Category: Culture

Four major feature articles in the Jerusalem Post weekend addition responded to the Black Lives Matter protests.  I quoted one writer, Amotz Asa El, in a personal Facebook post. The general consensus of the four was sympathy for the situation of the Black underclass and crediting that racism is a problem.  But then the writers all noted their alarm at the violent upheaval taking place and warned that the direction that things were taking was likely to lead to a bad end.  The Post commented on the statue of George Washington in Portland being toppled because he owned slaves.  People in St. Louis are protesting the name of the city.  It goes back to when it was a French trading post before the Louisiana Purchase (1803).  King  Louis IX of France was an anti-Semite that burned Talmuds.  Washington’s great biographer, James Thomas Flexner, describes a Washington that was conflicted by slavery and freed his slaves in his will.  Asa El says of Jefferson, “Jefferson was a slave owner. It was a status into which he was born. However, he also led Virginia’s groundbreaking banishment of slave importation, and as president, he criminalized international slave trade and sought a way to emancipate all slaves. Can any of his defacers claim to have done for liberty and equality just a fraction of all this?”  So much of human rights is based on his words, “All men (persons) are created equal.”  There is a big difference between a Washington or Jefferson, and those who went to war to maintain slavery.  How much to honor these Confederate leaders in our day is a real question. Rabbi Stuart Weiss, a leading Rabbi here in Ra’anana wrote that he fears for America now more than any other time in his life.  The violent upheaval and lawless rule is so alarming to him, though he is sympathetic to the cause of blacks and their racism problems  

However, when we look beyond the Black Lives Matter official organization platform which is radically socialist (Marxist?), anti-Israel-pro-BDS, anti-traditional family, and super pro-LGBT we see that many blacks are joining this movement that do not endorse these aberrations.  Some of my friends have said that we need to listen to these protesting blacks.  However, there is not one black voice.  I am trying to grasp the different voices.  I see three categories of black leaders and they are really as far as I can grasp it on a continuum spectrum.  

The first category which is the largest group of protestors believes there is systemic racism in the police and society.  They want to root it out.  They want police reform and programs to lift the black community.  They want to reform the police but not to abolish them.  They want more training for community police to be a positive presence and a larger contingent of minority police. This has already happened in Atlanta where the black police constitute 57% of the force.   Is their understanding of systemic racism correct?  The lawyer for murdered George Floyd, Ben Crump, gave an amazing interview to Neil Cavuto.  It had a great balance even on the monument issues.  What a credit to the Black people he is!  

Secondly are the radicals with include whites and blacks who are pushing violence and a Marxist or anarchist agenda.  They are the ones demanding total defunding of the police (really they mean this and it is not a euphemism for reforming the police).  There is also an anti-Jewish aspect. They told the Jewish mayor of Minneapolis “Go home Jacob,” when he would not agree to the demands to totally defund.  It should be noted that these folks do not want to take a vote on issues but want to rule by the mob.  The radicals have caused more damage in destroying businesses, even minority businesses, than we yet know, but some estimates are very high.  After this is all over there will be a calculation.   Some in the first group claim that those in this group have stolen their movement and made their violent revolution the issue and not justice for blacks.  The radicals claim that free enterprise itself is necessarily oppressive and must be torn down. 

Then thirdly, there are the conservative blacks.  Some have stood with the protests against police brutality, but most have not been in the protests.  There are important voices in this group.  They include Shelby Steele, Thomas Sowell (who came out of retirement to write), Robert Woodson, Kay Cole James (head of the Heritage Foundation), Alveda King, niece of Martin Luther King, Jason Riley of the Wall Street Journal, and many more.  However, the mainstream press does not give them a voice.  Their view is that there is a problem with police and reform is necessary, but less police would bring more death.  There needs to be more training, more power to fire bad apples, and better community policing. However, they see the primary problem as the failure of liberal policies which has kept the black underclass in their situation of misery and has led to frustration and their embrace wrong narrative to understand it.  For one thing, these conservatives believe that restoring the black family is crucial and that welfare should support family stability and not undercut it.  They embrace workfare and training for welfare to lift people up.  They believe in school choice and charters as ways to life blacks. They will point to the Success Charter Schools in New York and their superiority in educating blacks to achieve.  The alliance of education unions with the Democratic politicians is, they believe, responsible for much of the blame. Some of them will make the very offensive statement to some that if black underclass crime was very low there would not be a significant police problem, though bad police are a problem beyond the issue of race. Bernard Kerick, the former long term police commissioner in New York, said there is a problem with a minority of police maybe 5%.  However, the unions spend 90% of their time coming up with protections for this 5% and make it very hard to fire them. 

My view is that systemic racism is not where the protesters think it is.  There is racism in some police and maybe there is some systemic in some departments.  But this has to be researched.  

Let’s broaden the issue of systemic racism beyond the idea of people who really believe that blacks are an inferior race to the idea of systematically avoiding solving the problem of the black underclass.  (60% of blacks are middle to upper-middle class, so the main issue Is the 40%). This problem is both local and national.  How is that?  The Republicans due to Lincoln were for years the party of the black people.  But they did not come up with the programs that would have lifted the black community out of poverty.  When they lost the black vote, they simply wrote them off as if to say,  “If they are not going to keep us in power, just ignore them.”  The Democrats provided them with money and programs and took away their vote. In the beginning, this was well-intentioned (Magnet’s The Dream and the Nightmare.). However, the Democrats created a failed system that keeps the black underclass dependent and oppressed.  The condition of the black family and education was better before the trillions were spent on programs for the poor!  Amazing.  After 50 years we know what does not work.  But the black vote is taken for granted as the Democrats tout give always that do not lift the community but perpetuate dependence.  Without two-party competition, the blacks will not get the right debate on the policies that can work. This is the theme of the conservative blacks.  The liberals fight the very things that would lift the blacks; educational choice, incentives for family stability, enterprise zones with job training, and massive community policing to end the violence where 7500 blacks in one year were killed by black on black crime and violence.  

The political parties have left us with a systemic problem and the blacks think the problem is overt racial prejudice.  It certainly exits, but would most businesses not hire a qualified black? Do most colleges today accept qualified blacks into their schools?  Yes.  The issues are not rightly analyzed.  My views are in line with the black conservatives. 

But finally, I see the main issue of repentance as with the Church.  Can we really think that secular programs to lift people can succeed without the Gospel?  How much do we believe in the transformative power of the Gospel?  But then we must face by our broadened definition the systemic racism of the Church establishment.  This is not the racism of believing that blacks are an inferior race, but the racism that simply ignores the issue of the condition of the black underclass.  One can easily deduce from the example and teaching of Yeshua that the primary thrust of the Gospel is first for the poor, the marginalized, or the underclass.  In the 1980s the American Evangelical Church attained its largest numbers and percent in the society.  Now it shrinks.  The Church focused on meeting the needs of its members but not on the power of the Gospel to the neediest.  Maybe the members would not have had such neediness if they knew the power of God in their lives and saw the power of God on the cutting edge of investing in the population where Yeshua would have most given his time.  Yes, there are exceptions.  But this is the main root of the problem, and the United States is reaping what the Evangelical Church has sown. Also, there may be blame in the Black Church, but this is not for me to judge.  However, black conservative Church leaders tell me that in the black community  the Gospel is a mile wide and an inch deep. There is little depth of discipleship, especially for young black youth.  

There is a racist history too when we note what happened in the great Pentecostal revival.  William J. Seymour lead the Azuza street revival in 1906.  He was a black preacher.  This revival has transformed Christianity.  Pentecostal Christianity and its offshoots in the new charismatic streams is now the largest and most effective Church the world has ever seen. The gains in Africa, Asia, and South America are astonishing.  Again, it was started by a black preacher.  Then the white Pentecostals in America did not want to be in an association of Churches with black leaders, so the movement split into black denominations and white denominations.  There have been verbal repentance meetings with forgiveness.  But are we yet seeing restitution?  This is where reparations can be an issue.  It would seem that the issue is that white churches should be now making the black underclass their primary mission focus.  How much would their young people be then inspired in seeing the transformation of the black community by the Gospel? The Gospel is the greatest justice force for the underclasses of the world that has ever been seen.  

There is a lot of blame to go around; corrupt police and some bad police departments maintained by unions, and corrupt politicians, Democrats, and Republicans.  Then there is the Church. But only the Church can really repent on the right basis of sin before God and gain the power to bring the Gospel of reconciliation.  May we see that repentance and revival. 

 

 

I have been alarmed to see my friends on social media completely absorbed by the present political moment of Donald Trump being President.   They are compulsively preoccupied and write incessantly on Trump, both negative and positive.  Really, there is Trump derangement syndrome on both sides. Those who are compulsively negative and those who are compulsively defending him both have come to a point that concerns me greatly.  I do write on political and social issues, but the solution to many of the most difficult social problems in the culture in the United States will not come by politics.  I will make my position clear one more time in a soon to be published post, but I think it is a great mistake to make the Trump arguments our focus.  If you read my official page you will note that this is not my focus, but I respond to friends for whom it is primary.   But I really am coming to the point of wanting to opt-out of responding.  I want to also apply this to the present situation of the riots in America after the terrible injustice of the death of George Floyd.  

Over 50 years ago, I read a little book by the famous French thinker, Jacque Ellul, entitled The Political Illusion.  Ellul, in my view, was left of center in his politics.  However, he decried the tendency in the society to think that salvation would come through politics or that there was some type of utopia to be produced by politics.  Justice is something we must learn to practice as disciples in our normal course of life and where we can really affect things; it is in our neighborhood, our workplace, our business, and our neighborhood.  People spend their emotional energy in ways that produce no gain in the lives of people at all.  All of these social media posts are part of the political illusion.  Ellul did believe that Christianity always requires us to identify first of all with the marginalized and dispossessed. 

My view of the riots that are now taking place in the United States is that they show blood lust, hatred, the trivialization of human worth, and show the truth of John 10:10 when Yeshua said that Satan “comes not but to rob, kill, and destroy.”  So this can tell you the nature of these riots. He came to give life abundant.  I have argued that the Gospel is the greatest instrument for justice that can be imagined.  It brings a person into deliverance from being a victim and gives supernatural power to overcome and to make a difference in the society by combining the call of love with justice, not hatred, and violence.  Our hope is in the Gospel and revival.  Sadly, many who are in the Church do not know the power of the Gospel and the supernatural miraculous level of effect that is available; how mighty is prayer and the signs and wonders that follow.  How mighty is revival!   When black and white (and Hispanic and Asian) join together in the power of Yeshua, a way forward can be found.  50 years of the welfare state has not brought justice and prosperity for all.  A trillion dollars spent and we still have failed schools in the poor areas of the cities still have drugs, gangs, killings fatherless homes and the life is cheap orientation.  Of course, the corrupt politicians misspent and mishandled and a few more trillions will lead to the same dead end. Where are the Christians marching in the streets with the message of the Gospel and the message of love and reconciliation?   Where are the Christian institutions that provide and educate the poor?  They are some, but not nearly enough.  

Mike Brown’s very good book, Donald Trump is not My Savior, hits the right note on these matters.  Whether one is pro-Trump or anti Trump should not be the preoccupation of believers.  Yes, we should be responsible for our civic calling.  But the more important thing is that both sides should join together for the extension of the Kingdom.  We have bigger fish to fry than politics.   Revival, love, reconciliation, and truth will have political effects, but it will be through Yeshua.  And why should we think un-regenerated men and women will provide the answers and the way out. 

I had friends whose writing and teaching have been shadow banned on Facebook, removed from YouTube, and banned from Twitter.  One very egregious example is the removal of the presentations of the famous Jewish commentator, Dennis Praeger.  The reason given is hate speech.  The material removed or banned was due to conservative viewpoints, and in some cases promoting traditional views of marriage, family, and sexuality, indeed Biblical teaching.  The accusation is that traditional values promote homophobia and transphobia.  The large media companies are monopolistic and have great control over speech in general.  They are given special favor because they claim to be neutral platforms for sharing information, viewpoints, and personal connections among people.  They are not neutral platforms. 

A more recent commitment was made by a Facebook giant to remove content that goes against COVID 19 recommendations by the World Health Organization. Contrary scientific opinions will not be tolerated.  This now makes Facebook an arbiter of what counts as scientific truth.  Twitter has now taken to fact-checking President Trump’s tweets, though some say when he speaks contrary fact his Tweet should not be allowed.  The President is now furious about this.  One humorous situation has now developed.  The WHO has now recommended that people no wear masks outside to prevent COVID 19 transmission. The Centers for Disease Control, that bastion of establishment health policy, still recommends wearing makes outside.  Now, what will Facebook do?  According to their stated policy, they should ban recommendations from the CDC!  Being the arbiter of what counts as scientific truth is a dicey business. 

Recently President Trump has decreed an end to the special protection for these media giants and has removed their status as neutral platforms.  This would then define them as news services with editorial decision making etc.  This opens them up to the kind of responsibility and to lawsuits that the press faces. I don’t know that it will do much good. I think the big giants need to be broken up.  They are monopolies.  There needs to be multiple platforms, many of them.  If there is to be a neutral platform, then here is my list of rules. 

1. Only calls for violent actions and lewd pornographic material should be banned. This last would be in coordination with the FCC.  This would ban all terrorists and their organizations. 
2. Hate speech will not be a criterion.  If people want to claim that traditional morality is hate speech, traditionalists can claim that calling them homophobes and transphobes is hate speech. It is not hate speech to say that if one does not repent of sin the person will go to hell.  It is not hate speech to say that all religions but the Biblical faith are false religions.  It may not be very tolerant, but it is to be tolerated. The communicator will claim to be acting in love to save a person from hell. All hell, fire, and brimstone preachers in history claimed this.  Control freaks want to control all who are not acting in the tolerant way they define. 
3. The answer to wrong speech is more speech.  No one should police a neutral platform beyond these two standards.  People will have to grow up and learn to check different material, judge which sites are trustworthy, and reject false claims and conspiracy theories.  A neutral site must be an arbiter of truth.  There are government agencies that deal with false advertising and fraudulent products.
4. There should be many non-neutral sites that simply set the parameters of what they will or not.  One would choose those services according to one’s purposes and agreeing to their standards.  They can censor anything they want and promote anything they want, and more or less control the information posted.  There could be sites for people of different views.  Competing sites and competing information would be a great thing.  

I wrote a personal Facebook post and now want to expand that post for my personal page and my official page.  

“An amazing statement by Jack Brewer who was a star on the Minnesota Vikings on the recent terrible death. He says that the problem is primarily a spiritual one, that racism is a Satanic spiritual thing that has to be dealt with spiritually. He says that identity politics has greatly worsened the situation and that identifying whites as inherently evil or racist or blacks as inferior is a spiritual disease and a huge Satanic problem. So, what about a mass movement of prayer and reconciliation, repentance, and forgiveness. This is not a prayer as part of a  superficial cover-up. Let us pray that evil will be rooted out. That racism would be destroyed. That evil actors in the police forces would be rooted out. That the evil responding anarchists like Antifa would be thwarted. Let’s pray first of all that the Gospel will go forth and bring the depth of repentance and reconciliation that is needed. This cannot happen by mere human efforts. We need black churches and white churches and mixed-race churches to come together, to pray, march, witness, etc. O for the Church to rise up.”

I want to expand this post with a few comments.  The central issue to me is that the issues are approached apart from a biblical world view.  That world view can influence the responses and approaches of people who are not followers of Jesus.  The biblical world view tells us that all are created in the image of God.  That includes white policemen, the good ones and the criminals, and black criminals and black non-criminals.  It tells us that all are deeply sinful, depraved in heart and that civilization is sometimes a mere veneer.  That without regeneration and the influence in society from the regenerated, people will seek to dominate others and exercise power to their benefit and at their expense.  Sin will lead to racism, ethno-centricity, sadism, hedonism, misogyny.   This is why it becomes the work of the Body of the Messiah to bring the prophetic voice into the situation, movements of justice, and reconciliation based on the equal worth of all people. If one particular racial or ethnic group is more unjustly treated, the focus of the prophetic will be to redress that injustice.  In the case of the black community, political leaders have practiced neglect (they don’t vote for me), policies that have destroyed the black family, allowed white racists in the police force, created an education system that does not prepare the poor black children to overcome poverty.  We have not spent sufficient policing to destroy the drug problem and end the cycles of violence.  The lack of the commitment of the Church to these problems and their non-involvement is a root cause issue and shows a need for deep repentance and reconciliation.  Now that the Church has left this vacuum, along come those who are anti-biblical in world view and who kill and destroy according to the desire of Satan.  

Some want to say that the rioters are spontaneously rioting due to their frustration.  This may be true of a few.  But why would they destroy minority-owned businesses?  We need to understand that in all probability these riots were long-planned, and the planners were just looking for the opportunity; the end of the lockdown for COVID 19 and an occasion to launch the riots.  If this is diligently dealt with by the FBI, I think we will find the following.

1. Anti-biblical and anti-free enterprise anarchists and socialists marching under the banner of Antifa and Black lives matter.   Sadly, only the Gospel and right kind of free enterprise can lift the poor black community. 
2. Anti-White blacks who have bought into the identity politics that teaches hatred and that the white people are all guilty, inherently evil, \and deserve to be treated with violence and disdain.  Guess what? Whites are also in the image of God and are also deserving of being treated with dignity as much as blacks and Hispanics.  All must treat each other as James says, as in the image of God and deserving of mutual reverence.  The teaching of hatred is totally opposed to God. 
3. White supremacists have also entered the mix to keep the pot boiling.  They desire a civil war.  

The organized rioters want to burn down the very businesses in the neighborhoods that are most needed to raise up the poor in the communities where they are established.  The anarchists include groups that really should be labeled as domestic terrorists.  The white supremacists also include those who should be labeled as domestic terrorists. 

In addition, the media has fanned these flames.  By claiming that President Trump is a racist (he is not, he is bombastic), and by claiming that those who support him are racists, homophobes, trans-fobes, and more they have fanned the flames of division and fostered conditions that lead to riots.  The President’s rhetoric has not helped but by falsely intensifying and magnifying the accusations that media has really been irresponsible.  On the right and left it is full speed ahead into the abyss.  The media should be putting a lid on the boiling pot.  Instead, they have been stoking the fire. 

It is time for those who can lead to lead a movement of love, justice, and reconciliation and to address the real injustices with real solutions.  We see such people as the football star quoted above, as the descendants of the family of Martin Luther King.  There are such voices among blacks and whites, and may they come to lead.  And also, let’s see the justice department go after the domestic terrorists of the left and the right. 

One more thing. We have spent trillions on COVID 19.  We can spend a few billion to rebuild the businesses destroyed by the terrorists and anarchists.  Let give this money in grant form, not loans.  Let’s rebuild these neighborhoods.

 

One of the greatest failures of the Body of Believers is the divorce rate among those who claim to follow Yeshua. It is similar to the world and shows a great level of worldliness. I grew up in the 1950s and was in high school from 1961-1965. Divorce in the larger society was rare, and in the Church and Synagogue super rare. This did provide a great deal of security, though there were some negatives in dysfunctional families. Then the great rebellion came. The antiwar protestors said, “Make love, not war.” And make love they did! (Not love really but sex.) Eventually, this led to a culture of easy divorce. The culture no longer reinforced lasting marriage. The stigma of divorce was removed. Today divorce is common. There are many who plan to never marry. One survey said that 1/3 of younger unmarried people plan to never marry. That is the world. But what of the communities of faith. Sadly, their profession is better, but their stats are the same. How sad! It shows that the believing community was dependent on the larger culture and its reinforcement. There have been many studies on how greatly divorce affects children and that in a very negative way. One of my greatest points of sadness is to see divorce among the next generation after mine among the children of people we know. Some married professing their faith in Yeshua.

There is a corollary that I truly believe about marriage. If two parties to a marriage are passionately in love with Yeshua and growing more and more into his image then they will grow to love each other more and more. As we grow into his likeness God gives us the capacity to see our spouse with understanding, compassion, and appreciation. Quirks become endearing. Mistakes elicit emotions of love. Forgiveness reigns. In growing to be more like Him we love our spouses more and more. The other way to say this is that two people who are truly becoming more and more discipled will love each other more and more. Discipleship enables us to obey his commands, but that in a context to become more and more like Him. This means that we obey his commands to love our spouses and to not divorce for Yeshua commands us to stay married.

Divorce, therefore, is the manifestation of the following.

• Worldliness in the Body of the Messiah.
• The plague of pornography that destroys the joy of physical love in marriage and undercuts our passion for our spouses.
• The ungodly view of the right to fulfillment in this life, and that if the marriage is not fulfilling at the time, then I can get out.
• The loss of the fear of God. God will exact the consequences for those that divorce without biblical grounds.
• The lack of discipleship in the principles for a good marriage and how to walk this out.

However, all of these things are summarized in one great matter that I do make part of this list. It is that we are either growing more and more into the likeness of Yeshua or failing in that. In this love for Yeshua, our love for our spouses and our solid commitment is deeper and deeper. If one is kept back from this passion for Yeshua by sin, pornography, greed, and other self-centered orientations, then the person is called to repent and to fully seek his power to overcome Also seek help to be an overcomer.

The loss of a commitment to objective news reporting and the domination of the media by the left has made it very difficult to know if we are gaining trustworthy news.  One could respond by saying they trust conservative media sources like Fox News and News Max.  I have been watching this for some time and do not think this is true.  What has happened is that Fox news is dominated by partisan shows?  Here is my evaluation: 

1. The Wall Street Journal probably is the most balanced news source in America.
2. The Jerusalem Post and the Times of Israel is a very good source of reporting while seeking to really be non-ideological.  Both are Zionist but not strident. 
3. I 24 English news form Israel is international and amazingly objective and non- partisan. 
4. There are news programs on Fox that are seeking to be objective and non-partisan.  They are not the dominant programming on the station.   I would say that Bret Baier is the best news program on T. V. for objective reporting.  

Few have time for this, but one can get a better idea if one listens to mainstream and leftist cable and then listens to Fox and reads Newsmax.  What becomes amazing is how one picks and chooses from information to partisan ends on both sides. It is interesting how stories that make Democrats look bad are just suppressed.  The larger amount of information that provides context is skewed.   Here are some examples.  

1. Some time ago I posted a comprehensive review of the responses to COVID 19.  It shows the failures and the right responses of everyone.  In partisan news one only picks the information that shows their side to have responded rightly and the other side wrongly.  
2. The reporting on the Centers for Disease Control is a case in point.  When the CDC missed it and did not sound the alarm early on, the right makes a big deal of this so as to support Trump.  When Trump calls into question CDC information the left makes the CDC an almost infallible source of information and advice.  This is the case with Anthony Fauci who has missed it sometimes and gotten it right sometimes.  He also did not sound the alarm early on.  But you never get the balance form partisan news. 
3. So also with China.  They really did unleash this on the world, but the left wants to play this down and even call it racist so they can blame Trump. 

Sadly, gaining accuracy requires more time than most people have time to give.  For some, the Holy Spirit will have to guide us to know that something is wrong in reporting. 

 

For many years I have wanted to read Mark Twain’s book Innocents Abroad.  Why?  Because it is so frequently quoted concerning Twain’s impressions of the Holy Land on his trip in 1867.  The quotes prove the Holy Land was desolated and largely unpopulated.  The idea is to show how the primary issue of Jewish settlement was not displacement but making the Land into something when it was so desolate.  So, I finally downloaded a Kindle reader copy from Amazon.

What a great read. Twain was a literary master.  This was written before Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.  He went on a long journey from New York.  He visited many places in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.  Though he sometimes bogs us down in his own thoughts disconnected from the center of his travels, generally the book is brilliant and a pleasure to read.  Twain shows himself to still support the views of his Presbyterian upbringing.  Twain’s description of Arab cities and towns is very negative.  Some would say it is prejudice.  However, Twain was not a racist but attributed the negatives to a deficient culture and religion.   His descriptions of Paris, Milan, Venice, Florence, and Rome were wonderful to read.  To see places that we had visited described as they were in 1867 was a  great pleasure for me.  Twain is devastating in his sarcasm about Catholic relics and holy places that do not have a credible history behind them.  This is true in the Holy Land as well.

However, the center of the book for me was his description of the Holy Land, its desolation, poverty, and cultural deprivation.  I don’t live in the same country that Twain describes. Israel today is a beautiful and a largely prosperous land.  Truly it seems as though this land could not flourish without the Jewish presence.  Twain describes everything from the Golan to the Sea of Galilee (the Kineret), Samaria, Judea, the Jordan Valley, the coastal plain, and of course, Jerusalem and Bethlehem.  Many of the inauthentic holy sites are subjects for his biting humor.  He was a master of humor.   Even the Old City today is a wonderful place to visit but then it was not so much so.

One of my good friends who led tours has all his tourists read the sections on the Holy Land before their tour.  That is a great piece of advice.  The return of our people to the Land is almost a resurrection of the Land from the dead