Posted on 12/15/2005 6:57:56 PM PST by freedom44
CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. Jewish leaders say they are increasingly worried that Christian conservatives want to turn America politically and culturally into a country that tolerates only their brand of Christianity.
"There is a feeling on all sides that something is changing," said Abraham Foxman, director of the New York-based Anti-Defamation League.
"The polls indicate a very serious thing -- that over 60 percent of the American people feel that religion and Christianity are under attack," he said on Thursday in an interview.
"Some are saying we are attacking (Christianity). This whole movement is not anti-Semitic or motivated by anti-Semitism. But sometimes unintended consequences are much more serious than intended" he added.
Foxman recently arranged a meeting in New York involving six Jewish organizations to discuss the problem. He said that while participants did not agree on the exact level of the problem, they felt a strategy was needed.
"It's not a war room strategy," he added. "It's to understand what's out there."
He said Jews are a people of faith but are opposed to anyone who would say only they know the truth and want to impose it on everyone else.
While every December brings disputes over what to call the "holiday season" and its trappings, the level of lobbying by those who fear Christmas is becoming something generic has been particularly high this year.
But the issues raised by Foxman and others goes much deeper into American society, ranging from challenges to teaching evolution to bans on abortion and same-sex marriage or deciding
what kind of people who should serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.
"Every room (from bedroom to classroom) in the American mansion is under assault to impose either de facto or de jure a Christian theocracy -- I call them Christocrats," said Rabbi James Rudin, former head of interreligious activities for the American Jewish Committee.
"They are people who believe there should be a legally mandated Christian nation, where the concept of separation of church and state is weakened or abandoned," he added.
Rudin said he has met pastors "who say that Jesus Christ is the ultimate leader of America and that God's law trumps the Constitution ... I'm very concerned."
While far from all evangelical Christians hold those views, he said, the influence of those who do is strong.
Rudin, whose book "The Baptizing of America: The Religious Right's Plans for the Rest of Us" will be published in January by Avalon, said those with a theocratic agenda are not anti-Semites, and in fact some of them are among the strongest supporters of the state of Israel.
But he said they are Christians who see secular humanists and globalists as their enemies and who feel they are being attacked.
Mathew (cq) Staver, general counsel of the Florida-based Liberty Counsel, a group which backs conservative Christian causes in court and which has been particularly active in Christmas-related issues, says "there is absolutely no effort that I'm aware of to theocratize America or put down other faiths to expand Christianity."
He credits the increased activity surrounding Christmas issues this year to three years of building an organization over the matter.
"People have said enough is enough," he said, citing such incidents as naming Boston's Christmas tree a "holiday tree" and the publication of a sales catalog by a major retailer which featured Kwanza and Hanukkah gifts but made no mention of Christmas.
President George W. Bush, who describes himself as a born-again Christian, also faced criticism recently for sending out cards wishing people a happy "holiday" season.
"This clearly demonstrates that the Bush administration has suffered a loss of will and that they have capitulated to the worst elements in our culture," William A. Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights told the Washington Post.
Thanks for a very lucid explanation. That cleared a lot of things up.
Abe Foxman hates Christians. That much is crystal clear.
What, now they are afraid that the conservative Christians are going to emulate the Jews in Israel? Silly boys, not going to happen, or we would have done it 200 years ago.
But the very thing they fear, they are in their own country. The persicution against religious parties they disagree with is intense over here. So much so that the American state department has sent letters of protest to Israel about their persicution of Messianic Jews in Israel. For most things, Israel is more free than America, but religious freedom is quite another. They are more like Iran than America in that department. At least they only persicute Jews. As a American Christian I am treated semi fairly. I would place Israel as third world there, not turd world like Iran.
Thanks for the well thought out comments. I understand somewhat what you had devulged. Have a good day, I have to hit the sack, eye balls are a bit bleary at this point.
Yeah LOL!!!
Cathoics who vote for Demo party dying out so get ready for Conservatives Cathoic in the future
Traditioally Hispanics don't go for Demos pro abortion pro gays rights platform they are very conservatives
Reliable votes for 'Rats. Pathetic.
Notice the very beginning of the Reuters article: "U. S. Jewish leaders say ..." Certainly Foxman, Yoffie, etc. hardly represent "U. S. Jewish leaders" with their paranoid leftism.
The Republican Jewish Coalition is currently running a pro-Administration ad campaign blasting this kind of rhetoric from the Jewish left. These ads have generated attention already in several newspaper articles, and were mentioned by Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) on the Senate floor.
So "Jewish leaders'" views are certainly not limited to those of Foxman and pals. In fact, it's about time that Foxman rode quietly into retirement, rather than continuing his lunacy in the media as a purported "Jewish leader."
Foxman is still suffering from electile dysfunction as a result of the last two Presidential Elections..
"These "secular humanists" and "globalists" are those who have little respect for the Bill of Rights and who have mistaken "freedom of religion" for "freedom from religion"."
That IS what "secular globalists" like Karl Marx (and the French Enlightenment Leftists) meant when they used the expression "emancipation": freedom FROM!!!
As a Jew I am enraged by this charlatan. Of course God's law trumps the Constitution, you stupid schmuck! There is nothing in the Constitution which prohibits murder, nor even prohibits the nation from amending the power of the state to murder citizens or other horrible acts. This is a law of God. Where does this Deformed "Jew" think civic laws came from in the first place? I really am beginning to think religious Jews and Christians need to form an alliance to completely defame and ostracize these Communists posing as Jews once and for all. They are truly a menace to our nation.
Keep this firmly in mind: Abe Foxman was tossed out of his New Jersey synogogue on his fat hairy ass, on account of his virulently anti-Israel rants. He is an evil Communist cockroach posing as a Jew.
They are Jews-In-Name-Only (JINOs). They have more in common with Fidel Castro than with a religious Jew. PLEASE ignore them. Their "Deformed" ilk are dying out (Palm Beach), having abortions and intermarrying with Hindu-Muslim-HariKrishna spouses. Thankfully in 20 years there will be just as many religious Jews in America as leftist JINOs. And keep in mind-- 77% of religious Jews voted for George W. Bush. Hopefully after 40 years, as with Moses and the Israelities in the desert, the traitorous JINOs will be washed away.
This stuff reminds me of the Nazi press. Only then it was, "Jews scheming to....... (insert propaganda)" Now it's, "Christians scheming to....(insert propaganda)"
Ironic that the former victim is now the accuser.
I know plenty of secular Jews who are politically conservative and have nothing in common with the idiots quoted in this article.
Extraordinarily effective imagery.
Please have a look at the owners website
http://www.a-human-right.com/
Thanks, I'm familiar with that excellent site, although I haven't visited in a while...
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