Free Republic

Matthew Continetti, writing in Commentary, credits leading neoconservatives, such as Irving Kristol and his son Bill Kristol, with "modernizing" conservatism so that the Republican Party — which neoconservatives reluctantly joined after they lost influence with the Democrat party — could suitably govern a modern democracy. And he laments the fact that since the rise of the Tea Party movement, neoconservatives have gradually lost influence with a populist-nationalist Republican Party. Leading neoconservatives like Bill Kristol and Jonah Goldberg (then at National Review) publicly opposed Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020. As a result, neoconservatism is now a movement without a political...

Some 51% of Evangelical Protestants in the United States say they believe Jews are God’s chosen people, according to a recently released survey. Titled “The Jewish Connection: Evangelicals and Israel,” the findings were announced this week by Infinity Concepts, a faith-based communications agency that co-produced the report with Grey Matter Research. Drawing from a survey of approximately 1,000 Evangelical Protestant Americans, the report found that 51% of respondents believed that Jews were still God’s chosen people. By contrast, 19% said they were unsure, 17% said they believe Christians have replaced Jews as the chosen people, 10% said they believe Jews...

Cards Against Humanity is known for its sometimes crude and often slightly offensive cards, but a new extra-offensive expansion pack for the game has gotten it pulled from Target shelves. The Apple-to-Apple’s style game has players complete phrases and answer questions such as “What helps Obama unwind?” And “I’m sorry Professor, but I couldn’t complete my homework because of _____” with cards like “Racism,” “Vehicular manslaughter,” and “Poopy diapers.” The almost always off-color cards recently went a bit too far for some players with its “Chosen People Pack,” an expansion pack for the original game with some cards that seem...

Why do so many Evangelicals so strongly support Israel? The answer is that a significant majority of American Evangelicals believe that the Abrahamic Covenant is still in force. The Abrahamic Covenant (Gen. 12:1-3) says, among other things, that God promised the land of Canaan to the Jews forever. A significant majority of American Evangelicals believe that God is a keeper of His promises and that the "Promised Land" belongs to the Jews in belief and unbelief, in obedience and in disobedience, forever. (It is an unconditional promise, with no time limits or conditions.) The Abrahamic Covenant also promises that "I...

"And you will be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." (From this week's Torah portion, Yitro, Exodus 19:6) Before the giving of the Torah, before the Ten Commandments, before the most momentous and splendorous ceremony in history, the Creator explains why. Before "Honor your parents", before "Guard the Sabbath day to sanctify it", before all the 'how', G-d explains why He gave us the Torah; why this trek from the House of Bondage to the Land of Israel. What is the destiny? What is the purpose? "And you will be to Me a kingdom of priests...

I assume that the type of person who reads columns such as this one has wondered at one time or another why, for thousands of years, there has been so much attention paid to Jews and why, today, to Israel, the one Jewish state. But how do most people explain this preoccupation? There is no fully rational explanation for the amount of attention paid to the Jews and the Jewish state. And there is no fully rational explanation for the amount of hatred directed at Jews and the Jewish state. A lifetime of study of this issue, including writing (with...

I assume that the type of person who reads columns such as this one has wondered at one time or another why, for thousands of years, there has been so much attention paid to Jews; and why, today, so much attention is paid to Israel, the lone Jewish state. How do most people explain this preoccupation? There is no fully rational explanation for the amount of attention paid to the Jews and the Jewish state. And there is no fully rational explanation for the amount of hatred directed at them. A lifetime of study of this issue, including writing (with...

The nation of Israel accounts for only 1/10000 of the earth’s land mass. It could fit inside the borders of Texas 33 times. Svalbard and Tokelau are bigger. (Who? Exactly.) Yet one-third of the UN's resolutions focus on Israel. Why is this microscopic country the ongoing focus of world politics? The next world war (inching inexorably closer) would seemingly hinge on nothing more than the validity of this tiny country's existence. Amazingly, the words of Jewish prophets --writing more than 2500 years ago from an Israel that was a scrappy, backwater upstart in comparison to the grandeur of the successive...

Because I'm not a member of his church, perhaps I shouldn't let it bother me that the archbishop has taken it upon himself to proclaim that the Bible is wrong and the Jewish people are no longer chosen by God, especially since my Bible doesn't say anything of the kind. But it does bother me. It bothers me because it is a blatant contradiction of at least a dozen perfectly clear verses in the Holy Scripture, which the Catholic Church - both Greek and Roman - claims to uphold as the Word of God. It bothers me because it's impossible...

A new headline in the Jerusalem Post reads: “Vatican synod calls for end to Israel’s ‘occupation’: At conference on Christians in the Middle East, US Melkite archbishop says: ‘There is no longer a chosen people.’” With all due respect, the Vatican is wrong on this issue. The entire Bible — from Genesis to Revelation — makes crystal clear again and again the Lord’s love for the Jewish people, His decision to choose Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their descendants for His very own, and His eternal promise to give the Holy Land to the Jewish people. As such, it is...

My friends Laura and Pam are both Jewish women who voted for Obama. Aside from this, they are as different as day and night. High school buddies, Laura and I grew up in the same type of cookie-cutter house. Our first-generation Russian parents both worshiped the American ground they walked on. Laura still lives in the New York 'burbs with her accountant husband, having raised two great kids. Her social obligations are limited to donating to her synagogue and, of course, the requisite Democratic vote. Her kids are working hard to achieve the American Dream. Now, Pam is a different...

I'm no more an expert theologian than Ann Coulter is, but I have been a Christian nearly all of my life and have logged in more than 40 years of personal and formal Bible study.  So, even though I'm not a lawyer or a best-selling author, I'm compelled to put in my "two cents" on Ann's recent comments about converting all the Jews, so they will be "perfected" like we Christians are.  [Please don't anyone throw a Bible at me until I have stated my opinion.]  I remember being positively dumfounded -- exactly the way I am at Ann's declaration...

Unlike so many generations of Christians in Europe, evangelicals interpret the word “Israel” in the Bible to mean “the Jews” and not “the Church.” This small change in interpretation has enormous theological ramifications. It means that the Jews are still the chosen people, that they are still in covenant with and beloved by God, and that they are still the rightful heirs of the land of Israel. Christians who read their Bible this way tend to reject anti-Semitism and embrace both the Jewish people and their national aspirations in Israel. This positive theology towards the Jews originated with some small...

At one level, Israelis' angry reaction to the Rev. Pat Robertson's suggestion that the stroke which felled Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was Divine retribution for the Gaza withdrawal is completely understandable. Coming as the prime minister was struggling for his life, Robertson's remarks struck many as unseemly. (The Israeli press managed to ignore the fact that in the same broadcast Robertson also expressed his affection for Sharon and offered prayers for his well-being.) To Jewish ears, the attempt to offer a Divine calculus for tragedy also sounded strange. According to our sages, when Moses asked God to reveal His ways,...

Pope tells Rabbi of Church's love for Jews Pope Benedict XVI talked of the Church's love for the Jewish people when he received the chief rabbi of Rome in audience. Zenit reports that "Shalom!" was the greeting the Pope expressed on Monday when welcoming Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni and a Jewish delegation, on the eve of Italy's national day to further Catholic-Jewish dialogue. "The Catholic Church is close to you and is your friend," the Holy Father told the rabbi. "Yes, we love you and cannot but love you, 'through the Fathers.'" Benedict XVI said: "We cannot fail to denounce...

Dialoguing with the Jewish people is harder than you think. It has looked easy recently. The Church is still basking in the glow of the 40th anniversary of the day Pope Paul VI signed a document of the Second Vatican Council that transformed relations between Catholics and Jews. It was the Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions, Nostra Aetate. But don’t just take a Catholic newspaper’s word for it. Listen to Washington Jewish Week. It quoted Al Vorspan, a longtime Jewish Reform movement activist. He’s 81 now, and remembers what happened 40 years ago. “I think...

Jews, whose troubled, 10,000-year term as God's "chosen people" finally expired last night, woke up this morning to find that they had once again been hand-picked by the Almighty. Synagogues across the globe declared a day of mourning. Asked if the descendants of Abraham shouldn't be pleased about being tapped for an unprecedented second term, Jerusalem Rabbi Ben Meyerson shrugged. "Of course, you are right, we should be thrilled," he said. "We should also enjoy a good swift kick in the head, but for some reason, we don't. God conducts blind drawing.

We have discovered that there were actually several chapters in the Biblical book of Joshua that were lost for millennia and only recently rediscovered. We bring them to you here for the first time: And after conquering many of the lands of the Canaanites, Joshua came to speak with the Lord and said unto him: Oh Lord we seem to be having "failure to communicate" with the Children of Israel. And the Lord asked: Tell Me, My son, what seems to be the problem? And Joshua said to the Lord: Well, things were going just fine at first. We were...

Which British politician would quote Isaiah? This religiosity, as we would describe it, suggests Americans consider themselves a chosen people Andreas Whittam Smith 03 February 2003 First comes the numbness, the mourning and the praying. In comforting the American people for the loss of the space shuttle Columbia with its crew of seven, President Bush turned to the bible, indeed to the Old Testament and paraphrased the prophet Isaiah: "The same Creator who names the stars also knows the names of the seven souls we mourn today."President Reagan had done the same when the Challenger exploded shortly after launch in...