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Why Leftist Jews Distrust Evangelical Christians
When I was attending Cal State Long Beach, I remember one lunchtime when I was approached in the cafeteria by a young man. I don’t remember exactly what he asked me, but I know it had to do with Jesus, and I was immediately put off. I had spent most of my growing up years feeling like an outsider (as a Jew) and a heretic (for not accepting Jesus), and I brusquely rejected his inquiry. He politely walked away, but his unsolicited inquiry has stayed with me.
But my perspective towards Christians in general and Evangelicals specifically has changed dramatically. Due to the communities with which I socialize and my limited but sincere practice of Judaism, coupled with my curiosity about religions, I welcome input from my Christian friends and have found them to be very kind (except for one Ricochetee who believed that the Jewish religion was no longer relevant). So, I thought I might benefit from learning the nature of the relationship between Jews and Evangelicals, the complexity and diversity of those relationships, and how we might all benefit from knowing each other better.
By beginning with the Jews on the political Left, we can see the most current reasons for Jews rejecting and distrusting Christians:
The answer, I think, is that many Christian liberals see Israel as blocking the aspirations of the oppressed—who, they have decided, include the Palestinians. Never mind that the Palestinians support suicide bombers and rocket attacks against Israel; never mind that the Palestinians cannot form a competent government; never mind that they wish to occupy Israel ‘from the sea to the river.’ It is enough that they seem oppressed, even though much of the oppression is self-inflicted.
After the Marxist claims about the proletariat proved false and capitalism was vindicated as the best way to achieve economic affluence, leftists had to stop pretending that they could accomplish much with state-owned factories and national economic plans. As a result, the oppressed replaced the proletariat as the Left’s object of affection. The enemy became, not capitalists, but successful nations.
Attributing Marxist doctrine to the cause of the Palestinians was a premise I hadn’t anticipated. But considering the prevalence of Marxist ideas in this country, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.
There is also another distorted set of beliefs that causes Leftist Jews to fear Evangelical Christians:
Christian Smith, a sociology professor at the University of North Carolina, analyzed four surveys of self-identified evangelicals and found that, while they do think that America was founded as a Christian nation and fear that the country has lost its moral bearings, these views are almost exactly the same as those held by non-evangelical Americans. Evangelicals, like other Americans, oppose having public schools teach Christian values, oppose having public school teachers lead students in vocal prayers, and oppose a constitutional amendment declaring the country a Christian nation. Evangelicals deny that there is one correct Christian view on most political issues, deny that Jews must answer for allegedly killing Christ, deny that laws protecting free speech go too far, and reject the idea that whites should be able to keep blacks out of their neighborhoods. They overwhelmingly agree that Jews and Christians share the same values and can live together in harmony. Evangelicals strongly oppose abortion and gay marriage, but in almost every other respect are like other Americans.
Yet Jews on the Left persist in holding these flawed views. When it comes to helping secure Israel’s survival, the tiny Jewish minority in America should not reject the help offered by a group that is ten times larger and whose views on the central propositions of a democratic society are much like everybody else’s.
In spite of the facts, politically Leftist Jews are highly critical of the Evangelical community:
Evangelical Christians have a high opinion not just of the Jewish state but of Jews as people. That Jewish voters are overwhelmingly liberal doesn’t seem to bother evangelicals, despite their own conservative politics. Yet Jews don’t return the favor: in one Pew survey, 42 percent of Jewish respondents expressed hostility to evangelicals and fundamentalists. As two scholars from Baruch College have shown, a much smaller fraction—about 16 percent—of the American public has similarly antagonistic feelings toward Christian fundamentalists.
There are also tensions over the belief in the end times, with a wide range of belief among the Evangelical Christians; Jews, of course, are waiting for the Messiah. A little humor goes a long way to bridging the gap:
As the late founder of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein said in a conference led by Israel365 Media in 2015, ‘When the Mashiach comes, we can ask him if this is his first time here or second. Till then, let’s focus on our shared values and opportunities together’.
I expect most Leftist Jews are not amused.
Resentment still shows up in the minds of some Jews toward Evangelical Christians, and it is critically important (and is not clear from the article cited) whether the author was personally approached by Evangelical Christians:
I have no problem with your discovering Jesus and embracing Jesus and putting your faith in Jesus – I actually support that. In fact, there’s a story about the Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov, founder of Chassidism, who wouldn’t ride with a wagon driver who didn’t wear a cross on his chest. He preferred to roam through the deserted tundra with a man who at least feared something—never mind the theological nuances.
But why can’t you keep it to yourselves? Why must you insist that I, too, reject my grandfather’s Torah, stop praying the way my family has done since the minus fifteen hundreds, and accept your Jesus, and in my heart, no less?
All religions are entitled to state their purpose and beliefs freely in this country. Unless a person is trapped in a situation where they are forced to listen to these ideas, they should appreciate that this country welcomes religious expression.
The last trend that I wanted to share is something called Replacement Theology:
Younger Evangelical Christians are increasingly distancing from Israel and are less likely to see any theological significance in the Jewish people. However, for many, this may not be the most worrisome development in and of itself. What is more concerning is that it is likely correlated with the fact that more young people are adopting Replacement Theology—believing that upon the birth of Jesus, the Jewish people ceased its role as the chosen people and the Church subsequently replaced them. Many of them are Millennials (34%) even though they only represent 22% of all Evangelical Christians.
These Millennials are today’s young leaders in the United States—in churches, business and government. This trend is unsettling because history has shown that Replacement Theology has produced both antisemitic and anti-Israel sentiments. Especially in European history, those holding positions of Replacement Theology have viewed God as being finished with the Jewish people and Jews as disloyal by being “responsible” for the crucifixion of Jesus. Historically, this has been the source of many antisemitic tropes.
I had not heard about this theology before, and wondered if others had. I’m not here to debate its validity, but only say that it does raise concerns for me.
Finally, this statement summed up my own views toward Evangelical Christians and Christians in general:
Well, our interests with the Evangelical community are aligned. Evangelical supporters have been Israel’s best friends. They have supported the Israeli government, have invested funds in our startup nation and donated over 1.5 billion dollars to organizations we work with. Most importantly, they believe in the same Bible Passage in Genesis that we do. Do we really want to throw out the baby with the bathwater just because we don’t agree with their eschatology?
My Christian friends, Evangelical or otherwise, are a blessing in my life. I’m so grateful for your love and support, and welcome your input to this post.
Published in Religion & Philosophy
There’s a tradition that says that the Third Temple will appear, fully built by miraculous means, in the Messianic era. Or a greater miracle could occur, and a Temple bill will pass the Knesset and the Jerusalem municipality will issue a building permit.
I guess it takes all kinds . . . or something . . .
Ethnically Jewish but atheist, I would assume.
You are repeatedly cracking me up on this post, OTLC. I haven’t seen this side of you . . .
I can both believe that the Jews are wrong and rejected Jesus and that they remain the Chosen.
Devoutly so.
Devout Bolsheviks have the most amazing religious rituals. You should Cheka them out.
Once they get power, they Cheka each other out.
But their cuisine is amazing! That potato-skin-and-tree-bark soup is to die for.
I really enjoyed this comment, because as much as we rub each other the wrong way, you really are not wrong on this point (though the reasons Jews do not offer sacrifices today is not because of rebellion, but is really more about inertia – we spent 2k years not having the opportunity, and got stuck in our ways). Nevertheless, it is something that can be fixed!
I think there is a visceral, almost genetic Jewish fear of “blood and soil” nationalism. American Jews emigrated from European countries in which national identity was strongly linked to a single Christian denomination. Pogroms were more likely when there was a perception that the national identity was under attack. Germany launched the mother of all pogroms under Hitler in large measure because the ideological, social, economic, and political attacks on the old order in the rubble of post-WWI Europe seemed so threatening.
Jews of my acquaintance mostly tend to have a very rigid notion of the public square. Religious expression is deemed inherently threatening because (a) it could become a social norm and (b) in any case it makes Jewish non-conformism more evident. Liberal Jews were once the most vocal proponents of the notion that the Establishment Clause means that wherever the federal government chooses to intrude, religion must vacate until religion does not leave the building after Sunday services are complete. Now, sexual revolutionaries have grabbed that baton to more openly attack religion per se.
Evangelicals don’t have that high church Episcopalian/Anglican sensibility of not pressing religious sensibilities except in very tasteful Chrismas and Easter decorations. They instead tend not to think that expressions of their faith belong behind whatever secular fence the right sorts have erected.
As a Catholic, I have come to evaluate other creeds in terms of the probability that we will be sharing the same foxholes when the balloon goes up and the bad people finally attack en masse. Evangelicals and practicing Jews have a very high probability of sharing my ammo stocks and pointing their weapons in the same direction as I will.
OB, do you think this was true in the area we now call Russia and other parts of Eastern Europe? I’ve always had the impression that pogroms were stirred up locally to “amuse” the locals or distract them from local issues. Or maybe it’s not possible to draw up a model situation.
But the pretext of the “stirring up” had to make Jews a threat. Since Jews were unlikely to pose a paramilitary or otherwise violent threat, it must be in the nature of some insidious, malign influence. The boyar who owed a moneylender had an incentive to craft or amplify such a narrative. The ultimate danger posed by you rootless cosmopolitans is that your influence may sever deep cultural bonds.
Freud and Einstein disrupted the understanding of nature and our place in it. The leadership of the old German communist party had a visibly large Jewish component. For the average guy in Europe, a narrative blaming Jews for the chaos and confusion of the early 2oth century was not a difficult sell. A generation earlier, Hillaire Belloc wrote that in the aftermath of the Dreyfuss affair, the common people were not surprised to learn that the French military leadership was incompetent, grossly dishonest, and anti-Semitic. However, they were surprised to notice how many newspapers appeared to be run by Jews.
As long as the many variants of Marxism continue to attack western values and heritage, leftish Jews would do well to reconsider joining that attack.
I have long suspected that the virulence of the attack on Israel is due in part to resentment of Jews ever being on the side of nationalism and religion. The left claims Jews in much the same way it claims blacks as part of its rightful ideological property within which no dissidence will be tolerated.
That mechanism of control can be found around the world: Used against blacks in the days of segregation and Jim Crow, against Christians and Jews in the Middle East: “You may be poor and uneducated, but at least you’re not those dirty inferiors. And by the way, you’ve got to keep them down or they will do you harm as is their inherent nature.”
I see what you’re saying. And I agree. Thanks.
What is so bizarre is that the Jews, on the other hand, fall into the “white” group of humanity (because they don’t fit neatly into any other category). But then the Left has always found a way to live with cognitive disssonance.
So “My kingdom is not of this world” is…what?
I am certain that emeritus Pope Benedict is Christian and I am certain he does not think that Jesus is the king of Israel. Israel, btw, is no longer a monarchy.
Yes! And didn’t Paul assert in his official defenses that he never, ever violated the Jewish law or taught anything against the law, instead merely insisting that Jesus fulfills the law? (In Acts, I think.)
Christians and believing Jews have a common foe: doctrinaire materialists. We ought to focus on that threat rather than imagine each other as a threat.
So I guess those Muslims also subscribed to “replacement theory”?
AFAIK, Christ never used the hard sell. In one memorable case, all he said to one of the future apostles was, “Follow me.” But he had more charisma than any evangelizing Christian will.
Christianity requires free will. So conversion by the sword is out, even if as usual not all Christians everywhere always remembered that.
G-d changing His mind is very common. The Torah makes it clear that G-d changes his mind all the time, in response to what people do.
I would add that the vast majority of Jews don’t know much about Judaism.
I have a more spiritual take. Jews are persecuted world-wide because of a literally satanic hatred of God’s people, which He Himself created from among people, to hold a special place on earth to represent Him — and to which He made everlasting promises.
Attesting to this is that God has seen fit that Jews have survived 2,000 years of diaspora and persecution while keeping their ethnic identity intact, something which I’ve read is unique in world history.
Maybe I qualify, though I am not sure, as a doctrinaire materalist, since I am skeptical regarding the existence of gods, souls, angels and demons.
But take someone like Milton Friedman, the great economist who was an agnostic Jew who supported the free society and idea that people should be “free to choose.”
If Milton Friedman were alive today, perhaps I wouldn’t agree with him on every public policy issue, but I think we would agree more often than not.
I tend to think that some interpretations of religions are more objectionable than others. The very religious Muslim who wants to make sex slaves out of Yazidi woman is someone I find objectionable. The very religious Jew who wants to keep kosher is not objectionable to me.
We should study scripture together to learn about both. It’s all one story. iWe, I almost always read your posts as you are a knowledgeable Jew and I thank you for participating in Ricochet.
On a lighter note, my mother was raised in a half-Italian, half-Jewish neighborhood. And she said the only difference between Jews and Italians is the cooking. And she kept a New Testament and The Joy of Yiddish by her bedside, the latter being the only one she could recite from memory.
Some of the things to be done in the Temple, and consuming the necessary parts of the offerings, require that people be free from the tumah, the “impurity” of various degrees of contact or exposure to dead human bodies.
We are all presumptively tamei. Removal of the tumah requires the ashes of a red heifer; the search for one has been on for decades now and while there have been several candidates, none have reached the necessary age without a white hair showing up. I think that we can infer from that the time has not yet come.
You might enjoy Edda Servi Machlin’s wonderful The Classic Cuisine of the Italian Jews,
Lovely observation from the theologians on the podcast The Lord of Spirits:
When the corrupt Judean elites say “Let his blood be on us and on our children!” of Jesus, the perfect sacrifice, it doesn’t mean they’re guilty and damned. It means they’re guilty and forgiven. Them and their children.
Not that I can piece together all the pieces of this puzzle. I don’t even know for sure what puzzle it is. But this is probably an important piece of it.
I’d check Acts 21, whichever talk he makes to the King and the Governor a couple chapters later, and . . . maybe Philippians.
I may be confusing cause and effect. The correlation between declining belief in the transcendent and the anomie and general craziness of our cultural institutions seems clear to me. That that the first causes the second may not be the case, but it seems likely to be a factor, at least.
A tolerant skeptic is no threat to anyone’s mental health. A culture that treats traditional belief as “toxic” and “racist” etc. etc. is.
Religious belief is no guarantee of hapiness, nor is it a necessary condition. Still, an atheist like the economist Tyler Cowan can say that for him the main thing he worries about when thinking of America’s future is the decline of religion. For him that’s because people (at the margins) lose the qualities the economy needs: self-discipline, desire for work, hope, decreased need for immediate gratification, etc. He says he jokes with his wife that HE is the religious one in the family given his work ethic. That is not a metaphysical argument but it does point to why belief matters to general human hapiness, which we all value. And I am sure he would agree with you, as do I, that not all religions are the same: “By their fruits you shall know them.”