But I thought evangelicals were very tolerant of the Jewish faith?

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-acad07.html

Dad sues Air Force Academy, claims faith bias

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- A Jewish father of two Air Force Academy cadets sued the Air Force on Thursday, claiming officers and cadets illegally imposed Christianity on others.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court by Mikey Weinstein, an academy grad and outspoken critic of the school's handling of religion.

Over the past decade or more, the lawsuit claims, academy leaders have fostered an environment of religious intolerance at the Colorado school.

Weinstein claims that evangelical Christians at the school have coerced attendance at religious services. ''It's a shocking disgrace that I had to file this thing,'' he said.

[thinkingwoman]

1. well they are, as long as....

people of the Jewish faith convert to Xtianity. :evilgrin:

[converted_democrat]

2. I never thought so.....

They aren't tolerant, they "need" them so to speak. They need Israel to be free, in order for rapture to come.

edit to make clearer

[Corgigal]

3. I thought they need all the Jews to be in Israel

and then either turn Christian or die? Then Jesus will come.

Hell I can't remember. I try to stay away from those people.

[bryant69]

4. That's my take

Fundamentalist Christians need the Jews to enact the rapture. I will say there is a bit more warmth to them than there is to other faiths; Jews aren't Heathens, exactly, but they still aren't equal with their particular brand of Christianity.

Bryant
Check it out -> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[kenny blankenship]

11. Exactly. Everything changes in the end times

They need the Jews to reoccupy the Holy Land--but only as placeholders for themselves. After Jesus returns, according to the fundamentalost belief, the Jews either convert or become followers of the Anti-Christ and are destroyed. The Chrysters inherit New Jerusalem and Israel lock, stock and the sodding lot.

[Fuzz]

15. Then there is the whole 144,000 thing

12,000 from each tribe of Israel will be 'saved', the rest burn in hell for all of eternity, or something to that effect.

[zanne]

5. They're tolerant of Jews and African-Americans....

On the surface.

[NNN0LHI]

8. That brings back old childhood memories

I can remember when I was a little kid my staunch Catholic parents explaining to me with great seriousness that Jews "were" African-Americans who got turned inside out. But they didn't use the words African-Americans during their idea of a civics lesson if you know what I mean?

Don

[shenmue]

6. The real fringe elements don't really tolerate...

...so much as view Jewish people as either fodder for conversions, or mystical bringers-on of the End Times. According to some strains of armageddon theology, Israel has to be a stand-alone country in order for Jesus to come back and start the war at the end of the world. Then he will offer everyone, Jewish or not, the chance to convert or be destroyed by Jesus and his warrior legions. Revelations supposedly predicts the latter.

Of course, John of Patmos was out of his mind on mushrooms when he wrote the book, so who knows? Maybe he just needed to lie down.

In any event, radical religious right-ers don't really like Jewish people for their own sake, but for their supposed role in the Biblical end game. A sickening attitude on many levels.

Some evangelical groups are very aggressive in conversion efforts and actually view Jewish people as obstacles to Christianity because Judaism is supposedly a similar faith but they still won't convert.

Harassment incidents at the Air Force Academy have become particularly bad in recent times and the cause of an administration campaign to help curb it.

[Kber]

7. Evangelicals are supportive of Israel, but ONLY because

the resurrection of the Jewish Nation is a precondition for the second coming of Jesus, at which time 100,000 of us are supposed to see the light and accept Jesus as the one true messiah and the remaining millions are sent to eternal damnation.

edit - speling

[gratuitous]

9. Tolerant of the Jewish faith? No

But the Jews are necessary in the evangelical eschatology as the cannon primer which sets off Armageddon. Initially, Jewish folks were pretty peeved at the support that Israel received from American evangelicals, knowing that the support was contingent on seeing all the Jews blown to smithereens in the first big battle of the last great war.

Then some sharpies decided that support is support, and certain political segments among the Jews began to court and cultivate the support of evangelicals. Remember Ariel Sharon's visit to the Al Aqsa Mosque on September 28, 2000? Whatever other purposes were served by such a swatting of the hornet's nest, it also was a strong signal to American evangelicals that a Sharon government would be tuned into their demented view of end times.

The Al Aqsa Mosque is controlled by Islamic elements in Jerusalem, but is also the historic site of Solomon's Temple, and a very significant site to end timers, who have determined (don't ask how, it's quite involved and there's only so much space on the Internets) that the Al Aqsa mosque has to be destroyed, and a new Temple built before Jesus can come back again and elevate all his overdog followers like the evangelicals at the Air Force Academy to their rightful place as masters of the new universe (they have it soooo tough now, doncha know).

So, while evangelicals really like the Jews, it's in the way a pyromaniac really likes a fresh book of matches or a lovely can of gasoline. As for the tenets of the Jewish faith, and the free practice of religion? Ehhhh, not so much.

[NNN0LHI]

10. You know that is what I figured all along

But I sure couldn't have explained it as eloquently as you did.

Don

[gratuitous]

14. Thank you

The dubious benefit of about five years misspent among the loonies living on the edge of eternity. If nothing else, it's exhausting thinking the end of the world is just around the corner.

[DanCa]

12. People are just so fracking whacked

The right to practice religion doesn't give you the right to jam it down someones throat.

[Southpaw Bookworm]

13. You thought wrong

There are some who are theoretically supporting Israel (note: Israel, not Jews as a whole) because they think it will expedite the Rapture.

However, generally speaking evangelicals consider the Jews to have killed Christ (which, considering he was the Son of God, you'd think it would occur to them that he WANTED to die). There were a lot of anecdotes after Mel Gibson's Christian slasher flick came out about folks overhearing a lot of antisemitic, "Jews killed Our Lord" comments from people coming out of the theater. Of course, that's only one reason for their hate: Jews are also different, worship differently, and don't believe the claptrap about salvation.