I thought about titling this something bland such as "Reflections on October 7" but I wanted to be clear about the nature of the blog post. It is about Israel, murders, terrorism, anti-semitism, anti-Zionism, and Hamas.
This link should take you to video of the "memorializing" this morning in Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities.
You may have seen this.
Social media is not a reliable door to the world. "It" lets you see what it thinks you want to see. Thus, I get lots and lots of videos and reels and links to pro-Israel material, and relatively little of pro-Hamas. Now, just typing the words "pro-Hamas" leads my mind in another direction. Will it bring people I don't want to this blog? Will "pro-Israel" do the same? Does having an opinion about whether terrorists have a right to kill hundreds of civilians going about their daily lives on a Saturday three years ago--does that pose a danger to me?
Apparently, possibly. I am not a Jew, and do not believe I have any Jewish genetic ancestry. I am a conservative Protestant Christian* and thus have core differences about God's revelation with Jewish adherents. (Neither group is all that monolithic in those views.) Being pro-Israel does not mean one supports every policy of the Israeli government or Benjamin Netanyahu. It doesn't even mean we have Jewish friends, unfortunately (I do, but that's another matter).
It means we believe the Jewish people have a right to a nation on the ancestral lands of their forebearers. It means that we oppose those who want to eliminate efforts by those who want to forcefully and violently remove them from that land--which is what they were doing in their barbarism and brutality on October 7, 2023. It means that we are, yes, horrified and frightened by the turn toward open anti-semitism in the media and politics, notably the Democratic party.
I do listen four or five times a week to the Commentary Magazine Podcast. It is conservative, Jewish, mostly Zionist from what I hear. I find them informative, opinionated, erudite when it comes to literature and the arts, annoying when it comes to their views of Christianity, and sometimes unnecessarily profane.
This means I have been able to follow how the brazenness of anti-semitic protests--no, not protests, but attacks and murders--has widened. How did this become common? It's not acceptable, but it is not treated as all that remarkable.
Anti-semitism is one of those prejudices I have never understood. Ethnic and racial hatred is always illogical, but there are some instances where one can at least see that a group could feel threatened, at some level, by another one. White Southerners might have felt superior to Blacks after the Civil War, through Jim Crow, and deep into the 21st century, but I think they were also fearful since in many cases the Black population outnumbered them and had legitimate grievances. I do not mean racial segregation and the violence was justified, only that at the far ends of human behavior, there would have been a reason in their minds for it. Some Whites still think they are hurt by Black success or access. This mentality points to selfishness and a view of the world I call "zero sum" or "limited to one pie" thinking.
When an influx of immigrants come into a space, it is also easier to imagine that long-timers will feel threatened. Again, not a defense of violence and hate, simply within imaginable feelings. But, the Jewish population has never been that large in the U.S.; the Jewish people have been extremely philanthrophic; have attained education and contributed massively to the economy, sciences, and arts; so what is there to ignite the hatred?
Some might say, they are not Christians, but those people have a distorted view of Christianity. Jews are not Christ-killers and did not eat the blood of small children in the Medieval Ages. The earliest Christians were Jews for the first century of the Church. Jews are also not the same as us Christians in doctrine and ritual, but we live where differences in faith are not just tolerated, but protected. Jews are allies in support for democratic republicanism and a strong United States.
In the last ten to twenty years, much of the hatred has been pumped into young people at elitist universities where, somehow, Israeli existence is presented as synonymous with colonialism by white Europeans. This is a complicated outlook but more puzzling than why comfortable and affluent Whites in the U.S. should feel fear from other groups just for existing. The sight of young, wealthy young people at Columbia or Harvard or Yale chanting for Palestine to be free from the Mediterranean to the Jordan makes two or three missteps. Palestinians are free, but not from Hamas; this vision of freedom means that Israel must go; these protesters are entirely ignorant of history.
Others can defend these ideas better than me, but I, in a sense, have no skin in the game other than my convictions. I am simply appalled that Americans celebrate the death of the Jewish people. In Pastor Niemoller's famous words, "They came for the ...., but I was not a ...., and I said nothing." Christians do not have a place to stand by and shake their heads, silently and weakly, at violations of human rights of any kinds and certainly not anti-semitism.
*Many people would call me an evangelical, but I choose not to use that title any longer because of how it has come to be understood. It is supposed to mean doctrinal positions and ways of interpreting the Bible, and commitment to sharing the grace of the gospel; it also means a lifestyle that tries to obey moral and personal standards of Christianity. It does not means that for everyone any longer. I still read and follow evangelicalism without claiming the name.
Comments
Post a Comment