Firm plans to target churches with pro-Israel ads

Key points:

• Show Faith by Works, a California-based company, is planning a “geofencing” campaign that would flood the mobile devices of worshippers in parts of the U.S. with messages.
• In a filing, the company stated that the ads are aimed at increasing support for Israel while stressing “Palestinian ties to Hamas and support for terrorism.”
• A campaign “targeting United Methodist churches with anti-Palestinian ads explicitly goes against our Social Principles that encourage dialogue and responsible political action,” said Colleen Moore, with the United Methodist Board of Church and Society.
• The Christian Life Commission of The Baptist General Convention of Texas has criticized the campaign and is sponsoring a letter requesting U.S. government action.

Worshippers at several United Methodist congregations in Texas may soon be targeted with propaganda from a foreign government attempting to shore up its lagging support among U.S. Christians.

In a Sept. 26 filing under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, a self-described “Christian-based marketing and communications firm” reported that the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs is paying it more than $3 million to use “geofencing” technology to identify the mobile devices of people inside hundreds of large churches in the western United States. Those devices will then be flooded with messages the company claimed will “combat low American Evangelical Christian approval of the Nation of Israel” and “increase awareness of Palestinian ties to Hamas and support for terrorism.”

Geofencing has long been a way for corporations to target audiences by using their devices’ location services. It allows marketers to acquire the location of mobile devices — triggering texts, in-app notifications and mobile ads when users enter certain physical boundaries.

Coordinated by Show Faith by Works — a Riverside, California-based corporation formed earlier this year — the effort will be “the largest Christian Church Geofencing Campaign in U.S. History,” according to the filing. While it initially designated Arizona, California and Colorado for the digital campaign, it asked for additional funds to target Texas churches. The United Methodist Church is present in all of the states, but its congregations named in Show Faith by Works’ filing are in Texas.

In addition to the geofencing operation, the company will deploy at least one trailer designed as a mobile museum presenting a high-tech Israeli-friendly portrayal of the war in Gaza. It will also train and pay pastors and social media influencers to “increase positive associations with the Nation of Israel while linking the Palestinian population with extremist factions,” the September filing stated.

The company said it will channel money from Israel to church leaders who will “counter new and evolving pro-Palestinian messaging as the global narrative shifts.”

Whether the pro-Israel ads and the pastors producing Israel-friendly content will disclose the foreign funding is not clear. Emails to Show Faith by Works were not answered.

According to Colleen Moore, the director of peace with justice for the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, the effort is “a dangerous campaign that undermines efforts to educate United Methodists about the situation in the Holy Land.”

A campaign “targeting United Methodist churches with anti-Palestinian ads explicitly goes against our Social Principles that encourage dialogue and responsible political action,” Moore told United Methodist News.

“These ads would obscure the real situation on the ground, the continued Israeli bombardment of Gaza and the ensuing humanitarian crisis, as well as the displacement and continued settler violence in the West Bank and Jerusalem.”

Moore said her agency encourages churches being targeted “to consider the Social Principles and resolutions of the church which encourage United Methodists to read about the suffering of Palestinians and Israelis, study the conflict from all perspectives, and engage in interfaith and ecumenical dialogue on nonviolent ways to promote justice and peace in the Holy Land.”

In its Book of Resolutions, The United Methodist Church officially calls for dialogue to bring about understanding and peace. It recognizes Israel’s right to exist and supports a two-state solution as well as Palestinian self-determination. General Conference approves all the resolutions included.

United Methodist News reached out to the leaders of the three conferences in Texas who declined to comment on the campaign. Several United Methodist congregations named in the filing also declined to comment.

A member at Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas told UM News that he doubted the campaign’s efficacy.

“It’s a waste of time if they’re targeting our congregation. Too many of our people have been with Palestinians and in the West Bank. They have ongoing ties, as well as a serious distaste for the conduct of the war in Gaza.” said Robert Hunt, professor of Christian Mission and Interreligious Relations at Southern Methodist University.

A former United Methodist missionary, Hunt argued that simply because others use modern technology in a certain way doesn’t make it right.

“Just because it’s both legal and a common marketing practice doesn’t make it right,” he said. “Would those sponsoring these efforts want their communities targeted with a message that promoted half-truths and hatred? It’s either do unto others or the whole world goes blind.”

United Methodists for Kairos Response, a denominational advocacy group supporting Palestinian rights, issued a Nov. 3 statement suggesting the campaign was a “desperate and doomed effort to reverse the powerful shift we are seeing in U.S. public opinion about Israel and Palestine. As many recent polls have shown and political analysts have noted, the tide is turning in Americans’ understanding of the Palestinian struggle. That turning includes millions of Christians in the U.S. who today are questioning the misinformation about Palestine and Israel they have heard for decades. They are coming to understand that it cannot be God’s will that we justify or support genocide and apartheid and a brutal military occupation.”

The group said the growth of support in the U.S. church for Palestinians has been “a catalyst for this misguided Israeli initiative, targeting thousands of church members with invasive technology and attempting to unbend the irresistible arc of history toward justice.”

Theresa Basile, the group’s communications director, said the campaign can’t undo what church members have heard for themselves from Palestinian Christians over recent years.

“It’s disturbing, even creepy, to think that an agency working for the Israeli government, or any government, would be physically tracking me so they can make sure I see their ads,” she said.

“But I doubt this campaign will have great success in changing the hearts and minds of Christians who’ve learned something about what Israel is doing to Palestinians, including intentionally starving masses in Gaza, abusing and torturing child prisoners, destroying an entire village because settlers want their land. Once you’ve really looked at that racist brutality and the suffering it causes, you can’t unsee it. A few ads aren’t going to change that.”

While some United Methodist leaders have chosen to not publicly address the campaign, Baptists in Texas have harshly criticized the technological intrusion into church life.

The Christian Life Commission of The Baptist General Convention of Texas urged church leaders to sign a letter to U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi calling on the Department of Justice to prohibit foreign governments from using tracking technologies to send targeted messages to worshippers in U.S. churches without their consent.

“We recognize the importance of diplomatic relations and the legitimate interests of allied nations. However, the surreptitious targeting of American worshippers on the grounds of their churches crosses a line that should concern all Americans who value religious freedom and privacy,” the Baptist letter stated.

Houses of worship historically have been “protected spaces where Americans gather freely to practice their faith without government surveillance or foreign interference,” the Baptists stated.

“Allowing government-sanctioned foreign surveillance and influence operations within church sanctuaries fundamentally undermines this separation by entangling houses of worship with state-approved foreign political campaigns.”

Targeting individuals in places of worship also can have a “chilling effect” on the freedom to assemble and freely exercise faith, the letter noted.

“Houses of worship should remain sanctuaries free from uninvited foreign government surveillance and influence,” said the Baptist letter.

Jeffrey is a photojournalist and founder of Life on Earth Pictures. He lives in Oregon.

News media contact: Julie Dwyer at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umnews.org.