Money grabbing rabbi accuses Christians of “seeking to destroy Israel”

How are Christians trying to destroy Israel? Let the rabbi tell you.

But wait a minute, it’s not the war crimes committed by Israeli forces in Gaza that is of concern to the rabbi. It seems money is his main concern, including disinvestment by some churches. These churches “are seeking to destroy Israel…” reports the Jerusalem Post.

The report inspired Catholic Christian, Mike Bradley, to respond to the money concerns of Rabbi Abraham Cooper:

Dear Rabbi Abraham Cooper,

I am responding to a recent Jerusalem Post article that highlighted your concern that activists in some prominent Protestant churches are seeking to destroy Israel.

The overwhelming majority of Christian activists in the United States and around the world do not want to destroy Israel.  They want Israelis to change their unjust policies towards non-Jewish Palestinians.  As a Catholic Christian, I try to hold myself to a high standard in terms of how I treat people of any religious faith.  I will not hesitate to criticize my own or any other government if it falls short of those high standards.

There are many Jews in Israel who are critical of policies that hurt the relationship between Israeli Jews and their Palestinian Muslim and Christian neighbors in the occupied territories.  They believe, as I do, that Israel would be a safer place for Jewish people if Israelis would acknowledge the terrible impact their policies have had on the indigenous Palestinian population during the past 80 years and change these unjust policies.

On their part, the Palestinians should grasp every opportunity to use peaceful means to change Israel’s unjust and inhumane policies.  It is much to ask of the Palestinians to refrain from responding violently to the brutal Israeli military occupation and economic blockade of their communities.  But stopping violent actions on both sides and beginning peaceful and honest negotiations are the only ways to achieve a just and peaceful resolution to the conflict.

Christians wonder if Israelis really want peace or if they have become addicted to war profits.

Israelis have as much right to live in peace, freedom and prosperity as any other people on earth.  But Israelis don’t have the right to oppress non-Jewish people who also want to live in peace, freedom and prosperity.

Christians are questioning why Jewish Israelis created a state especially for Jews that discriminates against and brutally occupies non-Jewish Palestinians.  After all, Jews have been working hard in Christian countries for hundreds of years to earn the respect and equal rights that all human beings deserve.  So why would Jews in Israel deny these same human rights to non-Jews living in Israel or in any of the territories that Israel is illegally occupying?

Christians are asking whether Israeli Jews are really safer living in the heavily militarized, fortress-like state they have created and that is systematically discriminating against Palestinians who happen to profess religious faiths other than Judaism.

Christians are asking why Israelis continue to build settlements illegally on land they have illegally confiscated from their Palestinian neighbors.  U.S. Christians are asking why they should continue to send their tax money to a country that uses the funds to build up a huge military machine that brutally occupies millions of Palestinians, depriving them of freedom to travel, their ability to earn a living, their right to build homes, their right to a good education, their right to occupy land they have occuped for centuries, and the right to choose their own government.

Yes, Rabbi Cooper, Christians are asking questions.  U.S. Christians are obligated to ask these important questions because U.S. Christians are sending so much of their hard-earned money to Israel, which carries out policies that Christians consider to be unacceptable and inhumane.  They are asking questions because they have seen too much bloodshed in the Holy Land.  They have seen too much suffering there. Their loving God teaches them to try to do things to make life better for everyone in the region, not just Jews.

Rabbi, U.S. Christians will be asking a lot more questions about their aid to Israel.  It is part of our long tradition of working for justice and peace.

In addition, Christians will continue to question the leaders of any country in the world that denies its citizens basic human rights, including the right of its citizens to peacefully worship in public the way they choose.  People of many different faiths now have rights to worship in Christian countries, so Christians and people of other faiths should have rights to peacefully and publicly worship in non-Christian countries as well.

When Christians in the U.S. criticize Israel, they are not holding Israelis accountable to standards any different than the high standards Christians hold themselves accountable to in the United States.

Rabbi Cooper, Christians will support Israeli policies that are just, but they have a right to speak out against unjust policies.  Please think carefully about how Israeli policies have impacted the indigenous Palestinian people so terribly during the past 80 years.  After the terrible persecutions that Jews have suffered for centuries, especially after the mass murders of Jews during World War II, how can Israelis continue to brutalize innocent Palestinian people?

Please think carefully about God’s command to treat other people as you want to be treated.  Please remember that all human beings are created in God’s image, not just Jews.

Mike Bradley

Evangelical leader of ‘The Family’ more frightening than Jim Jones of Peoples Temple

Dr. Charles E. Carlson of WHTT asks a good question: “What is really wrong with ‘The Family’ and why should all followers of Christ denounce and oppose it?”

His answer: “Because it will take Christian Zionists, including President Obama, Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin, and a flock of Congressmen in both parties to a dangerous new height of political power by whispering in their ears, ‘Do it,’ God gave you power so He must want you to do your will.”

In an exclusive Religion Dispatches interview with Jeff Sharlet, Sharlet describes the leader of the Family, Doug Coe, this way:

That penchant for “invisibility,” as he calls it, makes him unusual, but don’t mistake him for some humble servant of the Lord. Above all else, Coe admires strength, of the iron fist variety. Over the years he’s acted as a de facto lobbyist for strongmen ranging from Haiti’s Papa Doc Duvalier to Indonesia’s Suharto. Disavowing the strident pulpit-pounding that makes headlines, Coe preaches a far more authoritarian message, advising congressmen to look to “evil men” such as Hitler, Stalin, and Mao for insight into the nature of Christ’s power.

Also, Pastor Chuck Warnock offers an insightful review of a book on “The Family” and concludes by saying

“Jeff Sharlet has done evangelicals a favor by showing us that in the case of the Family, the emperor really is naked.  The argument which forms the basis for the Family — that men of authority are there because God placed them there — is a poor exegetical attempt to justify amoral power politics.  If Jesus were to have adopted the philosophy of the Family, he would have worked with Herod, and he would have taken Pontius Pilate to lunch.  And, when Satan tempted Christ by offering him raw political power, Jesus would have jumped at the chance because, as Doug Coe says, “we work with power where we can [and] build new power where we can’t.”

Christians must always be vigilant and be prepared to chase out the wolf that dresses up in shepherd’s clothing!

Professor of Christian theology converts to Christianity

Dr. Don Thorsen, Professor of Theology, Haggard Graduate School of Theology, Azusa Pacific University, gives an account of his personal conversion from the cult of Christian Zionism. Here’s his remarkable story:

Let me share with you the story of how I first embodied and then repudiated the beliefs, values, and practices of Christian Zionism. Of course, when I developed my view of eschatology, neither I nor others with whom I was familiar used the terminology of Christian Zionism. Instead my view was best described as premillennial and pretribulational eschatology, including belief in a secret rapture of Christians that would imminently occur. But my largely subconscious view of Israel and the United States’ involvement in Mideast politics was essentially that of Christian Zionism. I gave unconditional preference to biblical prophecies thought to be predictive of Israel’s nationalistic resurgence, and the coming of Armageddon and the cataclysmic end of the world as we know it.

Although I grew up with Christian Zionistic beliefs, values, and practices, I rejected them because of my increased study of scripture and because of the disgraceful social implications of a premillennial and pretribulational eschatology. I will share my journey chronologically, beginning with the formation of my earliest thoughts about the end times and ending with my professional development as a professor of Christian theology. Continue…

Tithing: why it’s the top sacred cow in many churches

This New Zealand site offers some alternative ideas on the subject of tithing. Also, they offer free (digital) books about tithing. Check out this site…it’s worth the extra 10%.

Over the past thirty years most Christians have heard, numerous times, the arguments for tithing being law for Christians today. TithingDebate.com is dedicated to bringing you the other side of the story. The side a portion of Christian leaders would rather you did not hear. Is tithing really a Biblical command for Christians? Is there really a “principle of tithing”? Is what you have been taught about tithing true? Read some of the articles here; you will be surprised. It seems that churches today have adopted Lenin’s famous maxim, “the heart on fire and the brain on ice”. But that was never God’s will, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37). Let the thaw begin!

Visit the “Children’s Village” orphanage in Haiti

Collapsed Sacre Couer Catholic Church in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Sunday, Jan. 24, 2010. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

For a daily update from a Christian team in Haiti, please click here.

For another Christian team update, read about this impossible miracle. All buildings (school, cafeteria, church, orphanage, home, etc.) collapsed but no lives lost! Click here.

Our special interest is the Children’s Village orphanage in Deschaplles (near Albert Schweitzer Hospital) where we have sponsored a water well. Miraculously, nobody was killed and the well still functions.

What caused this Haitian disaster? There are many opinions. Check out this opinion and then answer truthfully: Is there anything “Christian” about “Christian Zionists”?

A political analyst asks a good question: Is US military aid to Haiti a humanitarian effort or an invasion? Good question.

Reject Israel’s genocidal policies, and God will curse you, she says

“Keep God in America” sounds so religious, doesn’t it? Until you learn that these folks are officially known as Christian Zionists, but in practice are a bunch of “spiritual schizophrenics.” For example, take US Congresswoman Michele Backmann, a pro-life Christian who believes people and nations are “blessed” if they first approve of the genocidal policies of the apartheid State of Israel. Seems her God comes in second.  I’m not sure, but there might be two Michele Backmanns. The first Backmann says some members of Congress are anti-American, and the other Backmann says Americans must first “bless” racist Israel or God will “end…the United States“! That’s quite a severe penalty. Of course, we shouldn’t be surprised because Backmann has grown up in churches that sell Christian Zionism.