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This is actually a topic I consider myself an expert on, particularly since all my childhood illusions were shattered by the truth.

Growing up poor in the rural Bible Belt a few decades ago, I had no examples of Jews to go by except for one place: the Bible. Therefore for myself (and I suppose for most people in the same time and place) the only Jewish stereotype we had was of the ancient Theocratic warrior-shepherds of Biblical times. That was it. No “usury,” no Lenny Bruce, no “international bankers,” no dirty movies, no International Ladies Garment Workers Union, no Weimar Republic decadence—not even any “Chr*st killers,” believe it or not (pretty amazing considering how anti-Jewish the “new testament” actually is). The Ultimate Jew was Yehoshu`a Bin Nun, who conquered the land and, at G-d's express command, began the extermination of the idolatrous Canaanites. This is the only picture of a Jew I knew of, and I assume for a great deal many other people as well.

To put it as short as possible, Jews are Theocratic warrior shepherds who live in Israel, which (I assumed) was the exact same country and exact same government they had lived in and under for an unbroken chain of thousands of years.

I know—this was an unbelievably naïve view of the world. But what a shame it wasn't true!

I also assumed that Jews and chrstians (meaning Fundamentalist Protestants, the only kind I knew of) were, and always had been, the best of friends simply because they were both authorized by that idolized book, the Protestant bible. And this friendship (so I thought) was not based on any liberalism or chrstian guilt but on the “word of G-d” alone.

I honestly feel sorry for the rest of the world not growing up thinking this way.

My own opinion is that modern Jewish/chrstian rapprochement is based on the worst possible foundation: sympathy with the Jews not because of their Biblical identity but simply because they are just one more oppressed European ethnic minority whose acceptance into mainstream society could only be achieved through total secularization. As much as conventional wisdom associates Jews with secularization, such an association could never exist in a mind formed by the “naivete” of the Bible Belt.

This whole business of merging and blending chrstianity with Judaism is a thoroughly bad idea. Everyone (including myself) scolds Fundamentalist Protestants for trying to “restore” the “original Hebrew chrstianity” and blend the two religions in that way. But at least these people are being true to their authentic theological beliefs when they try to do this. However, the liberal blending of the two religions is just as wrong and even more insidious and dangerous.

No Jew should have the slightest concern about where other religions say he will go when he dies. This is something which I absolutely do not get—the apparent need of liberal Jews for chrstians to tell them they are going to Heaven. Where does this need come from? I suppose it's a combination of having no real Jewish beliefs accompanied with the “what if they're right?” syndrome. At any rate, for some fifty years Jews (mostly, but not entirely non-Orthodox) and chrstians have been meeting to water down their respective beliefs and make loopholes for each other. This is absolutely ridiculous. Both beliefs are already complete in themselves. One may be right, or the other may be (theoretically they could both be wrong), but they simply cannot both be right at the same time. What's so hard to understand about this?

By pushing this liberal “philo-Semitism” Jews have promoted and rewarded the most radical, unorthodox, anti-Bible chrstians while they have simultaneously punished the most philo-Semitic and pro-Bible orthodox (small “o”) chrstians. This has been a horrible path to pursue.

Jews do indeed have a mission to the non-Jewish world, and it is a mission that will ultimately obliterate all their false religions, but that mission is neither to secularize the world nor to insist all other religions adopt a universalist soteriology. It is to spread the knowledge and observance of the Noachide Laws. This is the beginning and the end of the Jewish mission to non-Jews.

Really, does no one else see the irony in Jews (who are so terrified of chrstian anti-Semitism) jumping into the murky and ultimately poisonous waters of chrstian theology, demanding churches change their own internal doctrines, and then loudly siding with the most radical and left wing chrstians in existence? First of all, what kind of “diversity” is this, when one “accepts” the validity of other religions only after they have been modified to accommodate external demands? And secondly, is it really wise for Jews to be associated in the common mind with religious radicalism, amorality, higher criticism, and the destruction of whatever slivers of truth non-Jews may possess? I'm sorry, but this is absolutely insane as well as hypocritical (so far as the claim of “tolerance” is made).

Let us look here at the example given, Jewish rapprochement with the Catholic Church. First of all, the Catholic Church cannot in good conscience invoke the Torah for anything, for the simple reason that it considers the Torah to be mythology (of course, this has never stopped them from vainly invoking the sacrifices of Abel and Melchizidek in their masses, even though they regard both those figures to be fictional characters). Secondly, the Catholic Church does not believe, nor will it ever believe, in accommodating their belief in J*sus to the Jewish expectation of a literal King Messiah in the future. Their “messiah” is solely “spiritual” (meaning he isn't even a literal messiah at all), and the only thing he's going to do when he allegedly comes back in burn the world up (since the “messianic advent” occurred two millennia ago). Anyone who believes that any Catholic clergyman, theologian, or philosopher has the slightest bit of room in his mind for a future messianic reign is much more naïve than any poor kid from the rural Bible Belt could ever hope to be. Believe me, there is one thing and one thing only that all Catholics, whether left, right, or center, agree on rejecting out of hand and that is anything that has the slightest smack of “millennialism.” This is one “heresy” one will find nowhere in the Catholic or any other ancient church. Only those awful “rednecks” believe in a king-messiah, and they will believe that king-messiah is J*sus until someone at least makes the attempt to teach them better.

It is true that the Jewish presence is corrosive to non-Jewish religions—it's supposed to be! But this corrosiveness is so that the knowledge of the True G-d and His Laws may replace their previously held false religions. The promotion of secularism, universalism, or syncretism was never and will never be the Jewish mission. Jews were never meant to represent MODERNITY, but rather ETERNITY. This is why the nations of the world have persecuted them for three thousand years in the names of their false “gxds.” And no changes in this mission whatsoever are necessary.