Christianity has an image problem, and Christians ought to pay earnest attention to it, rather than dismissing it as the product of media bias. That\’s the message of a new book that should be of interest to Jews, because it shows the kind of questions that Christians have started asking themselves — questions that we Jews don\’t seem to be asking ourselves. Yet we, too, have an image problem.
Isn\’t that a pretty good indication that the Bible favors using the power of the government to coerce the citizenry to be charitable over relying on private generosity? Actually, not at all.
For Prager is one of a handful of America\’s most valuable Jews. Why? Because of the role he has taken as a foremost Jewish spokesman for the Bible. I don\’t mean he\’s some sort of radio preacher. But when appropriate, in his daily discussions with callers on political and cultural subjects, he often brings in a scriptural perspective — without apology, always with a light touch, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
The fast-emerging religious left contrasts sharply on many issues — from homosexual marriage to socialized medicine — with its longer-established competitor, the religious right. Yet these two Bible-citing political movements equally have woken up to the realization that there is something intrinsically American about using the Bible as a guide to practical politics. That\’s good news and a blow to secularist orthodoxy.
The film version of author Dan Brown\’s bestseller, \”The Da Vinci Code,\” premiered this week amid a cacophony of unhappy historians and theologians who hoped to reach the horde of curious moviegoers seeking a good diversion — which is also what prompted many readers to pick up the book in the first place.
By now thousands of published articles, ranging from critical to hateful, have appeared about the famous Jack Abramoff — Orthodox Jew, former Washington super-lobbyist, product of an affluent Beverly Hills upbringing and future inmate of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. He has pleaded guilty to mail fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy.
Devoted to fighting anti-Jewish bigotry, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is America\’s most influential Jewish group. So what are we to make of the weird air of unreality in the ADL\’s public statements about Christians?
In \”The Myth of Hitler\’s Pope,\” Rabbi David G. Dalin has written an important, frank and lucid defense of an unfairly maligned figure of recent history. Dalin\’s book clears up often-heard libels about the World War II papacy of Pius XII. It also provides an opportunity to reflect on the role those libels play in the wider cultural context.
Passover, now upon us, apart from being an occasion for family reunions and indigestion is the right time for a more serious activity:
I mean, reflecting on the claim that our religion is highly rational and even the claim that Judaism is \”true.\”
Far from being ethnic chest thumping, this assertion of truth can be defended with a straight face.
Mel Gibson\’s \”The Passion of the Christ\” was the most important American religious event of the past year. For Christians, its effects were quite positive, as viewers already committed to belief in Jesus were roused to renew their faith through the heartrending story of the Crucifixion. For America\’s Jewish community, the effects of the film can also be positive, if we draw the right retrospective lessons not from the movie itself but from the controversy that still surrounds it.
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