Pentecostal vs Jews

	Jewish Belief	Pentecostal Belief
Dominonism	Separation of church and state is a basic principle of the Jewish faith.	Domination in the nation’s political process is a mandate from God; 'biblical law' should be the foundation of American law.
Reproductive Rights	Judaism supports abortion access for women.	Against any form of abortion under any circumstances.
Equal Rights for Gays	Generally not anti-gay (except in orthodox followers).	Gays can be taught not to be gay by accepting Jesus.
Resurrection of Christ	Jewish faith believes in Jesus as a prophet but not as their Savior.	Jesus will return to earth to save all true believers; the Jews will recognize Jesus on his return as the true Messiah and Savior.

“She’s totally out of step with the American Jewish community. She is against reproductive freedom – even against abortion in the case of rape and incest. She has said that climate change is not man-made. She has said that she would favor teaching creationism in the schools. These are all way, way, way outside the mainstream.”

So said Ira Forman,,Executive Director of the National Jewish Democratic Council about VP nominee Sarah Palin. The National Jewish Democratic Council is an advocacy group that seeks to unify American Jews who share the values of the Democratic Party. The Council’s goals are to maintain separation of church and state, a strong US-Israel relationship and to allow reproductive freedom. The Council’s objectives are to inform Jewish voters and to participate in expanding Jewish awareness. Most notable is the objective on: ‘Fighting the radical right agenda at every turn through research and reports, grassroots advocacy, working directly with lawmakers in Washington, and educating journalists.’

This statement takes aim at the face of the GOP and shoots an arrow directly at the radical religious right. This is what makes John Hagee’s relationship with the Jewish community so bizarre. Hagee, of course, is a Republican with a frightening view of the ‘end of times’ doctrine that permeates Pentecostal/evangelical grass roots congregations throughout America. As we have seen, the roots of radicalism travel far and wide but to pick a starting point, it all goes back to the fundamental premise that church and state are one unified Christian front appointed by God to do God’s will until the day that Christ brings The Rapture.
Hagee, the head of "Christians United For Israel" is a proponent of "Christian Zionism". It means the belief that Israel is a ‘chosen’ land as is the U.S. According to Hagee and his proponents the state of Israel must be defended at all costs because that is where Jesus will return to earth. Hagee believes that Israel is the seat of God’s foreign policy and he supports his statement with scripture in a recent interview with mainstream media:

“A Christian Zionist is someone who believes that the Bible supports Israel. God begins in the foreign policy of Israel in Genesis 12:3 saying, I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you.”

If belief in that Biblical passage is what makes a Zionist, then it is difficult not to include Sarah Palin in that category – she supports Israel but her religious base does not endorse separation of church and state nor reproductive rights. Further, the Wasilla Bible Church hosted David Brickner, executive director of Jews for Jesus, who addressed the congregation with a discourse on the punishment of Jews for their refusal to accept Jesus as the son of God. Church Pastor Larry Kroon closed the service with a vow to pray for salvation of all Jews.

Jews for Jesus, based in San Francisco is a Christian evangelistic organization that seeks to convert Jews to Christianity by accepting Jesus as their savior. The Jews for Jesus website has this statement: “We believe that Israel exists as a covenant people through whom God continues to accomplish His purposes and that the Church is an elect people in accordance with the New Covenant, comprising both Jews and Gentiles who acknowledge Jesus as Messiah and Redeemer”.

The question now needs to be asked: what’s in it for these religious right groups who seek to ‘save’ the Jews from themselves? Recalling that Hagee and his cronies believe Israel to be the seat of God’s foreign policy, he is sure that when Jesus does return the Jewish people will also recognize and accept Him as their Messiah. And all of that makes way for Hagee et.al. to rule the world according to their laws, their interpretation of God’s will. They will crush the infidels (Iran) and all non-believers and prepare for Jesus’ return in the Rapture.

So even while these groups claim to have the best interests of the Jewish community at heart, the fact that they insist that all Jews believe in Christ as the savior basically means that there is no religious freedom for Jews (or anyone else for that matter), nor is there a clear understanding of or respect for what it means to be Jewish.

Meanwhile, Democrats are counting on Palin’s social conservatism, her lack of experience with issues on Israel and the culture of evangelism to swing the Jewish vote well and truly to the left. At the end of the day, for the religious right it is about power – dominionism and theocratic rule.

Perhaps the roughly 7 million Americans of Jewish decent should beware of Sarah Palin’s Trojan Horse. It might just contain John Hagee and all that he stands for.