CUFI’s Robert Stearns warns of Evangelical shift to the Left:In response to Rev. Robert Stearns’ scheduled appearance as a panelist at the 7th Annual Jerusalem Conference, Jewish Israel recently released a report on some of Stearns’ missionary activities and connections in Israel. We expressed to an organizer of the event our reservations regarding a missionary presence at the conference. Stearns did appear at last week’s conference and Jewish Israel offers the following synopsis and commentary on some of the major and disturbing points covered in his remarks. ...more
Yad l‘Achim Considers Suing Messianic Attorney Calev MyersJewish Israel has confirmed with the offices of Yad l’Achim that they are considering plans to take legal action against evangelical attorney Calev Myers who has published defamatory material against the organization. Attorney Yoram Sheftal has recommended that the counter-missionary organization Yad l’Achim sue Myers for slander. Myers, the Founder and Chief Counsel of the Jerusalem Institute of Justice, has relentlessly pursued Yad l’Achim, counter-missionary activists, Orthodox politicians, and the Torah observant community at large in writings and speeches.But last July he may have pushed the envelope too far with a JIJ e-newsletter article which has been described as “an appalling piece of hate speech”...more
Ambassador Oren cautions against messianics and proselytizingFollowing an address at a church in Irvine California in which he thanked Christians for their support, Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, raised the red flag on proselytizing and messianic Christianity in an interview published in the Christian Telegraph. “I have no statistics on the size of the Messianic community, but I think certainly that the State of Israel wants the Jewish people to remain Jewish…we are very sensitive to the notion of proselytizing -- very sensitive.” Do Ambassador Oren’s prudent remarks signify something of a departure from former Ambassador Daniel Ayalon’s no holds barred embrace of evangelicals?...more
Tovia Singer Authors Response to Christian Missionaries:Rabbi Tovia Singer’s new book “Let’s Get Biblical!” is hot off the presses and addresses the fundamental question of “why doesn't Judaism accept the Christian messiah?" In addition, the book exposes how, “over the course of many centuries, the Church systematically altered the Jewish Scriptures in its authorized translations.” The book was reportedly written “in direct response to the growing effort of numerous fundamentalist Christian organizations which aggressively target Jews for conversion… In contrast to most ecumenical Jewish-Christian literature published today, this book makes no attempt to reconcile the Synagogue and the Church.”...more
3 comments:
Great work, once again Ellen:)
Just some thoughts: I read the piece on JI about Stearns where he stated,
"..the emergence of a new evangelical left”, “the new progressive evangelicals..."
To me that sounds like evangelicals expressing an increased interest in missionizing Muslims. Making the conversions as much of a priority as converting Jews.
Converting a "terrorist" meaning any Palestinian or Muslim kid who ever through a rock or committed a petty act of vandalism has become a hot ticket item among missionaries it seems.
Whether left or right evangelicals pose a serious danger to the Jewishness of the Jewish state.
The more I read about evangelicals coming to Israel to convert people the more I think of those PSA/ads on TV about leaving nature and state parks as you found it.
I'd like to see an Israeli PSA targeted at evangelicals: "Leave Israel As You Found It--Jewish."
Just as an aside, I still find it strange for non-Jews to use terms such as Hashem when addressing a Jewish audience.
Another aside: I sincerely wonder why xtians hijack just about everything about Jewish culture and Judaism except the believe in one G-d. JC is the single issue they can't or won't abandon.
****
I do hope Yad l'Achim sues Calev Myers for slander and libel. However if they do, I hope they have as strong financial backing as Calev Myers no doubt has from the evangelicals.
Aside from Netanyahu, Myers is second most interviewed Israeli on American xtain television (Pat Robertson's CBN, and most of the messianic programs on xtian networks).
I know Netanyahu isn't messianic:) He's just appeared on xtian TV a lot.
"Leave Israel As You Found It--Jewish."
That's Brilliant!
I think the "new evangelical left"
has to do with pastors and preachers having become sensitive to their poor public relations image. They overplayed the rapture-ready, Armageddon, Anti-Gay, Pro-life, miracle-healing televangelist cards and are sick of being lampooned by the press and the public.
In reaction they are putting poverty and environmental concerns at the top of their agenda, which is fine except that they are doing it in order to save their own skin. And once they put on their new,kinder, liberal skin and present themselves as "humantiarians" then the Palestinian rights issue will come into play.
It's selfish damage control on the part of this sector of the evangelical church, and indicates that they are morally bankrupt.
I also imagine - like you suggest -
that their hopes of finding fertile "harvesting" land in the Arab world for converions to christianity may have something to do with the shift.
Kol Hakavod to Rabbi Singer on his new book!
Not many rabbis are able or willing to delve into xtian theology in order to combat missionaries; too many people want to follow the ecumenical "Jesus was a Jew" and "Judeo-Christian" approach and focus entirely too much on why JC wasn't the messiah and not enough on why JC as G-d is more serious.
I have no doubt some messianic Jews feel they have only accepted JC as their messiah, not G-d.
I was a bullheaded Catholic on this lol. I pestered the daylights out of a nun about the trinity at 7. It made no sense to me then and still doesn't. Certainly not when you study Torah and learn that echad means echad.
Post a Comment