George W. Bush to Raise Money for Group That Converts Jews to Bring About Second Coming of Christ
Source: Mother Jones
By Sarah Posner
Thu Nov. 7, 2013 11:51 AM PST
Next week, former President George W. Bush is scheduled to keynote a fundraiser in Irving, Texas, for the Messianic Jewish Bible Institute, a group that trains people in the United States, Israel, and around the world to convince Jews to accept Jesus as the Messiah. The organization's goal: to "restore" Israel and the Jews and bring about about the second coming of Christ.
Messianic Jews have long been controversial for Jews of all major denominations, who object to their proselytizing efforts and their message that salvation by Jesus is consistent with Jewish theology. Last year, Abraham Foxman, president of the Anti-Defamation League, told Politico that former Sen. Rick Santorum's appearance at an event hosted by another Messianic Jewish organization, the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America, was "insensitive and offensive." And Commentary magazine, which bills itself as a "conservative American journal of politics, Judaism, social and cultural issues," noted, "it must be understood that the visceral distaste that the overwhelming majority of Jews have for the Messianics is not to be taken lightly." Many Messianic Jews are Christians who have adopted aspects of Jewish ritual observance; others are Jews who share the Christian belief that Jesus is the Messiah.
Asked about Bush's upcoming appearance at the Messianic Jewish Bible Institute (MJBI) event, Rabbi David Saperstein, the director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, said, "It's disappointing that he would give his stamp of approval to a group whose program is an express effort to convert Jews and not to accept the validity of the Jewish covenant." Foxman was traveling overseas and unavailable to comment.
Read more: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/11/george-w-bush-jews-for-jesus-messianic-jewish-bible-institute
I do believe the American phrase is, 'You can't make this shit up.'
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)idwiyo
(5,113 posts)fredamae
(4,458 posts)cleaning of coffee off my desk, 'puter
Arugula Latte
(50,566 posts)sakabatou
(42,186 posts)Rain Mcloud
(812 posts)Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)Burning bush, theologian Maggi Dawn's notion that Moses was on a psychedelic when the bush spoke to him--but I'll just leave the pieces for someone else to glue together.
NastyRiffraff
(12,448 posts)This was the man who by his own account said that people who didn't accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior would go to hell. (he later backed off when his hellcat of a mother gave him what-for.)
Prophet 451
(9,796 posts)I really don't know what teh fuck to say to this one. DimSon never does get any brighter, does he?
wordpix
(18,652 posts)GW*
Gore1FL
(21,160 posts)Iliyah
(25,111 posts)to come-forth. When this person comes majority of the so called "Believers" won't even know.
Manifestor_of_Light
(21,046 posts)www.jewsforjudaism.org
Ava Gadro
(36 posts)Me anyway.
Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)like the one where some dude in Utah was told by an angel where to dig up golden plates containing a sacred text from God, then translated them over a period of several years and returned them to the angel.
But seriously, isn't this kind of like a Roman Catholic protesting against a prominent person advocating for a protestant faith on the grounds that the protestants do not accept transubstantiation or the authority of the Pope? Put simply, why should any of the rest of us care?
And the fact that Glenn Beck converted AS AN ADULT to Mormonism . . . . sheesh.
Which reminds me of one of my favorite quotes: A woman is lying on her deathbed, thinking about cosmic matters and souls and theology, and mutters aloud: "All those religions . . . they can't all be right . . . but they can all be wrong."
wordpix
(18,652 posts)He could be running a foundation to help Iraq and Afghanistan vets and their families with all his money and with what he did to wreck their lives. Instead he's speaking at a $100K/person event about messianic Jews.
The guy is proving once again he's a total zero.
Nanjing to Seoul
(2,088 posts)and now he comes out for this shit. Go back to your coke bag, scumbag.
Oops, I shouldn't say that. People will sarcastically call me "classy."
madrchsod
(58,162 posts)Zeke L Brimstone
(89 posts)(The previous election having been stolen.)
Ilsa
(61,709 posts)He didn't even attend SMU.
madrchsod
(58,162 posts)Ilsa
(61,709 posts)read about his beliefs, he isn't Methodist either, but more of a fundamentalist. I realize it's Laura's university, but she wasn't the pretzeldent.
gopiscrap
(23,766 posts)SoapBox
(18,791 posts)I don't think there should be no convert'n of any one.
Alamuti Lotus
(3,093 posts)At the very least, it is nice to see that he is still working towards this result now that he is out of office.
bananas
(27,509 posts)Behind the Aegis
(54,031 posts)Until then, they have their targets and assignments. They do have to leave a certain amount of the fantasy goes 'poof.'
freshwest
(53,661 posts)For everything in the world they don't like, a Jew is always to blame. It's dishonest, malicious, lazy and irresponsible.
It's seeing an conspiracy because someone isn't the same as you. I call them and the 'anti-gay, anti-woman' busy bodies with too much time on their hands, who refuse to devote effort to change the world for the better.
It's the same miserable, decidedly unoriginal line of thought I call magical thinking. If only any or all of these things happened -
Jews, Muslims, atheists, et all would convert; women would stay at home and make babies; abortion was outlawed; gay men would find the right woman; lesbians the right man; or everyone agreed with them -
God would look down and spare the USA for wars, bigotry, usury, oppressing the poor and the alien, and numerous other things - the USA and the world would be saved... If only, if only...
But 'saving the world' is not about if only. It's not about belief systems. It's not about coercing other people to be like you, or make them live up to the standards or beliefs you want them to;
It's about taking action. Not one of those things have ever changed a thing as only action does. But they are simply mentally masturbating about how the world works, and they refuse to give up their fantasy and admit they might not quite be on the road to save the world.
They are destroying the world daily and much of what makes life worth living, which they do not know how to create.
Behind the Aegis
(54,031 posts)Even in countries were we barely or even don't exist, we are still to blame. I see it all over the place, usually it is quite subtle, but some are very brazen about it. We make up about .2% of the entire world population, but somehow we are the reason for all wars (Iraq, Syria, Vietnam, etc.), we control the world media and banking system, and it goes on and on. For 2000, we have been a wonderful scapegoat and continue to be. But, they still need us for their evil plots and for their magical assent to heaven.
dbackjon
(6,578 posts)Behind the Aegis
(54,031 posts)When you trip over nothing, for no reason, THAT'S me.
fujiyama
(15,185 posts)It was the Pine Bush school district I believe, where Jewish students were facing relentless anti Semitic bullying. It's shocking how bad it is - in the 21st century! It's clear that these attitudes are taught at home. The kids are picking it up from the parents. Finally some parents are suing the school district after it's been sitting on its hands and not doing anything about it. The New York Times had a story on it yesterday.
Behind the Aegis
(54,031 posts)I couldn't believe the extent of the harassment.
Here's my post: http://www.democraticunderground.com/101678174
Dlwickham's post: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4002436
It makes one wonder if we have hit a time warp or something. But, hey, early this morning, I and another DU'er took on a Holocaust revisionist right here on DU! His ass was shown the door, but it was shocking the lengths he went to blame the Jews for Kristallnacht!
Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)Violence, threats of violence, or discrimination against any religion are disgusting. But if a group's purpose is to peacefully persuade people of religion X that they should actually join religion Y, I think that is their right, distasteful as it may seem to people who already follow religion X.
Behind the Aegis
(54,031 posts)Therein lies the problem, which is why I didn't say anti-Semitism, but rather, getting rid of the Jews.
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)Half-Century Man
(5,279 posts)Some dillrods in Texas believe that the people who withstood the full brunt of the Inquisition, 1400 years of ghetto life, auto-de-fe(s), random mass slaughter by our neighbors, prima nocturna, forced exoduses, state sponsored public humiliations and constant pressure to wipe out our religion and culture by Christians ; is going to lose their conviction because a (probably) war criminal ex-president yaks in Irvine?
Wow, some people are a special kind of stupid.
R Merm
(409 posts)They are allover, they even have centers in NYC in Brooklyn they are going after Russian Jews seeing them as easy targets.
hatrack
(59,594 posts)So weird have the attempts to hasten the End Time become that a group of ultra-Christian Texas ranchers recently helped fundamentalist Israeli Jews breed a pure red heifer, a genetically rare beast that must be sacrificed to fulfill an apocalyptic prophecy found in the biblical Book of Numbers. (The beast will be ready for sacrifice by 2005, according to The National Review.)
It can be difficult for environmentalists, many of whom cut their teeth on peer-reviewed science, to fathom how anyone could believe that a rust-colored calf could bring about the end of the world, or how anyone could make a coherent End-Time story (let alone national policy) out of the poetic symbolism of the Book of Revelation. But there are millions of such people in America today including 231 U.S. legislators who either believe dispensationalist or reconstructionist doctrine or, for political expediency, are happy to align themselves with those who do.
Thats troubling, because the beliefs in question are antithetical to environmentalism. For starters, any environmental science that contradicts the End-Timers interpretation of Holy Writ is automatically suspect. This explains the disregard for environmental science so prevalent among Christian fundamentalist lawmakers: the denial of global warming, of the damaged ozone layer, and of the poisoning caused by industrial arsenic and mercury.
More important, End-Time beliefs make such problems inconsequential. Faith in Christs impending return causes End-Timers to be interested only in short-term political-theological outcomes, not long-term solutions. Unfortunately, nearly every environmental issue, from the conservation of endangered species to the curbing of climate change, requires belief in and commitment to an enduring earth. And yet, no amount of scientific evidence will likely shake fundamentalists of their End-Time faith or bring them over to the cause of saving the environment.
Its like half this country wants to guide our ship of state by compass a compass, something that works by science and rationality, and empirical wisdom, quipped comedian Bill Maher on Larry King Live. And half this country wants to kill a chicken and read the entrails like they used to do in the old Roman Empire.
Those who doubt the dangers of such faith-based guidance need only recall the 9/11 hijackers, who devoutly believed that 72 black-eyed virgins awaited them as their reward in paradise.
http://grist.org/article/scherer-christian/
To Jews who adhere to ancient tradition, whose number include religious Israeli nationalists, the long-awaited Messiah will return to become the king of Israel and high priest of a rebuilt Temple, which can only be on Temple Mount. For Christian fundamentalists, Jesus Christ's return at the height of the battle of Armageddon, in which forces of the Antichrist clash in Israel with a 200 million-man army from the East, will require a Third Temple from which the Lord will begin a millennial reign. And for Muslims, an Antichrist figure called the Dajal will be a Jew who will lead an all-encompassing war against Islam, which will culminate in the return of Jesus (as a Muslim prophet), the Kaaba, or Sacred Rock in Mecca, transporting itself to Jerusalem, and final judgment in the valley just below the Noble Sanctuary.
"What happens at that one spot, more than anywhere else, quickens expectations of the End in three religions. And at that spot, the danger of provoking catastrophe is greatest," writes Israeli journalist Gershom Gorenberg in The End of Days, his 2000 book about the apocalyptic struggle over the Temple Mount.
So how does the calf recently born in Israel figure into things? As Gorenberg explains, the ashes of a flawless red heifer an extremely rare creature were required by the ancient Hebrews to purify worshipers who went into the Temple to pray. In modern times, rabbinical law forbids Jews from setting foot on the Temple Mount, thus violating the site where the Holy of Holies dwelled, until and unless they are ritually purified. Without a perfect red heifer to sacrifice, the Third Temple cannot be built, and Moshiach the Messiah will not come. Writes Gorenberg, "[Israeli] government officials and military leaders could only regard the requirement for the missing heifer as a stroke of sheer good fortune preventing conflict over the Mount."
In 1996, thanks in part to a cattle-breeding program set up in Israel with the help of Texas ranchers who are fundamentalist Christians, a red heifer was born. There was immense excitement among messianists of the Israeli religious Right, and their American Christian counterparts. The world media covered it as a joke, but it wasn't funny to David Landau, columnist for the Israeli daily Haaretz. He called the red heifer "a four-legged bomb" that could "set the entire region on fire." Muslim leaders worried about the red heifer too, as they would see an attempt by Jews to take over the Temple Mount as a sign of the Islamic apocalypse.
As it turned out, during the three years of waiting for the heifer to reach the ritually mandated age of sacrifice, white hairs popped out on the tip of her tail. This bovine was, alas, not divine. But now there's a successor, and rabbis who have examined her have declared her ritually acceptable (though she will not be ready for sacrifice for three years). She arrives at a time when Israel is fighting a war for survival with the Palestinians, who are almost entirely Muslim, and a time in which Islam and the West appear to be girding for battle with each other, as Islamic tradition predicts will be the state of the world before the Final Judgment.
"These kinds of circumstances are exactly what people are waiting for," says Richard Landes, a Boston University history professor and director of its Center for Millenial Studies. "We could be starting a war. If this is a real red heifer, and strict Orthodox rabbis have declared her worthy of sacrifice, then a lot of Jews in Israel will take that as a sign that a new phase of history is about to begin. The Muslims are ready for jihad anyway, so if you have Jews up there doing sacrifices, talk about a red flag in front of a charging bull."
http://old.nationalreview.com/dreher/dreher041102.asp
Gothmog
(145,722 posts)This is a very dangerous group
Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)Or do you consider peaceful proselytizing to be "dangerous"?
Gothmog
(145,722 posts)The ADL and other Jewish groups have been following this group for a long time. The example which I am personally familiar is that the daughter of a friend was targeted at her school where she was one of a handful of Jews attending that school. A school sanctioned club which was affiliated with one of these groups made it their goal to convert this young lady with such appeals as telling her that she was being selfish by denying her classmates the right to see the second coming.
Again, the ADL stepped in and the parents sponsoring this program backed away when they realized that they were going to be sued.
Shadowflash
(1,536 posts)Jesus told his followers that he would be back within their generation or lifetime. Like most everything else in that book, that didn't happen. What makes people think it's gonna happen now?
Arugula Latte
(50,566 posts)You won't be so smug when believers get hoovered up nekkid into the sky and you're left down here to scavenge their leftover Twinkies and defrosted Hot Pockets.
The Wizard
(12,552 posts)Javaman
(62,534 posts)a game show host.
hatrack
(59,594 posts)nt
wordpix
(18,652 posts)olddad56
(5,732 posts)That would be Mr Cheney.
olddad56
(5,732 posts)Vogon_Glory
(9,133 posts)quote: "The Jews are a nervous people. Nineteen centuries of Christian love have taken a toll."-- Benjamin Disraeli
bluedeathray
(511 posts)The money is all green. He proved a long time ago he had no depth or morals.
Even after reviewing all the facts, I don't see how this party maintains a significant voting Bloc. Have we, as a nation, become that ignorant and easily swayed?
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)Let them get to 144,000 and then what?
"Did anything happen?"
"No"
"Shit"
Beacool
(30,253 posts)Nice work promoting anti-Semitic bigots.
Iggo
(47,579 posts)tblue
(16,350 posts)Let him waste his time, and donors' money, on stupid garbage. Few Jewish people would give their message the time of day.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)He talked the talk, with the yarmulke, the beard, etc. but didn't walk the walk.
He also happened to be a major PITA. (He's a big reason I came up here. ) So on Yom Kippur, I strode in to the office brimming with confidence, figuring this would be the one day out of the year he wouldn't be badgering me.
And I was wrong.
Seems there were some papers that just HAD to be signed.
This could explain why other Jews don't consider messianics to be true Jews. Their belief system, in fact, is indistinguishable from that of fundies except for the Jewish trappings like the Saturday Sabbath.
dawnie51
(959 posts)He looks half in the bag, hair all every which way, eyes all crazy. He looks like the very embodiment of someone who would want to speak at this crazy fest. It was creepy.
wordpix
(18,652 posts)adirondacker
(2,921 posts)Ash_F
(5,861 posts)red dog 1
(27,884 posts)I remember Jews For Jesus meeting on the campus of San Francisco State University.......They sat around in a circle out on the lawn.
This was around 1971 I think, which is 2 years before Moishe Rosen & Jhan Moskowitz supposedly founded the group.(According to Wikipedia)
I could be wrong ...but my memory is that they were all Asians....There were only about a dozen of them sitting in a circle with their signs proclaiming "Jews For Jesus"
JimboBillyBubbaBob
(1,389 posts)...reality is alive and well!
gopiscrap
(23,766 posts)called "Jews for Jesus" they were whacked!
Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)defacto7
(13,485 posts)truthisfreedom
(23,160 posts)They took down all of the online references to gwb being at the event as soon as word got out to the public. Or, perhaps, the bush crime family shut down the web pages. What does the bush family stand to gain from the end of times?
red dog 1
(27,884 posts)Bush isn't the only Repuke politician who believes that "The End Times Are Near"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023802775/
Pterodactyl
(1,687 posts)libdem4life
(13,877 posts)Robertson, all on the same personal Train to Glory, and they can't get Jesus to whisk them away without the 144,000 Converted Jews...and The Beast. Think they have given up that this Beast is Obama...LOL.
Gothmog
(145,722 posts)n case you didnt get a chance to see the web pages promoting former President George W. Bushs event with the Messianic Jewish Bible Institute (as reported on in Mother Jones magazine and on TRMS tonight) before they were taken down, we grabbed some pages from the site from Googles archive below:
The fact that these pages have disappeared is very revealing.