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September 4, 2008 | 3:52 am

Palin, proselytizing and Jews for Jesus

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Photo
Photo: NYT

Most Christians consider me a Jew for Jesus. But whenever they say this, I feel it necessary to correct them. I am, in fact, an ethnic Jew who believes in Jesus, but Jews for Jesus belong to a certain group of evangelical missionaries who proselytize Jews by presenting Christianity in a Jewish wrapper. And that is not me.

Though Bel Air Presbyterian’s college group used the Jews for Jesus building in Westwood for Bible studies during my first two years at UCLA, the only interaction I’ve had with employees of the organization is when they reached out to me at the Israel festival last year and invited me to a BBQ after they found out a Christian mole had infiltrated The Jewish Journal.

The group has been criticized by Jewish organizations—the Anti-Defamation League said in a 2004 report that they target “Jews for conversion with subterfuge and deception.”

“Christians have been trying to make us disappear as Jews for 2,000 years. Now they’re trying a different method, which is for them to tell us that you can believe in Jesus and still be Jewish,” ADL chief Abe Foxman told Jeffrey Goldberg in a 1997 NYT Magazine article. “It’s baloney, of course.”

So what to make of the sermon last month from the head of Jews for Jesus at Republican VP hopeful Sarah Palin’s church?

the Wasilla Bible Church, gave its pulpit over to a figure viewed with deep hostility by many Jewish organizations: David Brickner, the executive director of Jews for Jesus.

Palin’s pastor, Larry Kroon, introduced Brickner on Aug. 17, according to a transcript of the sermon on the church’s website.

“He’s a leader of Jews for Jesus, a ministry that is out on the leading edge in a pressing, demanding area of witnessing and evangelism,” Kroon said.

Brickner then explained that Jesus and his disciples were themselves Jewish.

“The Jewish community, in particular, has a difficult time understanding this reality,” he said.
Brickner’s mission has drawn wide criticism from the organized Jewish community, and the Anti-Defamation League accused them in a report of “targeting Jews for conversion with subterfuge and deception.”

Brickner also described terrorist attacks on Israelis as God’s “judgment of unbelief” of Jews who haven’t embraced Christianity.

“Judgment is very real and we see it played out on the pages of the newspapers and on the television. It’s very real. When [Brickner’s son] was in Jerusalem he was there to witness some of that judgment, some of that conflict, when a Palestinian from East Jerusalem took a bulldozer and went plowing through a score of cars, killing numbers of people. Judgment — you can’t miss it.”

Palin was in church that day, Kroon said, though he cautioned against attributing Brickner’s views to her.

The executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council, Ira Forman, cited the “cultural distance” between Palin and almost all American Jews.

“She’s totally out of step with the American Jewish community,” he said. “She is against reproductive freedom – even against abortion in the case of rape and incest. She has said that climate change is not man-made. She has said that she would favor teaching creationism in the schools. These are all way, way, way outside the mainstream.”

John McCain’s campaign said yesterday that Palin wasn’t aware Brickner would be speaking at her church that Sunday and that she didn’t share his views. I have no reason to doubt her sincerity. But we have already heard that Palin has a Jewish problem—and the drumbeat seems to be getting louder. How does this complicate McCain’s popularity with hawkish and right-leaning Jews?

After the jump, Palin, who, yes, as was sort of suspected, sounded good last night, speaks at her church about a gas pipeline, the war in Iraq and other stuff.

Part One:

Part Two:

4 Comments — Leave your comment

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As commented elsewhere
“The sermon in the Church was not given by a native Christian but by a ‘Jew for Jesus’, who have severe hang-ups and conflicts on the subject of Jews, and cover their feelings of insecurity and inadequacy by presenting themselves as better than Jews because they are Christian, and better than Christians because they are Jews. Highly annoying to all concerned.”

Jews regard them as somewhere among neurotic, deceptive and perverted. Rabbi Tovia Singer relates how he appeared on a Bible Belt television program to debate a fairly well-known evangelist, and there was J for J on the panel. He named names, I don’t recall them now.

He says both the host and the evangelist were polite, respectful and calm, while the Jew for Jesus representative was leaping out of his seat, interrupting and shouting so that his microphone had to be turned down to allow the program to proceed. These guys have issues very close to the surface.

Brad, Did you forget something important in your topic starter Part One and Part Two?

Comment by Ben Plonie on 9/09/08 at 7:24 am

And I forgot to say that we don’t blame others like Palin’s minister for being confused.

Comment by Ben Plonie on 9/09/08 at 7:25 am

I am a staff worker with the Jews for Jesus organization. Most blogs and news services have quoted the same snippet of the 30-minute message that David Brickner of Jews for Jesus delivered at Sarah Palin’s church, giving the false impression that he believes that terrorist attacks are God’s judgment on Israel for not believing in Jesus. Please read or listen to the entire message for yourself at http://www.jewsforjesus.org/blog/20080817 so that you can hear Brickner’s remarks in context. Please also take a look at Brickner’s comments concerning his message at Wasilla Bible Church, as well as interviews by Christianity Today and MSNBC with Brickner about this issue, at http://www.jewsforjesus.org. Among other things, Brickner says, “The comments attributed to me were taken out of context. In retrospect, I can see how my rhetoric might be misunderstood and I truly regret that. Let me be clear. I don’t believe that any one event, whether a terrorist attack or a natural disaster, is a specific fulfillment of or manifestation of a biblical prediction of judgment. I love my Jewish people and the land of Israel. I stand with and support her against all efforts to harm her or her people in any way.”

Comment by Matt Sieger on 12/09/08 at 8:32 am

Still getting flack three months later? Wow!

You say “giving the false impression that he believes that terrorist attacks are God’s judgment on Israel for not believing in Jesus.”

Being a litle lazy, I didn’t listen to the audio but downloaded the transcript of the sermon http://www.wasillabible.org/sermon_files/2008_Transcripts/The Jerusalem Dilemma.pdf]here. I have isolated the operative phrases on the topic of judgement for the failure to accept jesus and the identification of modern events and terrorism with that judgement. Feel free to read it yourself, end of page 5 and the beginning of page 6 if you’re interested.

But what we see in Israel, the conflict that is spilled out throughout the Middle East, really which is all about Jerusalem, is an ongoing reflection of the fact that there is judgment. There is judgment that is going on in the land, and that’s the other part of this Jerusalem Dilemma. When Jesus was standing in that temple, He spoke that that judgment was coming, that there’s a reality to the judgment of unbelief. He said “I long to gather you, but…” what? “You were unwilling.” God never forces His way on human beings. And so because Jerusalem was unwilling to receive His grace, judgment was coming . . .  And now Jesus in that temple, just before going to the cross, says, ‘From now on this place is desolate.’ And Jesus’ words have echoed down through the centuries. . . Judgment is very real and we see it played out on the pages of the newspapers and on the television. It’s very real.

When Isaac [Brickner’s son - BP] was in Jerusalem he was there to witness some of that judgment, some of that conflict, when a Palestinian from East Jerusalem took a bulldozer and went plowing through a score of cars, killing numbers of people. Judgment—you can’t miss it.

These statements were not taken out of context. Your invitation to listen to the whole thing is a confusing waste of time. By the way, I don’t believe you are personally a hater and all that. As a fundamentalist, you believe what you believe. This is no different than Hagee saying it about the Holocaust many years ago, or that Katrina and the Asian tsunami were Divine retribution for the immorality in those places. I wouldn’t want to state it with authority, but who knows? Just take ownership of your ideology. Just as Christianity has for thousands of years, you believe that the Jews sort of have it coming to them. Be loud and be proud. it would be less confusing if you called yourself ‘Former Jews for Jesus’, or perhaps ‘People of Jewish Origin for Jesus’. POJO. I dig it. Has that Big Tent appeal.

Comment by Ben Plonie on 12/09/08 at 10:05 am

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