convert to Christianity will go to hell. In this Easter season, we need to ask whether this approach is true to Christ. It is not. Christ on the Cross stretched out his arms to embrace the whole world.

I need to weigh this theology on the scales Jesus established for me. He said, "Blessed are the peacemakers." CUFI resists every effort to make peace in the Middle East. He said, "Those who live by the sword will perish by the sword." They urge President Bush to launch nuclear strikes on Iran. Jesus said, "If your enemy is hungry, give your enemy food." They advocate the harshest treatment and shunning of our enemies. The most revolutionary thing Jesus said was, "Love your enemy, do good to those who persecute you, pray for those who despitefully use you."

Of course, CUFI would call this naive. But we had better learn to see the humanity in our enemies. The CUFI policies are more naive, because the wars they encourage will most certainly come back to bite us, even as the Iraq war is doing, in this closed-system of our planet. The environmental degradation, not to mention the moral degradation, will play no favorites.

In the end, the theology of CUFI is utilitarian and inhuman. It does not see the face of those whose death it looks forward to. It is not able to take in the reality of human suffering. It is a theology that insulates people from the cost of compassion. It offers false faith in a scenario made up of cut-and-paste Biblical passages. It is false faith, because it celebrates the potential annihilation of all of life as if this were the will of God. It worships war as if Mars were still a god.

If Christ is raised from the dead, as I believe He is, then His people need to return to the core of His life, the meaning of His death and resurrection. Israel's best friends will be those who call Israel to the highest truth in the Hebrew bible. We will call our country to work for justice for all of the people in the Middle East. We will honor, love, and respect the Jewish and Muslim and Christian people. The Bible says that Jesus could have called down legions of angels to destroy his killers. Instead, He said, "Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they are doing."

I pray for a nation and a church as humble as that.

Richard Myers, Church Street, Scottsville (Myers is president of the Greater Rochester Community of Churches and former pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church. The opinions he expresses are his own.)