In the wake of Ann Coulter's confrontation with the Anti-Defamation League it is interesting to read the comments of David Klinghoffer here at the Discovery Institute.
Being a Jew himself David disagrees with Ann that a Jew must accept the authority of Jesus as Messiah, but he acknowledges that from her perspective her statement was entirely correct.
He goes on the argue that there are two ways of being a Jew, the first being merely a matter of biology. That is, merely an accident of birth. The second, which he advocates himself, sees Jewishness being related to Torah which he sees as being of cosmic significance.
I can subscribe to this position, although as a Christian I would agree with Ann that a Jew should embrace Jesus to be perfected. David deserves credit for a nuanced and reasonable position that seems quite foreign to the Anti Defamation League.
4 comments:
The choice is between tribe and truth. In the tribal version of Jewishness, what Ann Coutler proposed — converting to Christianity — amounts to a gentle genocide, the end of the tribe. In the truth version, her view is inoffensive because we regard her in much the same way she regards us.
This is an interesting statement that I hadn't really thought about. Of course Coulter meant the truth version. Believing in Jesus is perfection.
But because of the multiple ways Jews see Jewishness (race, culture, religion and disagree amongst themselves) then to tell a Jew that becoming a Christian is to lose one's ethnicity--it may be interpreted differently by them as it was by Christians.
Of course Christians do lose their identity to a degree, we a primarily citizens of the kingdom of God, but a call to Christianity is not a call to destroy nations and cultures, it is a call to come out of the temporal kingdoms and join an eternal one.
And thinking Jews like Klinghoffer and Prager can see this.
Yes, as I put it in an email to Don Feder once, the Christian owes their primary allegiance to the Kingdom of God before any other consideration.
I also expressed the belief that as a Jew he could understand such an attitude and he agreed with me.
duke... send me an e-mail... It is on my blog
http://tiff2000.blogspot.com/
kisses,
Tiff
While Ann can be a little grating, I can only commend her for standing her ground on this one.
It aggravates me to no end to see Christian apologists assuring everyone that they're not attacking anyone's religion and that there are "many ways to God" (gag).
Can you imagine how Paul would react to these types of weasels? Paul's whole modus operandi was going into a strange city and telling everyone there that he was right and they were wrong and that if they didn't like it they were going to burn, nearly getting himself lynched several times.
Oh, did she piss some Jews off? Well it's supposed to piss you off. I seem to remember something about some guy being crucified. Take up your cross and follow.
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