Tuesday, October 1, 2024

Offsite Post: ‘Red States Are Lurching toward Antichrist’

 

How can that be? – Such will probably be most folks’ reaction to the title of this essay.  Aren’t they the States passing laws to ban transgender mutilations and abortions, to crack down on crime, to acknowledge God in some way in public schools, etc.?  That is true, and for those good things they should be praised.  But unfortunately that is not all they are doing.

They are also granting special privileges to the Jewish people, privileges that they would not consider giving to Christians, Hindus, Muslims, or any other religious group.  South Dakota is the latest State to do this.  Gov. Kristi Noem issued the following statement upon signing an antisemitism law:


Ensuring the Security of God’s Chosen People

 

By: Governor Kristi Noem

 

March 8, 2024

 

When I was growing up, my dad would always gather our family together and we would pray for Israel. It was instilled in me from a very young age that the Jews were Gods [sic] chosen people, that Israel was the Holy Land, and that we should always pray for them.

 

I brought those fundamental ideals with me when I was in the State Legislature, when I served in Congress, and now as Governor of South Dakota. Supporting the State of Israel and our Jewish community has always been extremely important to me. It’s important to support Israel for spiritual, historical, and national security reasons. I am continuing to stand with the Jewish people by signing historic legislation to protect them from antisemitism.

 

 . . . I was very proud to sign HB 1076, a very important bill to combat antisemitism. This bill defines antisemitism and makes it easier to prove when discriminatory conduct is motivated by antisemitism. It is an impactful piece of legislation that will ensure the safety of Jewish people and strengthen South Dakota’s anti-discrimination laws.

 

 . . . I hope that more states across our great nation will follow this example that we are setting here in South Dakota. It is more important now than ever for our nation’s leaders to stand up and fight against antisemitism. We must always work to ensure the security of God’s chosen people.

HB 1076 uses the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, which includes these points:


– Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions.

– Accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by non-Jews.

– Denying the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g. gas chambers) or intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of National Socialist Germany and its supporters and accomplices during World War II (the Holocaust).

– Accusing the Jews as a people, or Israel as a state, of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust.

– Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.

– Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.

– Applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.

– Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis.

– Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.

– Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.

Many of those lines seem incompatible with notions of free speech, religious freedom, academic freedom, etc., that the peoples of the States have grown accustomed to.  Nevertheless, laws favoring Jewish people have now been passed in 38 States, the majority of them of the Red variety.

They are no doubt well-intentioned, believing they are standing up for a persecuted group of people, but as Gov. Noem shows, they are basing their view on a false theology – dispensationalism – which proclaims the Jewish people, and not the Orthodox Church, as God’s chosen people.

And this has opened the door for the Red States to welcome Antichrist when he comes, for he will likewise be a great benefactor of the Jewish people.  An Orthodox archpriest, Fr. Boris Molchanoff, notes, ‘According to the teaching of the holy Fathers, the Devil, raising up Antichrist, will strive to vest his advent with all the signs of the coming of the Son of God on earth . . . .  As the Lord was pleased to reveal Himself to all men as the Messiah in His triumphal entry into Jerusalem and its temple, so also will the Antichrist reveal himself as the false messiah of the Jews, the monarch of the whole world, in the triumphal ceremony of his entrance into Jerusalem and his enthronement in the temple which, by that time, will have been restored’ (Antichrist, St. John of Kronstadt Press, Liberty, Tenn., p. 3).  St. Ephraim the Syrian (+4th century) says that he will ‘valu[e] the Jewish people in particular’ (p. 5).

Fr. Boris notes further,

 . . .

The rest is at https://orthodoxreflections.com/red-states-are-lurching-toward-antichrist/.

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Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!

Anathema to the Union!

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