12-8-25<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I am preparing a magazine article on what I believe has become the most pressing issue facing America today. I shall focus here on the Biblical and spiritual aspect of the sudden and menacing collapse of what recently appeared to be the dawning of reform and renewal, even revival.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Political reforms were accompanied by an amazing spirit of renewed faith \u2013 frequently among the young, and igniting revival in Christian communities. The impact of Charlie Kirk \u2013 his life AND death \u2013 promised a Great Awakening in America, perhaps around the world.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Almost overnight, the progress and hope, good will and alliances, seem fractured. From many, many sides come distractions. Bizarre unrelated urgencies. Recriminations and bitter feuds between those who recently joined forces. I believe these \u201cspeed bumps\u201d and detours are not coincidences. Many of their authors are malignant and are happy to fracture the furtherance of civil peace, progress and prosperity, and the advancement of the Gospel.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I have dug deep, prayed for guidance and wisdom, and\u2026 I welcome comments.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n + + +<\/p>\n\n\n\n History\u2019s inflection points and paradigm shifts can happen unannounced, catching us by surprise. We often observe the trees but not the forest, as the proverb says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is difficult to realize that we suddenly find ourselves today in a time of major, worldwide, and extremely consequential change. At the very least, the trajectories of international diplomacy, cultural assumptions, and even religious understandings are dissolving. Most of us know the elements, but are not connecting the dots. We will be face-to-face with dangerous realities\u2026 soon enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Christians are at the center of many of those currents, appropriately so because Western societies (home to many of the Faith\u2019s bases) are severely threatened. Ultimately, and importantly, Christianity is relevant to the controversies, conflicts, causes, and conclusions. And ironically it is Christians \u2013 for the most part, contemporary Evangelical American Christians \u2013 who are the most unaware of their role, the threats they inspire, and the consequences they stoke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A major source of these disruptions unfortunately has echoes of the sad history of societal turmoil: Israel. Not \u201cthe Jews,\u201d not \u201cprejudice,\u201d not \u201cpersecution.\u201d Not \u201cthe Jewish Question\u201d and all of history\u2019s baggage \u2013 and not even the country of Israel, its foundation and existence; but rather its governments’ policies. Eons of discrimination and contemporary, continuous Holocaust tales cloak, and often excuse, the maladministrations and offenses of the Zionist \u201cstate.\u201d Plausible blessings and arguable curses have ever been the Jews\u2019 lot, and in our day are intensifying. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Isolating one flash-point of many, I invite attention to Gaza. That strip of sand has superseded \u201cPalestine\u201d as an umbrella-term for lands, peoples, and nearly insoluble dilemmas. Gaza is a non-country (no government, flag, native population, nor identity: an empty place on maps; crowded with 2-million people minus those recently slaughtered). Since the cross-border terror attack on and Israeli festival Gaza is described by every observer as a wasteland of rubble. As previous to the Israelis\u2019 unending \u201dretaliation,\u201d the Gazans\u2019 access to water, electricity, and food is severely restricted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A recent survey indicates that 40 per cent of Israelis themselves view their government\u2019s policy toward Gaza as genocide. Sixty-one per cent believe their government intentionally is committing war crimes. It is well-known that the majority of the world\u2019s nations routinely have condemned Israeli policies, not only toward Gaza but the expansionist goals of Zionism. The majority of American Jews disapprove of the Zionist agenda, and many prominent Jews are quite vocal in that regard: Hannah Arendt, Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein, Glenn Greenwald, and Max Blumenthal represent dissident critics of a new country imposed on the sands of Transjordan and traditional Palestine-Protectorate neighborhoods. Today there is a tsunami of Jewish activists including many \u201cHolocaust scholars\u201d who oppose the genocidal policies and in many cases Zionism itself. (So do Orthodox sects that believe that only the coming Messiah can re-establish Biblical Israel.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, despite proponents of expansionist Zionism \u2013 those who plan for occupation of the entire Levant, from the Mediterranean to the Tigris and Euphrates; from Egypt to Turkey, and the Israeli Military and Mossad (intelligence service) \u2013 the most effective Zionists are American evangelicals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many Christians have been persuaded by interpretations of the Bible presented to them. Among the prominent persuaders are leaders who regularly receive subsidies from Israel and its proxies. Without blind support from the Christian Right, especially since the wars of 1967 and 1973, Israelite foreign and military policy would not have triumphed as spectacularly as it has. The 10 most recent Administrations would not have become subservient rubber-stamps to Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pastors, denominations, and ministries have taught their followers to reject any skepticism about, and cancel any opposition to, all of Israel\u2019s policies, even when its government impedes the sharing of the Gospel. Many Christians have been led to believe that Jews have a \u201cfree pass\u201d to salvation, exempted alone among all humanity from accepting Christ as their Savior. By their financial and political support, Evangelicals are complicit in genocide and ethnic cleansing that frequently plant seeds of generational resentment, hatred, and dedication to revenge\u2026 not merely against festivals on the border of Gaza but perhaps downtown American cities too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n American Evangelicals rightly have been taught to reject racial hatred, the displacement of entire populations, the assignment of collective guilt, suppression of minorities and their rights, and Supremacy as a governing doctrine of an exclusive class. They boo Nazis every week the swastika appears on TV and movie screens. However, they embrace every mirror-image of these actions and policies when practiced by the Israelite government — consistently, virtually without reservation or second thought. Even gleefully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n How do they avoid seeing a double standard? Many believe the Bible tells them so. \u201cThe Jews are God\u2019s Chosen People.\u201d That should not mean that Israel can practice bigotry and genocide, but it has had the stamp of approval of the American government, which decades ago was characterized as a virtual vassal state of Israeli diplomatic and military prerogatives. And, again, the Bible also approves\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or thus saith Evangelical leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n + + +<\/p>\n\n\n\n Next Week<\/u><\/em>: <\/em>The Chosen People and Abraham\u2019s Seed<\/strong><\/em> \u2013 \u201cThose who bless Israel shall be blessed.\u201d An examination, seldom undertaken by contemporary Christians, of what Scripture tells God\u2019s people about\u2026 God\u2019s people.<\/em> Biblical history and recent, though suppressed, history.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n + + +<\/p>\n\n\n\n Click: Hallelujah<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n