God Bless Israel Night
This coming Sunday, July 6, 2008, The Summerlin Community Baptist Church is holding a “God Bless Israel Night.” It will be held at their church (find a map below) on 2100 Snow Trail (behind The Trails Shopping Center) at 6 PM. What exactly is it and why are they doing it?
I know that many of us feel very uneasy about the support Evangelical Christians show for Israel. On one hand, many of the issues on their political agenda are so very different if not diametrically opposed to many long held and treasured values within The Jewish Community. On the other hand, The Evangelical community has proven time and time again that their love for Israel is basically just predicated on a very simple premise: Love for Israel!
I know that for some of us it is very hard, but we need to start looking beyond the theological divide. I remember during the very hard days of the Intifada in Israel, being alone, standing on Ben Yehuda Street and the only other American tourists in sight were not Jews but Christians.
During the past years, I have had the opportunity to establish an ongoing dialogue with many of the pastors that are truly and genuinely friends of our People and friends of the State of Israel. In those conversations, I have never experienced anything that would lead me to believe that an ulterior motive for our friendship and their support for Israel exists.
So, why a “God Bless Israel Night?” Well, because we must never forget that in the midst of chaos and difficult times, there are people who still believe and understand Israel to be a light unto the nations!
Yes! Many of us are painfully aware of the different ways in which Evangelical Christians in the past have sought the unconditional conversion of the Jewish People to their faith. This by itself shouldn’t be a shock to us because this has always been a part of the mission of Christianity.
Perhaps one of the most difficult statements ever to come from an evangelical group came from the Southern Baptist Convention when Rev. Bailey Smith said, at the 1987 SBC convention, words to the effect that, “God does not hear the prayer of a Jew.”
In the same breath as the previous paragraph, let me also share with you that many of the children and adults that visit our Warsaw Ghetto Remembrance Garden at Temple Beth Sholom every year come from Evangelical Churches from around Las Vegas and around the country.
This coming Monday July 7, 2008, we will be hosting a group of about 40 teenagers from Garland Texas. They will be in Las Vegas to participate with their choir in the God Bless Israel Celebration.
More than the sometimes very harsh anti-Semitic rhetoric of the past, I sense a true renewal in our relationship with our Christian neighbors. They — more than us — are painfully aware of what has been done to the Jewish People in the past in the name of Christianity — not only in this country but all over the world.
What do we do with this? Let us work together on an answer: We must always be aware of what has been said and what has happened in the past! We should always be mindful that to move into the future, we sometimes need to take a leap of faith and believe that people’s intentions are indeed genuine.
I recently read a book that I found very interesting, and I would like to recommend it to anyone who, like me, felt suspicious and at best uncomfortable with the Evangelical community’s new-found passion for Israel. The name of the book is “Standing with Israel” by David Borg. I had the opportunity to listen to David Borg speak at an AIPAC Policy conference, and I found both his book and his remarks tremendously insightful.
I hope to see you this Sunday July 6, 2008 at 6:00 p.m. at the Summerlin Community Baptist Church to celebrate Israel with our Christian neighbors. Let us give ourselves a chance to see what it can feel like when people other than ourselves understand the meaning of Israel, Or L’Goyim — a night unto the nations.
Speakers: Congresswoman Shelly Berkley, Rabbi Felipe Goodman, Pastor David Fee. Special Musical Performance of Hatikva by The Garland Baptist Church Choir. Dairy refreshments provided by The Bagel Cafe.
© Rabbi Felipe Goodman, all rights reserved.
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July 8th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
I attended the “God Bless Israel Night.” The members of Summerlin Community Baptist Church put an incredible amount of thought, care, respect, and dedication into the preparation for that evening. This was clearly not something they decided to throw together a couple of weeks ago, but something I suspect they had been putting their hearts into for months.