Don’t Poke the Pupil of God: Moral equivalency threatens Jewish survival by Andrew Myers
Just writing the words "postmodern relativism" makes me want to smack myself for being a pseudo-intellectual hack. Perhaps I deserve it, because a better description of the Western world's 21st century religion escapes me. This culture zealously shuns absolutes and worships tolerance of everything except intolerance—for which of course there will be absolutely no tolerance.
Anyone who has mined the philosophical fool's gold of deconstruction—anyone who's stayed awake the better part of the last 15 years—already knows all of this. Before studying Israel, however, I never really understood what menace pulses beneath such relativistic thinking. As the cornerstones of Good and Evil, are buried beneath a mountain of sandcastle ideologies, by necessity, new standards of judgment emerge. Hopelessly problematic, these standards threaten the very existence of the little Jewish country that could.
When Good and Evil are rejected as valid standards for evaluating a behavior (like stealing), a religion (like Scientology), a band (like Nickleback), or whatever, a vacuum is created and, as with anything else in the universe, something else must fill the void.
Case in point: the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. How are we going to make any sense of that mess? Well, if we behave like nice little postmodernists, we're suspicious of absolutes like Good and Evil, so no use starting there. We could look at the facts, but if truth is relative, that won't do either. Thus we encounter the aforementioned void. Good, Evil, Right, and Wrong no longer exist so—voila!—our new standards become Eastern vs. Western, Light-skinned vs. Dark-skinned, Rich vs. Poor, Underdog vs. Favorite, Capitalist vs. Socialist, Lame vs. Cool, Great Taste vs. Less-Filling, you know the drill.
These standards of judgment are by no means worthless. In fact, much humanitarian progress has resulted from the careful consideration of prejudices common within said dichotomies. As definitive standards replacing Good and Evil, however, these categories ultimately facilitate ignorance at best, and herald Orwellian doom at worst.
To adhere to the Rich vs. Poor model, one must ignore the fact that poor people can be good neighbors or mass murderers. While this seems like a no-brainer, consider Palestinian sympathizers who pity suicide bombers as victims of an oppressive regime. Though the killers' lives may not have been easy, condoning serial homicide should raise a few red flags (for another real-world example, check out Dave Sheffield’s post about Hurricane Katrina in the Prayer forum).
East vs. West stops making sense upon considering history: Ghandi was from the East, but so was Pol Pot. Yassar Arafat revered and emulated Palestinian Nazi-sympathizers and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, while the “western” Ariel Sharon endures comparisons to Hitler.
I do not pretend to believe that Israel is blameless and all Good. The point is, when society elevates suicide bombers and terrorist kingpins to a moral equivalency with—if not altogether above—those they torment, something is terribly wrong.
By severing the essential components of Evil and Good from the concept of justice, the relativist risks—sometimes unconsciously—empowering what is Evil and/or suppressing what is Good. The April 15, 2002 Newsweek cover, for example, was shared by two people: a young female suicide bomber and the girl she killed. The headline portrayed both as victims, a comparison that has been likened to mourning a rapist in the same breath as his victim.
A similar, though converse, practice of moral equivalency is prevalent within Christendom. While the 21st century peacenik grants all parties equal ground as “victims,” the Christian solution usually sounds something like, "The only thing that needs to happen is for both sides to recognize their sin, repent and follow Jesus."
While this response is absolutely true, the dialogue cannot stop there, or else we risk subscribing to a life of complacency, arrogance and fatalism. This line of thinking leads to the assumption that those without spiritual enlightenment do not deserve justice or advocacy, allowing us Christians to sit back and wait for everybody else to come to there senses. We’ll watch pagans blow up other pagans, shake our heads in pity, and say nothing.
I do not wish to elevate a social gospel of humanitarianism above the gospel of Jesus Christ, and I do not seek to supplant a local mission with a globalized one, but I do encourage you, brothers and sisters, to pursue wisdom in all things and to love justice like our Father does.
Throughout the book of Isaiah (and in many other places in Scripture), God reveals his heart for justice, calling His people to “loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke […] To share your bread with the hungry and bring to your house the poor who are cast out” (58:6-7).
A cursory glance reveals little obvious “burden” or “oppression” among Jewish Israelis, a people healthier, wealthier, and better educated than marginalized populations elsewhere in the region. As we have learned at Mars Hill, however, rich and poor have little to do with righteousness and unrighteousness; Good and Evil—Truth—define right and wrong, justice and injustice. Bank accounts do not.
Israel faces a dark and mysterious opposition. And as the “antiquated” idea of Truth continues to crumble, so too crumble Israel’s chances for security, peace and survival. Her record is not impeccable, but the animosity exacted upon Israel is absurd and disproportional.
The country has managed to maintain remarkable integrity since its 1948 inception (see Allen Dershowitz’s, The Case for Israel), despite facing perpetual war and castigation, including “more condemnatory [UN] resolutions than any other country” (International Jerusalem Post, July 1-7, 2005).
Why do so many organizations, from the UN to the EU to Amnesty International, so vehemently oppose this tiny country no bigger than New Hampshire? Why so many attempts to destroy the only Jewish state in a world that tolerates 56 Muslim countries that are far more oppressive and problematic? One could argue politics, anti-Semitism, oil, history, etc, but the real reason is the reason why we, as Christians, should care about, pray for, and take an interest in Israel.
A lot of nutjobs will get fired up and excited about Israel because of a selfish eschatology that considers Jews to be nothing more than a pawn in the Christian’s road to eternal salvation. The truth is, our God still loves Israel very much and that gives us reason enough to care. He made a promise to the Jews, and though He was merciful enough to extend that promise to us, Israel remains “the apple of His eye” (Zech 2:8), for our God is unchanging and forever faithful (Deut 23:19; 2 Tim 2:13).
Witness the perseverance of the Jews throughout history, a miracle testifying to God’s unfailing love. His heart for Israel—His “treasured possession” (Deut 14:2), His “people set apart from the nations” (Lev 20:24), His “firstborn son” (Ex 4:22)—has not changed. As one draws close to Israel, one draws close to the heart of God. Jesus is the only perfect manifestation of God on earth, but He reveals aspects of Himself through nature, Words, the church Body, and a specific people group: the Jews. Their history is a testimony to His character (including His love, passion, wrath, and mercy), and their continued, influential, polemic existence confirms Paul’s declaration, “Did God reject His people? By no means!” (Rom 11:1).
Without apologizing for Israel’s sins, the fact remains that when Truth suffers, God’s reputation suffers, and His people suffer. It’s no fluke that the postmodern era and it’s deconstruction of Truth coincide with the first time in 2,000 years that Jews and Christians have formed a definitive and explicit alliance. Israel does not worship Jesus, yet our bond of common heritage is undeniable (1 Pet 2:9; Rom 9:8), our standards of Truth, Good, and Evil bequeathed by the same God, whom they have since rejected and to whom we have since been called, in His perfect will.
With our role as children of God comes humbling responsibility (Rom10:14-19). “I think we do not attach enough importance to the restoration of the Jews,” said C.H. Spurgeon, “If there is anything promised in the Bible it is this…The day shall yet come when the Jews, who were the first apostles to the Gentiles, the first missionaries to us who were afar off, shall be gathered again.”
The way things go, obeying an angry God of absolutes, I expect the day to come—and indeed it already has—when supporting Israel may be “right” by the standards of Truth, though “wrong” by the ephemeral standards of a relativistic culture. During this time, it will be easy to entertain the deceptive attire of evil disguised as poor, marginalized, misunderstood, victims.
While sinister forces encircle Israel and seduce the world, do we remain comfortably indifferent and detached from a people that matter deeply to our Father? Brothers and sisters, I am haunted by German pastor Martin Niemoeller’s infamous regret:
“They came for the Communists, and I did not object for I was not a Communist. Then they came for the Socialist, and I did not object for I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Jews and I did not object for I was not a Jew. When they came for me, there was no one left to object.”
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