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/.
--
Holy
Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!
Anathema
to the Union!
