learn2swim
23rd December 2011, 11:53 AM
Rabbi Joshua Hammerman has written what I suspect most American Jews feel—that football success for Tim Tebow would be bad for the Jews
People are always looking for signs of God’s beneficence, and a victory by the Orange Crush over the blue-clad Patriots, from the bluest of blue states, will give fodder to a Christian revivalism that has already turned the Republican presidential race into a pander-thon to social conservatives, rekindling memories of those cultural icons of the ‘80s, the Moral Majority and “Hee Haw.” The culture wars are alive and well, and, if the current climate in Washington is any indicator, the motors are being revved up for what will undoubtedly be the most cantankerous Presidential campaign ever. When supposedly well-educated candidates publicly question overwhelming scientific evidence on climate change and evolution and then gain electoral traction by fabricating conspiracies about a war on Christmas, these are not rational times….
If Tebow wins the Super Bowl, against all odds, it will buoy his faithful, and emboldened faithful can do insane things, like burning mosques, bashing gays and indiscriminately banishing immigrants. While America has become more inclusive since Jerry Falwell’s first political forays, a Tebow triumph could set those efforts back considerably.
I admire much of what Tebow stands for. His mom’s decision to risk her own life rather than abort her fetus flies against my own – and Judaism’s – values, but neither am I pro-choice in all cases. His story is so improbable that if he were to win it all, a part of me would be wondering whether there is a Purpose behind it, just as I saw a divine hand in the equally unbelievable Red Sox victory of 2004. And it makes me wonder whether other Jews, the ones who don’t happen to have advanced degrees in religion and a few decades of rabbinic experience, might be even more seduced by this unfolding drama. Will legions of Southern Baptist missionaries hit the college campuses the very next day, spreading this new gospel of Tim? Already there is a “Jews for Tebow” Facebook page.
Kevin McDonald translates:
These nuts are anti-science; they don’t believe in climate change and evolution; they’re basically a bunch of illiterate hicks. I, on the other hand, have enlightened views—entirely supported by science—that there are no racial differences in anything important like IQ and that social science is unanimous that multicultural societies work marvelously. Even the U. S. can be a successful multi-cultural society if we can squelch all public manifestations of Christianity. [Admittedly, this is a contradiction, but he has no conscious awareness that it's a contradiction. In the same way, his horror that the U.S. still has some trappings of Christianity doesn't interfere with his belief that Israel should remain a Jewish state. And his attitude that American Christians should be "inclusive" certainly doesn't extend to Israel's treatment of the Palestinians.] My views mark me as an educated person—the New York Times is my bible. Meanwhile, the yahoos that relate to Tebow remain unwashed even if they managed to get through college. For an entire century, these hicks have been standing in the way of our utopian multicultural fantasy world created by the Jewish intellectual left. We won the battle for the brains of the smart people a long time ago, but boobs like Tebow and his fans are still dangerous. We don’t yet have the entire power of the federal government available to put these people in a gulag, but we enlightened and superior folk have to do everything we can to stop them.
http://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/2011/12/tim-tebow-phobia-jewish-fear-and-loathing-of-christianity/#comments
People are always looking for signs of God’s beneficence, and a victory by the Orange Crush over the blue-clad Patriots, from the bluest of blue states, will give fodder to a Christian revivalism that has already turned the Republican presidential race into a pander-thon to social conservatives, rekindling memories of those cultural icons of the ‘80s, the Moral Majority and “Hee Haw.” The culture wars are alive and well, and, if the current climate in Washington is any indicator, the motors are being revved up for what will undoubtedly be the most cantankerous Presidential campaign ever. When supposedly well-educated candidates publicly question overwhelming scientific evidence on climate change and evolution and then gain electoral traction by fabricating conspiracies about a war on Christmas, these are not rational times….
If Tebow wins the Super Bowl, against all odds, it will buoy his faithful, and emboldened faithful can do insane things, like burning mosques, bashing gays and indiscriminately banishing immigrants. While America has become more inclusive since Jerry Falwell’s first political forays, a Tebow triumph could set those efforts back considerably.
I admire much of what Tebow stands for. His mom’s decision to risk her own life rather than abort her fetus flies against my own – and Judaism’s – values, but neither am I pro-choice in all cases. His story is so improbable that if he were to win it all, a part of me would be wondering whether there is a Purpose behind it, just as I saw a divine hand in the equally unbelievable Red Sox victory of 2004. And it makes me wonder whether other Jews, the ones who don’t happen to have advanced degrees in religion and a few decades of rabbinic experience, might be even more seduced by this unfolding drama. Will legions of Southern Baptist missionaries hit the college campuses the very next day, spreading this new gospel of Tim? Already there is a “Jews for Tebow” Facebook page.
Kevin McDonald translates:
These nuts are anti-science; they don’t believe in climate change and evolution; they’re basically a bunch of illiterate hicks. I, on the other hand, have enlightened views—entirely supported by science—that there are no racial differences in anything important like IQ and that social science is unanimous that multicultural societies work marvelously. Even the U. S. can be a successful multi-cultural society if we can squelch all public manifestations of Christianity. [Admittedly, this is a contradiction, but he has no conscious awareness that it's a contradiction. In the same way, his horror that the U.S. still has some trappings of Christianity doesn't interfere with his belief that Israel should remain a Jewish state. And his attitude that American Christians should be "inclusive" certainly doesn't extend to Israel's treatment of the Palestinians.] My views mark me as an educated person—the New York Times is my bible. Meanwhile, the yahoos that relate to Tebow remain unwashed even if they managed to get through college. For an entire century, these hicks have been standing in the way of our utopian multicultural fantasy world created by the Jewish intellectual left. We won the battle for the brains of the smart people a long time ago, but boobs like Tebow and his fans are still dangerous. We don’t yet have the entire power of the federal government available to put these people in a gulag, but we enlightened and superior folk have to do everything we can to stop them.
http://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/2011/12/tim-tebow-phobia-jewish-fear-and-loathing-of-christianity/#comments