Category: Culture

Three types of gun violence dominate the landscape in America.  One is gun violence in the inner city connected to drugs and gangs.  This requires a holistic effort for the inner city which I spoke of in another post on the Black Underclass.  It also requires a massive community policing effort that is very expensive and which politicians have been unwilling to support. 

 

The second is ideological hate crimes, either from white supremacy or from Islamic terrorism.  

 

The third is from a deranged evil that simply hates and wants to kill people.

 

My daughter Rebecca wrote a very intelligent post on the issue of guns and violence, so I want to write on it more extensively.  We do get the news of such things in Israel and Israelis are quite amazed that it is safer in Israel!  

 

I am only here speaking on the second two types.  It appears that the shooter in El Paso was carrying out an ideological hate crime and the one in Dayton, Ohio was carrying out a deranged hatred in general.  I think these two provide a paradigm of killers that can be helpful.  

 

In the first case, I think it is crucial that social media be surveyed to alert people to white supremacists and Islamic radicals who may commit crimes.  We must not use political correctness about the latter to not track Islamic terrorists. We must not use free speech to prevent tracking white supremacist individuals and groups.  All people who belong to such groups or who post their ideologies should be on a red flag list that prevents them from buying guns, though they can get guns from the black market. At least some acts might be prevented.  In addition, people need to come forth to authorities when they have information.  

 

In the second case, this shooter was feared in his high school days and suspended. He should have been on a red flag list.  He constantly spoke of his desire to murder and rape. It was a non-ideological evil. Laws did not allow a minor to be in a database for red-flagging for the future.  Youth crimes are expunged from the records. This has to change with regard to gun purchases. This evil individual was able to purchase the gun legally. 

 

It is crucial that those who are mentally unfit not be allowed to purchase guns.  In this regard, we need to have a system to prevent those with mental illness issues connected to violent behavior from ever purchasing guns.  

 

Lastly, all who purchase should go through rigorous background checks.  We can also preclude rapid-firing weapons with large magazines. Some will say that self-defense requires such firepower for fending off criminals.  I don’t buy it. This is very rarely the case. Also, such weapons make hunting less of a sport and more of a killing spree.  

Radical deconstructionist neo-Marxist thinking along with relativism has destroyed much of American education.  The idea of a body of great literary works is dismissed as simply the writings of white male oppressors. The idea of historical progress from the magna carta to the U. S. constitution is dismissed.  The U. S. constitution was passed (at least in part) by slave holders which makes it invalid. (Of course, some of the great leaders in that effort were anti-slavery abolitionists like John Adams). Those on the cutting edge of the vilification of the historic figures in U. S. history, such as Washington, Jefferson and Madison, are fostering this as part of a lager purpose. It is to sweep away the constitutional republic of the United States and replace it with a socialistic hedonistic society.  To do so they have to destroy respect for the founders. The idea is a utopia where all will have material provision through state distribution, a leveling of wealth, and an embrace of all sexual orientations. Anything else is hate speech. The great jurist Robert Bork, in his great book Slouching Towards Gomorrah, outlined their redefinition of freedom as limiting political freedom while fostering libertine hedonism.  This is the opposite of the vision of the founders in order liberty.

 

Last night I had a succession of dreams.  It was to see a new movement of reformation in education where the values of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are upheld and where respect for the founders would be restored.  Maybe someone is creating such an organization to reform education. As part of this, I saw articles on each founder, Washington, Jefferson, John Adams, Samuel Adams, Franklin, Madison and more. I saw an article with a picture of each.  It would then describe their accomplishments and how they brought advance to civilization. However, it would also be honest about their failures and where they did not overcome the limits of their age. However, it was their age. We are grateful for the progress and respect them in spite of their failures.  Liberty is such a great gain and came mostly from the British traditions of common law and through the influence of the liberties enshrined in the U. S. constitution. Restoring the United States will require such an education reformation. It will be heavy on teaching civics and the importance of free enterprise that is regulated to avoid crony capitalism. 

We are living through the most astonishing period of time where partisan prejudice has destroyed the ability to make moral judgments on the basis of objective norms of behavior. Both sides give their violators soft treatment or a pass.  Until we unite around common moral and ethical norms, progress in many areas will not be possible. Plus, both sides make exaggerated claims that are way beyond reality.

I have written several times that President Trump’s language is divisive and not at all in accord with any person who professes to believe in Jesus (as he professes).  His demeaning of his opponents with name calling is beneath the dignity of his office and is painful to observe. Yet, I have noted 10 policies from this administration that are good policies that are good for the country and good for conservative religious communities.

The President’s coarse language and unthought out tweets bring him unnecessary and unhelpful reactions.  Yet, they are interpreted way beyond what his language means. For example, of the Charlottesville demonstrations where the left and those who wanted to keep confederate statues, Trump said there are good people on both sides.  For this he is accused as a racist since white supremacists and even a murderer (now convicted) was on the one side. There were good people on both sides. The President said he was not referring to the white supremacists but those who did not want to erase their historical regional figures.  No matter, he will not be credited.

Meanwhile, Trump is called a racist for telling the four members of congress, now known as the squad, to go back to where they came from (a generally understood racist trope, though was used in the past for white immigrants from other countries).   He qualified it by saying, “then come back and show us how to do it.” Clean up the mess from where you came from. This kind of language is not acceptable. If he said that their values and positions were anti-American, there would not have been a problem.  Indeed, they push socialism, and with regard to Israel support BDS which is not just against the occupation of the West Bank, but in its founding seeks the elimination of Israel! There is plenty of information on these four, anti-Semitic tropes, BDS, claims that Israel is engaged in genocide, Omar saying that 9/11 was “something happened,” that the immigration facilities are concentration camps (compare that to the holocaust that forever defined that term), and so much more.  Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib’s foul mouth and anti-Israel statements are so over the top. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s policy statements are foolish, not well thought out and terribly destructive. Yet Democrats go soft on these congresswomen. Criticism of them leads to charges of racism. So now they are creating a class of people who are above criticism (women of color). All that Trump needs to do is play their worst statements and say nothing and continue to say over and over again that the Democrats need to condemn these statements.  But he then does wrong in his responses.

Honest and fair moral judgement is now in short supply on both sides of the aisle.  However, I believe the problem is worse on the left and the group think on the left is astonishing.

We are witnessing a perfect storm of moral and social destruction in the West.  Combinations of philosophies that have gained control over the culture forming institutions in society (media, entertainment, and education) now combine post modern relativistic philosophy and neo Marxist analysis to destroy the historic consensus of morals and ethics.  It is well to note the influence of the two schools of philosophy, the Frankfurt Critical School and the French Post Modernism School. Both have terrible consequences for sexual morality in our societies. While the Frankfurt school is a complex phenomenon often over simplified by popular critics, the effect on society can be summarized.  It seeks to deconstruct social institutions, historical norms and even history writing and literature. Generally, all is understood in terms of the oppressor and the oppressed. Who are the oppressed? Any who are not free to live out their lives according to their desires as long as others are free to live out theirs without oppression. It is more than the oppression of the working class by the capitalists.  It includes the oppression of the homosexuals by the straights or minority groups by the majority. It can be the oppression of one ethnic group by another.  

 

Post modernism gives us relativism in spades.  There is no objective basis for moral and ethical norms, but such norms are social and individual preferences.  Harkening back to existentialism, it is taught that there is no essential nature to human beings, but human beings choose to make themselves according to their preferences.  

 

The contradiction of relativists then making absolute statements on justice and morals is so blatant.  But contradiction does not matter. It is a power assertion and propaganda for what the relativists desire and their attempt to re-make the society according to their desires and vision. 

 

When people speak of justice in the political and social debates of our times, though they may not know of the assumptions from which they speak, analysis shows a leveling equality orientation behind the false definitions.  See my new book Social Justice for greater clarity on definitions of justice and the applications.  For example, as Mike Brown points out in his books, the gay movement leaders know that there is no essential genetic basis for homosexual orientations. They only posit such for the sake of straights and for influence into the traditional oriented cultures to change their views.  They have been effective in some religious communities by this means. But they really know that though there may be desires that are deep rooted (and sometimes such desires are not deep rooted) the main issue of morality for them is the right of all to self-define sexually. Any other orientation is oppressive.  So sexual morality is defined as non-compulsion and the societal embrace of whatever consenting adults want (whatever makes you happy!) Anything that does not allow such self-defining is oppressive and any criticism of the self-defined is hate speech. Vilification can thus end debate and move the social ball forward to their advantage.  

 

From this point of view, one can be heterosexual, homosexual, transgender, bi-sexual, poly- amorous, polygamous, transvestite, and can choose lasting commitments or only fleeting engagements.  For some there is sexual fluidity, like New York Mayor Bill DE Blasio’s wife, who says she was a lesbian but has become a heterosexual. Those Christians who are trying to be more tolerant in this culture are giving up the battle on the basic world view assumption level.  The people who profess lifestyles of aberration by traditional standards, do not believe the fundamental assertions of the Bible. This includes that God made us male and female, with foundational physical nature of male and female which is to be completed by living consistently in the soul realm in accord with that physical nature.  That nature permeates every cell with either a male or female genetic code, xy or xx. Then the Bible makes it clear that His norm since the coming of Yeshua the Messiah and King, is monogamous marriage between a man and a woman as the only legitimate sexual expression. We may defend civil rights at a basic level for those who do not embrace Biblical norms, including rights in employment, public services etc.  This is not to compromise religious freedom where artistic businesses are free to not engage in fostering behavior they consider sin, or the freedom of a businessman or corporation to support religious organizations that foster traditional morality without being accused of hate or being discriminated against in seeking government concessions and contracts. (Note Chick Fil A in this regard at the San Antonio Airport and on campuses).  Yet, it is a shame that society has not recognized traditional marriage and the family as a building block of society and has given up uniquely endorsing such.   

 

The LGBTQ battle against traditional morality, are with abortion rights, the defining moral issues of our age.  If we lose this battle and it seems we are losing, the level of destruction in the lives of people is incalculable.  

These words were spoken as a mild rebuke by a pastor friend some years ago. Since that time, I have not spoken of Christians from the nations as non-Jews.

What was his point? He explained. “My identity is a positive one, made up of ethnic roots, biblical roots and American influences. I am not a ‘non’ something but a positive something.” So why do Messianic Jews and Gentiles continue to use the term non-Jew? It is because they have been told by some Gentiles that they are offended by being called Gentiles. They consider the word to mean pagan. Despite this, I would like to issue a plea that we continue to use the word “Gentile.”

Gentile Can be a Positive Word

The Bible itself uses the term Gentile as a positive word in the most important passage dealing with the relationship of Jew and Gentile in the Messiah. Paul says to fellow believers, “I am talking to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles” (Romans 11:13).  He then explains the awesome priestly role of Gentile believers to make Jews jealous. This means that Jews would desire the reality of life in the Messiah that they see among the Gentile Yeshua/believers. This should be coupled with the Acts 15 decision that relieves Gentiles from responsibility of living a Jewish lifestyle according to the whole Torah. In context, the meaning of the word “Gentiles” is simply those from the nations or from the different ethnic groups that populate the world.

Ethnic Identity is Significant to God

This leads to an important question. Is it important and significant to be part of a nation or ethnic identity other than Jewish identity? In the past, the idea of homogenized Christianity dominated the West. Yet even so, historic churches maintain ethnic rite churches with special practices and liturgies. There are many other more recent varieties of ethnic churches. In Acts 17:26 we read, “From one man He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He determined the times set for them and the exact places that they should live.”  In Revelation 21, we read that the “nations will walk by its light (the New Jerusalem) and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.”  In this picture, nations are still in existence in the everlasting age. Every nation, tribe and people are represented as being before the throne in Revelation 7. Indeed, the promise to Abraham is that in his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed, not eliminated and homogenized.  Israel is elect for the sake of the nations.

Thoughts like these have led our friend John Dawson, president of Youth with a Mission, to teach that God is seeking to redeem cultures. Each has special beauties, insights and distinctives. This is part of the richness of the human family. R. Kendall Soulen, in his monumental book, The God of Israel
and Christian Theology, argues that the distinction of Jew and Gentile is paradigmatic. It opens to us the truth that distinction in unity is willed by God. This is reflected in the variety of nations.

Further reflection will prove to any objective thinker that ethnic and national identities form part of the identity of individuals. We need to think less individualistically, as important as the individual is, and recognize that there can be no personality without dimensions of ethnicity, which include language and cultural ways of being. In the Genesis creation account God shows that He loves variety. He creates persons, no two of whom are the same. As part of this, He creates corporate ethnic identities. Every language has its unique angle on reality. Every culture produces its unique art and so much more. Eugene Nida, the dean of Bible translation, says that every language adds enriching perspectives for understanding Biblical truth.

Ethnic Expressions of Biblical Faith are Enriching

Biblical faith, when allowed to develop naturally, is creatively expressed in many cultural varieties. How exciting to appreciate these varieties! The great liturgy of the historic churches is wonderful in depth and beauty. It powerfully puts forth the meaning of the sacrifice of Yeshua and the meaning of our participation in the Messiah’s communion. The great European expressions of faith in choral music including Gregorian chants, the classical pieces of Bach, and later Romantic era compositions are special beyond words. They are not specifically and culturally Jewish, but in biblical content and depth they are unparalleled. Who could deny that there are wonderful expressions of faith in the soul music and rhythm of American Black churches? In Africa, some native compositions are wonderful  and deeply moving. We also enjoy contemporary worship styles that reflect today’s rhythms and instrumentation. In visits to Korea and Japan we took note that they sang western songs in Korean and Japanese. Some universal expression is good. However, their own written material, especially with Japanese and Korean musical qualities, had special anointing. Jewish worship in a New Covenant context is wonderfully enriching too. However, it is not the only worthy expression.

Gentile Calling to Messianic Congregations

Some Gentiles have joined Messianic Jewish groups because they think Messianic Judaism is the ideal form of the Body of Believers. It is good that Gentiles understand the Bible in its original Jewish context. That they would enjoy the Feasts and even Jewish cultural practices is also good. Indeed, this is not a new phenomenon but is well documented even in the first century. God-fearers adopted Jewish cultural practices.

However,the reason for participation in Messianic congregations by Gentiles is not that this is the ideal against which other expressions are lesser. A person who is ignorant of the richness of Christian expressions and practices is likely to unfairly and negatively judge the churches. Some church practices are more rooted in Jewish biblical meanings than many perceive.  This includes church furnishings and the liturgy itself. (There are things to be corrected in the churches, but in Judaism as well.) It is important that we bring balance in understanding to Messianic Congregations. We need to teach on the value of the worthy and creative practices of the churches that are in accord with the Spirit of the Bible. It is important for Gentiles to appreciate their own parentage and ethnic heritage where it is good. This especially includes ancestry connected to Christianity. This will help Gentiles to connect to Messianic Congregations as a matter of special calling to our people instead of being motivated by the arrogance of thinking that Messianic Judaism is the superior form of New Covenant faith which should replace other forms of Christianity. (A new replacement theology in reverse?)  We in Messianic Congregations have an important roots perspective to contribute.

Jew and Gentile in the Messiah should first emphasize their unity as created in the image of God and born again through Yeshua, having a new heart or spirit. We are together his Bride. This is our deep unity of identity in the Messiah. This will prevent the wrong kind of ethnic pride while enabling humble thanksgiving for the grace of God given to every distinct culture. The enriching variety of Jew and Gentile and multiple ethnicities will forever fascinate us in God’s eternal ages. “Gentile” is shorthand for those from the nations. It includes Russian, Chinese, Korean, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Zulu, Mayan, Indian, Assyrian, and so on! My friend was right. He is not a non-Jew, but a distinctive personality who is part of an ethnicity uniquely valued by God.

I am burdened about the destiny of 100,000 to 200,000 Jews in the Churches of North America. Do they continue to maintain any serious Jewish identity and transmission of that identity to their children? Sometimes those in the Messianic Jewish congregations have written off these Jews in churches. However, we need to ask if God has a special purpose for them.

The Context

There are three clear contexts in which Jewish followers of Yeshua live their lives. There is first the context of congregations where the majority of members are Jewish and where Jewish life is fostered in some significant way, either Israeli life, Jewish tradition or other points of cultural identification. In Israel, this is the norm. The community of believers is growing steadily in our homeland. Second, is the context of Messianic congregations where the majority of members are not Jewish, but where a Jewish minority continues to identify with Jewish life. The Gentile majority joins them in this life to varying extents. This is by far the largest number of congregations in the Messianic Movement in the Diaspora and the majority of Messianic Jews seeking to live a Jewish life are in these congregations.  Third, are Jews in churches who may connect to some aspects of Jewish life but not necessarily connect to Jewish life in any significant way. What is the will of God for Jews in this category?

A Hidden Replacement Theology

To answer this question, I think it is well to reflect on the words of Michael Wyschogrod, one of today’s most famous Orthodox Jewish theologians.  He affirms the great change in many church bodies in repudiating replacement theology (that the Church has replaced Israel as God’s people), but then states that this repudiation is only partial, though most church bodies are not aware that this is so. Most churches, but especially Evangelical churches, are delighted when Jews become followers of Yeshua and join their congregations. Yet, these churches do not realize that their cultural patterns lead Jews toward full assimilation into Gentile Christianity (the cultures of the Christianity of the nations) and away from Jewish life.

I have written that much of this culture was creatively developed in accord with the spirit of the Bible. It is wonderful and worthy. However these church cultures, even if pro-Israel, do not really foster Jewish life and intergenerational transmission. Wyschogrod points out with great wisdom, that the full evangelistic efforts of churches in bringing Jews to belief in Jesus would lead to the disappearance of Jews as a distinct people. Even pro-Israel people can hold to a view where Israel ceases to be when the Jews fully convert at the end of this Age. This is replacement theology again, though those who subscribe to it do so unknowingly. The Jews disappear and the Church alone continues as God’s covenant people. So Wyschogrod makes an amazing assertion. The Church will not have fully repented of its replacement theology until it teaches its baptized Jews that they are responsible to live a Jewish life based on Torah. It is not that Wyschogrod desires Jews to believe in Yeshua, far from it. However, he realizes the logic that anything less is still replacement theology, since it does not really value the ongoing continuity of the Jewish people. One is amazed to see that a growing number of Christian Bible Scholars, from Harvard and Yale to Cambridge, believe this is the apostolic biblical position.

What shall we say of Wyschogrod’s argument? Our light for evaluation is based on Romans 11:29, where Paul argues that the gifts and call of God to Israel are irrevocable and Romans 11:5 where he calls Jewish disciples of Yeshua the saved remnant of Israel. Therefore, if we want to see the growth of identifiable Jewish disciples of Yeshua, and do not desire to see Israel diminished, it would seem that Wyschogrod’s argument is airtight. I would note that Jewish life rooted in Torah must be by application in accord with the spirit of the New Covenant. All must be re-applied in Yeshua.

Jews in culturally Gentile Churches

There is nothing theologically wrong with Jews being part of congregations with majority Gentile populations. However, we often view our present experience as if the first century was much like our current situation. In Acts 14 we read that Barnabas and Paul ordained elders in every city where they planted congregations. This was a short time after they preached the gospel in those cities. We ask how could new believers become elders? We forget that the core of the new congregations were Jews and proselytes who were already discipled to a godly life in the synagogues.

The synagogue was the preparation for the New Covenant synagogues he planted.  Therefore, I believe that New Covenant congregations were closer in culture to Messianic Congregations where Jewish life in Yeshua was still culturally natural. Two thousand years of cultural development has now given us a vastly different situation. Even pro-Israel churches provide little or no discipleship in Jewish calling and life.

I believe there will be a massive change in the church world where the Church will desire that their Jewish members not assimilate.  I wrote a little tract on this some years ago encouraging the churches to develop Jewish chavurah (fellowship) groups, as part of the larger church, to foster Jewish life and Jewish involvement in the Jewish community. Jewish life, after all, is a corporate thing. I have met pastors who have said they wanted to do this, but their Jewish members were happy in Christian culture and had no interest in living as a Jew. The pastors did not know how to respond to this disinterest.

We need to respond by noting that Jewish life is not a matter of subjective preference (relativism), but is declared in Romans 11:29 as willed by God for Jewish believers. The scriptures speak clearly: This is God’s gifts and call! It is the example of Jewish believers in the book of Acts.

We understand that Jews come to faith in Gentile church contexts because Gentile believers in Yeshua have demonstrated the reality of life in Yeshua. This is wonderful. However, there is more. Imagine if the churches really taught their Jewish members their covenant responsibility to remain and live as Jews and still be a part of their people. The Messianic movement would then stretch to include such believers and help to train them in Jewish life. Some would come into the Messianic congregational movement, some would be part of Jewish fellowship groups in the churches, and some would even come to a point of openness to hear the call to make and move to Israel. Imagine if just 10% of Jews in churches (or especially their children) in America recovered their Jewish identity and made aliyah to Israel. This would double or triple the body of believers in Israel.

Some of my Messianic Jewish brothers and sisters do not have faith for the future of Jewish followers of Yeshua in the churches. Yet, some have already made their way back to their Jewish calling, even to moving to Israel with effectiveness here.  I believe we must have faith for Jewish believers in
churches and lovingly reach out to them. However, I also believe we will only be successful if there is a massive outreach to pastors so they will understand the issues. This has not been done. This will require a great move of the Holy Spirit. I believe that focused prayer on this can do
wonders.