Sarah Palin’s looming pastor problem?
The 2008 campaign has already offered one object lesson in what happens when the press starts looking into your pastor's sermons. Now it's Sarah Palin's turn to come under the microscope.
Less than three weeks ago, on Aug. 17, Palin's church, Wasilla Bible Church, hosted a talk by David Brickner of Jews for Jesus (audio here, transcript here).
Palin's pastor, Larry Kroon, introduced Brickner by calling Jews for Jesus "a ministry that is out on the leading edge in a pressing demanding area of witnessing and evangelism." Jews for Jesus is the same group the ADL accused of "aggressive proselytizing with a deceptive message: that Jews who accept Jesus as the son of God and their savior remain Jewish."
Brickner then spoke for about 30 minutes about his group's successful effort to introduce Israelis to Jesus. More on that in a second.
After Brickner's talk, the congregation took an offering for JFJ, and then Pastor Kroon offered this prayer:
We stand before you as a people who've experienced your grace, and we acknowledge that that grace was first extended to our people through your people, the Jews; that there is not a one here in this room who would know Jesus and serve him if there had not been a Jew, generations ago, that spoke Jesus' name to our people. Father, that comes full circle and we wish to extend your grace back to your people. And we pray and we ask that as a result of this time here, and as a result of this offering, there will be people among the Jews today who come to say the name "Jesus" with faith.
On the surface, not all that different from the Catholic prayer for Jewish conversion, whose revival aroused great concern in the Jewish community and nearly railroaded Pope Benedict's recent visit to New York City. In the end, he visited a synagogue and the Vatican gave some signals that this was a wish for the end of times, not the beginning an evangelical effort aimed at Jews.
It's going to be near impossible for the Palin camp to follow that road map after listening to Brickner's sermon, with its effusions over his group's success in Israel.
Here's his description of playing music in Jerusalem with his evangelical band The Liberated Wailing Wall:
Now, most Israelis are secular. And they were drawn by the music, and we had t-shirts on that said "Yehudim L'man Yeshua" (Jews for Jesus), so they knew who we were; but that was ok. They were enjoying the music; some were clapping. There were some that were even dancing off to the side. I thought to myself, "Boy, this is great! We're preachin' the gospel right here on the streets of Jerusalem."
Brickner talks about what he calls the "Jerusalem dilemma," essentially the apparent conflict between the fact that Jerusalem has been the site of so much religious revelation and also the nexus of so much war and bloodshed. The reason? Israel's rejection of God's messenger:
But what we see in Israel, the conflict that is spilled out throughout the Middle East, really which is all about Jerusalem, is an ongoing reflection of the fact that there is judgment. There is judgment that is going on in the land, and that's the other part of this Jerusalem Dilemma. When Jesus was standing in that temple, He spoke that that judgment was coming, that there's a reality to the judgment of unbelief .... And Jesus' words have echoed down through the centuries. Not a generation after He uttered this promise, Titus and his Roman legions marched into that city and destroyed both the city and the temple ... Judgment is very real and we see it played out on the pages of the newspapers and on the television. It's very real. When Isaac was in Jerusalem he was there to witness some of that judgment, some of that conflict, when a Palestinian from East Jerusalem took a bulldozer and went plowing through a score of cars, killing numbers of people. Judgment—you can't miss it.
Isaac is Brickner's son, who just came back from a proselytizing trip to Israel and India. In India, he targeted Israeli backpackers on holiday after completing their army service. For Isaac, it was life-changing:
And for me, that personally has changed my life, making me realize how much God has a plan for each and every one of us, and how much we all need to witness to our fellow unbelievers; and for me, as a Jewish person, to my fellow unbelieving Jewish family.
No word yet on whether Palin was present in church on Aug. 17, but we'll find out. We're also trying to find out more about Pastor Kroon's apparently long connection to Brickner – Kroon says the pair go back to the 1970s – who was making his second appearance at the church. In his first appearance, in 2004, Kroon said: "If it were not for Jews for Jesus, I would not be standing here."
ADL chief Abe Foxman – whose organization has criticized Jews for Jesus as "deceptive," who called on Barack Obama to confront his "black racist" minister, and who called the Catholic prayer a "body blow" to relations with the Jews – told JTA Tuesday he didn't have much problem with Palin's pastor. For one, evangelicals, unlike Catholics, never promised to renounce proselytizing. For another, they don't have the same sort of history of violent persecution of Jewish non-believers. For one more, there's no evidence Palin knows or shares those views.
"If you could tell me that she approves of this guy, she invited him, I'm not aware of any of that," Foxman said. "The fact that she belongs to a church that believes in it, I don't have a problem."
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Learn about history. Do your research. You’re not following Jesus. You’re following PAUL! A Jew who couldn’t convince anyone that his false prophet was the Messiah so he turned to the pagans and invented a religion. Give it a rest. If you believe that, you are no different than a drug addict or Hitler. You are looking to escape. Nothing more. Nothing less. Your brainwashed rhetoric is your heroin only it’s much more dangerous and kills many more people.
And I was speaking to Matt- the ‘supposed’ Jew. BTW: I know you are not honest when you say you are a Jew otherwise you would understand why Jesus was not the Messiah. Your claim is as false as his. Although, Jesus never claimed to be the Messiah and he was very much a Jew. So I guess you’re really nothing like him. Your homework assignment is to read: ‘Why the Jews rejected Jesus’ by David Klinghoffer. Good luck.
i believe that the news media should loop this over and over as they did with Rev Wright and let the people decide. I have already sent to most of my friends so they can see how similar Sarah is to Hillary (not!)
Evangelicals are the most pro-Israel
group of people in the world. They
believe in praying for the peace of
Israel, and they also believe that
they are commanded to be a friend
of “the chosen people”.I have personally
chosen to leave the Presbytaerian Church
USA because of its anti-Israel stance.
However, they are evangelicals and
want to share the gospel of Christ with
all people to “the jew first”.One may
call it proseltizing, but evangelicals
see it as soul winning a command and
part of the “great commission”
An evangelicals’perception of the
gospel of Christ is very different
than that of the Reverend Wrights.
Reverend Wright perverts the gospel
and proposes a vindication for earthly
wrongs here on earth.Reverend Wrights’
gospel preaches hate and revenge. Evangelicals
teach an inclusive gospel of love, forgiveness,
and grace.The true gospel is totally
color blind.
Incidently there are more christians and
evangelicals that are langishing in prisons,
and being persecuted around the world for their
christianity than jews and muslims.Christians
in the free world need to realize that as the
scriptures tells us “they will despise you”,
and “you will be persecuted for righteousness”.
Because we are historically a christian nation,
as christians we tend to at times confuse our
“Americanism” with our Christain faith.There
are many americans that are cultural christians,but really have no real understanding or knowledge of true christianity.
Sigh - once again liberal Jews (esp the JTA) need to find something to pick on. I’m no friend of the efforts to convert Jews; I actively oppose it. But to compare Palin’s pastor - even by inference - with that monster Obama has, is just stupid and blind. Sadly, the evangelicals believe in the Jewish right to the land of Israel more than most Jews, who would rather be liked by the world rather than be light to the world. Can’t you all see the long range plan is to destroy the Jewish state altogther? Sick.
Hate to tell you , but if they loop this, they will only show how messed up Obama’s pastor is right along with it.
The more things change, the more they stay the same it sometimes seems. Today, as in past centuries, unbelieving (non-Christian) Israelites continue to fear the truth, that Yeshua (Jesus) really is our long-awaited Messiah, The Son of God, and The Word of God (YHVH) incarnate. And, they continue to stir up trouble for Israelites, such as myself, who DO believe in Christ.
Why should this be? The Hebrew scriptures testify everywhere to the fact that Yeshua is indeed our God, Messiah, and Savior (e.g., Isaiah 7:14, 9:6-8; Proverbs 30:4; Habakkuk 3; Zechariah 12; etc.); that He was pierced for our guilt, sins, and transgressions (e.g., Isaiah 52:12 to 53:14; Psalm 22); that He rose from the dead so we might have hope of eternal life (e.g., Isaiah 26:19; cf. Hosea 6); and that He will soon return (at the end of the biblical year 6000 from Adam and Eve) to judge and save the world (Zechariah 14). These facts are unambiguously NOT isolated to the Greek scriptures of the New Testament, but are actually throughout the prophecies of the Hebrew Old Testament.
What shall we say then? The answer is as simple as it is troubling: unbelieving Israelites ("Jews") fear the truth because it means that all the suffering of the nation and people of Isreal down through the centuries is a direct result of our nation’s rejection of The Very God of Israel, Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus The Messiah). Israel’s unbelieving religious leadership bears much responsibility for this. That’s right, even the Holocaust was a result of Israel’s unbelief: read the curses in the Torah (e.g., Leviticus and Deuteronomy) that God said would befall His people Israel if they went astray and served false gods; these curses encompass EVERYTHING that occurred in the Holocaust, to include the ovens themselves! (Horrible, yes. True, yes.) Unbelieving Jews also fear the reality that change is just over the horizon: Yeshua will soon return to judge the world and save the survivors of the nation and people of Israel.
I am one who is born an Israelite, a descendant of Aaron himself, of the lineage of the High Priests of Israel, and I BELIEVE IN YESHUA, I KNOW HE IS OUR GOD, MESSIAH, AND SAVIOR! I believe this because I have personally read the Old and New Testaments for myself, and the facts, reality, and truth are all quite clear. Here is a major fact: No human being can be saved and spend eternity with The God of Israel, YHVH, who is the only true God, apart from belief in Yeshua, YHVH’s Messiah for all mankind.
Those who are complaining about the fact that a pastor hosts other Israelites who happen to know and believe the truth of the Hebrew scriptures as I do, such as Jews for Jesus, are fearful, hateful, and yes, intolerant due to their own ignorance, and that is sad not only for now, but for their eternal fate lest the light of The Messiah should shine in their hearts so that they too would know Him and be saved. I do not hate, but LOVE my unbelieving Israelite brethren: I want them to be saved as I myself already am! And, I would venture to say that were Sarah Palin asked, she would say exactly the same thing: she too wants Israel to be SAVED!
I applaud Senator McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin! I had been considering voting for an independent because it seemed that there were no honest politicians among the major parties from whom to choose. But, McCain’s choice of Palin shows me otherwise. McCain and Palin will have my vote!
Evangelicals may say that they love Israel, but as they have for a long time they still hate Jews. They support war in Israel because they believe it will end with the extinction of the Jewish people, through desperate conversion to Christianity, or death. Then the Evangelicals’ Jesus will come to Earth and take them to heaven.
Why can’t the Evangelicals love Jews enough to leave them alone, free to believe what they want, free to live in an America that is not a “Christian” dictatorship, free to attempt to build an Israel that will know peace rather than permanent, and possibly extinguishing, war? Because then the Evangelicals might not have their imagined Rapture, rising to Heaven above Jewish corpses.
Ben Harris,
What do you think is the real problem today that the Jews have with Yeshua (Jesus)? He is the Jew of Jews. I know Christianity like my ancient people of Israel failed to understand or know God and consequently misrepresented Him.
I the first century it was the opposite. The question then was what do we do with all these Gentiles coming to the Jewish God through Yeshua (Acts 15-16). Jewish resentment and anger today toward Yeshua (Jesus) and many of His followers called Christians has to do with misrepresentation by primarily Christians. Most of them follow the anti-semitic belief system passed down by pagan Roman Emperor Constantine and his evil Nicene council. However, there are true followers of Yeshua (Jesus) out there that are true talmidim (disciples or followers). They love the Jews and Israel and follow the biblical Judaism of God. In my opinion, all who call themselves a Jew and don’t do the Torah and believe in Yeshua (Jesus) truly don’t know what it means to be a Jew.
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Ephraim
09/03/08 11:39 PM
It is interesting that if Black people believe in a G-d that cares about them and believes in justice it is called racism. If Jews believe in a G-d that cares about them it is called Judaism.