Bishop T.D. Jakes
Posted on 12/19/2005 9:59:13 PM PST by goldstategop
Jews who support the Christian right are "Uncle Jakes."
So says a pro-Israeli Jewish official in his recent column for the Israel Policy Forum, a pro-Israel organization. "Uncle Jake" is M. J. Rosenberg's term for Jewish equivalent of "Uncle Tom." Just as the left sees conservative blacks as traitors to African-Americans, so it sees conservative Jews as traitors to the Jewish people.
I am the "Uncle Jake" most criticized in the Rosenberg column.
That a Jew on the left would use this term to describe Jews who support conservative Christians gives one an idea of how irrational, how hysterical are the arguments of the Jewish (and non-Jewish) left. And lacking a rational basis, they frequently rely on name-calling.
Speaking personally, I have been called many things in my life, but "Jewish traitor" is a first. For the record, and offered with obvious embarrassment at having to list these things about myself, here is a brief review of my Jewish activities:
From 1969 onward I was one of the leaders of the Soviet Jewry movement, beginning with being the national spokesman for the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, the leading activist group in that cause.
I have lectured in more Jewish communities in North America -- federations, synagogues of all denominations, Jewish community centers -- than almost any living Jew. And I have spoken at the national conventions of virtually every major American Jewish organization -- including Hadassah, the General Assembly of Jewish Federations; the United Jewish Campaign; AIPAC; and the American Jewish Committee.
I co-wrote with Rabbi Joseph Telushkin perhaps the most widely used introduction to Judaism in the English language.
I am the recipient of the American Jewish Press Association's 2004 Prize for excellence in Jewish Commentary.
For seven years I was the director of the Jewish retreat center, the Brandeis-Bardin Institute.
I am a founder of a Jewish day school in Southern California.
I am the emcee of the annual Chabad telethon; I've been teaching the Torah at the University of Judaism for 25 years, and teach Torah at my Reform synagogue.
And I have brought tens of thousands of Jews back to Judaism and Jewish identity -- Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox.
How then does a Jewish writer call me, a man whose life has been so committed to the welfare of the Jewish people, a traitor to Jews?
The answer is simple: To many leftist Jews, a non-leftist Jew is by definition a traitor. It's as simplistic as that. To these Jews, "left" and "Jewish" are synonyms. Just as to many on the left, "left" and "black" are synonyms.
The use of this smear is the tactic of those who cannot argue. Blacks and whites who smear black conservatives such as Thomas Sowell, John McWhorter, Larry Elder, Walter Williams, and Ward Connerly as "Uncle Toms" do so because they cannot, or wish not, to engage them in intellectual argument. It's far easier to libel them than to debate them.
The same libel and intellectual shallowness characterizes the Rosenberg piece.
His major charge is that Jews who support conservative Christians are "Jews taking positions hostile to the Jewish people in order to stay faithful to some political agenda."
And what are these positions that are "hostile to the Jewish people"? Rosenberg enumerates them: "the entire Christian Right agenda: opposing abortion, poverty programs, progressive taxation, laws that protect gays, affirmative action, the environmental movement, and feminism.
Even if that portrayal of conservative positions were accurate, why are these positions "hostile to the Jewish people"? Because they are conservative positions! Again, to such minds, "left" and "Jews" are synonymous, and therefore "conservative" and "hostile to Jews" are synonymous.
If you think most abortions are immoral; that a lower tax rate is better for society, including the poor; that the problem of poverty in America will not be solved by the government spending trillions more; that marriage should not be redefined; that a race-blind society is a finer society and that race-based affirmative action hurts both the recipients of the lowered standards and the society at large; that we desperately need the oil from a small percentage of the Arctic National Wildlife Preserve because doing so will help us rely less on Saudi oil and won't hurt any caribou; and think that, in retrospect, the feminist movement (as distinct from the belief in man-woman equality, which every religious conservative I know holds) hurt more men and women than it helped -- you are anti-Jewish.
Such shallowness is based in part on ignorance. For example, Rosenberg writes that "He [Prager] conveniently ignores the fact that Christian Right support for Israel is largely based on a religious belief that Christ will only return after Jews are all in Israel accepting the divinity of Jesus Christ."
That is the lie about Christians that the left spreads to prevent Jews from knowing the truth about Christian support for Israel: that it is rooted overwhelmingly in the beliefs that God promised the return of the Jews to Israel, that Christians are grafted onto the tree of Israel, that God blesses those who bless the Jews, that Israel is a humane democracy and its enemies are bloodthirsty and backward regimes.
To Rosenberg, conservative Christians are a caricature.
Rosenberg's charges that Jews who support Christian conservatives do so from nefarious motives and that Christians who support Israel do so from nefarious motives is typical of the left. They judge motives, not deeds. And the reason is clear. They are so certain of their moral superiority, they can only deduce that all those who differ with them are bad people. That's how a Jew who has devoted his life to the Jewish people can be called an Uncle Jake.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
I can't be an Uncle Jake because of my anatomy so I guess I'm an Aunt Jane.
Yes, let's all just separate into our little cells--Jews, Catholics, Japanese--and just stare at each other and agree with everything someone with our particular background espouses. zzzzzzzzzz
A bit off topic. If you're Jewish, what is Manny short for? (ie Jim, James: Mike,Michael: Tom, Thomas). Is it Menachem?
What a shame. Prager is one of the most scholarly minds on the radio. His earlier "Religion on the Line" show was very informative. And on his present show Prager can reduce the most rabid Liberal to a quivering mass with 3 questions.
"No one comes to the Father except through Me"
"If any man rejecteth Me before Man, so shall I reject him on the day of Judgement in front of the Father and all the angels of Heaven"
Looks like Jews who reject Jesus are no better off than Muslims who reject Jesus.
What I want to hear is the explanation from leftist, liberal Jews of why they support terrorists.
Merry Christmas my Jewish Brothers and Sisters!
Shalom
Pray for W and Our Victorious Troops
Jews have no idea of anything outside the Old Testament, especially the first five books. Christians who start a church cannot build a building, but rather have to hold services inside without any signs or references to this Faith outside the building - it is the law (Islam is allowed to show its mark). As for Christians, they have no clue. In their schools they have no idea about dinosours.... Does this give anyone a clue to frame an idea about these people.
I've often wondered how Jews could be against Christians. Without support of Christians around the World, the Jews and their Jewish State would perish. Their lack of goodwill towards all men is astounding.
There will always be war in Israel. They are the rudest people and the most selfish I have seen in all my world travels. The only explanation anyone can figure out about the Jews in Israel as a People is that they are so unhappy in their personal lives that they bring misery to everyone they meet.
ping
Emmanuel, perhaps.
Some guesses...
"The enemy (islamists) of my enemy (Republican George Bush) is my friend (even if he's my enemy too)."
Leftists in general, not just Jewish ones, recognize that America is the most conservative nation on the planet -- at least, of the major countries. Since their true religion is leftism (which necessarily excludes the God of Abraham, Who abhors abortion, homosexuality, etc.), they would welcome the destruction of America, since that would clear the way for the rise of a leftist superpower. A good example of this is the Rosenbergs. They were willing to die, along with their children, in a nuclear holocaust, just to bring down America. They have much in common with islamist "suicide bombers," when you stop and think about it.
I hope you are wearing your Kevlar BVD's. You are about to be flamed off FR.
This article clearly describes a classic example of the so-called "tolerance" as practiced by the left. They are, in fact, utterly intolerant of any view not their own.
why?
This has always been something that has puzzled me. Even with my Jewish friends who have come to the conclusion that 1. they heavily support Israel and 2. that the right and conservative Christians are far more supportive of Israel than the left, they still vote for Dims.
It blows my mind.
Even the ones who I can get to admit that homosexual marriage could greatly affect the structure of family, still.
And even when I convince them that my support for Israel has nothing to do with the Apocalypse (honestly, the Bible says that it will come unexpectedly in the night, so why do people worry about it? And really, what difference does it make? Doesn't affect my faith in the slighest WHEN.).
I just see conflicting excuses, and it has always bothered me.
Just on issue after issue (support for the UN is one), Jews should fall on the right. But they don't. I just shrug my shoulders at this point.
Bishop T.D. Jakes
Only true, Torah-based Jews will be on the right, along with those Jews who don't want to be taxed and regulated to death and who don't seek salvation in social engineering. All the rest will be on the left because they believe that man, not God, is the measure -- that the "anointed" can engineer "heaven on earth" and that the "anointed" can be trusted with absolute, concentrated power. Neither God nor the dignity of the individual play any part in this plan, although a great deal of lip service is given to both.
Menachem, Emmanuel (God is with us)?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.