Anne vs. Joe Jr. (anti Semitism in the evangelical WCG)
A timely piece because XCG's Gary Scott is discussing the issue as well as Gavin Rumney's Ambassador Watch blog. Here is one of a collections of previous written articles by Anne Hanna and she again(as usual) is right on the money about Joe Jr. dangerously creating an anti-Semitic environment in the current WCG.
---Felix Taylor, Jr.
I found Dr. Tkach’s latest (July 2003 WN) Personal very disturbing on many levels but one in particular deals with what I experienced and saw when I was still in WCG. I feel this article may be taking the church further down a very dangerous road, that of Christian anti-Semitism.
Discrimination is a recognised evil by both society in general and the WCG. Dr. Tkach encouraged/funded the creation of the Office of Reconciliation Ministries (ORM). ORM is supposedly dedicated to improving relations between groups who have experienced the sin of prejudice because of ethnic origin, gender or culture. The existence of ORM actually underscores the cognitive dissonance of the WCG when it comes to this matter.
Discrimination/prejudice can take many forms in which those who have power engage in negative behaviours against those who are powerless and different. These negative actions can include perpetuating false stereotypes, demeaning others, creating a hostile environment, and denial of justice/equality. Race discrimination is prejudice based on ethnic origin. Gender discrimination based on gender and cultural discrimination based on culture.
Anti-Semitism is prejudice based on both Jewish origin and culture. Christian anti-Semitism adds the misuse of the New Testament to justify demeaning the Jewish people in order to exalt Christian beliefs. It includes slandering Jewish spirituality, practices, and beliefs as being anti-God. As an example, Jewish people have often been pictured as opponents of the gospel in terms of blindness, infidelity, and legalism. This view of the Jewish people justified almost 2,000 years of violence and prejudice at the hands of Christians.
It has led to a saying among the Jewish people:
How odd of God To choose the Jew, But not so odd As those who choose The Jewish God And hate the Jew.
Now please do not misunderstand what I am saying. I am not saying that the WCG is acting directly against the Jewish people. Rather it is going out of its way to stigmatize members who prefer their WCG traditions by saying they are acting like Jews as if appearing Jewish is a sin. It is not a great leap to imply that if appearing Jewish is a sin then wouldn’t it follow that being Jewish is a greater sin and being a Hassidic Jew a greater sin still?
Consider what the senior WCG leadership gave at a 1998 Ministerial Conference as one of the reasons for wanting to get rid of the WCG festivals:
"1 - The continued observance of OT Holydays was having a negative impact on new members understanding of the NT covenant. Some of them were even leaving the church and had become Hassidic Jews complete with beards, hats, and yarmulkes." (Summary of Regional Pastor Alan Barr’s July 11, 1998 Sermon in Kennesaw, GA)
Their reason for advocating that the festivals need to be eliminated is because they are “negative” and oppose the understanding of the gospel. This negativity is evidenced in how they are not just turning some of the “new members” into “Jews” but that they are being turned into “Hassidic Jews.” That such a negative view is implied in the first place let alone in WCG ministerial training is disquieting to say the least.
It is common knowledge that Dr. Tkach is in a war against his own members because they are resisting his efforts to make them adopt his worship preferences. As has been pointed out he is in a dilemma because he had confessed:
“What would happen if we abolished all Saturday services and the annual festivals? We would be compromising the very principals of the gospel, of salvation by grace through faith in Christ, upon which we stand.
Many people would see it, and rightly so, as hypocrisy.” WN Personal Mar. 1999.
He has the power to abolish the days by executive order but he doesn’t dare. So rather than using the power of executive order he uses the powers of ownership and of employer-employee authority to instruct his employees to make the congregations choose to change their days as quickly as possible.
Specifically, the Pastors must superficially give congregations a choice. If the congregation chooses “wrong” then they must be “educated” to make the “right choice” next time, and so on and so on… When will worship cease to be an issue, when the remaining members make the “right choice” of choosing what the Pastor General has already determined.
Hence we have a situation similar to that from the mini-series Roots where as Pastor Ron Stoddart pointed out on his Pastor’s Desk earlier this year:
In the television series Roots there is a scene in which the slave traders are trying to break the spirit of the young black man named Kunta Kinte, whom they have captured and brought to America from his African homeland. They have tied him to a tree, and with whips they are attempting to beat into him a new and submissive identity, "Your name is Toby," they say. The young man resists, and the whips fall. "Your name is Toby." More resistance, and the whips fall again and again. Finally the punishment is too severe, and the young man hangs his head in defeat and speaks his slave name, "Toby."…
Pastor Stoddart of course wasn’t comparing Kunta’s treatment to the treatment of the WCG members, but I believe he fails to see the obvious comparison this example creates as he goes on:
“This emphasis will mean we won't revolve around the Exodus events. It means we will base our calendars on the Jesus events. This includes the time He was fastened to a tree as in the above illustration.
I have never been emotionally moved by the crossing of the Red sea even when I saw Charlton Heston in the movie. But I can't think of any Christian who is unmoved at the thought of crossing from death to life because Jesus died and rose again.
Jesus is Lord. When we are moved by His story, how can we not bow down in worship.
Have a great year. Pastor Ron”
Here again we see appearances of Christian anti-Semitism used for the express purpose of associating WCG traditionalists as being only Exodus focused as if they were looking to Moses (Charlton Heston) instead of “bowing down” to Jesus. Worse there is a strong implication that if the traditionalists/Jews are not bowing down to Jesus then they must be “bowing down” to Moses.
For the record, the Jews do not worship Moses and neither do the WCG traditionalists. True, the Jews do not acknowledge Jesus as God, but remember that the WCG traditionalists have always acknowledged (bowed down to) Jesus as their personal Lord and Saviour. Therefore, Pastor Ron does a disservice to both the Jewish people and the WCG traditionalists with prejudicial stereotypes.
Why does Pastor Ron exhibit such behaviour? Simple he along with the rest of the WCG ministry has been taught/told to do this since at least as far back as 1998.
Consider as well that the paid ministry are the ones responsible for teaching the members. As society understands prejudice and discrimination is learned abusive behaviour.
The booklet “Finding Peace in Christ” is saturated with a tone of Christians worshipping in faith while others (the WCG traditionalist/the Jewish people) are pictured as being locked in a rigid system that concentrates on form and times instead of content and meaning:
"Christian worship is focused primarily on content and meaning rather than primarily on form or time." (Finding Peace in Christ, Pg. 60)
Even the chart at the back of the booklet completely ignores the WCG traditional meaning of the festivals. Worse in its efforts to stigmatize the festivals the booklet even misrepresents the Jewish views who see the festivals as revealing the past, present and future aspects of God‘s love for the world.
It is one thing for Christians and Jews to enter into debate/discussion about their faith differences. It is quite another when the WCG administration uses the term “Jewish” in a pejorative sense in order to accuse its own members of hindering the gospel and by easy extension as being opponents of the gospel.
This brings us again to the Pastor General’s latest contribution in all of this: “In light of Paul’s instruction, would Jesus have us distract people from the gospel with customs that mislead them about what it really means to follow Christ?…
Do we want the message of grace to be confused with laws that the gospel specifically sets aside as not for Christians? Do we want our customs to give the wrong impression about the gospel, rather than to commend Christ? …
We need to set aside the Jewish customs (unless you are in a Jewish culture)!…
But when we want to make the gospel attractive to a Gentile society, we need to eliminate customs that confuse the gospel with the old covenant law. That’s something worth thinking about."(Worldwide News July Personal “Something Worth Thinking About”)
Is what the Pastor General says true? I don‘t think so:
1. It should be obvious that WCG traditions are no more “Jewish” because of their origins than Christmas is “pagan” because of its origins. WCG traditions and Christmas are Christian because of their Christian meaning in the WCG culture;
2. Paul’s situation in the pagan Greco-Roman world is distinctly different than ours in a pluralistic 24/7 society that values variety;
3. WCG traditions must be somewhat attractive to “Gentiles” because for 7 years the majority of WCG “Gentiles” have known they don’t have to keep them but in the face of inordinate and unwarranted opposition they still continue to express their desire to keep them.
The organization Jews for Jesus (who are members of the World Evangelical Alliance) often put on a presentation entitled Christ in the Passover. Part of that presentation rehearses how the unleavened bread (matzo) represents Jesus in much the same way that the WCG did for decades. When I witnessed this presentation with a group of Evangelicals I was surprised at all of the “amen’s” and “hallelujahs” from the audience. Such a positive response would seem to indicate that WCG traditions may have some surprising advantages if given the chance.
As an example, it doesn’t take an evangelism genius to note that if someone asks why I am eating a matzo that they are asking because they notice something different. They wouldn’t have asked if I was eating a regular sandwich but because I’m eating a matzo they ask.
With their question I now have an invitation/chance to share the gospel where before I had no invitation. I can point to Jesus’ perfection/sinlessness, our need for repentance, how Jesus was pierced as the matzo is in order to pay for our sins, and how we need to make Jesus an intimate part of our lives. Is such a response a hindrance to the gospel or is it front line evangelism that recommends Jesus?
I have to worry about the future of the WCG, particularly when the Pastor General has gone from seeing Jesus in the symbolism of the matzo… to calling that symbol of Christ a Jewish custom that must be set aside.
Just something else worth thinking about...
Discrimination is a recognised evil by both society in general and the WCG. Dr. Tkach encouraged/funded the creation of the Office of Reconciliation Ministries (ORM). ORM is supposedly dedicated to improving relations between groups who have experienced the sin of prejudice because of ethnic origin, gender or culture. The existence of ORM actually underscores the cognitive dissonance of the WCG when it comes to this matter.
Discrimination/prejudice can take many forms in which those who have power engage in negative behaviours against those who are powerless and different. These negative actions can include perpetuating false stereotypes, demeaning others, creating a hostile environment, and denial of justice/equality. Race discrimination is prejudice based on ethnic origin. Gender discrimination based on gender and cultural discrimination based on culture.
Anti-Semitism is prejudice based on both Jewish origin and culture. Christian anti-Semitism adds the misuse of the New Testament to justify demeaning the Jewish people in order to exalt Christian beliefs. It includes slandering Jewish spirituality, practices, and beliefs as being anti-God. As an example, Jewish people have often been pictured as opponents of the gospel in terms of blindness, infidelity, and legalism. This view of the Jewish people justified almost 2,000 years of violence and prejudice at the hands of Christians.
It has led to a saying among the Jewish people:
How odd of God To choose the Jew, But not so odd As those who choose The Jewish God And hate the Jew.
Now please do not misunderstand what I am saying. I am not saying that the WCG is acting directly against the Jewish people. Rather it is going out of its way to stigmatize members who prefer their WCG traditions by saying they are acting like Jews as if appearing Jewish is a sin. It is not a great leap to imply that if appearing Jewish is a sin then wouldn’t it follow that being Jewish is a greater sin and being a Hassidic Jew a greater sin still?
Consider what the senior WCG leadership gave at a 1998 Ministerial Conference as one of the reasons for wanting to get rid of the WCG festivals:
"1 - The continued observance of OT Holydays was having a negative impact on new members understanding of the NT covenant. Some of them were even leaving the church and had become Hassidic Jews complete with beards, hats, and yarmulkes." (Summary of Regional Pastor Alan Barr’s July 11, 1998 Sermon in Kennesaw, GA)
Their reason for advocating that the festivals need to be eliminated is because they are “negative” and oppose the understanding of the gospel. This negativity is evidenced in how they are not just turning some of the “new members” into “Jews” but that they are being turned into “Hassidic Jews.” That such a negative view is implied in the first place let alone in WCG ministerial training is disquieting to say the least.
It is common knowledge that Dr. Tkach is in a war against his own members because they are resisting his efforts to make them adopt his worship preferences. As has been pointed out he is in a dilemma because he had confessed:
“What would happen if we abolished all Saturday services and the annual festivals? We would be compromising the very principals of the gospel, of salvation by grace through faith in Christ, upon which we stand.
Many people would see it, and rightly so, as hypocrisy.” WN Personal Mar. 1999.
He has the power to abolish the days by executive order but he doesn’t dare. So rather than using the power of executive order he uses the powers of ownership and of employer-employee authority to instruct his employees to make the congregations choose to change their days as quickly as possible.
Specifically, the Pastors must superficially give congregations a choice. If the congregation chooses “wrong” then they must be “educated” to make the “right choice” next time, and so on and so on… When will worship cease to be an issue, when the remaining members make the “right choice” of choosing what the Pastor General has already determined.
Hence we have a situation similar to that from the mini-series Roots where as Pastor Ron Stoddart pointed out on his Pastor’s Desk earlier this year:
In the television series Roots there is a scene in which the slave traders are trying to break the spirit of the young black man named Kunta Kinte, whom they have captured and brought to America from his African homeland. They have tied him to a tree, and with whips they are attempting to beat into him a new and submissive identity, "Your name is Toby," they say. The young man resists, and the whips fall. "Your name is Toby." More resistance, and the whips fall again and again. Finally the punishment is too severe, and the young man hangs his head in defeat and speaks his slave name, "Toby."…
Pastor Stoddart of course wasn’t comparing Kunta’s treatment to the treatment of the WCG members, but I believe he fails to see the obvious comparison this example creates as he goes on:
“This emphasis will mean we won't revolve around the Exodus events. It means we will base our calendars on the Jesus events. This includes the time He was fastened to a tree as in the above illustration.
I have never been emotionally moved by the crossing of the Red sea even when I saw Charlton Heston in the movie. But I can't think of any Christian who is unmoved at the thought of crossing from death to life because Jesus died and rose again.
Jesus is Lord. When we are moved by His story, how can we not bow down in worship.
Have a great year. Pastor Ron”
Here again we see appearances of Christian anti-Semitism used for the express purpose of associating WCG traditionalists as being only Exodus focused as if they were looking to Moses (Charlton Heston) instead of “bowing down” to Jesus. Worse there is a strong implication that if the traditionalists/Jews are not bowing down to Jesus then they must be “bowing down” to Moses.
For the record, the Jews do not worship Moses and neither do the WCG traditionalists. True, the Jews do not acknowledge Jesus as God, but remember that the WCG traditionalists have always acknowledged (bowed down to) Jesus as their personal Lord and Saviour. Therefore, Pastor Ron does a disservice to both the Jewish people and the WCG traditionalists with prejudicial stereotypes.
Why does Pastor Ron exhibit such behaviour? Simple he along with the rest of the WCG ministry has been taught/told to do this since at least as far back as 1998.
Consider as well that the paid ministry are the ones responsible for teaching the members. As society understands prejudice and discrimination is learned abusive behaviour.
The booklet “Finding Peace in Christ” is saturated with a tone of Christians worshipping in faith while others (the WCG traditionalist/the Jewish people) are pictured as being locked in a rigid system that concentrates on form and times instead of content and meaning:
"Christian worship is focused primarily on content and meaning rather than primarily on form or time." (Finding Peace in Christ, Pg. 60)
Even the chart at the back of the booklet completely ignores the WCG traditional meaning of the festivals. Worse in its efforts to stigmatize the festivals the booklet even misrepresents the Jewish views who see the festivals as revealing the past, present and future aspects of God‘s love for the world.
It is one thing for Christians and Jews to enter into debate/discussion about their faith differences. It is quite another when the WCG administration uses the term “Jewish” in a pejorative sense in order to accuse its own members of hindering the gospel and by easy extension as being opponents of the gospel.
This brings us again to the Pastor General’s latest contribution in all of this: “In light of Paul’s instruction, would Jesus have us distract people from the gospel with customs that mislead them about what it really means to follow Christ?…
Do we want the message of grace to be confused with laws that the gospel specifically sets aside as not for Christians? Do we want our customs to give the wrong impression about the gospel, rather than to commend Christ? …
We need to set aside the Jewish customs (unless you are in a Jewish culture)!…
But when we want to make the gospel attractive to a Gentile society, we need to eliminate customs that confuse the gospel with the old covenant law. That’s something worth thinking about."(Worldwide News July Personal “Something Worth Thinking About”)
Is what the Pastor General says true? I don‘t think so:
1. It should be obvious that WCG traditions are no more “Jewish” because of their origins than Christmas is “pagan” because of its origins. WCG traditions and Christmas are Christian because of their Christian meaning in the WCG culture;
2. Paul’s situation in the pagan Greco-Roman world is distinctly different than ours in a pluralistic 24/7 society that values variety;
3. WCG traditions must be somewhat attractive to “Gentiles” because for 7 years the majority of WCG “Gentiles” have known they don’t have to keep them but in the face of inordinate and unwarranted opposition they still continue to express their desire to keep them.
The organization Jews for Jesus (who are members of the World Evangelical Alliance) often put on a presentation entitled Christ in the Passover. Part of that presentation rehearses how the unleavened bread (matzo) represents Jesus in much the same way that the WCG did for decades. When I witnessed this presentation with a group of Evangelicals I was surprised at all of the “amen’s” and “hallelujahs” from the audience. Such a positive response would seem to indicate that WCG traditions may have some surprising advantages if given the chance.
As an example, it doesn’t take an evangelism genius to note that if someone asks why I am eating a matzo that they are asking because they notice something different. They wouldn’t have asked if I was eating a regular sandwich but because I’m eating a matzo they ask.
With their question I now have an invitation/chance to share the gospel where before I had no invitation. I can point to Jesus’ perfection/sinlessness, our need for repentance, how Jesus was pierced as the matzo is in order to pay for our sins, and how we need to make Jesus an intimate part of our lives. Is such a response a hindrance to the gospel or is it front line evangelism that recommends Jesus?
I have to worry about the future of the WCG, particularly when the Pastor General has gone from seeing Jesus in the symbolism of the matzo… to calling that symbol of Christ a Jewish custom that must be set aside.
Just something else worth thinking about...
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