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Rabbi Shmuley

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June 16, 2011 | 9:34 am

An Evangelical Attempts to Proselytize Anthony Weiner

Posted by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, tweeted a message to Congressman Anthony Weiner saying, “Dear Congressman Weiner: There is no effective ‘treatment’ for sin. Only atonement, found only in Jesus Christ.”

I hear you, Rev. Mohler. But I seem to recall many sexual scandals involving evangelical ministers that would seem to undermine the premise that salvation through Jesus Christ grants immunity to sexual sin.

I have debated Rev. Mohler many times on national TV, most notably on CNN’s Larry King Live. We have spent time together in the green room and I have enjoyed his company as a warm and unassuming man and as a lover and supporter of the State of Israel. But just as soon as the TV camera goes on, Mohler’s persona changes. He is one of our Christian brothers who believes that Christians alone are saved, that Jews, however moral, ethical, and virtuous, are condemned to the eternal bonfire simply because they don’t believe in Christ.

No doubt this is the reason that Rev. Mohler has turned to Weiner, a Jew, and attempted to proselytize him via Twitter, the implication being that Weiner’s Judaism has not prevented him from sin but Christianity will.

I have a slightly different take on the matter.

Redemption comes about not through anything we believe but how we behave. A man can repose faith in the law of Moses, he can proclaim his love for Jesus, he can affirm his devotion to Muhammad. He can read the Bible, memorize the Koran, or become a walking index of the New Testament. And none of that will amount to a hill of beans if he texts pictures of his appendage to a woman that is not his wife. It is not faith that guarantees our morality but rather an ironclad commitment to righteous action, be we atheists or theist.

Redemption is never a function of belief and always a function of deed. What Rev. Mohler should have said to Congressman Weiner was that the Judaism in which he was raised has always extoled the virtue of action over dogma, behavior over belief. A man can profess all the love in the world to his wife. But if he breaks her heart by focusing his erotic attention on other women, then his emotions are fraudulent and useless. Jesus expressed the same idea: “By their fruits you shall know them.” (Matt: 7-16) Notice that, contrary to Rev. Mohler, he did not say “By their faith you shall know them.”

I have counseled many married couples and I have especially sat with countless heart-broken wives who have told me of their husband’s infidelities. In their pain these wives did not much care if their husbands were sincerely religious or utterly secular. They were not focused on whether their husbands believed in G-d or believed in the tooth ferry. Rather, what shook them to their core was that their husbands, whatever their belief, had replaced them with someone else, making them feel unattractive, useless, superfluous, old, and ordinary. They felt abandoned and alone.

Rev. Mohler’s Tweet gives the misleading impression that faith alone can make a man moral and ethical. Yet the history of religion demonstrates clearly that that this is not the case. There are plenty of atheists who are faithful and romantic, plenty of religious people who cheat or are sexually distracted, and vice versa.

Atonement comes not from belief in Jesus Christ but from getting on your knees in front of the wife whose heart you broke, begging her forgiveness, and placing yourself in an environment of change that will help sustain your new moral commitment. Judaism is emphatic that when it comes to sins that pertain to human relationships, not even G-d can forgive. The injured party must be approached directly.

And if Congressman Weiner is interested is turning his life around, while I thank my friend Rev. Mohler most cordially for offering Jesus, I would tell the good Congressman that he is a Jew and that the wisdom of Judaism is readily available through countless Rabbis who do not seek to judge him but to restore him to a path of moral integrity and righteous action.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach is founder of This World: The Values Network and is the author of “Kosher Adultery: Seduce and Sin with Your Spouse.” Follow him on Twitter @RabbiShmuley.

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Psalm 19:14
Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.

Comment by Carl on 6/16/11 at 9:55 am

“tooth FERRY?” Well written article, except for the obvious typo - if you have children, you know of the Tooth Fairy, not the Tooth Ferry.

Comment by Tracy on 6/16/11 at 10:40 am

“Redemption is never a function of belief and always a function of deed.”
How strange that Rabbi Shmuley should seem to disagree with the sacred text,   
  ויוצא אתו החוצה ויאמר הבט־נא השׁמימה וספר הכוכבים אם־תוכל
                  לספר אתם ויאמר לו כה יהיה זרעך׃
                    והאמן ביהוה ויחשׁבה לו צדקה׃
Gen 15:6 -7

Surely if G-d graciously counted Avram’s faith to him for righteousness, there is no greater act of redemption and we should take care with the use of “never”. With great respect for the Rabbi.

Comment by William G Tonge on 6/16/11 at 12:47 pm

Mr. Boteach, Ask Christ to come into your heart, don’t go into eternity without Him.Be blessed my brother.Y’shua lovesyou!

Comment by Robert Haua on 6/16/11 at 3:03 pm

I know many religious Christians, Jews, Mormons, as well as many irreligious people who have sex addiction as I do, and have found and held onto G-d’s healing recovery with great success through the secular 12 steps first worked by AA. Mohler is entitled to his opinion that otherwise intelligent people with everything to lose do things like compulsively sending photos of themselves around twitter, repeatedly using hookers, and masturbating daily in secret, are not insane. I know this insanity well, and am a Jew who does not accept Jesus in any way - yet I have been free and growing healthier for over 14 years. I have a G-d of my very own, and he saves me because I let Him. I believe He created the world and wants me to be an orthodox Jew, not a Christian. And I believe I have an illness, and it is not “sin”, at all. It is just like drug addiction, which is not a sin, though G-d does not advise it - much as he does not advise me to drive a car on Shabbat. It is up to me to use Him, and the pain of my disease is what led me to aloow Hashem into this part of my life. jesus has nothing to do with it and I find the typical evangelical Jesus-pushing very childish. Kind of like an addiction, actually.
Who knows? “Tell-others-what-they-have-to-do Anonymous”!

Comment by dov on 6/16/11 at 5:20 pm

The G-d of Abraham is a G-d of second chances.  I cannot under any circumstance ever agree that there are countless rabbis who can restore someone who is seeking to be atoned for a horrible wrong that they I have done. I think that there are countless rabbis who could point in the right direction if they could only open the Bible and point to Psalm 119. But in the end, only G-d knows a man’s heart and Boteach you teach poison here and preach noting more than Intellectual Idolatry…a blatant breaking of the First Commandment. G-d hates the sin of pride more than all other sin. He will have no other god before Him, not even one of your countless rabbis.

Comment by Bubala on 6/16/11 at 5:32 pm

This is a lame article.  Mohler would have said that of anyone regardless of religion.  I think the Media and Rabbi Shmuley Boteach are using this to get people to read their articles and get more hits on their respective websites. The whole purpose of Christianity is to show that Christ is the Light of the World. The rebuttal is simple and if Rabbi Shmuley Boteach had actually read the book or Romans he would see His view of that “Redemption comes about not through anything we believe but how we behave.” turned on it’s head. The very statement by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach makes is his belief! that drives how he behaves - in this case he spent time writing this article! Belief is more than just a mental acknowledgment - Genuine Belief is the driver of the heart and the driver of our actions.  If you get that you would understand why Jesus is the Light of the World and the whey He is the Messiah of Abraham Isac and Jacob.

Comment by john on 6/17/11 at 9:44 am

John, Boteach is a Jew, first. And that means he is bound by the destiny of the Jews - to be the witnesses of G-d’s Will as He expressed in His Torah long ago. If you are one who still relies on the lame excuses from the book of Acts for why His Torah doesn’t apply in kosher food, and do not circumcise yourself for the other excuses the early Christians came up with for that one, do not observe the Sabbath on Saturday, and do not try to do whatever else he told the Jews to do, then you do not associate yourself with His Will as it was clearly expressed for Jews. Yet you say that a man who is dead now (if he ever even existed at all) is the inheritor of the destiny of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob…what business is it of yours to define to the Jews what they are? And if while your ancestors where still painting themselves blue and dancing around trees worshiping them - while the Jewish people where listening to the actual words of Isaiah Hosea themselves…why are you so sure that the church’s interpretations of their words 500 years later was the “right one”? If 99% of the Jews knew that the man you worship was wrong, and that Paul was even wronger, then what hubris leads you to lecture and look down on jews for rejecting your Jesus completely? Why can’t you respect the fact that tens of thousands of Jews were burned at the stake over the past 2000 years rather than accept your man as “the light” of anything. I am sincerely asking you this. But I sense an arrogance typical of evangelicals like Mohler in your comment. All I am saying is leave us alone and respect our total allegiance to keeping G-d’s Will per His Torah, rather than rejecting the mitzvos. And what of the Muslims? Go argue with them and leave us Jews alone. We do not do His Will perfectly, but we love Him and he loves us - and He commanded us because he wants us to try. Are you perfect?

Some real respect for faithful Jews would be nice. The Jews rejected Christianity from the beginning, and we reject it now. That called loyalty - why does that bother you so? Is it insecurity?

Leave us and our beliefs alone, for a change. That would be the first way to show love - begin with respect, and some space. Not with judgmental accusations of blindness to “the light” of whatever.

Comment by Dov on 6/17/11 at 1:31 pm

Rabbi, don’t know if you have a Twitter acct, I do. Twitter is a vehicle to send
SHORT & Sweet comments. Al was suggesting an alternative to counseling that
he knows is the BEST way to get the help he & his marriage needs, while showing
repect to Weiner and his religion.  Al could have written a long, well thought out article,
as you did, IF it was his intention to do so.  Perhaps you are a little too sensitive?
Maybe he will write one now, in response to your comments.

Comment by Robyn on 6/21/11 at 7:30 am

Lust can be overcome through group support, e.g. SA, SLAA, SAA. These groups are non-religious and members can achieve long-term sobriety from lustful acting out.

What these groups won’t do is assist a human in coming to grips with his or her own pride, realizing that our own pride is why we’re here today on Earth, and ultimately, finding a way of getting back in God’s good graces.

There is only one way this can be achieved - it is free (grace/payment) for all so no one can brag for having “done it”, and you have to say the magic words…. or continue to be right about your own point of view, until death and then find out the Truth.

Comment by Martin on 6/22/11 at 12:02 pm

I think that virtuous action all by itself is not the solution for humanity. I think that faith that motivates action is what Jesus was after. Jesus’s brother James offered commentary on the idea of what real faith looks like. It’s not works (alone) nor faith (alone), but a working faith: I believe that is the essence of Jesus’s “by their fruit you shall know them.”

I think this is a definition that the rabbi can live with, and one that this preacher should be more conscious of - for as the rabbi pointed out, it’s hardly as if people that ascribe to Christian dogmas are blazing a trail of virtuous living. But maybe they aren’t Christian. “By their fruits…”

Comment by Jeremy on 7/11/11 at 10:52 am

Living in the multi-cultural San Franscisco Bay Area, I’ve noticed that all reglions have one thing in common - Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Buddist, Hindu, etc….  That is that only a small minority of any faith
actually take their faith choice seriously and want to ensure that they understand what is taught.  Then the
faithful work at living it out.

Comment by Carl on 7/11/11 at 1:15 pm

Now what has come out about Weiner’s wife, her Mother’s ties to Radical Islamic groups and the laws regarding a Muslim marrying a Jew.  I would highly doubt that Weiner did not convert to Islam.  Something is very strange here.  Either way, Weiner would not be a sterling contribution to any group or people.  If you want him you can have him.  Regardless, I whole hardheartedly agree that Faith alone is not the path to salvation, but additionally conquering or suppressing what is disdainful to God is the only means of redemption.  This is where Christianity got it all wrong.

Comment by Paul on 7/15/11 at 6:54 am

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