Jews Expressing Their Love for Jesus—2012

Thursday 5 April 2012

Jews Expressing Their Love for Jesus—2012

A year ago at this time I put up a post entitled Jews Expressing Their Love for Jesus , providing kind of a thumbnail overview of Jewish hostility toward Christianity. The post was prefaced with my own brief remarks about Jesus’ life and teachings, but then it quickly moved into a series of videos. Some of these featured segments from Israeli TV, in which Jesus and his mother were ridiculed and demeaned, while others included malicious, profanity-riddled remarks voiced by Israeli settlers. A few of the videos have since been removed from YouTube, but most are still there.

I’m inclined think it was overall an interesting post, and thought I would do an update this year. In fact, I may start making this an annual tradition. Last year’s post was posted on Good Friday. Good Friday of 2012, of course, falls this week, so perhaps each year, on the anniversary of the procession to Golgotha, we’ll mark the occasion with a plentitudinous dose of Jewish bile. Since there seem to be heaps of irate Jews willing to supply us with the material, we may as well make use of it.

Also one other note: when you get down to the bottom of the page, you’ll see I’ve added a short “bonus section” entitled “Christians Expressing Their Love for Jews.” No matter how much sand Jews kick in their faces, no matter how many insults they hurl their way, it seems there are always gullible Christians begging for more. Perhaps at some point that will start to change, though. At any rate, without further ado, here is our first video—

Church Vandalism in Israel

We have vandalism of a church, as well as a monastery, both of them in West Jerusalem. And don’t you just love this soundtrack! Sounds like the Talmud set to music.

To be as despised and reviled by Israeli Jews as he is today, Jesus must have done something incredibly right.

As far as I can tell, the attacks on the church and monastery were completely ignored by the US media—but the story was covered in Israel. If a report in Haaretz is accurate, it would seem that to some extent the police are poopooing the matter, dismissing it as being motivated by “ordinary hooliganism, rather than ideology.” Okay. Ordinary hooligans then—who also happen to hate Christians.

Adds Haaretz in a somewhat consoling tone:

But to victims, the motive is irrelevant. Jerusalem’s Christian community increasingly feels under assault, and that is especially true for Christians living in Jewish neighborhoods. Priests in the Old City, especially Armenian priests who must often transit the Jewish Quarter, say they are spat on almost daily.

“It’s almost impossible to pass through Jaffa Gate without this happening,” said a senior priest at one Jerusalem church.

The spitting has become so prevalent that some priests have simply stopped going to certain parts of the Old City.

The Baptist church has been attacked twice before: It was torched in 1982 and again in 2007. “We mainly feel sad” about the attacks, said the church’s pastor, Charles Kopp. “It hurts us that anyone could even think we deserve such treatment. They don’t know us, but they apparently oppose anyone who doesn’t identity with them. I wish them well; I have no desire for revenge.”

Also attacked were a Peace Now office, a mosque, and still yet another Christian site—a Christian cemetery, where slogans were spray-painted.

Dr. Gadi Gevaryahu, whose Banish the Darkness organization works to combat racism, said his big fear is that “one day, they’ll attack a mosque or a church with people inside and there will be a terrible conflagration here.”

“Over the last two years, 10 mosques have been torched here, and today it’s clear that it’s not just aimed at Palestinians or Muslims, but at foreigners in general,” he said.

More on the desecration of cemeteries in Israel—both Christian and Muslim—can be found here. The writer, who is Jewish, comments rather interestingly:

Another point worth noting is the desecration of the Christian cemetery: Contrary to the myths, it proves that the hatred of mankind of Orthodox Judaism has little if anything to do with the current conflict with the Palestinians. It is the last in a long, under-reported attacks on Christian establishments in Israel.

Since evangelical Christians are about the only real friends Israel has left in the world, it seems a bit suicidal for Jews to risk offending them in this manner, but who knows? Maybe it signifies a subconscious Jewish death wish. Or at any rate a Zionist death wish. In either case, we can see more traditional, mainstream Christian websites, here for instance, now turning their attention to the attacks in Israel.

But let’s move onto the next topic—the new TV show, “GCB.”

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GCB

On March 4, 2012, ABC debuted a new show entitled “GCB,” based upon the book Good Christian Bitches, by Kim Gatlin. Originally the intention was to give the TV show the same name as the book, but controversy erupted over this (predictably), and so the somewhat less offensive “Good Christian Belles” was chosen, which in turn eventually got shortened to “GCB.” Of course, by this time, what with all the publicity and all, it no longer really mattered what you called the show. The cat was out of the bag. That the program had originally been named “Good Christian Bitches,” and that there was a book out on the market by the same name, was widely known by the public before the first episode even aired. It created a ballyhoo, which of course boosted book sales and most likely the TV audience as well—which probably was the plan from the very start.

Regardless of the shortening of the name from three words down to three letters (a basically superficial change really), the program is still what it is—and what it is is an attempt to ridicule Christians and their faith. Especially demeaning is it to Christian women, but don’t take my word for it. Watch the following video and form your own opinion.

“The goal is to watch these people try to be good,” says GCB executive producer Robert Harling in a somewhat contrived effort to justify defamation of an entire faith. “What we emphasize is that we will never ever look at this in any other way than the most respectful as possible. We will never ever be disrespectful.”

Despite Harling’s assurances, Christians have taken offense. In the video below a Christian spokesperson criticizes the show and its likely impact upon young people, particularly girls. Good points certainly, but unfortunately he doesn’t seem to recognize the show for what it is—an attack by Jewish Hollywood upon the Christian faith—or does he?

He does come close to alluding to the real problem—that the show is an intentionally pejorative portrayal of Christians brought to the airwaves by the dominant powers of Hollywood—but in the end he fails to summon the words necessary to frame the issue in quite those terms. The word “Jewish” crosses his lips at one point, but a meshwork of equivocation prevails over his comments as a whole. Sadly it seems defense of his faith is trumped by his fear of being called an anti-Semite. When are we all going to get over this silly fear? It is like the bogeyman of childhood. We will discover that the scary ADL troglodyte—just like the bogeyman—dematerializes and ceases to exist once we get over our fear of it.

One Christian who has already cast off that troglodyte is Rev. Ted Pike, a conservative Christian and director of the National Prayer Network. To say that Pike is outraged by GCB would perhaps be putting it mildly. His article, “The Jews Behind ‘Good Christian Bitches’” can be found here. Here is an excerpt:

No Jewish organization of any branch of Judaism seems willing to pressure ABC to cancel the show. This underscores an important reality: To be an observant Jew is to reject Jesus Christ, to consider Him a liar and a deceiver in His claim to deity. Who defends such a deceiver? Only those foolish enough to believe Him. Deep in the silence of the Jewish community on GCB exists a lack of anger at a TV program that mocks Jesus and Christians. If this is not true, let Jewish organizations of all branches of Judaism speak out against GCB and prove me wrong.

The writer has a point. Where is the criticism from within the ranks of the “chosen”? So far as I am aware, not a single one of the Jews who have accused Gilad Atzmon of “anti-Semitism” have spoken up to denounce GCB. Were such a derogatory portrayal of Jews being aired on a major TV network, would there not be an outcry? Certainly there would. But what we get instead is silence. Of course in this case—rather than a program about Jews—GCB is a show produced largely by Jews, and apparently that makes the difference.

Pike tells us that most of the show’s creators, those he refers to as its “creative core,” are Jewish. This includes producer Darren Star, perhaps best known for Sex and the City. But ultimately, he says, “the person most responsible for making ‘Good Christian Bitches’ possible” is ABC CEO Robert Iger—who is, yes…Jewish. And not merely a secular Jew, mind you, but, according to Pike, a “practicing Jew.”

Also one might wonder, and this is something Pike doesn’t go into, how many of the women who star on this show—portraying Christian women as lascivious, backstabbing cheats—are actually Jewish as well? As I said recently, Hollywood is a lot more tribal and clannish than most people realize. So…with all of this in mind, let’s journey now to a lively photo shoot with some of these women. Notice the coy regurgitation of the show’s original title at the beginning of the video:

The airing of the GCB television show is quite reminiscent of the publication a few years ago of the Danish cartoons attacking Islam and the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). And in that regard, one has to wonder—why is it so many Jews find it amusing to denigrate other people’s religions? Could viewing themselves as “chosen” have something to do with it? And does being “chosen” convey upon one a sense of entitlement? If so, how deeply engrained is this sense of entitlement and how far are some Jews prepared to carry it?

Recall of course that in response to the Danish cartoons, Iran sponsored a Holocaust cartoon contest, which Jews, naturally, didn’t find so humorous. Garnering the familiar “anti-Semitism” charge, the contest also ignited a howling revival of the “Iran-wants-to-wipe-Israel-off-the-map” refrain, and it took months for all the gnashing of teeth to subside and run its course in the media. Yet perhaps the Iranians had an interesting idea—and if we were to engage in a similar exercise with GCB, the human imagination being what it is, we could conceive of all kinds of possibilities. How about a TV comedy named “Good Holocaust Bitches”? It could be set in the early 1940s and feature Jewish women engaged in passionate coupling with their concentration camp guards. Wouldn’t that be funny? Personally, however, I would not advocate the airing of such a show. For one thing it would be in bad taste, and for another, attacking other people’s religions (the Holocaust being a religion, and denial of such a “sacrilege” as it were) leads to nothing but strife and conflict—you know? I mean, what is that really other than a simple, basic truth? A truth that most humans instinctively realize…and one which Jews also would do well to learn and put into practice—that is if their goal really and truly is peaceful relations with the rest of humanity.

By the way, Pike has organized a campaign to get sponsors to drop GCB, and is apparently scoring some successes (see here, here, and here ). But let’s move onto our next topic…

Jesus Cartoon Animations,
Splashed Urine, and Drunken Settlers

Here we have some additional videos, which I won’t bother embedding, but which you can check out for yourself if you’ve an interest in seeing how low and demented some of this can get:

The ‘Monkey Jesus’ Cartoon

Another Jesus Cartoon

Israeli heavy metal band urges, ‘Kill the Christians!’

Hayanim.org site translated from Hebrew to English

The last video reveals an incredible amount of anti-Christian vitriol on a Hebrew-language website. The video is a bit long, though, and I would suggest that you can basically watch about five minutes of it and pretty much get the gist of it.

And finally, here’s an interesting video from Brother Nathanael Kapner. As I said above, some of the material I included in last year’s post got removed from YouTube. But some of these have since been re-uploaded—apparently by other YouTube account holders. Regardless how or why they have reappeared, you’ll see footage from some of them in the following video, including one I like to think of as an “oldie but a goodie.” This shows a drunken Israeli settler yelling, “You and your fu--king Jesus can kiss my ass!” among other choice remarks. You may well be familiar with it since it has been around a while (apparently people are determined to keep it up on YouTube) and has circulated pretty widely over the Internet. Brother Nathanael also returns us briefly to the subject of denigration of Christianity on American TV shows (GCB isn’t by any means the only one).

Did you notice the segment about the Jew urinating on the picture of Christ? Again, notice it’s the Christian woman who is the butt of the joke.

And finally, Brother Nathanael, in case you’re unaware, is a Jewish convert to Christianity. It seems that some of the most candid and forthright Christians these days are Jewish (if one may venture to phrase it that way). The Gentile Christians in the next section do not, in any way, live up to his high standards.

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Bonus Section!
Christians Expressing Their Love for Jews!

I’d like to credit blogger John Friend for supplying a link to an article in The Forward concerning the Christian Zionist organization HaYovel. I had heard of a group of Christians organizing trips to Israel for purpose of supplying free labor to Jewish-owned interests in the West Bank, but did not really know much about them until I saw this article. Basically the group’s members believe they are seeing “prophecy taking place” right before their eyes, and have chosen to come to Israel in order to play a “sacred role” in the whole process. Plus they view the territory of “Samaria” as especially important (based upon Jeremiah 31:5), but as the article goes on to note also:

…these Christians also focus on a prophecy rarely cited by settlers, who tend to place ideological value on using only avoda ivrit, or “Hebrew labor,” whenever possible. “And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and foreigners shall be your plowmen and your vine-dressers,” Isaiah prophesized to the Israelites.

Basing itself on this verse, HaYovel—which takes its name from the Bible’s twice-a-century agricultural jubilee—has made reverence of settlers into a central religious virtue.

In case you didn’t catch that, let’s go back and read it again—the HaYovel people hold Jewish settlers in “reverence” and believe it is their sacred duty to serve as their “plowmen” and “vine-dressers.” Additionally, one of them is quoted as saying, “Being here, we just want to serve—and to bless the Jewish people in building up the land.”

In his own post on the subject, John Friend refers to the members of HaYovel as “brainwashed,” but I think there may be something here more than brainwashing. For one group of human beings to worship another to this extent—that is to willingly serve as the other group’s slave laborers, albeit for only temporary stints—borders upon sickness. The possibility that there is a psychosis here is genuine, I believe. I certainly support freedom of religion and the right of all people to worship as they see fit, but HaYovel makes you wonder whether Christian Zionism might be something the mental health profession might want to begin to address.

A visit to the HaYovel website, shows that the group devotes itself to “serving Israel’s farmers” (vintners in the main), and that it holds Judea and Samaria (the term “West Bank” is considered derogatory and an attempt to delegitimize) to be “the historical and spiritual heartland of Israel, and the heart of where we work.”

As is typical with Christian Zionists, the site supplies numerous quotes from the Old Testament, with few if any from the New. One page, in fact—here—features a total of 14 biblical quotations, not a single one of which comes from the New Testament! Try as I might, also, I could find no mention of Jesus anywhere on any of the pages in any of the text. In fact, the only reference to Christ I was able to discover on the entire site was in an embedded video, here, where group founder Tommy Waller, reading from a Bible, mentions him briefly using the Hebrew version of his name, “Yeshua.” Perhaps to Waller’s credit, he does not employ the more derogatory “Yeshu” favored by many Israelis.

Are these people even Christians? Well, they do seem to identify as such in a vague and nebulous sort of way. But it is clear, and again this is typical of Christian Zionists, they are very, very steeped in the Old Testament. Even so—why, if they are Christians, is there almost no mention of Jesus anywhere on their site? Could it be these plowmen and vine-dressers are afraid of offending their Jewish masters? I’ve asked the question before, and I’ll ask it again here: why don’t Christian Zionists simply convert to Judaism?

Additional videos:

HaYovel Promo Video — [includes a West Bank vineyard owner encouraging Christians to come and work on his land—presumably stolen—for free]

Becoming plowmen and vine-dressers

Learn the proper way for Goyim to pick Jewish grapes — [“We just adapt to whatever they say. If they say ‘buckets,’ we put’em in buckets; it it’s crates, it’s crates; if it’s cardboard boxes, it’s cardboard boxes.”]

Planting Jewish grapes — [much like the above, only planting instead of harvesting]

HaYovel youth band [“I believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob”—but apparently not Jesus]

All of the videos, I might add, are extremely polished and professionally produced, often with Israeli-style music playing in the background. So how much of an effect is this group having? The HaYovel site declares that “many farmers we serve depend on HaYovel volunteers to keep afloat year after year.” This subject is also broached by The Forward, which informs us that 300 HaYovel volunteers came to the West Bank last year, some working for as long as three months at a stretch. And then there is some interesting information on a video here. “This year they (HaYovel volunteers) are harvesting about 100 acres of vineyards, the equivalent of a staggering 400,000 bottles of wine,” reports the narrator of the video. “Some fields are harvested just in time, as grapes literally ripen on the vine. Waller’s harvesters can’t keep up with local demand.”

The same video features Waller advising soberly, “The Israelis are saying, ‘If you don’t come, we’re in trouble. If you don’t come these vines don’t get harvested.” Part of the problem is not surprising—a difficulty in attracting Jewish labor. But then the other reason given—and again I’m going to quote from the same video—will strike some people as nothing short of jaw-dropping and incredible considering all the myriad of attacks upon Palestinian farmers carried out by rampaging settlers: “Regular sabotage of the fields makes Jewish vintners cautious of Arab workers.” It sounds like the Jewish vintners may be doing a bit of projecting.

So as I say, I think there may be some mental illness here in addition to just brainwashing, although to be sure I’m not a mental health professional. But in any event a couple of questions occur: If the HaYovel people were suddenly to learn that the vast majority of Israelis are descended from Khazars rather than the biblical Jews, would they still make their trips to Israel? And, in the same vein—How much does the “powerful delusion” mentioned by Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:11 factor into this? (Let me just put it this way: I’m not totally discounting it.)

***

We have certainly covered a lot of ground—hatred of Christ, vandalism of Christian churches and cemeteries, TV shows demeaning to Christian women, and worshipful adoration of a “chosen” people that borders on the insane. It all kind of brings to mind the words spoken by Jesus as he was dying on the cross: “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”