17
This Is Gonna Be Funny
Anti-Defamation League v.s. Evangelical Christians- SMACKDOWN:
Warning that the Evangelical right has made alarming gains in social and political influence, a leading Jewish church-state watchdog is calling for a tougher and more unified Jewish response.
Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, speaking to the group?s national leadership here last week, signaled a sharp shift in ADL policy by directly attacking several prominent religious right groups and challenging their motives, which he said include nothing less than ?Christianizing America.?
Among the groups he cited were the powerful Focus on the Family ministry and the Family Research Council.
Gee, how did he ever get that impression? Maybe it’s because Focus on the Family is selling books like this one:
American history overflows with evidence of the profound role Christianity has played in our nation, yet that assertion is continuously mocked by media and academic elites. This book documents the historical record and the claim that America was founded by Christians to be a biblical “city on a hill.” The author responds to secular denials of America’s Christian heritage as he presents data from a broad range of historical sources, including the “separation” myth.
Aaaah, the “separation” myth! Secularists make it sound like there’s an amendment in the Constitution that says the government can’t establish a religion! What a bunch of loons!
But even more threatening, Foxman said, is how the views of many of the most strident Evangelical leaders have started to pervade American society, which he said will be revealed in a forthcoming ADL poll.
Although only portions of the survey were available this week, Foxman said some of the results are alarming.
According to the survey, 70 percent of weekly churchgoers and 76 percent of self-described Evangelicals agreed that ?Christianity is under attack? in this country – a conclusion that is hard to square with their growing influence in Congress, the White House and the courts, he said.
I’m continually amazed by how much the group whose party controls all three branches of government whines about being oppressed.
Sixty-nine percent of Evangelicals and 60 percent of weekly churchgoers said there should be ?organized? prayer in public schools, according to the survey, and 89 percent of Evangelicals agreed that religious symbols ?like the Ten Commandments? should be displayed in public buildings.
More ominously, only 26 percent of Evangelicals and 31 percent of weekly churchgoers agreed that ?courts should protect church-state separation.?
That’s because it’s a myth, Foxman! This country was founded as a Jesusocracy, y’know.
Here’s the best part:
Rabbi Eugene Korn, director of Jewish affairs for the American Jewish Congress and a former ADL official, agreed that a collective re-evaluation of Jewish church-state strategies is in order, but expressed concern that attacking the Evangelicals could harm Israel.
?There are many, many on the Christian right who are very reasonable, very rational, and who have nuanced positions regarding Jews and Israel,? Rabbi Korn said.
Bullshit! The stupid fruitcakes only support Israel because they think it’ll make JEEEEEEEEEE-ZUS-AAAAH!!!! come back soon.
tigrismus said,
November 17, 2005 at 2:31
Those guys don’t even understand the “city on a hill” metaphor they endlessly parrot. It’s not a goal so much as a caution: all eyes are upon you. link
who said,
November 17, 2005 at 3:20
i think jesus would shit his pants seeing this crap.
we need another jesus….and more after…..at least until we can build up a healthy pantheon like the hindus….then it’s go time! god on god violence followed by make-up sex!
bob said,
November 17, 2005 at 4:06
You know, Negativland may have a point – maybe Christianity really is stupid. Does that mean that communism is good?
GuinnessGuy said,
November 17, 2005 at 4:46
Anti-Defamation League v.s. Evangelical Christians- wow, crazy Jews against crazy Protestants. Get me some popcorn, this is going to be great!
Bullshit! The stupid fruitcakes only support Israel because they think it’ll make JEEEEEEEEEE-ZUS-AAAAH!!!! come back soon.
True- but the equally stupid fruitcakes at the ADL only support the evangelicals because they think it’ll make AS-YET-UNNAMED-MESSS-IIII-AAAHHHHH come soon to trash the evangelical goyim and their “Jesus”.
Those fellas deserve each other.
Meri said,
November 17, 2005 at 5:08
Those guys don’t even understand the “city on a hill” metaphor they endlessly parrot.
I always thought that the “city on a hill” was just Boston anyway, not the whole country.
The tECHIDNA said,
November 17, 2005 at 6:35
Anti-Defamation League v.s. Evangelical Christians- SMACKDOWN
I will so pay for this if it’s on Pay-Per-View.
{{Pastor Swank, please pick up the white courtesy phone. Pastor Swank, please pick up the white courtesy phone…}}
Brad R. said,
November 17, 2005 at 6:42
Oh man… imagine Swank v.s. Boteach… America’s nuttiest Pastor against America’s craziest Rabbi… and we could throw Louis Farrakan in there as a mystery challenger… *drools*
MobiusKlein said,
November 17, 2005 at 7:20
Negativeland regreted that song, since it lead to the painful axe slaying death of Hal Eisner.
teh l4m3 said,
November 17, 2005 at 7:52
It’s true. I wish more rabbis and Jewish leaders would hop on the awareness train and realize that they only reason Christians seem to support Israel is because they yearn for its destruction. ARMAGEDDITON, BIOTCHES!
GuinnessGuy said,
November 17, 2005 at 8:26
Oh, they know- they’re just as equally convinced as the evangelicals that their own particular vision will come to pass. Since in their view, Jesus isn’t going to come back and wipe out Israel, they have nothing to worry about (or lose) in getting evangelicals’ support.
gus said,
November 17, 2005 at 9:23
can we arm both sides?
Jeffrey Kramer said,
November 17, 2005 at 14:08
?There are many, many on the Christian right who are very reasonable, very rational, and who have nuanced positions regarding Jews and Israel,? Rabbi Korn said.
There’s a story about the codebreakers who were working on Japanese transmissions before WWII and kept coming across a code phrase which they had trouble translating. They saw, however, that it came in sentences like “This nation has become more XXXX in its foreign policy” or “Minister J. is the most XXXX man in the British cabinet,” so from context it seemed obvious that XXXX meant “pro-Japanese.” After the war the Allies got to look at the original uncoded messages, and it turned out that XXXX was the Japanese word for “sincere.”
Rabbi Korn’s “nuanced” looks a lot like the Israeli equivalent of “sincere.”
watchman said,
November 17, 2005 at 15:14
Psalms chapter two. It’s all in the book folks.
Brando said,
November 17, 2005 at 16:29
Has Rabbi Korn ever read a Jack Chick strip?
Brad R. said,
November 17, 2005 at 16:56
Has Rabbi Korn ever read a Jack Chick strip?
Doesn’t matter. Just use ‘em to get what you want and hope they’ll go away afterward.
Soy Vay said,
November 17, 2005 at 18:56
This is the same ADL that was caught spying on Americans:
http://www.counterpunch.org/adlspying2.html
Rodney said,
November 17, 2005 at 20:33
“The divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity. Nowhere in the Gospels do we find a precept for Creeds, Confessions, Oaths, Doctrines, and whole cartloads of other foolish trumpery that we find in Christianity.” John Quincy Adams
“Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced an inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth.” Thomas Jefferson — “Notes on Virginia”
“As the government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian Religion…” Treaty with Tripoli (1797)
Not exactly an ol’ time Tent Revival
melior in France said,
November 17, 2005 at 21:15
Let a wave of intolerance wash over you. I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you. Yes, hate is good?. If a Christian voted for Clinton, he sinned against God. It’s that simple?. Our goal is a Christian Nation? we have a biblical duty, we are called by God to conquer this country. We don’t want equal time. We don’t want Pluralism. We want theocracy. Theocracy means God rules. I’ve got a hot flash. God rules.
- Randall Terry, Head of Operation Rescue, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Aug 15, 1993
Beth said,
November 17, 2005 at 23:26
I think Rabbi Korn was half-right. “Jews are evil, but God wants us to support their country, and we want to convert them all, but sending them overseas is the next best thing, and we must fight their supernaturally powerful political influence, but sometimes we have to support it and anyway they’ll all be killed or converted in the end,” really is a pretty nuanced position. But rational? I don’t think so.
I suspect there are a number of reasons for the breakup. First, whatever its flaws (and there are many), the ADL has been pretty consistent in its support for American civil rights and separation of church and state. Christian Right opposition to such things may have finally become too much to bear. Second, it couldn’t have failed to notice the shift in American-Jewish attitudes away from “my (religion’s) country, right or wrong” and toward a more critical, and, yes, nuanced view. Meanwhile, the Evangelicals have been pulling in the opposite direction, e.g. condemning the Gaza pullout, which even the ADL supported. It finally had little choice but to cut the nutcases loose.
optimus prime said,
November 18, 2005 at 9:37
I don’t think Jesus owned any pants, but he would definitely shit his tunic, or robe, or whatever Bible dudes wore back then.
GuinnessGuy said,
November 18, 2005 at 21:09
More like “Why, Me, why!?”
Bike Punk said,
November 19, 2005 at 12:19
If they want the 10 commandments in public places, let them. Just make sure they are the 10 commandments that Moses brings down from the mountain.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus%2034:13-28;&version=31;
So much for all that “Thou shalt not kill” B.S.