We are seeing history repeat itself here:
I was just reminded online that Kristallnacht was on November 9, 1938 – exactly 85 years ago. This was the ‘Night of Broken Glass,’ in which Jews, synagogues, and Jewish shops were attacked in Germany. Tragically however we are seeing it happen all over again. In so much of the world we are seeing an explosion of Jew-hatred and Israel-hatred.
I thought we once had agreed to “Never again.” Another post making the rounds on the social media simply says this: “I can’t explain how it feels to hear people worldwide cheering for your extermination.” I am not sure who first said this – whether a rabbi or someone else – but our Jewish friends have every right to be terrified right now.
And as I have said repeatedly, there are far too many folks who claim to be Christians and conservatives who are aiding and abetting all this. It can simply be by their despicable silence. But too often it is what they say that makes it clear that they need to take a close look in the mirror. Lurking behind too much of what they are saying may well be some ugly and diabolical antisemitism.
Worse yet, they go on and on pushing their pet theological and eschatological views, as if that is a good excuse to stay silent about, or even wink at, the horrible things we see happening to Jews worldwide today. ‘Well, ethnic Israel are no longer God’s people, so it does not matter what happens to them’ and the like is too often heard or implied.
Christians can and do have differing views on such things, and they can feel free to hold to such views. But too many seem to lurk behind their pet theories and use them as an excuse to simply ignore another possible repeat of what happened last century in Germany.
The truth is, I know of far too many of these folks who have NOT ONCE said that what Hamas did on October 7 was utterly despicable and evil, full stop, and that Israel has the right to exist like every other sovereign nation. That complete silence on their part seems to me to be utterly damning. (Sure, they might have said these things somewhere, sometime, but I sure have not seen nor heard them.) The silence is deafening.
With all this in mind I want to share parts of two new articles. I do so by featuring two witnesses: an Anglican convert to Catholicism, and a Jewish convert to evangelical Christianity. An article by Gavin Ashenden begins this way:
A few days ago, as I walked through the Underground a large Muslim, four inches taller than me, barreled up to me and out of nowhere threatened to beat me up if I didn’t get out of his way. . . . The threatened fight didn’t happen. But I spent the next six hours losing the excess testosterone that had flooded me within a nano-second of his threat.
It was only as I looked on twitter later that I saw a clip of Islamic demonstrators mocking two poppy-wearing Englishmen in the Underground and a fist-fight breaking out that I wondered if it had been my poppy rather than my face that he had been triggered by?
The poppy is a sign of a particular culture within our culture. I have always lamented its diminishing symbolic power as sacrifice, gratitude, remembrance, and the rebuke of supine appeasement lose traction. One of the strange side effects of uncontrolled immigration and the presence of Muslims among us in increasingly large numbers is that it seems its power has been recently refreshed. But why?
We may be about to experience a clash of cultures so dramatic and severe that most people won’t have given even the possibility much thought, let alone what strategy might be employed once it happens. Islamic and Palestinian leaders have been organising demonstrations around the world to express their anger.
It turns out from interviews with those kids on the streets chortling with some transgressive glee, “from the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free”, that most have so little knowledge of the conflict that they can’t name the river in the chant. The enthusiastic support of the Palestinian cause among American youth, who do not know any of the history that the competing claims are rooted in, has been traced to the influence of Critical Race Theory.
He discusses the 1996 book by Samuel Huntington, Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. He then says this:
For the Islamic rage directed towards poppies and cenotaphs, as well as anything Jewish, suggests Huntington may be right. The great flaw in the defence of Western civilisation is that it has abandoned the faith that created it. It has voluntarily and energetically orphaned itself from Catholicism.
Christians and liberal secularists are going to face a serious challenge this coming weekend when, as seems likely, Islamic protest marches “spill over” to confront the vestiges of Remembrance culture. Will the secularists realise that pleasure-seeking consumerism is not powerful enough to provide boundaries to contain Islamic expansionism and missionary ambition? They have refused to this far. And if they wake up to their own limitations and existential sterility, which way will they turn?
Catholics and other Christians will be faced with the challenge of re-articulating the virtues of faith. This will involve the deeply uncomfortable task of beginning to face up to the demands of real evangelism again. And that means explaining why the character and agenda of Jesus Christ, the redeeming sacrificial lamb, is more appealing than the character and agenda of Mohammed the warlord. The truth is, this is not so much a clash of cultures as a clash of gods. But few people are brave enough to say so. https://catholicherald.co.uk/this-is-not-so-much-a-clash-of-cultures-as-a-clash-of-gods/
Messianic Jew Michael Brown gives us (not unexpectedly) an even stronger and more urgent warning about what is now taking place globally:
I am urging you. I am pleading with you. I am imploring you. Wake up! The irrational hatred of the Jewish people and the demonizing of Israel is reaching proportions so dangerous that if people of conscience do not stand up, speak out, and push back, Jewish blood will start flowing in America, England, and many other countries around the world. Wake up!
When Muslims in Sydney Australia are chanting, “Gas the Jews” you know that violence is near. When Jewish students at a university here in America have to hide in a library in fear for their lives, you know that violence is near. When Jewish children in Germany are afraid to go to school and parents warn their children not to wear the Star of David in public you know that violence is near.
When I post an image of the Israeli flag on Facebook and draw comments like, “Children killer. Hospital bombers” you know that violence is near. When a BBC headline reads, “British Jews are ‘full of fear, like I’ve never seen before’,” you know that violence is near.
When Rep. Rashida Tlaib can post a 2024 election warning to President Biden, featuring crowds chanting “From the river to the sea” – meaning, no more State of Israel – you know that violence is near. Wake up! A Jewish friend of mine in Australia wrote to me saying, “I don’t even feel comfortable going to the city because I know that people think ‘I look Jewish.’ I think it’d be dangerous for me to go there. Sad world we live in!”
He continues:
According to the FBI, “Jewish people make up 2.4% of the U.S. population but are the targets of about 60% of hate crimes linked to religion.” And this has been building for years. Even as I write, massive crowds around the world are gathering (or have already gathered) to denounce the nation of Israel. And they are not just calling for a cease fire. They are not even calling for a two-state solution. They are calling for the elimination of Israel. Wake up!
And sadly, at times like this, even some Christians show their ugly side, casting the most evil aspersions on Israel’s actions, branding all Jews as Christ haters (or Christ killers or antichrists), and giving theological justification for Jewish suffering. At the very least, they claim that Israel has no divine right to be in the land. This, too, should bring a fresh wake-up call, as the history of the Church’s persecution of Jews is written in Jewish blood.
In light of all this, and with tremendous urgency in my spirit, I urge every person of conscience, every lover of justice, everyone who fears and honors God. Please, today, speak out against the demonization of Israel and the Jewish people.
Categorically denounce Hamas and distance yourself from those who support Hamas (and Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah and the rest of these terrorist groups). And unequivocally affirm Israel’s right to exist as a nation and to live in peace. At the same time, you can express your grief over the suffering of the Palestinian people.
You can pray for Israel to do its best to avoid civilian casualties. You can affirm that Palestinian blood is as precious in God’s sight as Israeli blood. You can advocate for whatever arrangement you feel is safest and best for all parties involved in this decades long Middle East conflict.
But without hesitation and without shame, you must raise your voice in support of Israel and the Jewish people now, letting the haters know that when they come against Israel, they are coming against you. It really is a matter of life and death. https://askdrbrown.org/article/wake-up-world-before-jewish-blood-is-shed-in-your-country
Yes, it sure is. We thought things like Kristallnacht were history. But we have refused to learn from history, and so we are now repeating its mistakes – and its sins and satanic evil.
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