Florida lawmakers have finally done something useful. They’ve used valuable time and energy, not to mention resources, to get a law on the books that everyone in the State can get ‘behind’. It’s so good to know that our legislative bodies are facing the serious issues of the day with such clear eyes. … Sigh.
Metaphorically speaking, of course. Robert Weitzel has written the best essay on Hagee, his ideology, and his followers beliefs that I have yet read to date. It is exceptionally and intelligently done and Weitzel’s warning to Hagee’s Jewish supporters needs to be heard. For example
Pastor Hagee’s right-wing Jewish allies will do well to consider that after Islam is destroyed and the Temple rebuilt and Jesus comes and raptures all “true believers,” all non-believers—including Jews—will be hunted down and converted or destroyed . . . that is, those few who survived the nuclear holocaust that was prayed for and schemed for by the “Ish Elokim” and the CUFI.
Earlier it was noted
According to a United Nation’s report, 971 Palestinian and Israeli children were killed between September 2000—the beginning of the second intifada—and July 2007. Of those destroyed children, 854 were Palestinian. The intifada and the dying continue. Safa and Danielle are two of the children whose lives the evangelical political action committee, Christians United for Israel, are willing to sacrifice on the alter of their fundamentalist eschatology in the hope of bringing about Armageddon and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Pastor John Hagee, televangelist to 99 million viewers and pastor of the 18,000-member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, established the CUFI in 2005 following the publication of his book, “The Jerusalem Countdown: A Warning to the World.” Hagee envisions CUFI as the Christian version the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the powerful pro-Israel lobby whose political clout has a significant influence on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.
Read the whole thing. Hagee’s Zionism needs exactly this kind of exposure and denunciation. Well done, Robert. Very well done indeed.
I’ve noted in the past that the purpose of my titling this blog ‘Dr Jim West’ isn’t due to some sort of narcissism or self aggrandizement. There are plenty of academics who demand to be treated with deference even though they clearly don’t deserver or merit it. I’m not one of them. I demand nothing but truth.
But I have to differentiate myself from the folk out there who bear the same name. After all, there’s the ‘Jim West’ who served as mayor of Seattle (and who was gay). Then there’s the ‘Jim West’ who’s a photographer of unmentionable body parts. And of course there’s the famous tv character of the same name. So, on the whole, one must somehow be distinctive.
That said, imagine if you dare the horror of being a devoted Bible College student and bearing the same name as Eliot Spitzer’s ’server’. The Record reports
The Eliot Spitzer sex scandal has created an unintended victim — a preacher’s daughter with the misfortune of sharing the same name as the notorious prostitute who brought down the New York governor. Ashley A. Youmans is an 18-year-old from rural North Carolina who is pursuing religious studies at an Indiana Bible college, according to her father, Randy, a preacher who lives with his wife and two daughters in Hillsborough, a small hamlet along the Eno River.
Pray the next high profile scoundrel not share your name too!
On the Biblical Studies list presently there’s a pretty interesting discussion in progress concerning history and methodology. To this point the following have contributed postings that may be worth reading if you are interested in the thorny and much discussed and debated topic:
Philip Davies- here.
Jim West- here.
John Staton- here.
Philip Davies responds here.
And most recently, Niels Peter Lemche here.
It all kicked off with a simple ’starter’ comment here, and the search for clarification was entered into by Joseph Calandrino, Cynthia Edenburg and Kevin Edgecomb.
As further relevant observations are made you can visit the list site to view them or subscribe.
The issue of ‘history, historicity, and methodology’ has been at the heart of virtually everything done in Biblical studies in the past two decades. Presently, there’s no consensus on even something so central as what the various disputants mean when they use the word ‘history’ or ‘historical’. Our inability to speak ‘to’ one another rather than ‘past’ one another is directly related to this confusion of terminology. We may not solve the problem in our discussion, but we certainly should be able to come to some agreement at least concerning what we don’t mean when we use the terms involved. If you have some thoughts on the subject we would certainly love to hear from you.
