Messianic Judaism Quest

This post is a response to Daniel’s comment “Administrator can you speak about the politically conservative Jewish community and their philosophy of collaboration and interaction with Christians?”

The simply fact is that the overwhelming majority of the Jewish community is Democratic in political affiliation and many within the Jewish community find themselves on the far left wing of the party. The number of Jews who are actually Conservative is quite small with likely no more than 10-20% at best.

This might seem quite strange in light of the growing tendency of the left arm of the Democratic Party embracing often virulent positions towards Israel. Jimmy Carter’s likely support of Barack Obama highlights a growing concern regarding a future U.S. relationship with Israel. Nevertheless outside of Rabbis such as Daniel Lapin, or radio talk show hosts like Dennis Prager or Michael Medved, most Jews see an alliance with the religious right as a death null for the Jewish community.

The reason, logical or not, is based upon the view that liberalism and a religiously pluralistic society best affords the Jewish community the most realistic survival. Despite the fact the conservative Christians are for the most part quite supportive of Israel, the evangelistic tendency and the eschatological disposition of many fundamentalist Christian is seen as a more immediate concern for the Jewish community.

The issue inevitably highlights the differences in how Christians as supportive of Israel as they may be, may still hold views regarding theological supercessionism that impede the ability of Jews to comfortably relate to them. Unlike the Catholic Church’s Vatican II, no revised catechism (in movements largely devoid of anything more than short doctrinal statements) or consideration of the Church’s position on the Jewish community exists.

For the most part evangelical Christians simply do not see themselves tied to the tragic history of Jewish-Christian relationships stemming from the end of the Western Roman Empire through the Modern Era. As such evangelicals, while largely rejecting the classical notion of supercessionism, nevertheless retain the view that abrogates the legitimacy of continued Jewish existence and of Judaism in anything more than eschatological concerns.

Hence most evangelical Christians see Jews and Judaism as largely irrelevant after the first century and relate to them only in the sense that they are they constitute the historic people of Israel. Judaism at best is an incomplete religion and at worst a false religion. The interest of so many Christians is dangerously highlighted in a comment recently posted on the FFOZ blog. In effect the person posting a comment stated “I have no interest in Judaism, other than how it relates to Yeshua.”

This is problem- a very serious and dangerous one.

Share This