My head filled with dark thoughts in the days following yet another stolen election (oops… forgot to wear my aluminum hat), I totally forgot to read Collin Levey’s latest column: “Bush’s religious base bolsters support for Israel.”
Happily, any such temptation is likely to be nipped in the bud by a serendipitous and growing alliance between Jewish pro-Israel voters and the “Zionist” Christians of the president’s conservative base.
Yeah… see, Collin… the only problem with this serendipity is that these “Zionist” Christians are pro-Israel because they believe it will lead to the total destruction of the Jewish people.
I’m assuming Collin is Jewish like me, and perhaps like most Jews, she hasn’t spent much time reading the New Testament. As a piece of nonfiction I find it rather boring and preachy compared to the Torah… and I must say I find some of the gospels transparently self-serving on the part of the authors.
I’m sure many Christians might disagree with my critique. There’s no accounting for taste.
But as I’ve said before, Revelations is, well… a revelation.
The prophecy requires that before the Second Coming the Jews must return to the Holy Land (check) and rebuild the Temple… (Oops! That would require tearing down the Dome of the Rock, one of the holiest mosques in Islam.)
Anyway… and what happens next? Well, a third of the Jews convert to Christianity, and the rest of us are destroyed in Armageddon. (The good news is, it finally ends over two thousand years of anti-semitism.)
This “Zionist”, evangelical Christian Republican base with which Collin is so eager to ally herself, may indeed be passionately pro-Israel… but they are most definitely not pro-Jew.
These are people who are happily looking forward to Armageddon… who eagerly await “The Rapture” (which my brother-in-law Dan reminds me, could be a boon for the schmatte business.) These are people who fervently believe the end-of-the-world is coming, and not a moment too soon.
And these are the people we want driving our foreign policy?!
Collin — from one Jew to another — I’ve got only one word to say to you: Oy!
You hit the nail right on the head. I’ve seen these evangelicals on TV saying exactly what you blogged. They want the Jew in Israel because this is the only way the second coming prophecy they interpret in the Bible will come true. I saw a sign the other day, “Believe in Jesus and be saved,”–saved from what???? Can anyone explain this to me? I’m becoming a Mennonite!
What you missed we are in this deeper than most realize. Nefesh b’nefesh takes money from these right-wing nuts to help Jews who wish to make aliyah. Given your correct analysis, evangelical Christians see paying for Jews to immigrate to Israel as harkening the Second Coming, and therefore, the death of the Jews. Can anyone say Nazis????
Bennington,
It’s “saved” from themselves. Any good “christian” who has not become a brainwashed clone (and can read between the lines) knows the message Jesus Christ was trying to get folks to understand was one thing…lets say it together, shall we?…LOVE! Besides that,its all crap.
Its my gut feeling if or when He decides to return to this rock of hate, he’d have a field day on the “christian right”…who is neither of either…like he did on the (sorry Goldy) Jews in the temple.
Ken, yeah, I didn’t go into it, but the funny (sad?) thing about evangelical Christians raising money to help Jews emmigrate to Israel, is that it clever kills two birds with one stone. In the long term it they see it as moving is closer to Judgement Day. And in the short term, it gets rid of all those annoying Jews back home.
The only difference I can see between Christian Rapture and Muslim Suicide Bombers is…..73 Virgins….Praise be Allayh!!!
I love the idea of Rapture, Christ coming for all the believers… What a wonderful thing to behold!
Think of all the missing Republicans and sudden lack of idiots in traffic! Think of all the money it will free up for the rest of us!
The problem with apocalyptic revelations in the bible is christian think than can figure out when its actually going to occur. Actually Revelations almost wasn’t included in the bible, and some say “John the Devine”, who wrote revelations was actually a dying preacher who had a fair addiction to the drink absenth, which is fermented out of wormwood. The point is, christians who focus on the “End Times” are completely missing the point of christ’s message. Christ came to set an example of how to live a loving and fullfilling life, not so mankind can figure out how god is going to end it.