Rabbi Michael Lerner
Posted on 05/10/2007 1:33:20 PM PDT by West Coast Conservative
Former President Jimmy Carter recently has stepped up his efforts to split the bonds between Evangelical voters and Israel. From The Jewish Week:
Wading into the delicate fray over the alliance between Jews and pro-Israel Evangelicals, former President Jimmy Carter last week reportedly said it was a mistake for Jews to accept such ties, and that he was working to convince Southern Baptists to change the way they look at Judaism and the Middle East.Christian Zionists can be better friends of Israel by challenging its government's policies, while accepting Judaism as a legitimate path to God, Carter told a group organized by Rabbi Michael Lerner in California last week, according to the rabbi.
"He said it was a terrible error for Jews to become allied with Christian Zionists who actually desire our conversion or burning in hell," Rabbi Lerner related in an interview Tuesday.
The alliance between Jewish and Evangelical Christian supporters of Israel has grown over the years. Evangelical support for Israel is often misunderstood and in some cases maligned-it comes often from the most noble of reasons. Regardless of one's views, this support has been very important.
The International Fellowship of Christian and Jews, headed by Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, has been in the forefront of building these links and raises many millions of dollars from Evangelical Christians to help Jews around the world who are in need. Christians United for Israel has become a politically influential voice for Israel around the nation. In an era during which Israel has lost support in many quarters, this support from Evangelical Christians should be welcomed. Yet, there are forces developing that are not attempting to erode this support. I wrote about this dynamic earlier in this article, "Splitting the Evanngelicals from Israel".
Nope, the cooperative baptist fellowship was founded by the liberals at Baylor.
Most truly conservative baptist churches have also cut back on funds sent along to the SBC, who are no longer as conservative as they should be.
Carter’s a worthless bum.
&&
If that was all, he wouldn’t be a problem. He is an evil bum intent on wreaking havoc in this country and abroad. I wish he would dry up and blow away.
Carter is a truly evil man.
...wine was really grape juice stuff that filled the seminaries in the 1970s.
&&
I remember hearing that one from Baptists when I was a kid in the 1950s.
You said — “Sorry but the US is not mentioned anywhere in prophecy, old or new. Amen.”
—
A lot of other countries in the world aren’t mentioned either. They simply don’t have a significant part in those events, or not a part worth mentioning anyway. They’re covered — in passing — in the understanding that they are “all the nations” and just come under that category. Those others who are mentioned have a significant and direct part. If the U.S. does have any significant part, it may be subsumed under another greater authority, which actually exclipses the authority the U.S. has today.
It doesn’t mean that the U.S. has disappeared or has ceased to function, however, as some people try to say...
cleary = clearly
Actually, this was an interfaith group that Carter spoke to, including a couple of Muslims.
If you note Michael Lerner's history, he is a leftist first and a JINO.
The premil stance did not start during the 19th century.
I know the latin prof from SWBTS who translated the Ephraem manuscript (A.D. 373), which was discovered in 1994 in a eastern Nestorian church. It has since been translated and the translation can be found in seminary archives. They have also be published in at least one book, Final Warning ISBN 0921714246.
Lerner is the progressive Jew. He edits Tikkun, a magazine mostly written by lefty Jews. (Its name is Hebrew for “to mend, repair and transform the world.”) He can be counted on to sign on to most liberal causes. He is a signatory to the Not In Our Name antiwar pledge. His Tikkun Community is a member of the United for Peace & Justice coalition that opposes a U.S. war against Iraq. (Other members include the American Friends Service Committee, Global Exchange, Greenpeace, TransAfrica, Working Assets.) He has been a leading Jewish voice against the hawks of Israel and a supporter of Palestinian rights, while calling himself a Zionist.
Rabbi Michael Lerner
Left-wing magazine editor Rabbi Michael Lerner is urging Jewish support for Georgia Rep. Cynthia McKinney in her bid to retain her House seat, in a signal that some Jews on the left are preparing to take on Israel supporters who decry McKinney’s sympathies for the Palestinian cause.
It was probably around then also. The big push arrived in the mid-70s though. And that might have been when the seminaries started having folks pushing it. It is a truly uneducated thing to even push and I shake my head every time it comes around...like a piece of spam e-mail. I'm thinking people probably started it as a way to respond to "why we don't drink alchohol". Again, certainly an uneducated argument. I also could never figure out if it wasn't really alcohol then why the admonishments about not getting drunk.in Scripture...unless it was too much "grape" juice can cause bowels discomfort - sarcasm.
Jimmah is being even more stupid than usual, and that’s saying a lot. Real Evangelicals will not turn against Israel. There are plenty of Protestant “Christian” liberals who are anti-Israel, but they’re not evangelicals.
For all his pretenses of being compassionate and kind, I suspect Jimmy Carter holds the deepest of hatred and blind rage—possibly from having pellagra as a small boy.
Until 1937, pellagra was endemic to large parts of the South, and there is a good chance that Carter suffered from this niacin deficiency disease, whose psychological effects include depression and violent blind rages. Likewise, there is reason to suspect that it could have long term neurological effects.
As a reaction to his inner turmoil, this might also explain his obsessive desire to be loved and to be seen as a compassionate person. But it also explains his bitter hatred of those who thwart his schemes. I suspect that his strongest hatred is directed towards Jews and/or Israel.
This is not unique to Jimmy. As late as the 1960s, many southerners were known for berserker rages, often ending in homicide.
“In the early 1900s, pellagra reached epidemic proportions in the American South. There were 1,306 reported pellagra deaths in South Carolina during the first ten months of 1915; 100,000 Southerners were affected in 1916.”
The acid test of whether or not Carter is pathological would be possibly found in his attitude towards Iran. For they, more than anyone else, have truly given him cause for insane rage that cannot be controlled.
My point is that Premillennialists (whether you believe them to be full of “phooey” or not) would be the most likely to remain is very strong support of Israel, regardless of Carter or anyone else.
You omitted the important fact that Lerner first came to national prominence (or ignominy) as Hillary Rotten Clinton’s “Jewish guru” during their first presidential campaign.
In regard to Baptist history it didn't start in the ADs and it has been around prior to 1994. I was speaking to SBC doctrine in particular. They have not always have the premil stance and many still do not hold it.
Perhaps. But those I know who do not hold to it are still staunch supporters of Israel. So I wouldn’t use it as a litmus test.
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.