I was surprised a year or so ago, during a trip through Guatemala, to see bumper stickers plastered on car after car with the star of David and Israeli flag proudly displayed. Surely there couldn ’t be that many Jewish people in Central America? I wondered aloud. No, my hosts explained, those bumper stickers came from Evangelical and Pentecostal churches that taught Christian Zionism, a brand of theology that is associated with names like Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and John Hagee, recent endorser of presidential candidate John McCain.

I grew up in a conservative American church that fervently supported Christian Zionism. Although my faith journey has taken me far from that theological approach, because of my upbringing, I understand the mindset that produces Christian Zionism.

From my vantage point, one of the fatally flawed assumptions that underlies a Christian Zionist reading of the Bible is this: for God to choose (or elect or call) some people requires God to exclude others. In this view, to put it baldly, God plays favorites, electing some and rejecting others, calling some to grace and condemning others to despair. In much conventional Christian teaching, the Jewish people were God ’s original favorites—until we Christians came along. Then, in many minds, Christians replaced Jews as God ’s chosen; in other minds, Christians joined the Jews as junior partners in this elite status.

God could be expected within this scenario to act on behalf of his favorite people without regard for the dignity, well-being, or even survival of those who were not so chosen. The historic injustice done by Christians to Native Americans and African slaves in the Americas, to Jews by anti-Semitic Christians across the centuries, and to Palestinians today in the Middle East, all flow, in part, from this dangerous misunderstanding of what it means to be God ’s chosen or elect.

I remember the great relief I felt when my thinking about call, choosing, or election changed. I was liberated by a new understanding of the story of Abraham. I realized there was a Part A and a Part B to God ’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 12. Yes, in Part A, God says, “I will bless you … I will make you a great nation.” But that was only half of the story, because in Part B, God added, “I will make you a blessing … all the nations of the world will be blessed through you.” The conventional view of Christian Zionists depends on reading Part A alone, so the world falls into two categories, “some/us” who are elected and “others/them” who are rejected.

When I was no longer able to break apart what God put together, when I included Part B with Part A, God ’s choice of some was no longer exclusive of others; it was instrumental for others. God no longer played favorites, but, in line with the teaching of Jesus, graciously gave rain and sun to all people.

I believe the idea of exclusive election has twisted sectors of all three Abrahamic faiths. If we perpetuate this misunderstanding, earth ’s future will be darkened by our religions, not enlightened by them. But if our understanding of chosen-ness, calling, or election can be corrected, wonderful new possibilities can arise. All nations, truly, can be blessed.

In the meantime, through its influence on U.S. foreign policy, Christian Zionism elicits uncritical support for the Israeli state and brings great suffering for the Palestinian people. I do not expect many in the older generation of conservative Christians to alter their longstanding view of chosen-ness. For them to change their view would require a profound repentance and paradigm shift. Such a shift would in turn unsettle all their theological categories —not to mention their foreign policy priorities. Few can handle this kind of rethinking.

But I see signs among younger generations of Evangelicals that the old view is losing its grip. Fewer and fewer can in good faith affirm a Part A religion divorced from Part B. More and more are emerging into what is for us a better and more truly biblical view: not “us instead of them” or “us without them” or “us versus them” but rather “some of us for all of us,” embracing tikkun olam and seeking the common good. If this view wins hearts among believers in the God of Abraham, the next sixty years can be brighter than the last sixty for Israel, for Palestinians, for the United States, and for the world.