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Democracy for the Middle East

 May 29, 2005

Truth & Sushi II

A reader responds to a recent DFME posting:

The deeper meaning of Ratzinger's elevation and the work of the late John Paul II is that the age when liberal theologians of all stripes could assume that people would retain sociological affiliation while jettisoning theological propositions has come to an end. Those who demand that theological traditions roll over and play dead for their cultured despisers (to quote Schleiermacher, a father of theological modernism) will increasingly identify with anti-theistic thought. Those for whom the theological-communal tradition is important will probably rethink the assumptions fed them in public schools, and find ways to make their peace with demanding traditions. I fear, however, that the preponderance of the "cultured despisers" in positions of power and influence, though, will mean an intensification of the culture wars.

To which we responded:

The dynamic you point to is certainly vivid within my own community, but can you give me an example of the implosion of the assumptions of liberal theologians in the gentile world? The French and British cases don't seem to fit...?

His answer:

..the terms "Getnile" and "Christian" are not synonyms. I can speak for Christians, but not for Muslims, logical positivists, Marxists, Buddhists, Daoists, etc. Think, perhaps, of how, in Bereshith, it says, "yehi Avraham go'i gedol" (and you get my drift--sorry, I can't do Hebrew letters on this machine).

I was thinking chiefly of the long, slow death of the Protestant "mainstream" in American religion. The major historic denominations are generally in decline or aging fast, with the growth all going on among Evangelicals and Pentecostals. In Newark, for example, Bp. Spong blamed "white flight" for the rapid decline in Episcopalian membership during his tenure; yet never seemed to ask himself why West Indian and Nigerian immigrants (to speak of two Episcopalian "constituencies") were staying away, too; or why local African-Americans or Puerto Ricans who might ordinarily be well-disposed towards Christianity weren't attracted. Much had to do with issues such as denial of important Scriptural doctrines and support for matters like homosexuality.

A great irony of the whole process was how, back in the 1960's and '70's, "prophetic" was the watchword of theological innovation. Somehow, to confront jettison all that the churches had believed, and not just certain 19th century taboos and innovations, and do it in the name of the Zeitgeist was "prophetic". Yet Marxism, the sexual revolution, and feminism became sacrosanct.

Prager distills the shared social viewpoint of religious Jews and Christians down to a shared belief in the divine authorship of the Torah.

For most US Jews, however, despite the horrific losses in numbers (and nearness to God), the threat posed by European secularism simply pales in comparison to the one posed by religious Christians. For the latter believe that "both books" of their Bible are divinely authored, and European Christians used this sanction in tandem with the New Testament's "revelation" that the Jewish nation killed God, to terrorize Jews without remission for two millenia.

Dershowitz, Rich et al. may follow a false Messiah, but give them credit for one thing - they've remembered an essential truth about the beliefs of Prager's fellow Torah believers, a truth documented by James Carroll, Daniel Goldhagen and others - that their Bible is a recipe book for judeocide.

Until American Christians do something about this anachronism of early Christianity, God's army will remain divided, ignorant Christians will continue to slaughter Jews en masse, and the rightful place of the blood-soaked text that taught Western civilization to hate God's sons will be alongside the fictional Guantanimo Quran.

Home . Posted by Editor at May 29, 2005 02:32 PM . DFME's new internet address is www.dfme.org

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