Why Christians Must Oppose Anti-Semitism

Each and every Christian should be clear on this point: Antisemitism in any and all forms is a despicable evil. Last month, Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye, made antisemitic remarks on social media about going “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE,” and while he’s apologized for those specific words, he’s not letting up on other antisemitic comments. And earlier this month, the FBI located the source of a threat to a New Jersey synagogue. These events are occurring against the backdrop of antisemitic behavior rising by a record-high 34% in 2021 from 2020 according to the Anti-Defamation League. Jews are only 2% of the American population, but the FBI has stated they account for more than half of the targeted hate crimes. 

Most incidents include things like bullying–both in person, verbally and physically, and on social media—and vandalism, especially the defacing of Jewish institutions with swastikas. This has happened in many communities, including at a Jewish community center near a colleague’s home a few years ago. 

Still, even nonviolent incidents cannot be dismissed as merely words or pranks. The Jewish heritage, as one person put it, comes with a “paranoia confirmed by history.” The ADL is correct to warn that the antisemitic poison currently rampant on social media sites, finds its way into mainstream discourse and, in extreme cases, inspires violence. 

As Christians called by God to this cultural moment, it’s not enough to merely avoid being antisemitic. We ought to oppose this vile ideology wherever and whenever we come across it. 

Years ago, at an interfaith dialogue featuring a Hindu, a Muslim, a Jew, a Buddhist, and me, a skeptic asked the three monotheists: “If your God is a God of love, why do you proselytize others?” 

Setting aside the loaded postmodern assumptions in the question itself, I remember being surprised by the answer given by the representative of Judaism. “We don’t proselytize,” he said. “We believe God made a special arrangement with us through our father Abraham. If He made a deal with any of you, we don’t know.” 

Christians, of course, agree that God made a special arrangement with Abraham. However, Christians also understand that in that agreement, God launched his plan of redemption and that through Israel, “all the nations of the earth [will] be blessed” (Genesis 22:18). This, of course, God did through Jesus, who was, as the Scriptures make abundantly clear, thoroughly Jewish. 

In a short piece on antisemitism, Francis Schaeffer wrote, “we should keep constantly in our minds that our Lord Himself was a Jew—born a Jew, lived a Jew, died a Jew.” As Russell Moore once wrote, Jesus also remains a Jew. As fully God and fully man, He was not resurrected from His Jewishness. So, as Moore bluntly put it, “to hate Jews is to hate Jesus.” 

In light of that reality, and acknowledging fully the Church’s checkered past when it comes to the Jewish people, we must not allow the tiniest whiff of antisemitism into our heads, our homes, or our hearts. We hear too much of it today, sometimes in the name of preserving Christian America. There’s nothing, and I mean nothing, Christian about antisemitism in any form. As the little poem quoted by Francis Schaeffer back in 1943 reads, 

How odd / of God /to choose / The Jews
But not so odd / as those who choose
A Jewish God / But spurn the Jews. 

For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to colsoncenter.org.  

Note: This Breakpoint was revised from 10.30.18. 

( https://www.breakpoint.org/were-called-to-oppose-antisemitism/ ) 

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Pence calls on Trump to apologize for dinner with Holocaust denier

https://www.wowt.com/2022/11/28/pence-calls-trump-apologize-dinner-with-holocaust-denier/?fbclid=IwAR3Iq0zQBdRdFDhljRqxcKubpakYI4vGL7iitaK2V3ES3UinSn1SGe9f140

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The new University of Nebraska football coach Matt Rhule on his faith

Even though I was hoping Mickey Joseph would get the job. I like what this guy believes. Of course that doesn’t mean he will win on the field. He will be smart if he keeps Ron Brown and Joseph on his staff. The fans and the players like them. 

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?fbclid=IwAR3G14FolfIQ_ZgPP15tDfQazr6jwUDeCjxUDJLYShN1m7gNfqV7uLnrBys&v=XkN4aFh3oWo&feature=youtu.be

 

 

 

 

 

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Trump condemned for dining with white supremacist Nick Fuentes

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/nov/26/trump-nick-fuentes-dinner-reaction?fbclid=IwAR0eBMv5HYo7GkuynoHMD1MAkb7l2U2maG_QuExlDGKzCYLCYL5-KZQ0SaI

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Billy’s commentary giving thanks 11-25-22

https://twistedwave.com/audio_files/660032/0839476736cb221294d10099ded8f87f

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know it is the day after Thanksgiving here in America but any day is a good day to give thanks amen.

    Giving thanks is not popular in our me first culture. You know if it feels good do it. 

Every Thanksgiving Day I write a thank you letter to God. Here the letter I wrote yesterday.

Dear Jesus :

     Here is what I am Thankful this year 2022

My family.

My friends.

My church family.

Writing my second book.

The kid I mentor putting his faith in the Lord.

Gift of Writing I have been given .

People that I have been able to impact.

No signs of my Crohn’s illness when they did my colonoscopy.

My surgery going great and the Catheter was not my favorite thing but did not give me trouble like it did when I was 10 years old.

Most of all I am thankful for the Holy Spirit bringing me to faith in Christ many years ago.

That is the letter. I would add I am thankful   for those of you who read or listen to these  commentaries. 

  I hope you and your love ones had a great Thanksgiving.

   Check out my website BillyDavidDickson.com

From Omaha, Nebraska 

Until next time

I’m Billy David Dickson

 

November 25, 2022

 

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Iowa boy is Kid Captain when Hawkeyes take on Nebraska

https://tinyurl.com/2kr9zasp

WKRP Thanksgiving 1978

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4SXI-eLMq1E&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR0eeHLjTZTOn9SnWlU2rovngLwxtJYoBXPInIttnju_qadblfPK7Q580Yk

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What Really Happened at Plymouth

Revisionist attempts to reinterpret the first Thanksgiving have muddled the history of Plymouth Colony and the Pilgrims. From some on the right, calling the historical events a “triumph of capitalism” gets the chronology of events wrong. Voices on the left often accuse Thanksgiving of being a celebration of genocide against the Native Americans, citing the Mystic Massacre in the Pequot War, ignoring the context of that event, not least of which that it occurred 16 years after the celebration in Plymouth. Neither of these narratives accurately represents what actually occurred in Plymouth in the fall of 1621. 

The Pilgrims were English Separatists who believed congregations should be independent, voluntary democratic institutions rather than part of the Church of England. In 1607 and 1608, they left England for the more tolerant Dutch Republic. 

Life in the Netherlands, however, proved difficult. Some ran out of money and returned to England. Without further immigration from England, the congregation was in danger of collapsing. The Pilgrims were also unhappy with the libertinism of Dutch culture and worried that their children would grow up more Dutch than English. 

After much discussion, they decided to try to establish a colony where they could worship and raise their families as they saw fit, and where they could spread the Gospel. In 1619, they received a patent to establish a colony in New England, north of the Virginia colony. In September of 1620, the Pilgrims, with other colonists, set sail on the Mayflower with 102 passengers, only 28 of whom were members of the congregation.  

The Pilgrims debated whether it was safe to bring their wives. Most decided to do so, which accounts for the 13 adult women on board, three in their third trimester. There were also some younger women and children who joined the voyage. A baby that was born at sea was named Oceanus. 

The Mayflower arrived in America in November, after a difficult journey. A landing party sent to explore the land found artificial mounds, which they excavated and discovered to be burial sites. In some, they found corn, which they took for planting before re-burying the remains. They also found corn and beans in empty Native American homes, some of which they also took and paid for six months later when they met the owners. 

Earlier English expeditions to the region had captured Native Americans and sold them as slaves or slaughtered them on their ships. Perhaps for this reason or because of the desecration of the graves, a Pilgrim landing party was attacked in December, though the colonists drove off the attackers. 

Later that month, they found harbor at a place that was labeled “Plymouth” on their charts. They decided to winter there. The men went ashore to build houses, the first of which was used as a hospital. By the time spring came, only 47 of the colonists were still alive, and only 5 of the married women. Another would die in May of a broken heart after her husband died. 

The Plymouth colony only survived because of help from the Native Americans. The first contact came from Samoset, a minor chief from Maine who had learned English from fishermen who had set up a camp near his tribe. He then introduced them to Tisquantum, better known as Squanto. Squanto had been enslaved by English raiders but eventually was freed, became a Christian, and returned to his homeland. Unfortunately, his tribe, the Patuxets, were wiped out by an epidemic. The Plymouth colony was on their lands. 

Squanto acted as both a translator and a mediator between the Pilgrims and Massasoit, the chief of the Wampanoag tribe. Massasoit established friendly relations with the Pilgrims and, with Squanto, taught them how to farm the “Three Sisters”—corn, beans, and squash. With their help, the remaining Pilgrims survived and had a successful harvest that fall. 

The Pilgrims decided to hold a harvest festival, probably around Michaelmas (September 29) 1621, which was a traditional date for such celebrations in England. Massasoit and members of his tribe joined them. In all, there were about 50 English and 90 Wampanoags. The four surviving wives, together with children and servants, prepared and served food over the three-day celebration. 

Although much European contact with Native Americans featured disease, genocide, prejudice, and abuse, that was not the case with the Pilgrims. Rather than falsely maligning that first Thanksgiving, we should look at it as a model of how things should have been and by God’s grace one day will be. 

This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Glenn Sunshine. Listen to his interview with the Strong Women podcasters about the women of Plymouth, or hear how Thanksgiving was declared a holiday.

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Talking Turkey at Thanksgiving Dinner

Tough conversations on controversial topics don’t have to be a disaster, even if had over holiday visits and meals. The key to civil and productive conversations is to ask good questions. The right question can turn monologues into dialogues, surface-level discussions into deeper ones, and might even open a closed mind or two. 

Here are six questions I’ve found helpful for creating good conversations: 

First, What do you mean by that? The definition of words shapes debate. Don’t assume you are always using the same dictionary. 

And: How do you know that is true? Assertions aren’t arguments, and this question takes you beyond comparing opinions. 

Third, Where did you get this information?  

Fourth: How did you come to this conclusion? Everyone has a story. 

And the last two: What if you’re wrong? and What if you’re right? Ideas have consequences. These questions take ideas to their logical conclusion. Oh, and the best question: What are you thankful for? 

From all of us at the Colson Center, Happy Thanksgiving. 

This Point is re-published from 11.28.19. 

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Why C.S. Lewis Remains Compelling

This week marks the anniversary of both the birth (Nov. 29) and the death (Nov. 22) of C.S. Lewis, one of the most remarkable Christians of the last century. Even today, nearly 60 years after his passing, Christians of all denominations, depth, and discernment continue to learn from Lewis about the nature and substance of faith. The value of the wit and wisdom of this unexpected champion of the faith only becomes more obvious as the central message of Christianity, that “Jesus is Lord!”, sounds more and more strange to late-modern ears. 

Lewis was uniquely effective at slipping behind even the most compelling defenses of materialism. His writing, which could range from popular to academic, demonstrated his warmth and genuineness, his incisive mind, and his passionate loyalty to truths considered radical today.  

As portrayed in the brilliantly done film, The Most Reluctant Convert,Lewis spent his youth meandering through worldviews and fashionable ideas, a process that could fit snugly within our early 21st-century perception of truth as a journey. Yet, he refused to follow that script. After a road filled with twists and turns—a little atheism and agnosticism over here, a period of pantheism and spiritualism over there—Lewis stumbled back to, first, theism, and then, to his great horror, classical Christianity. 

In a sense, Lewis embraced the faith of his fathers in spite of himself. As he wrote in God in the Dock, “I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.” 

Lewis also had a knack for making people feel smart, for taking some of the most complicated concepts imaginable and explaining them in such a way that the reader responds with, “Oh, I already knew that.” Lewis’ brilliance as a writer and his skill as an apologist enabled him to hone the craft of describing deep truths in simple forms. He seemed to instinctively understand that though the eternal truths of God remain as true as ever, we must offer them to our neighbors using today’s terms. And yet, at the same time, we must not alter those truths in order to make them more palatable or believable. Faith, after all, must lift our hearts, minds, and imaginations beyond this world. 

His skill in doing that gives his works an almost insidious quality. Just as tens of millions of people in the past decades have unknowingly absorbed huge amounts of a Christian worldview through The Lord of the Ringsfilms, skeptics who pick up Lewis’ books are in immortal danger of Christian infection. His light style and engaging manner keep readers off their guard just long enough for truth to get under their skin. While they think they are reading the words of an unusual Christian who “gets it,” little by little many find that his Christianity is getting them. 

One reason Lewis continues to reach so many for Christ is that he refused to treat his religion as religious, as something set apart from “real life.” His fantasy is so luminous because it speaks to the longings we have for truth, goodness, and beauty, and for going, as he put it, “further up and further in” than the paltry myths of our modern age. His prose was keen and his logic clear. But more than clever words and vivid characterizations, the tricks of his trade were part of something bigger, means to the end of pointing his readers to the truth about God, themselves, and the world.  

Thankfully, two groups with similar vision and creativity are making it even easier to share Christ through sharing Lewis with the unbelievers in your life. The CS Lewis Doodle YouTube page adds compelling visuals to Lewis’ words and makes them shareable on social media and email. And, of course, Max McLean’s incredible storytelling through the Fellowship for Performing Arts brings Lewis’ ideas to stages, screens, and college campuses all over the country. Their latest performance, Further Up & Further In, picks up where the Most Reluctant Convert leaves off, after his conversion, following his incredible spiritual journey. Learn more at fpatheatre.com.  

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