Evangelical leader says churches must 'close the doors' on Candace Owens over Israel remarks
An Evangelical leader has urged churches to cut ties with Candace Owens following her statements on Israel and Jews that resulted in Australia and New Zealand denying entry to the political pundit.
Laurie Cardoza-Moore, president of the nonprofit Proclaiming Justice to The Nations who served as special envoy to the United Nations for the World Council of Independent Churches, condemned a series of remarks from the 35-year-old Owens about Israel and the Jewish people that many deemed antisemitic.
Owens' comments led to her public departure earlier this year from The Daily Wire, a conservative news outlet founded by Orthodox Jew Ben Shapiro.
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"Candace Owens has verged into the abyss of blind Jew-hatred, rooted in the sewers of historical Christian antisemitism, which led to the death of millions of Jews in the name of Christianity," Cardoza-Moore said in a statement published by The Jerusalem Post late last month. "Her ideas are a lethal cocktail of conspiracy theories and heresy, rejected by almost every denomination in Christendom."
"It's time that churches close the doors on Candace. The Candace Owens we once knew is no longer there," Cardoza-Moore continued. "She has no substance beyond her repugnant, unfounded, and obsessive hate for God's Chosen People. There is no place for her anywhere in the Conservative Christian world."
Cardoza-Moore's nonprofit seeks to encourage Christians to support the Jewish people. Her weekly broadcast, Focus On Israel, which airs on NRB TV, reaches a global audience.
The activist's statement follows New Zealand denying entry to Owens for speaking engagements, as The Associated Press reported last Thursday. Owens faced a similar rejection weeks earlier from neighboring Australia, where she had other speaking engagements.
Australian officials cited remarks Owens made in July on her independent podcast "Candace," in which she referred to reports of Nazi experiments on Jews as "bizarre propaganda."
Before leaving the Daily Wire, Owens accused Israel of genocide against Palestinians after it launched a military offensive in Gaza responding to Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack in southern Israel that killed nearly 1,200 people.
During a November 2023 interview with Jewish comedian Ami Kozak, Owens suggested that an area in Jerusalem known as the "Muslim Quarter" is where Israel forces Muslims to live.
Owens compared this to "Jim Crow" policies in the American South before Kozak corrected her, explaining that Israel doesn't force Muslims to live in the quarter and that there is also a Christian Quarter and a Jewish Quarter.
During an online disagreement between Owens and author Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, Owens liked a tweet that asked if Boteach was "drunk on Christian blood," an antisemitic stereotype. Shortly after the online interaction, The Daily Wire and Owens went their separate ways and Owens launched her podcast.
In a statement shared with The Christian Post, Cardoza-Moore, who has made over half a dozen documentary films on Israel, said she believes Owens' "hatred" of Jews is a "violation of God's word." She stressed that followers of Christ are commanded to "stand as Watchmen on the Walls of Jerusalem" and show "zero tolerance for Jew Hatred." She stressed that Christians must "banish people like Candace Owens from all churches."
"Owens leans on outdated Catholic dogma that was long dismissed by the Vatican to justify Holocaust Denial and conspiracy theories," Cardoza-Moore said. "Had she simply opened her Bible, she would have read that God chose the people of Israel and gave them the land of Israel — anything else is political propaganda. The Bible is Zionist. Abraham was the first Jew to move to Israel on God’s personal invitation. The majority of Jews are Zionists and so are many Bible-believing Christians. Therefore, the idea that you can separate the Body from the Soul is disingenuous."
Cardoza-Moore further notes that the Muslim Quarter "predates the modern Jewish state."
"Far from being a designated area for Muslims, it was home to a majority of Jews before they were ethnically cleansed by the invading Muslim Jordanian Army in 1948," Cardoza-Moore told CP. "Till this day, one can see antique Hebrew engravings on Muslim family homes, and holes in the doorposts from where Mezuzahs were ripped out."
Owens' new podcast has also attracted criticism for comments about Israel and the Holocaust.
In September, PragerU co-founder Dennis Prager published a letter he wrote to Owens, stating that Owens' statements needed to be addressed. Owens hosted a podcast on PragerU from 2019 to 2021 before she began working for The Daily Wire.
Prager, who was raised in an Orthodox Jewish home, answered various accusations that Owens made regarding Israel, Jews and the Zionist movement.
In his letter, the conservative talk show host noted that Owens depicts Zionism as an "evil movement" on her podcast, adding that it is fair to then say that Owens is an "anti-Zionist."
Zionism is focused on reestablishing a homeland for the Jews in Israel, as Prager highlighted in his letter. There is only one Jewish state out of hundreds of countries throughout the world, according to Prager, but anti-Zionists only appear to have an issue with Israel.
He clarified that anti-Zionists are not antisemitic for criticizing Israel, but they are considered as such because the only country they "delegitimize is Israel."
"Why don't anti-Zionists devote their energy to delegitimizing Pakistan? There was an Israel from 1020 BC to 586 BC and from 516 BC to 70 AD, but there was never a Pakistan until it was created in 1947-48 (the same year Israel was reestablished). Pakistan was wrenched from India to create a Muslim state," Prager wrote.
Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: samantha.kamman@christianpost.com. Follow her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman
