Leaving Jew-hating Behind

Here’s one of those things I don’t like sharing about myself, but I find it’s important to spill it out now. Some years ago, I developed what could not be described as anything but an intense hatred of Jewish people. It grew out of struggles I was having with Jewish neighbors who obviously despised me for my evangelical Christian faith, and who especially hated the things I wrote. This was not a huge shock to me, because we Christians more or less expect hostility from Jews over our faith, especially when we try to express it publicly.

But because of what I experienced from these neighbors, a real bitter, contempt developed in me for all Jewish people of a liberal or leftist persuasion. It was the progressive Jews like my neighbors who I felt a growing hatred for, because I saw them as standing for everything that not only ran counter to my beliefs, but also as people who would do anything and everything possible to force me to slander those beliefs and to become what they wanted me to be.

I grew angrier over both what my neighbors were doing, trying to find some way to stop me from writing and publishing anything, and over what I saw the wider, liberal Jewish community doing. I came to view all progressive Jews as aggressive promoters of everything that cause moral and spiritual degradation to our nation and around the world. This not only included gay rights and same-sex marriage, but the worst forms of pornography and lurid entertainment, and the complete suppression of all Christian truth, with the ultimate criminalization of Christianity as a religion as their final goal. While much of what I’ve described form the Jewish left may well be true, it does not excuse me from developing hatred within me for the people themselves.

The turning point for me came when I read a New Testament passage from the book of Romans. I had read the 9th Chapter many times before, but even as I wrestled with all of my negative feelings for those I considered left-wing Jews, God spoke a stern reminder to me through His written word, the Bible. The opening five verses of that chapter leaped out at me one day as I was seething over something done by my neighbors. The Apostle Paul wrote of his “great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart”…”for the sake of my people, those of my own race, the people of Israel.” He was saddened over their rejection of Jesus Christ as the Messiah. This grieved Paul because of the Jewish heritage of being singled out by God to be His specially chosen people through whom He would work out His plan of redemption for humankind. The Jews provided the ancestry for the Messiah, and hold the promise of God’s unending love even today, though most have not embraced Jesus Christ as their Messiah.

The implications of this hit me hard, and brought me into a time of repentance. I had to come to terms with the fact that no matter how evil I perceived some Jewish people to be, I had no right to harbor grudges or hatred against any of them. Even as I continued to read on through the 10th and 11th chapters of Romans, I felt more deeply convicted over the animosity I had allowed to grow in me not only against Jewish neighbors but against secular Jews in general. I was reminded that as a gentile Christian, I am “a wild olive shoot”…”grafted in among the others” (v. 17), and that I have no business nursing hostility within me toward any Jews. I am also reminded in vss. 28 & 29 that even though Jews are natural enemies to me when it comes to my faith, they are still loved by God and will not be abandoned or rejected by God as a race when the end of time comes.

This brought me to a point where I had to seek God’s forgiveness for my bitter anger and hatred toward progressive Jews, especially my neighbors, and instead, resolve to be quiet and let God deal with whatever got thrown at me, and the people involved. In place of bitterness and rage, I found God in Christ filling my heart with a growing love and concern for Jewish people, and for the nation of Israel especially. I was upset over the nuclear deal with Iran, because as the details of the pact were made public, it became apparent that the accord struck between our president and Iran’s mullahs amounted to a veiled declaration of war against Israel. Iran got everything it wanted, and Israel was left more of an open target. I believe in praying for the peace of Jerusalem, because therein, we secure our own peace. To do otherwise is to invite disaster in one form or another against our own nation.

This leads me to address all Jewish people whoever you are, and wherever you are: as an evangelical Christian, you may hate me through and through for my faith, despise everything I believe in, and wish to see me and all other Christians disappear from the face of the earth. I understand that, because we Christians have fueled some of that hostility with very un-Christlike attitudes and actions toward Jews. You may be gay or straight, a capitalist or communist, a devout Orthodox, synagogue-goer or avowed atheist, but that does not matter. If you are attacked simply for being Jewish, I will stand in defense of you in whatever way I can, no matter what. You may not want my support, but nonetheless, you will have it, because that is what God in Jesus Christ has placed in my heart for you. If that makes me a target of Islamic extremists or anti-Semitic white supremacists, so be it. May God make Himself real to all of you in the days ahead. Shalom.

(Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011, by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.)