Among Evangelicals, A Kinship With Jews: Some Skeptical of Growing Phenomenon

The Washington Post ^ | January 8, 2006 | Alan Cooperman

[quidnunc]

Danville, Va. – Everyone who worships at the Tabernacle quickly learns three facts about its deeply conservative pastor. He comes from a broken home. He rides a canary-yellow Harley. And he loves the Jews.

There is some murmuring about the motorcycle. But the 2,500 members of this Bible-believing, tradition-respecting Southern Baptist church in southern Virginia have embraced everything else about the Rev. Lamarr Mooneyham.

Out of his painful childhood experiences, Mooneyham, 57, preaches passionately about the importance of home. Out of his reading of the Bible, he preaches with equal passion about God's continuing devotion to the Jewish people.

"I feel jealous sometimes. This term that keeps coming up in the Old Book — the Chosen, the Chosen," says the minister, who has made three trips to Israel and named his sons Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. "I'm a pardoned gentile, but I'm not one of the Chosen People. They're the apple of his eye."

Scholars of religion call this worldview "philo-Semitism," the opposite of anti-Semitism. It is a burgeoning phenomenon in evangelical Christian churches across the country, a hot topic in Jewish historical studies and a wellspring of support for Israel.

Yet many Jews are nervous about evangelicals' intentions. In recent weeks, leaders of three of the nation's largest Jewish groups — the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee and the Union for Reform Judaism — have decried what they see as a mounting threat to the separation of church and state from evangelicals emboldened by the belief that they have an ally in the White House and an opportunity to shift the Supreme Court.

-snip-

[Recon Dad]

Why not Semitophile?

[jla]

Your screen name befits you.

[jla]

fyi

[Free Baptist]

"Christian support for Israel is hardly a new "phenonemon"."

This is correct. I too was wondering where the author of the article had been. I've been listening to pro-Israel Christian preachers since early childhood. President Reagan was very much in tune with Christian preachers who were pr-Israel.

[Free Baptist]

"A dear, conservative Jewish friend of mine mused: "Liberal Jews are God's test of obedience for the righteous gentiles." ....inferring that ritgheous gentiles find it difficult to love the liberal Jews...in accordance with His commandement."

Strange twist. That conservative Jewish man, of course, wouldn't accept the New Testament, but Paul a Jew -- a "Hebrew of the Hebrews") taught "For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel:..." (Romans 9:6). The idea in the passage is that just because someone is a member, physically or nationalistically, of the Israeli nation doesn't mean that God sees them as true seed of Abraham. Well, read all of Romans ch. 9, and then the last half of Romans ch. 2. But this is the position of Bible-believing Christians. We support Israel, but we don't believe that everyone calling themselves "Jews" are necessarily seen by God as true Israelites.

[DainBramage]

I have been dignosed as having Omniignorantism but I don't know for sure.

[Free Baptist]

"I believe the Holy Bible and it says to bless Israel, the Jews and to pray for the peace of Jerusalem."

To pray for the peace of Jerusalem, then, would have to be tantamount to praying for the return of Jesus Christ. There will be no peace in Jerusalem until then, when their King puts down His enemies (Ps. 2; Rev. 19; etc.) Until then, their own rightful King promised wars an rumors of wars (Matt. ch. 24; Luke chs. 17, 21).

Every Bible prophesy I have ever read about the permanent placement of Israel back in her own land with peace is in direct connection to the nation being repentant and believing. That is not their state today, so they can just expect turmoil.

I still support Israel as an ally though.

[He Rides A White Horse]

Yet many Jews are nervous about evangelicals' intentions. In recent weeks, leaders of three of the nation's largest Jewish groups — the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee and the Union for Reform Judaism — have decried what they see as a mounting threat to the separation of church and state from evangelicals emboldened by the belief that they have an ally in the White House and an opportunity to shift the Supreme Court.

Abe Foxman is no friend of the Jews.

Yet many Jews left wing media establishment types are nervous about evangelicals' intentions.

"I feel jealous sometimes. This term that keeps coming up in the Old Book — the Chosen, the Chosen," says the minister, who has made three trips to Israel and named his sons Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. "I'm a pardoned gentile, but I'm not one of the Chosen People. They're the apple of his eye."

Don't feel jealous; if you believe in Jesus you'll be living with Him in the end. What more could you want?

[He Rides A White Horse]

Non-Jewish American leftists would sell them down the river in a New York minute if not for the Evangelicals.

Jewish-American leftists would sell them down the river in a New York minute if not for the Evangelicals.

Abe Foxman represents Judaism as much as Fred Phelps represents Christians.

[steveyp]

Francophile is a word? Must not get used very often outside of France...

[montag813]

some people are going to begin to get fed up with this and say, 'Well, all right then. If that's the way you feel, then we just won't support Israel anymore,' " Wildmon said.

Wildmon should chill. 77% of "religious" Jews voted for George W. Bush in 2004 (Source: RJC, rjchq.com). One day American Jewry will be rock-solid conservative, once the generation who sinned by embracing Marxism are purged from our tribe, much as the followers of Dathan and the Golden Calf were purged after 40 years in the desert. We just have to wait for the Holocaust escapees in Palm Beach to croak and left-wing hyphenated JINOs to intermarry, in addition to the JINOs aborting their babies. Meanwhile, Orthodox Jews are having 5 kids apiece. It wont take too long for the numbers to flip around. Perhaps 20 years is enough.

[avile]

The original Christians didn't believe it .

[avile]

Of course since they spoke Hebrew and aramaic, thay didn't use that term

[William Terrell]

I was raised that the Jews are the apple of God's eye. You harm them at your peril. "I will bless those that bless you, and curse those that curse you"

The Israelites, not just the tribe of Judah. An interesting question: what about one Israelite blessing or cursing another?

[Galveston Grl]

**Still, some Jews think that philo-Semitism is just the flip side of anti-Semitism.**

Still some socialist Jews are Christaphobes but come by it honestly from their Marxist programming.

[Recon Dad]

Please add me. Thanks

[judicial meanz]

I most probably will be classed as a Philo-whatever. So be it. I could care less what labels are assigned to me.

It seems like every so often another article like this comes out of the woodwork, designed to split Jewish-Christian relations with the tired old argument that the "Christians want to convert the Jews" or "the Christians have murdered Jews in the past" and remove Christian support of Israel.

Both things are partially true. These things have happened in the past. But they are based on generalizations. Generalizations which are useful to promote stereotypes which are easy to propagandize mass audiences with.

The truth is, not all Christians seek to evangelize Jews, and not all Christians seek to exterminate Jews.

The reverse is also true: not all Jews hate Christians, and not all Jews suspect the motives of Christians.

There are over 1000 sects and denominations of Christianity. Not all have the same doctrines and beliefs. Most Christians could not name every denomination and sect of Christianity.

There are also many sects of Judaism: Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, and Reconstructionist, schismatic denominations like the Karaites and many other groups. A lot of Jews can not name all of the denominations and sects of Judaism.

I will readily admit I base my support of Israel and the Jews on Biblical commandments found in the Bible. Specifically the books of Leviticus and Matthew. They are called the "Golden Rule".( Matthew 7:12 and Leviticus 19:18)

Articles like this are only written for one purpose: they hope to achieve a goal. That goal is the full removal of support from the cause of Israel, and the delegitimization of Christianity and Judaism. The writers hope to do so by using a broad brush to exploit our historical differences and then seek to drive a wedge in them to keep old wounds fresh.

I find this type of article frightening in one aspect:

what will happen when the goals of article writers like this are successful and the supposed unconditional support of Israel by Christians is allowed to be eroded enough to be permanently and irrevocably removed? I can only imagine, but I know it would not lead to a good outcome. I personally believe it would lead to systematic persecution on a scale not imagined since the Dark Ages.

I hope that this revocation of support would never be able to happen, however. I hope there will always be indivdual Christians who will unconditionally support Israel, no matter what the cost, because they recognize support of Israel is simply the right thing to do.

I also hope that Christian believers who firmly support Israel do it simply because they are realists and know there is no safe place in the world for a Jew -except Israel- because of historical hatred that has resulted in persecution and death to Jews in almost every society that they have lived in since the Roman exile.

Given the growing amount of Jew-hatred present in this world, if Israel ceased to exist, where would Jews go to be safe and cared for in a hostile world when persecution is on the rise and sympathy is removed from their cause?

[Zionist Conspirator]

Julie Galambush, a former American Baptist minister who converted to Judaism 11 years ago, has seen both sides of the divide.

Hmmm. I wonder which "branch?"

"That hope is felt and expressed by Christians as a kind, benevolent hope," said Galambush, author of "The Reluctant Parting," a new book on the Jewish roots of Christianity. "But believing that someday Jews will stop being Jews and become Christians is still a form of hoping that someday there will be no more Jews."

I suppose there's no other way for Jews to cease being Jews than to become chr*stians, eh, Ms. Galambush? I notice no one objects to disseminating atheistic and higher critical propaganda as an attack on Judaism. It's always and only conservative chr*stianity that is anathetical to Judaism, and I believe this claim is often made to create the impression that Judaism is antithetical to traditional religion of any kind.

The Rev. Donald E. Wildmon, chairman of the evangelical American Family Association, warned in a Dec. 5 radio broadcast that Foxman was "in a bind" because the "strongest supporters Israel has are members of the religious right -- the people he's fighting."

Unfortunately Rev. Wildmon (a United Methodist, and thus "mainline" minister) is no friend of the Jews. I've seen the anti-Semitic Spotlight quoted in his newletter, though that was a long time ago.

"The more he says that 'you people are destroying this country,' you know, some people are going to begin to get fed up with this and say, 'Well, all right then. If that's the way you feel, then we just won't support Israel anymore,' " Wildmon said.

That's not going to happen. Evengelicals go by the worldview they derive from their Bible, and that Bible tells them to support Israel and the Jewish People, and there's nothing Oslo Abie can do about it.

Since the 1960s, the Roman Catholic Church and some Protestant denominations have renounced supersessionism and stressed their belief that the covenant between God and the Jewish people remains in effect.

Evangelicals generally have not taken that step, but "among what you might call the evangelical intelligentsia, questions of supersessionism have come onto the table," Noll said. "It's in play among evangelicals in the way that it was in mainline Protestantism and Catholicism -- but wasn't among evangelicals -- 30 or 40 years ago."

This is a blatant lie. The consistent literalism of Protestant Fundamentalism naturally leads to ways to resolve the ways in which "the two testaments" blatantly contradict each other, and there has long been a doctrine of "parallel but equal tracks" among literalists (in fact, Increase Mather was among these). Also notice how the liberal denominations the author praises to the skies are blatantly anti-Israel and pro-Arab.

Still, some Jews think that philo-Semitism is just the flip side of anti-Semitism.

"Both are Semitisms: That is, both install the Jews at the center of history. One regards this centrality positively, the other regards it negatively. But both are forms of obsession about the Jews," said Leon Wieseltier, a Jewish scholar and literary editor of the New Republic.

That's because the Jews ARE at the center of history, you freaking lunatic.

Rabbinic civil authority would put an end to all these misinterpretations of Judaism as an ever-evolving ethno-cultural "faith tradition."

[Blood of Tyrants]

Non-Jewish American leftists would sell them down the river in a New York minute if not for the Evangelicals.

Many (including myself) believe that the rapture MUST happen before the time of tribulation because the rapture will remove all opposition to Satan (for a short time).

[Uri’el-2012]

The Name above all other names.

b'shem Y'shua