About
Christians who won’t stay silent.
ChurchDivest exists to challenge Christian Zionism — the quiet theology beneath the American church’s silence on Gaza. Who we are, why we started, and how we’re funded. Plainly.
Where this started
ChurchDivest began in the years after October 7. As genocide scholars, courts, and churches around the world started naming what was happening in Gaza, much of the American evangelical church did something else: it changed the subject. It looked away. And the strangest part was that the silence felt familiar.
Anyone raised in the American evangelical church remembers the pieces: the End Times conferences, the Left Behind novels, the nation-state of Israel cast in a central, apocalyptic role — and the old lesson that Ishmael’s line was cursed while Isaac’s was blessed. That teaching has a name — Christian Zionism — and it supplies the theological, political, and financial foundation beneath the American church’s silence about Gaza. A church taught that a government can do no wrong will not weep for the people under its bombs.
The loudest Christian Zionists are only the tip of the iceberg. The larger problem is the silent allegiance underneath — opaque to outsiders, rarely spoken aloud, and almost never challenged, because most people don’t know it’s there. ChurchDivest exists to challenge it: to shine light on this teaching in our own communities, and to walk with every congregation ready to break the silence.
What we do
Two things, in parallel. We ask churches to name the genocide and to divest from it — and we walk with every congregation ready to lead. And we document Christian Zionism where it is actually preached, from primary sources, in public, so that what has worked quietly for decades has to answer in the light.
We are not against the church. We are against a specific teaching within it — and we are not affiliated with any political party, denomination, or government, and we do not endorse candidates.
The people
ChurchDivest is a small team of volunteers — no staff, no office, no consultants. We’ll add to this page as our incorporation completes.
Austin Sefton
Founder & Executive Director
Austin grew up in the evangelical church and works in tech. After October 7, he recognized the theology beneath the American church’s silence from his own evangelical upbringing. Alongside other Christians who saw it too, he started ChurchDivest to challenge it in the open. He is the interim publisher of this site while our incorporation completes.
“Christian Zionism is the foundation underneath it all — political, theological, financial. And it goes almost entirely unexamined.”
Natalie M. Zahr, Ph.D.
Founding Advisor
Natalie is a neuroscientist and Assistant Professor (Research) of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, where her work uses MRI to study the brain. Alongside her science, she has been a consistent public voice of conscience on Gaza — joining colleagues across Stanford Medicine in naming the genocide and standing publicly with students’ right to protest.
Megan Chandler-Melton
Interfaith Liaison
Megan is a designer and a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) — a tradition that named the genocide and began divesting before almost anyone else. She builds ChurchDivest’s relationships across faith communities.
How we’re funded
We are currently 100% self-funded. ChurchDivest takes no money from any government, political party, PAC, or foreign entity, and this website collects no donations at all. Where we point to a fundraiser, the money goes directly to its organizers and never passes through us.
When our 501(c)(3) determination is complete, our EIN and annual filings will be posted on this page.
Why you can trust what you read here
This site names real congregations and real teachings. That only works if we hold ourselves to standards most advocacy never adopts:
Public record only — every negative claim is sourced, dated, archived, and quoted fairly.
Reporting and advocacy never blend unlabeled — where we take a side, we say so, in a labeled “Where we stand.”
Right of response — named parties are contacted before publication, with a real window to respond.
Public corrections — if we get something wrong, we fix it in the open.
Ask us anything
hello@churchdivest.org — a person answers. Questions, corrections, skepticism, or a congregation ready to lead: all welcome.
Ready to walk with us? Join the movement →