Posted on 06/23/2020 4:17:56 AM PDT by Kaslin
If you are a Jew or Christian in America, the seriousness of your Judaism or Christianity is now being tested.
People look back in time and wonder how religious people, especially religious leaders -- specifically, the clergy -- could have failed in times of moral crisis. The failure of most rabbis, priests and pastors to speak out today -- when the risk to personal safety is so much less than it was in communist and fascist countries -- should provide the answer: Religion doesn't have all that much impact on most religious people. During comfortable times, it provides two essentials to a happy and fulfilled life -- community and meaning -- but when tested, it often fails like an umbrella that fails to expand just as it starts to rain.
America is being taken over by violent mobs; a vast amount of destruction and stealing has taken place (with little police intervention and the apathy of our political leaders). Why aren't all clergy delivering thundering sermons about the Seventh Commandment, "Thou shalt not steal"? Does it now come with an asterisk?
A central part of a major American city has been seized and occupied by people who hate America and its values, including its Judeo-Christian values. Heard any clergy (aside from some evangelical Christians) speaking out against it?
And most ominous by far, for the first time in American history, free speech -- the mother of all freedoms -- is being widely suppressed, not by the government but by the press, the universities, the high schools, the elementary schools, all the giant internet media, Hollywood and virtually every major business in America. Christians and Jews place repentance at the center of their theologies, yet there is no place for repentance if you did or said one insensitive thing -- real or alleged -- even if it was 20 or more years ago. Yet all we get from American religious leaders on this matter is ... silence.
The freest, least racist, most opportunity-providing country in history -- "the last best hope of earth," in Abraham Lincoln's words -- is smeared as "systemically racist"; all white people are declared "racist"; and the statues of the greatest Americans, including George Washington and even Abraham Lincoln, are toppled and/or defaced. And all we get from most American religious leaders is either agreement or silence.
It leads this religious American to ask the question the anti-religious ask: Of what use is religion?
Take the claim that being "colorblind" is racist.
If you are a religious Jew or Christian -- let alone a rabbi, priest or minister -- do you believe that? Do you believe that the human ideal is not to be colorblind? Do you believe that the ideal is to see every person, first and foremost, as a member of a race? Is that what you learned at seminary? Is that what you have taught from your pulpit all of your life?
I doubt it. I assume that, until as recently as a year or even six months ago, you have always believed and preached that we are, in Martin Luther King Jr.'s words, to measure people not by "the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
Isn't it fundamental to all Bible-based religions that we are all created in God's image, that God has no race and that Adam and Eve, from whom we all descend, had no race? If you are a Christian, do you see Christians of other races first as fellow Christians or first as members of their race? If you are a Jew, do you see Jews of other races as anything other than fellow Jews? Does God?
So, why the silence? Why aren't all rabbis, priests and pastors telling their congregations and telling America -- in tweets, on Facebook, in letters to the editor, on television and radio, in opinion pieces -- that there is one race, the human race, and that the only antidote to racism is to deny that race determines our worth, not to affirm its significance?
Does an ideology that affirms the significance of race have an honorable pedigree? Has it ever led to anything good? Isn't that exactly what Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan advocated?
So, how are we to explain this tragic failure of religious Jews and Christians -- and their clergy -- to speak up against looting (aka stealing) and for freedom, for America, for Western civilization and for being colorblind?
The answer to this question also goes to the core of what it means to be religious. At the center of our two religions is the notion of fear of God: "Fear God, and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man" (Ecclesiastes 12:13). But what is now apparent is that most Jews and Christians fear the left, fear The New York Times, fear being shunned by "friends" on Facebook and mobbed on Twitter more than they fear God.
That's what this moment comes down to. Jews and Christians who fail this test will not only lose their freedom, lose the great American hope for mankind and lose the West; they will have also lost their souls.
Agree ... any suggestions ?
I grew up with “whether yellow, black or white, they are precious in his sight”
It stuck. Don’t think you can sing that anymore.
Yes they are.
Cancelling America, by Paul Craig Roberts
https://straightlinelogic.com/2020/06/22/cancelling-america-by-paul-craig-roberts/
The clergy has been failing the test for decades Dennis. Most never preach about repentance from sin, or even use the word sin. Few will even touch the sin of homosexuality.
It leads this religious American to ask the question the anti-religious ask: Of what use is religion?
We used to a least try to look at things from God’s view point.
I’m sorry you feel the way you do. I’m sorry that someone and their behavior “stopped you from going to church”. I am a Catholic Deacon who has been ministering, preaching and teaching for 20 years. Never once did I vote Democrat. Never once did I vote for, support or in any way endorse Hillary or any of her ilk.
The only points I “push” from the pulpit are the one’s Jesus Christ made during his walk on this planet. I have on numerous Sundays and weekdays, during the course of every year over the past 20, spoken out against the greatest of all human abominations: ABORTION!
I am not blind to the current issues, and although I’m no rocket scientist, I consider myself well informed and am by no means a milquetoast. (come check my firearm collection)
And the bible I preach from supports NO special interest other than Christ’s!
You do yourself a disservice by no longer worshiping God, however you do in your community, simply because you have a spineless clergyman. Either go to YOUR church and change it or as the late great Ronald Reagan said... vote with your feet... and go elsewhere. But not paying tribute to the Lord (Keep holy the Sabbath), whatever the denomination, only hurts you and your relationship with him. And your support for others in your church, who may need your conviction, is also missing.
Not all clergy are liberal spokesmen!
God bless you and yours!
Deacon Francis
Only disagreement is with one sentence toward the end regarding Israel inflicting a purging of palistinians (bka holocaust)
At the center of our two religions is the notion of fear of God: “Fear God, and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13). But what is now apparent is that most Jews and Christians fear the left, fear The New York Times, fear being shunned by “friends” on Facebook and mobbed on Twitter more than they fear God.
1) You are flying in a plane and it drops 4,000 feet.
2) you pull out into the hiway and an 18 wheeler is bearing down on you.
3) you open the door to you home and face a youth on drugs, pointing a gun at you.
What are the common elements? Your life is on the line and you are not in control of the situation.
Let me repeat that. Your life is on the line and you are not in control of the situation.
That is a proper encounter with God and one we will all face. We move past that in our relationship with God, but it is good to visit it on occasion.
BTTT
If you are a Jew or Christian in America, the seriousness of your Judaism or Christianity is now being tested.
Failing? All we see happening is are the beginning of the birth pangs of the end times. I’ve been waiting to see it for over 30 years personally. A world government led by satan is inevitable.
100% right. I have been shocked by the inertia of the governments in stopping this chaos, but even more shocked by the religious leaders passively accepting it....or even encouraging it.
He does revert to some of his core beliefs routinely. Pity he no longer grows.
Haven’t all the preachers, priest, ministers all been paid off - I mean aren’t they getting their salaries whether they preach or not now - thru the covid-19 payouts? some of them are contract through their churches - hell not even rallying their congregations with other churches to get PROTEST going to open up the churches again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have heard many make this same cry. Ben Carson spoke similar words on the Ingraham Angle last night. But the question is, how to you make your voices heard? We are armed, and we are strong. Are they saying that we need to take the streets back ourselves? Is that what the Anarchists want us to do? Many on this forum would have no problem lining up around our heritage based statues and defend our history. But who has called for that? Are they talking about being “loud” in social media? Who controls that? It is easy to call for someone else to be vocal when you have a large platform, like Ben Carson or Dennis Prager. But what about our little platforms that most of us possess? I agree that it is time to take back the streets. But how do we do that? Any suggestions? I am perfectly capable of defending my own territory. I have the weapons and the disposition to do so. But isn’t the whole United States my territory that also needs to be defended? Isn’t that what I took an oath for when I served in the military? Clarity in purpose would be a welcome friend..
I belong to the Methodist Church.i wasn’t going regularly because of my job, but tried. I love my church and I tithe It is conservative, not progressive like some. Three weeks ago they finally opened the church but: they had to take your temperature,wear masks, social distance and no handshaking. I wrote the minister until things are normal I would not be coming back. This is after we were in the process of the methodist church splitting off to remain conservative or become “The Way” a new, progressive church. That was to happen in may but got put off. In my letter I told him that I could go into Walmart or Lowe’s with no masks or restrictions but the church is being forced to comply. I told him there was a war against the church. I couldn’t help but wonder about Jesus and the leper. Would I have been turned away if I had been running a temp? I was already put off because of the scamdemic, hadn’t been allowed to see a family member in assisted living (still can’t) since March although I 100 percent understand the need in that group. Come around to this last week. Between Chick Filet and national Methodist Church sending emails on books to read battling racism with the national Methodist women allocating money to support BLM, not mentioning all the violence, I quit. I have always supported (and still) support the African Methodist Church because they are the reason we have been to fight off the progressive agenda but the outside forces are too strong. I decided and prayed explaining my reason to God. I don’t want to give money that will be used against the church. My church was going to split off, but it will cost a lot. My minister said it wasn’t the homosexual part that was the problem, (we always welcomed gay individuals,)He said the problem is the progressives do not believe in God and want to twist doctrine. Sorry for the long comment but this has been a burden on my heart.
At my church in NJ they/we pray against abortion every single time. Some of my clergy seem to be Hillary voters, but more recently (in the past few years) I think they've been becoming more red-pilled, based on what they say.
But the issue, at least in my church is that even if your minister is the most conservative you can imagine, when you tithe a portion goes to the state and national organizations that use it to support a progressive cause.
The author of this piece, for the most part, restricted his comments to race. This may be the least of the shortcomings of rabbis, priests and pastors. The foremost short fall may be about abortion—the killing of our most innocent. When abortion was legalized, the Catholic church took the lead and fought as a denomination. However, Jews and protestants failed to rally to their cause.
Then came the march of the homosexuals. The religious leaders of all faiths have all but ignored this abomination in the sight of the Lord. Perjury, lying, was made stylish by Bill Clinton. Stealing has been approved if you are looting for an alleged reason. Need we continue with this list?
If you ask someone if they believe in God, most will say yes. However, it appears that there is overwhelming evidence that very few believe God—even among people that profess to be religious. Therein lies the problem.
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