Jews on First

But is it good for Israel?...The now seemingly age-old refrain of American Jews whose support for Israel sometimes affects their reason. Now despite some anti-Semitic accusations, I don't know a single American Jew whose support for Israel EVER interferes with their loyalty and patriotism as American citizens. But sometimes American Jews are willing to make what seem to me to be idiotic alliances in the name of Israel.

Right wing Christian extremists, like Christians United for Israel (CUFI), have become supposedly ardent supporters of Israel and many American Jews have been willing to form alliances with these right wing Christian fundamentalists because of this supposed support for Israel. This despite the overall repulsive positions taken by groups like CUFI, which advocate the mixing of church and state and often advocate intolerance and use hate speech. The founder of CUFI is one of those right wing nuts who condemns Harry Potter books as advocating witchcraft, calls Russia and Islamic nations the Antichrist, and, of course, is anti-choice and anti-gay. He also is a scam artist who is one of the highest paid televangelist out there. His view on Free Speech is: "What is the point of having free speech if you have nothing to say?" His view on Hurricane Katrina: "All hurricanes are acts of God because God controls the heavens. I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God and they were recipients of the judgment of God for that." And, for those Jews who love him, let's consider what he thinks of Jews: "If you live your life and don't confess your sins to God Almighty through the authority of Christ and His blood, I'm going to say this very plainly, you're going straight to hell with a nonstop ticket." (Quotes from Wikipedia).

These items come from Jews On First, whose motto is:

Jews responding to the Christian right -
because if Jews don't speak out, they'll think we don't mind

I first became aware of Jews on First when they broke the Delaware Pogrom story, an incident where Christian fundamentalists drove a Jewish and a Muslim family out of a Delaware town because they objected to overtly Christian prayer in a local public school.

The death of Jerry Falwell will not be mourned among those who believe strongly in the Constitution because his message of intolerance and hatred and his advocacy of unConstitutional mixing of church and state was about as unAmerican and immoral as you can get. This is the man who blamed 9/11 on American tolerance while the rest of use wree blaming it on religious extremism. It is unclear to me how Jerry Falwell differs all that much from the religious leaders in Iran.

Jerry Falwell's message of hatred, intolerance and unAmerican theocracy will continue to hurt America long after his death. Here are two items from Jews on First that illustrate how far right wing extremists have taken us from the liberal vision our Founding Fathers had for our nation.

Capitol Ministries: Making disciples for Jesus Christ in state legislatures: