‘Morally Confused Evangelical Protestants Continue to Support the Ukraine and Israel’

 

The nation of Israel can do no wrong.  The government of the Ukraine must be supported forever in its war with Russia.

That sums up the thinking behind some of the major foreign policy preferences of many Evangelical Protestants (EPs) today.  But those views come with a high risk of cognitive dissonance.

Israel first (it could never be any other way, could it?).  EPs never tire of repeating that Israel is the best friend of the US in the Middle East or the even the whole world, that ‘Judeo-Christian’ values and civilization are the greatest, that God loves Israel above every other people, tribe, and country and will never forsake her, and so on.

However, the moral and spiritual life inside Israel doesn’t match the EPs’ imagined reality.  Regarding sexual ethics, Israel could hardly be friendlier to the LGBT ‘community’.  A pro-Israel, pro-LGBT organization called StandWithUs provides a detailed timeline as evidence (PDF, p. 3):

• 1963: Israeli courts rule that sodomy laws should not apply to consenting adults in private.

• 1988: Israel abolishes the decades-old ban on sodomy of any kind.

• 1992: Legislation bars discrimination against LGBTQ+ individuals in the workplace.

• 1993: The Israeli army adopts a policy of allowing openly LGBTQ+ soldiers to serve in any capacity.

• 1994: The Israeli Supreme Court rules in favor of granting spousal benefits to same-sex couples.

• 1997: The Israeli Defense Minister announces that same-sex partners would be recognized as family members by the Defense Department. The Israeli High Court rules against censoring an educational TV program for teens about homosexuality.

• 2000: The Knesset lowers the legal age of consent for same-sex relations from 18 to 16, and the Israeli Supreme Court rules that lesbians can officially become adoptive mothers of their partners’ children.

• 2004: Israeli courts rule LGBTQ+ couples qualify for common-law marriage and LGBTQ+ couples qualify for full inheritance rights.

• 2005: Israeli LGBTQ+ couples are granted full adoption rights.

• 2006: Israel recognizes same-sex marriages performed abroad.

• 2014: Israel passes a law protecting students from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

• 2015: Transgender Israelis can change their legal gender without undergoing surgery.

• 2021: Israel ends restrictions on blood donations from gay and bisexual men.

• 2022: Former Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz, Israel’s first openly gay party leader, issues a directive to ban conversion therapy. Israel lifts restrictions on surrogacy for gay and trans couples and single men.

Magic is also prevalent in Judaism:

 . . . Moshe Idel, the preeminent scholar of Jewish mysticism, presented a picture in which magic was a central aspect of Judaism. Magic, he writes in the foreword to the 2004 edition of Joshua Trachtenberg’s Jewish Magic and Superstition: A Study in Folk Religion, “is a vital form of Jewish spirituality. [Judaism is] deeply informed by magical ways of thinking and manners of action that are conceived to be both effective and licit.”

 

 . . . The rapidly spreading story [about Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination—W.G.] held that 32 days before the assassination, on October 3, 1995, a small group of ten or so fringe national-religious activists, angry at Rabin’s intention to trade land for peace, had gathered outside the prime minister’s home in Jerusalem. It was Yom Kippur Eve—considered the holiest night of the entire Jewish year—and the rabbis, who had fasted for two days in preparation, stood in a circle around two Torah scrolls, blew a ram’s horn and then chanted: “On him, Yitzhak son of Rosa, known as Rabin…we have permission…to demand from the angels of destruction that they take a sword to this wicked man…to kill him…for handing over the Land of Israel to our enemies, the sons of Ishmael.” Known as the Pulsa deNura (“Lashes of Fire”), this ancient Aramaic ritual was first mentioned in the Talmud and then described in greater detail in ancient Hebrew manuals of magic. When performed correctly, the curse was purported to inflict divine wrath on its victims within a year.

 

After Rabin’s assassination, Pulsa deNura quickly became a household phrase. It remains a canonical element of any recounting of Rabin’s assassination; even the official Israeli government biography of Rabin mentions the curse by name.

 

 . . . Which brings us to today. Not only is Jewish magic alive and well, it has also become trendy. In the United States, Jewish witches or “Jewitches” bring a Jewish angle to New Age practices such as astrology, moon rituals and goddess worship. The Jewitches I spoke with explained that they use magical Jewish rituals and charms to address contemporary concerns such as workplace discrimination and wage disparity. Gilah Levin, a Jewitch living in the Bay area, says, “Magic is an important part of my Jewish heritage. We live in troubling times. The ancient wisdom of Jewish magic helps me bring order to chaos.”

 

And perhaps it does more as well. A few weeks ago, I had lunch with my childhood friend Rachel and her new baby daughter. Rachel spent close to 15 years attempting to get pregnant. She tried every known fertility drug and in vitro fertilization treatment multiple times, to no avail. She prayed daily to become pregnant. Finally, early last September, she paid an Orthodox rabbi in Israel to perform a segulah (charm) that he claimed would cure her infertility. Following his advice, on each day of Sukkot, hoping that she was already pregnant, Rachel bit off and chewed the pitom or stem of an etrog in order to ensure a safe delivery. In late October she learned that she was pregnant, and this June, at age 49, she gave birth to a healthy baby. There is no way to know how or why Rachel finally got pregnant. But looking at her glowing face and that of her beautiful daughter, I realized that the actual cause didn’t matter. To me, it was magic.

Dr Michael Hoffman offers some deep insights of his own as it regards the Israel-magic connection.

The Ukraine is much the same.  The Western-sponsored regime in Kiev is very supportive of the LGBT agenda, per Mr Jim Jatras:

 . . .

The rest is at https://orthodoxreflections.com/morally-confused-evangelical-protestants-continue-to-support-the-ukraine-and-israel/.

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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!