LCJE Media Update April 2006
By Susan Perlman, Jews for Jesus, San Francisco
| This is the first part of Susan Perlman's Media Update, given at the North American LCJE conference in Pittsburgh, April 2006. |
Steve Levin, writing for UPI and also for the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, focused on our conference. In the UPI release, Levin related the disappointment of the Pittsburgh Jewish leadership that such a conference was taking place but noted that no protest is planned. He did put in the dates however, so we'll see if the Jewish community holds firm on this. Theresa is quoted as saying, "My responsibility is to proclaim the gospel to anyone willing to hear it. Jewish people have the right to hear the gospel of Jesus proclaimed to them."
What I find most significant about the report on our gathering is the strength of support noted from established Christian bodies and individual Christian leaders. I believe that our long-standing connection with the Lausanne Movement, with the mainline denominations and with local churches has stood us in good stead when our legitimacy is challenged. Even the disapproval we receive from groups like the World Council of Churches, the Christians Scholar's Group and U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops, serves as a good endorsement of our theological and missiological soundness.
We should be particularly pleased to see the work that Dr. Newell did in soliciting the encouragement of assistant bishop Henry Scrivin of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh. Scrivin was quoted in the article as saying that he had followed the work of LCJE since its inception in 1980 and he pointed to the Lausanne Covenant that includes the statement, "those who reject Christ repudiate the joy of salvation and condemn themselves to eternal separation from God." And then he went on to point out the Willowbank Declaration of 1989 which affirms as well the need for Jews to hear the gospel. Scrivin followed on by saying, "Personally I'm sympathetic to its aims…"
When articles are written which solicit quotes from Jews and liberal Christians who wish to negate the legitimacy of Jewish evangelism, it is important that we do all we can to keep our connections strong with the denominations we have a relationship with, with individual Christian leaders, etc. They are ready to be our advocates.
That is not to say that there aren't those out there who would diminish the work of Jewish evangelism who aren't making inroads.
Yechiel Eckstein is a case in point
Yechiel Eckstein is a case in point. But I'd like to refer to articles in which he is quoted in contrast to another development in the relationship of Jews and Evangelicals. Salon.com wrote on November 29th, "Jews and the Christian right: Is the honeymoon over?" in which Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League and Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union of Reform Judaism, lash out at evangelicals.
Says Foxman, said "their goal is to implement their Christian world view. To Christianize America. To save us." He particularly singled out groups like Focus on the Family, the Alliance Defense Fund and the American Family Association and sees a need for a coordinated Jewish strategy to meet this threat. Not helpful was a quote from Tom Minnery of Focus who said, "If you keep bullying your friends, pretty soon you won't have any." Yaffie, speaking at the biannual convention of the URJ said, "We are particularly offended by the suggestion that the opposite of the religious right is the voice of atheism. What could be more bigoted than to claim that you have a monopoly on God and that anyone who disagrees with you is not a person of faith." In addition to these leaders, books have recently come out by Michael Lerner of Tikkun and James Rudin of the American Jewish Committee on the Evangelicals and Jews and "Christian America."
Several prominent Jews have looked to respond to these comments by Foxman and Yoffie including Michael Medved and David Klinghoffer. But none have responded with as much force as Yechiel Eckstein, whose entire career has been devoted to being the go to person of evangelical/Jewish relations. He used the Foxman and Yaffie blast of the Christian Right to come to the defense of evangelicals. Isn't nice to know that Eckstein is the champion of the evangelical movement to other Jews? Eckstein who has said in print that he will not work with evangelicals who are involved "in targeted missions toward Jews, like Jews for Jesus." (Rabbi reassures Jews about Evangelicals, KC Jewish Chronicle 2/17/06) Eckstein was the keynote speaker at the Gathering, which was held at a strong Southern Baptist church, Raytown Baptist. This is troublesome.
A feature article last July in the Sunday New York Times Magazine, The Rabbi Who Loved Evangelicals (and Vice Versa) begins with a scene at the Family Christian Center in Munster, Indiana. FCC has a 5,000seat auditorium and a stage with a replica of Calvary's hill and a cave depicting the tomb. Eckstein is to speak at this church that showers him with accolades and lots of money. It is obvious that the way they show their love for the Jewish people is to embrace Eckstein cause, not the cause of Jewish evangelism. According to the article, in the past eight years 400,000 evangelicals have sent Eckstein about a quarter of a billion dollars to do with as he pleases. The writer says, "No Jew since Jesus has commanded this kind of following."
John Hagee is back in the news
Eckstein isn't the only one we have reason to be concerned about. John Hagee, who I commented on last LCJE is back in the news. A very interesting article appeared in the Jerusalem Post on March 1st in which both John Hagee and Jerry Falwell allegedly said that Jews could get to heaven without believing in Jesus. Falwell, clearly disavowed the notion, saying "Anyone who knows me knows that I believe that Christ is the way, the truth, the life, the only way to heaven." Falwell's complete statement is more specific about the need for Jewish people to believe in Jesus. He and Hagee were able to turn around the adverse publicity in the evangelical community very quickly with releases of their own. Hagee's statement, while strongly objecting to being depicted as believing in a dual covenant, does not refute his long standing record of soft on evangelism directed toward Jewish people today. The Jerusalem Post article which started off the flurry was designed to announce a new Christian organization spearheaded by Hagee called Christians United For Israel which will be a lobbying group on behalf of Israel. Rabbi Aryeh Scheinberg of San Antonio who was part of the interview acknowledged that "Hagee has been non-conversionary for 25 years" and that one could infer that the new organization would not proselytize Jews either. We need to keep an eye on this organization. While its goal is to support Israel, it could be co-opted to offer assurances to the Jewish community that Jewish evangelism is a low priority or no priority to those Christians who are a part of it.
Christians and Israel
The news on Christians and Israel and divestment is ongoing. We reported on the Presbyterian situation last year. A follow-up on that from the Presbyterian Action Briefing, Winter of 2006 says that their statement on divestment has morphed from a call to divest from "multinational corporations operating in Israel" to "those companies whose business in Israel is found to be directly or indirectly causing harm or suffering to innocent people, Palestinian and Israeli." More interesting however is that 16 presbyteries have submitted overtures to overturn the divestment resolution and a new advocacy group, Committee to End Divestment Now is in place. Their website is www.enddivestment.org. In addition, no recommendations to move on divestment will be put forth at the church's biennial assembly in June.
Added to the Presbyterian situation, the Church of England voted February 6th to consider divesting from companies whose products are used by Israel in the occupied terrorities. Rowan Williams, archbishop of Cantebury was quoted as saying they would "heed the call from our sister church, the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East..." After outrage was voiced by the Chief Rabbi of England, Jonathan Sacks, Rowan offered his regrets at the distress caused by the resolution and stressed that no decision had been to taken to actually divest. The Jerusalem Report wrote in its March 20th edition that the divestment campaign gaining momentum in some Protestant churches originates at the Sabeel Ecumenical Center for Liberation Theology located in East Jerusalem and headed by Rev. Ateek, formerly the canon of St. George's Church of East Jerusalem.
Behold Your God campaigns
On to another subject, this has been a full year of media for our movement. Briefly, I'd like touch on the media that came as a result of the Behold Your God campaigns in various cities, including Pittsburgh, Montreal, Baltimore, Las Vegas, Berlin, Phoenix and Miami. A few highlights, "Can a Jew believe in Jesus? The answer is yes, just like a vegetarian can enjoy a bloody steak. They say they believe in one sovereign God, existing in three forms, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I'm not going to lie - I don't remember talking about those dudes in my bat-mitzvah speech." The Miami Hurricane
For David A. Finkelstien, the matter is absolutely crystal clear. No conflicts, contradictions, arguments or impasses. He believes he is saved and those who are not, well, are simply, in his words, sinners." Cover story Baltimore Jewish Times, August 12, 2005 Preying On Us "A religious tract recently distributed in Las Vegas by the controversial evangelical organization Jews for Jesus had fun with the mayor's promotion of Bombay Sapphire Gin to fourth graders and hiss celebrity photography work for Playboy. It then explained how Goodman, or anyone else, could become a follower of Jesus." Las Vegas Sun, 12/31/06
Why the Jews Rejected Jesus
This past year, David Klinghoffer came out with his book, Why the Jews Rejected Jesus, and both Christian and Jewish press have commented on it. I've included Richard Neuhaus' commentary in Orthodoxy Today in which he concludes that Klinghoffer's book "contributes little to understanding what it means to be a Christian or a Jew- an understanding that, as St. Paul ponders in Romans 9 through 11, continues to be deeply problematic in a manner that is not untouched by the mystery of God's hidden purposes." An interesting Jewish response was Hillel Halkin's response in the June 2005 edition of Commentary Magazine. He summarizes Klinghoffer's book as a "justification of Judaism's dismissal of the Christian savior while arguing at the same time that the world should be grateful for the dismissal." Also worth reading is an interview with Klinghoffer by the National Review entitled, Holy Assertions. The bottom line comes when the reporter asks him what he would like the Jewish reader to get out of the book. Says Klinghoffer, "Michael Medved quipped that the only things all Jews can agree on is that Jesus wasn't the Messiah. He's right and it's sad because, as I said, Torah is about so much more than who was or wasn't the Messiah'"
Klinghoffer, for his column in the Jewish Forward of New York reflects on the Messianic Jews who have written to him since the book came out and poses the question, "Are We Being Fair To Messianic Jews? June 10, 2005. He uses this article to poke jabs at secular, liberal Jews by comparing the "deceptiveness" of our movement with what he calls the deceptiveness of Jewish groups that campaign for gay rights. He then juxtaposes messianic Jewish belief in Christ's deity with liberal Jews who reject that the Torah was received by Moses from God. He tries to make the case that secularism among Jews is as devastating to Jewish survival as he sees messianic Judaism to be. But then he ends his article with this chutzpahdik statement: "No I'm not trying to be judgmental about anyone's beliefs."
Susan Perlman
supersu1@aol.com