By Terry Vanderheyden
NEW YORK, January 30, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Jewish author has written a commentary that probes the motivation behind certain leaders of liberal Judaism’s contempt for evangelical Christianity.
David Klinghoffer, whose article, Six Questions for Jews—From Christians, appears in this month’s edition of First Things and states, “These are troubled times for Jewish-Christian relations. In November, two of the most influential American Jewish leaders, representing large swaths of the Jewish community, gave major speeches vilifying politically conservative Christians,” he explains.
Klinghoffer states that, as an Orthodox Jew, he finds it difficult to understand the animosity of liberal Jews toward such ideas as the traditional definition of marriage and other beliefs that have long been held by Jews.
Klinghoffer describes how Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the liberal Union for Reform Judaism, the country’s largest Jewish denomination, attacked Christian opposition to same-sex “marriage.” Yoffie compared Christians to Nazis, stating that Hitler outlawed homosexuality in 1933. “We cannot forget that when Hitler came to power in 1933, one of the first things that he did was ban gay organizations,” Yoffie stated.
Klinghoffer presents six questions for Yoffie and other liberals like him:
TM“Is it not true that Jewish leaders have better things to worry about than the spiritual fate of SpongeBob SquarePants? Let’s say, about radical Islam? Or secularism? At a time when radical Muslims threaten Jews and others around the world, why vilify American Christians?
TMÂIf conservative Christians were less politically powerful, would this help or hurt the security of the state of Israel?
TMÂPractically, what positive ends could anti-Christian attacks possibly accomplish?
TMÂIf evangelicals seek to “Christianize America,” a phrase implying legal coercion, when is the last time anyone tried to Christianize you?
TMÂHow do you explain the fact that “bigoted” Christian political positions mirror the traditional views of your own religion, Judaism?
TMÂHave you considered the economics behind these anti-Christian attacks?”
Klinghoffer explains that Judaism traditionally agrees with Christianity on most important moral issues like euthanasia, abortion, and same-sex “marriage.”“If it’s ‘Nazi’-like to oppose gay marriage, as Rabbi Yoffie argues, then Jewish tradition must also be Hitlerian,” Klinghoffer argues. “The Hebrew Bible forbids homosexual intercourse, and Jewish rabbinic thought warns against tampering with the institution of marriage. Indeed, a classical rabbinic midrash explains that one of the reasons God was so disgusted with the original inhabitants of the land of Canaan, and caused the land to disgorge them in favor of the children of Israel, was that the Canaanites wrote marriage contracts for members of the same sex,” he explains. “Why are these views evidence of ‘zealotry’ when held by Christians but not so when held by every generation of Jews universally down to about a hundred years ago?”
Read Klinghoffer’s thought-provoking article on line at:
https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1563455/posts
See the current edition of First Things (this article not yet available on line here):
https://www.firstthings.com/menus/ft0602.html