Posted on 01/12/2006 5:21:45 PM PST by infoguy
There are two questions. Do evangelicals love "the Jews"? Yes. Do they love Israel? Yes. Is that annoying? Well, sue me.
Do they like you personally? Well, I don't know you personally, but probably.
You have to understand something that Democrats miss. Evangelicals are not some bizarre cult, they are the core of the Republican Party. Not in some dark mysterious sense of weird Ralph Reeds secretly controlling the levers of power, its way beyond that. Most Republicans you meet are evangelicals, either active or inactive-but-believers. Most of the people posting at FR are evangelicals, some churched, most unchurched, but out of the same world view.
It shouldn't be a surprise, the Republican Party, historically, was born from the cross between classic liberalism and evangelical Christianity. Inject serious believers with Locke and Burke and you get Republicans. Baptize a classic liberal and you get a Republican. Some are more fervent than others, but the idea that evangelicals are some secret society is just silly.
What was the first thing they did? They prayed, and went out and fought a war and ended slavery. They put blacks into the highest offices in the country and they stayed there until the Republicans lost power. When Republicans had the power to return civil liberty to blacks, they did so. Republicans aren't all evangelicals, but they are the core of it, and you can't separate the two or you get some kind of watered down country-club-version with no soul.
Republicans don't go in for ethnic politics, they don't go in for group identity, and never have. For evangelicals, and Republicans, its all about individual citizens and individual souls. We are not who our enemies say we are. In recent years the party is filling up with Catholics and believing jews, as the Democrtic Party does everything possible to make it impossible for believers to remain in that party. They coexist with evangelicals very well, because, again, evangelical Republicans are not about group politics (and if you are a catholic or jew joining the Republican Party, you probably aren't either).
So do we like you personally? Don't know about this "we", but I'll let you buy me a cup of coffee one of these days, and we'll find out. If you love the same things I love, the answer could only be in the affirmative.
The actual founder of modern Zionism was Lord Shaftesbury, the 7th earl of Shaftesbury. It was his pressure on the English government that led, eventually, to the Balfour Declaration. Without British support, the State of Israel would never have been founded, although it was we and the Soviets who actually established the state of Israel.
Most Jews (the liberal ones - who are the vast majority of Jews) don't return the favor; they don't like Christians.
At any opportunity, you're more then welcome to that cup of coffee and conversation.
Anyone who recognizes your history of postings will agree: if Jews don't like Christians it's because the have had unfortunate experiences with many like you.
I think if you ask the average evangelical resident of Colorado Springs, Omaha, Alabama, or North Dallas what he thinks of the average New Yorker or Boca Raton retiree, without specifically mentioning religion, you'd get a sense of distaste and cultural distance. The cultural distance is real and a two-way street, but I do think that the "real Americans" are much more aware of it because you see Jewish urban sensibilities a lot more in the media.
I know I've seen people react very badly to Jewish New Yorkers. I can't say whether they were Evangelical or not--probably not--but I have no reason to believe that Evangelicals are exempt from this sense of distance, whatever their love for Israel or Jews as an idea.
Anyway, America in 2006 is still the best place in history for Jews to live, and if the biggest concern is that some people won't like you, we're doing very well indeed and no worse than any other group in America. Certainly better than many other groups. But I don't think people are seeing that this is the point here.
Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel.
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If he doesn’t know Christian right-wingers, it’s hard to see how he could know their opinions of individual Jews or anything else. In my experience peoples opinions of individuals are more frequently based on personal interaction rather than religion, though there are certainly religious bigots out there. Citing Leon Blum, Prime Minister of France in 1938 as evidence that the French had a particular affinity of individual Jews is odd given the experience of the next 7 years.
Eric Alterman = Moron Personified
So nice of him to write about people he admittedly doesn't know and what they really think. Idiot.
Boy oh boy, check this out - ping!
And maybe (as a group) their only ones.
Warning! This is a high-volume ping list.
The first one's always the toughest, Eric. Don't fret; you'll get better at it, with practice.
<< He's a horse's arse ........ and an incredibly uninformed, stupid one, at that.
Conservative Christians are the best friends that the Jews have on this Earth. >>
Rather have ANY Christian for a friend than, just for a couple of examples, Steven Spielberg, Tony Kushner, Babs Boxer, Dine Fineswine or Chuckles 'Schmuck' Schumer!
You have hit it on the nose. The guy's either stupid or deliberately lying.
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Good grief. He should have stopped there.
France had Jewish prime ministers in both the thirties and fifties and might get another one soon. No way that could happen in the United States even today.Particularly since the United States doesn't have a prime minister...
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