While not strictly falling under the definition of the Hallelujah Complex, I have to mention a fairly recent phenomenon among Evangelicals as the holiday season approaches us:
The fad of co-opting Jewish cultural symbols.
More and more often, dispensationalist pro-Israel Evangelicals are putting out menorahs during the holiday season. These are people with no Jewish background or history, and yet they seem to feel they have license to use the symbols of the Jewish culture at will. It's like, just because your church (and the Left Behind books) teach that Israel will one day raise up in arms and slaughter the armies of the Antichrist, all of a sudden this makes you Jewish? You get to insert yourself into a 5,000 year old tradition, just because your pastor said that Israel should not coexist with Palestine? Zuh?
I'm seeing it more and more often (it seems especially prevalent among Calvary Chapelers). The menorahs, the Stars of David, the mizuzahs on the doorpost--
Jew chic is the in thing.
But here's my real concern:How many of these Israeli-flag wavers actually stand up against the defamation of Jewish people
in our time? How many of them are actively fighting anti-semitism in their communities?
The Southern Poverty Law Center puts out a magazine called the "
Intelligence Report", which keeps track of hate crimes committed across the nation. I wonder how many of the menorah-loving, blond-haired Christians subscribe to it? (Subscriptions are free, by the way.)
How many of them came out against Mel Gibson when he made his anti-semitic remarks?
How many of them are out there standing with the Jewish families who've had swastikas burned on their lawn in the past year?
Apparently:It's very easy to romanticize the Chosen People of the Bible.
It's very easy to romanticize the customs of the "exotic Jew" of modern day, imagining that, some day, he will take the lead in the battle of Armaggedon.
It's easy to equate "giving nuclear weapons to the political nation of Israel" with "loving Jewish people". (??)
But it's much harder to actually stand together with people in holy solidarity, listen to their problems, their concerns and their woes, and fight together for solutions. Jewish people are not just a cultural phenomenon of the past or some far-off place in Eastern Europe--they are a living community that still faces discrimination, hatred and defamation.
So if you
really want to show your "love for the Jewish people", how about making a stand about these issues
now?
For that matter...why stop with the Jewish people?
Labels: Is Evangelical the "new Jewish"?
