Posted on 01/08/2006 7:58:18 AM PST by SJackson
Imagine, Israelis are outraged with the anti-Semitic comments of their frequent ally, Christian fundamentalist Pat Robertson.
As he and other Christian fundamentalist demagogues have done in the past, Robertson has offended Jews. He said that the brain hemorrhage of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is God’s punishment for “dividing” the land of Israel and compromising with the Palestinians.
He said the same about Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was murdered by an Israeli extremist. And he continues to blast all those who urge compromise and non-violence as a basis for a Middle East peace accord.
Robertson is typical of American racists who exploit the Arab-Israeli conflict for personal gain. Their support sustains American foreign policy and conservative leaders like President Bush.
In reality, Robertson and the Christian fundamentalists are worse than the Islamic extremists that they, Bush and other American conservatives constantly attack.
Robertson is a Christian zealot. His equivalent of suicide bombing is his “suicide bombast.” I am certain that if Christian fundamentalists in America were to ever find themselves in the same situation as the Palestinians, for example, they would defend suicide bombing as a “justified” form of combat.
Israelis know that Robertson and the Christian fundamentalists are a double-edged scimitar.
I watched one Israeli spokesman on CNN hem and haw in shock when confronted with Robertson’s comments. Instead of denouncing Robertson, the spokesman diverted the issue to inflaming the hatred of Iran’s president who often spouts anti-Semitic and anti-Christian comments.
To extremist Israelis, they, too, exploit Christian fundamentalism to strengthen their own ideological goals. The dirty, ugly secret of Israel’s embrace of the Christian evangelical movement is that deep down, they know that Christian evangelicals and fundamentalists are in fact more anti-Semitic than the Iranians, and may be the most anti-Semitic people on Earth.
Christian fundamentalism is built on a latent hatred of Jews. But they are not beyond exploiting Biblical prophecy to drive their own money machines, disguised as Christian ministries. They downplay their anti-Semitism and exploit the tragedy of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Christian fundamentalists like Robertson believe Jesus cannot return to cast judgment on humanity until Israel is established and the Jewish Temple is rebuilt in Jerusalem.
But the core of the evangelical movement is the belief that all non-believers, including Muslims, moderate Christians and especially Jews will be dispatched to an eternity of hellfire on that Judgment Day.
Ironically, most moderate Christians who wince at the outrageous comments of Christian fundamentalists like Robertson and others tend to ignore these anomalies and contradictions to true Christian belief.
Moderate Christians believe that all people who believe in the One God, be they Christian, Muslims or Jews, will go to Heaven. Fundamentalist Christians, however, believe that only those who embrace their interpretation of religion will go to Heaven.
It is an uncomfortable reflection of the core beliefs of extremist Muslims, too, who believe that those who do not embrace Islam will also burn in hell. That includes all Christians, all Jews and even secular Muslims.
Christians constantly criticize this Islamic view, but their silence on the ignorance of Robertson and other Christian evangelical zealots is deafening. Their silence is the real sin, the true violation of Christian belief.
While Robertson preaches his disguised hatred in the United States, Christians who are suffering in Palestine, the Holy Land, never attract his support.
As far as Robertson is concerned, Palestinian Christians are no different from the Jews, except in terms of how they may be exploited. There is no benefit to Robertson and his Christian evangelical zealots in defending the rights of Holy Land Christians. That’s why they sacrifice them on the altar of their own selfish fundamentalist cause.
The Jews, on the other hand, offer Robertson and the other high priests of the Christian fundamentalist movement a political opportunity to feed their supporters.
Christian fundamentalists need the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in order to build their flock of blind sheep. They do not want a Middle East peace. Everything they do is designed to prevent peace, including pressuring American administrations to pursue one-sided foreign policies that aggravate rather than resolve the Middle East conflict.
Although the Christian evangelists claim to pray for Judgment Day, they are the ones who should fear it most.
Like all tyrants, demagogues and dictators, Christian fundamentalists do not practice what they preach. They don’t believe God will really come down to judge mankind.
But they do know that the fear of that Judgment Day allows them to easily control their followers and, more importantly, to fill their pockets with money and accumulate power.
Regardless of which religious book they carry, the Torah, the Bible or the Qur’an, fundamentalists of all three religions threaten the future peace.
— Ray Hanania is an award winning Palestinian American columnist and former national president of the Palestinian American Congress. A Christian, Hanania can be reached at www.hanania.com.
Re-read posts # 4 and # 58. I complimented Christianity for not engaging in the violence common to Islam.
IF you're still offended, it is because you're looking to be offended despite the facts, i.e. Morton's demon is at play.
http://www.talkorigins.org/origins/postmonth/feb02.html
And these are?
"And these are?"
* * *
Looks like Morton's demon strikes again.
http://www.talkorigins.org/origins/postmonth/feb02.html
Hello...McFly,...(knock,knock,knock) ... our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus, who is alive and well today is Himself Jewish.
But speaking in tongues is scriptural and thus it may be considered fundamentalist to believe in them...however many fundamentalists aren't so fundamental in that they reject tongue speaking as "it was for another era" and that "now that we have the completed Bible, we have no more need for tongues"!
>>Moderate Christians believe that all people who believe in the One God, be they Christian, Muslims or Jews, will go to Heaven<<
"Moderate Christians" would be wrong.
Christ is ths only way to the Father.
That being said, Robertson is an a$$ for making such comments, and IMO does not speak for the rest of us "fundies".
The five fundamentals that I identified were debated during the latter part of the 19th Century and established as the 'five fundamentals' of Christian fundamentalism in 1910. Since then, the term 'fundamentalism' has been used, abused, broadened, etc. to include other beliefs, including those of evangelicals and Pentecostals. As I mentioned, these two have overlapping beliefs with fundamentalists, but strictly speaking, are not fundamentalists except in the eyes of the MSM.
"But speaking in tongues is scriptural and thus it may be considered fundamentalist to believe in them..."
The speaking in tongues scripturally speaking were understood by the listeners. Tongues means languages and it was the Holy Spirit that spoke and each hearer understood the tongue in their own language. In another words it was a miracle, not a jumble of sounds that make no sense.
Note Peter refers to Joel the prophet as to what was said, a second witness.
Back to the original article, the author makes quite a few statements which are consistent with freemasonry perspectives, but not Scripturally consistent.
WRT Pat Robertson, I may not disagree with his point of view, but the implied statements attributed to him are also mistaken.
He raises a decent point that anybody splitting the promised land is walking on a path against the will of God. Divine discipline might include a sin unto death, i.e. God has a plan for each of us and if we continue to rebel in our personal volition and refuse to abide by His plan for us, it is possible for us to corner ourselves into a position where we are no longer good for anything in His plan for us and all of mankind on earth, and He might remove us from this first life.
Conversely, in identifying today's events with Prophecy, the country called "Israel" by the UN, in many ways, is not the Israel of Prophecy. Accordingly, becoming preoccupied with blessing those of the present country 'Israel' and Israel of Prophecy is arguably a mistaken notion.
Secondly, even if the identity of Israel in Prophecy is granted as the present day country, identifying the cause of a person's declining health as being a divine punishment, insufficiently recognizes this age of grace. The suffering being endured, if endured while one perseveres in faith through Christ, may simply be a testing and a natural part of the Christian experience advancing in spiritual maturity.
In both notes, though, it appears Robertson didn't overstep any judgmental lines, but rather concluded that any person dividing Israel is interfering with God's edicts. Such a discernment is more theologic, than hateful. On the contrary, if spoken from a position of fellowship with God, the statement reflects a point of view that directs attention to God, not of any other party.
More directly, the association of Robertson's perspective as being anti-Jewish/Semitic/religion fails to understand the thinking or mind of Christ, but instead reflects the perspective of a person absorbed in a cosmic system of wrong-thinking absorbed in soulish perspective.
FYI - ping! Just when you think it can't get any more bizarre, it does1
Instead of hurling a clever insult, support your claim.
If there is a Pentecostal sect that doesn't believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible they are small, obscure and not representative.
Actually, that's not true. A couple short links.
According to traditional Judaism, G-d gave Noah and his family seven commandments to observe when he saved them from the flood. These commandments, referred to as the Noahic or Noahide commandments, are inferred from Genesis Ch. 9, and are as follows: 1) to establish courts of justice; 2) not to commit blasphemy; 3) not to commit idolatry; 4) not to commit incest and adultery; 5) not to commit bloodshed; 6) not to commit robbery; and 7) not to eat flesh cut from a living animal. These commandments are fairly simple and straightforward, and most of them are recognized by most of the world as sound moral principles. Any non-Jew who follows these laws has a place in the world to come.
The Noahic commandments are binding on all people, because all people are descended from Noah and his family. The 613 mitzvot of the Torah, on the other hand, are only binding on the descendants of those who accepted the commandments at Sinai and upon those who take on the yoke of the commandments voluntarily (by conversion). In addition, the Noahic commandments are applied more leniently to non-Jews than the corresponding commandments are to Jews, because non-Jews do not have the benefit of Oral Torah to guide them in interpreting the laws. For example, worshipping G-d in the form of a man would constitute idolatry for a Jew; however, according to some sources, the Christian worship of Jesus does not constitute idolatry for non-Jews.
There is a growing movement of non-Jews who have consciously accepted these seven laws of Noah and chosen to live their lives in accordance with these laws. This movement is referred to as B'nei Noach (Children of Noah). For more information about the B'nei Noach movement and the Noahic commandments, see Chavurath B'nei Noach of Fort Worth, Texas.
very true.
Utterly false; this is by no means the "core of the evangelical movement". Though irrelevant, thanks for claptrap on morton's demon. I'm not "offended"; are you sure you're not projecting?
I agree!
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