Regarding "Finding Judaism, Facing Anti-Semitism" OP-ED by Michael Douglas, Los Angeles Times, March 15, 2015
I have heard the statistic and opinion expressed by Mr. Douglas several times, that there are only 14 to 15 million Jews in the world. I wish to inform him and to remind everyone else that the approximately 2.2 billion Christians in the world are also Jews. Jews of a different order, but Jews nevertheless. That makes us 2.215 billion Jews strong.
Of course we approach Judaism differently, but Christianity is a form of Judaism. In Christians' eyes, one cannot become a Christian without first becoming a Jew, for we must first believe that God is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. The Gospel of Moses is our Gospel, and the Laws of the prophets are our Laws, more stringently enforced (though no more stringently practiced, unfortunately [we are not even to think violation, let alone not to commit]).
I am under no illusion--nor is any Christian or Jew--as to the differences between Judaism and Christianity and of Jews and Christians, and yet, paradoxically, we all are. We are all thinking, "I've got it; my group has got it," when we think of what God requires of us and of how we are meeting those requirements. He requires the same from all of us, and we all simply have different approaches to meeting the same, be we Jew, Christian, or for that matter, Muslim. There is not more than one God, and the one that is does not hate any of us but draws us to him by his love. And my apologies, ladies, for using the masculine reference for that which is so far above gender's distinctions.
There is a God with whom we all have to do, and Christians world-wide believe they are Jews who have just taken another step his direction in becoming Christians. It is nothing but the step that differentiates us: we are Jews all--all 2.215 billion of us, and anti-Semitism is de facto anti-Christianism. Every Christian within ear-shot of the pool where Dylan Douglas was insulted should have been in that man's face from the first suggestion of anti-Semitism defending a Jewish brother, as we should be at every suggestion of unreasoned racial or religious hatred. Not to confront hatred with hatred, but to interrupt vitriol with reason and sense.
We are called to be peacemakers by the subtle man within us, who will enable us as Michael Douglas bore through his conversation with the man at the pool. Unpleasant, but necessary. Let's bare that subtle man's witness and, when we witness anti-Semitism, speak up.
Of course we approach Judaism differently, but Christianity is a form of Judaism. In Christians' eyes, one cannot become a Christian without first becoming a Jew, for we must first believe that God is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. The Gospel of Moses is our Gospel, and the Laws of the prophets are our Laws, more stringently enforced (though no more stringently practiced, unfortunately [we are not even to think violation, let alone not to commit]).
I am under no illusion--nor is any Christian or Jew--as to the differences between Judaism and Christianity and of Jews and Christians, and yet, paradoxically, we all are. We are all thinking, "I've got it; my group has got it," when we think of what God requires of us and of how we are meeting those requirements. He requires the same from all of us, and we all simply have different approaches to meeting the same, be we Jew, Christian, or for that matter, Muslim. There is not more than one God, and the one that is does not hate any of us but draws us to him by his love. And my apologies, ladies, for using the masculine reference for that which is so far above gender's distinctions.
There is a God with whom we all have to do, and Christians world-wide believe they are Jews who have just taken another step his direction in becoming Christians. It is nothing but the step that differentiates us: we are Jews all--all 2.215 billion of us, and anti-Semitism is de facto anti-Christianism. Every Christian within ear-shot of the pool where Dylan Douglas was insulted should have been in that man's face from the first suggestion of anti-Semitism defending a Jewish brother, as we should be at every suggestion of unreasoned racial or religious hatred. Not to confront hatred with hatred, but to interrupt vitriol with reason and sense.
We are called to be peacemakers by the subtle man within us, who will enable us as Michael Douglas bore through his conversation with the man at the pool. Unpleasant, but necessary. Let's bare that subtle man's witness and, when we witness anti-Semitism, speak up.
posted by Daniel C. Branham-Steele at
7:11 PM
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