An hour ago I discovered the Cross and the Red Star. In spirit I come to Prague and indwell in the Church of Saint Francis i Prague. It is twelve midnight. I demand Israel cease killing children, and stop its bombing of the Gaza.
John The Bohemian Prophet of Prague
EXTRA! After I posted this on October 28, 2023, I played the video I made in April of 2020/ Wow! I declare the War of Armageddon has begun. Hamas was training for an attack.
The best part is, I found my cat Classy – when she was young!
“This suppression would have had fatal consequences for the Order operating at that time only in the Czech lands. In this context, the Grand Master was preparing the possible relocation of the entire Order to the United States”
Was this order going to be sponsored by the Order of Saint in Dubuque? Consider the Rosamond line to the Schwarzenberg family.
The Knights of the Cross with the Red Star (Latin: Ordo Militaris Crucigerorum cum Rubea Stella, Crucigeri cum rubea stella, Crucigeri stellati, Stelliferi, Czech: Rytířský řád Křižovníků s červenou hvězdou, German: Kreuzherren mit dem Roten Stern, postnominal initials: O.Cr., O.Crucig.), also known as the Military Order of the Crusaders of the Red Star[1] is a Catholic religious order present in the Czech Republic and Austria. It is the only religious order originating from Bohemia and the only male religious order in the world founded by a woman. The spirituality of the Order nowadays consists of two pillars: The first is the pastoral care in the former so-called incorporated parishes, the second is the hospitaller charisma given to the Order in its beginnings by its founder, St. Agnes of Bohemia.
The Order is currently a community of canons regular. The institute of lay brothers, which existed in the Order throughout history, ceased to exist during the 18th century. The superior general of the Order receives an abbatial benediction and uses the title of Grand Master and General. His seat is in the Prague Crusader Monastery at the Old Town foot of the Charles Bridge.
The Order has 18 members, as of 1 January 2021.[2]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_of_the_Cross_with_the_Red_Star
History of the Order[edit]
Because the new speaker of the house said his Christian-Party will give monetary aid to Israel – and then to the Ukraine – I am calling for….The Jesus Report!
Medieval age[edit]
In 1233, St. Agnes of Bohemia founded a hospital fraternity of Franciscan tertiaries at her monastery in Prague. This community, inspired by the nursing military orders, was dedicated to the care of elderly, sick and other needy people. In 1235 the hospital was richly endowed by the Queen of Bohemia, Agnes’s mother, with property formerly belonging to the Teutonic Knights. A few years later, in 1237 the Order had been formally constituted under the Rule of St. Augustine by Pope Gregory IX. Despite relatively clear origins of the Order, its beginnings used to be subject of legends, especially in the Baroque period: Traditionally its roots were traced back to Holy Land. Nevertheless, in a parchment Breviary of the Order, dated 1356, the account of foundation contains no allusion to such a crusader lineage.[3]
1900–1945[edit]
The first decade of the service of Grand Master František Xaver Marat was marked by extensive building development of the Order, which was crowned by the reconstruction of the monastery at Charles Bridge (1908-1912). The tasks that awaited his successor and the second longest serving Grand Master Josef Vlasák were of a completely different nature. He took office during the hard years of World War I, continued through the difficult period of the First Republic followed by the years of Nazi occupation, and passed away during the Stalinist period of the Communist regime.
During the World War I, the Grand Master had to deal with a severe shortage of food for both the monastery and its hospital. After 1918, in the turbulent atmosphere of the young Czechoslovak republic and in the anti-Catholic sentiment that resonated in Czech society, there were talks about the dissolution of monasteries. This suppression would have had fatal consequences for the Order operating at that time only in the Czech lands. In this context, the Grand Master was preparing the possible relocation of the entire Order to the United States.[11] Fortunately for the Church, the situation eventually stabilized, and the Order was able to continue to serve in its traditional locations. Despite the economic difficulties caused by the Czechoslovak land reform and the Great Depression, the Order continued its social activities and generously financed the restoration of the Convent of Saint Agnes in Prague – Na Františku and constructions of new churches in Prague’s suburbs.[12]
The Flag of Saint Francis
Posted on April 25, 2022 by Royal Rosamond Press
When I awoke from my Old Man Nap….God bid me to restore The Oriflamme and take it Jerusalem with the Franciscan Fleet. Today is Orthodox Easter.
A relic of the cross may have been on the Moskva which may have been slated to sail to Jerusalem.
John
Custody of the Holy Land – Wikipedia
Sunken Russian warship may have carried Christian relic ‘True Cross’ piece
The Moskva — Infamous for its role in the Snake Island incident — Was sunk last week, and may have been carrying a Christian relic, a fragment of the True Cross.
Published: APRIL 18, 2022 14:50
A view shows Russian warships on sunset ahead of the Navy Day parade in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol, Crimea July 27, 2019
(photo credit: REUTERS/ALEXEY PAVLISHAK)
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The Russian warship that sunk during the military operations against Ukraine last week may have been carrying what is claimed by some Christians to be a fragment of the cross that Jesus Christ was crucified on.
The Russian Black Sea Fleet flagship Moskva — which helped seize Snake Island in an infamous incident at the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine War — sank on Thursday after being seriously damaged following an explosion that a Ukrainian official said was the result of a missile strike.
In 2020, it was decided that a Christian relic, a piece of the “True Cross,” would be carried on the Moskva, archpriest of the Russian Orthodox Church’s Sevastopol District Sergiy Khalyuta told Russian state media outlet TASS.
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Benny Gantz: Hamas responsible for rocket fire from Gaza
The True Cross that Jesus Christ was crucified on was supposedly found by Roman Emperor Constantine’s mother, Empress Helena, and the alleged fragments of the cross have over the centuries been dispersed among different sects and churches. Khalyuta emphasized to TASS that fragments of the true cross are very rare and of great religious importance for all Christian denominations.
“This relic used to belong to a Catholic church, but was acquired by anonymous patrons of arts, and it was their will to send the relic to the [Black Sea] fleet,” Khalyuta told TASS. “The Moskva cruiser has an onboard chapel, where services take place.”
Russia claimed that a fire had started on board, detonating ammunition stores. It did not say what caused the fire, and that it was “under investigation.” Maksym Marchenko, the Ukrainian governor of the region around the Black Sea port of Odesa, claimed the Moskva had been hit by two Ukrainian-made Neptune anti-ship cruise missiles.
Russia later reported that the fire was contained, but the damaged Moskva later sank when the Black Sea Fleet attempted to tow it to safety during a storm.
The ship’s crew was evacuated, but there has been no word about if the Moskva‘s holy relic was saved as well, or sank to the bottom of the Black Sea with the vessel — now a lost relic.
The New Catholic Church of St. Francis
Posted on September 11, 2018 by Royal Rosamond Press
I was born with the Holy Spirit as was Christine Rosamond Benton, as was my daughter, Heather Hanson. We have been viciously attacked by Darklings who are jealous of our Light and want to own it. They are – finished!
In 1956, my two sisters, and the old woman up the street, were visited by a blue angel that filled our whole neighborhood in a Holy Spirit – that is still there!
This should have been our focus. Outsiders should never have been allowed near Christine’s legacy, nor Garth Benton.
I am going to do a series of religious paintings.
John
Mary Magdalene Rosamond of Saint Francis
Posted on December 1, 2016by Royal Rosamond Press
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Briar_Cliff_University
Briar Cliff University is a private, Franciscan, Roman Catholic, liberal arts university located in Sioux City, Iowa, United States.
In March 1929, Mother Mary Dominica Wieneke, Major Superior of the Sisters of Saint Francis of Dubuque, along with the Most Rev. Edmond Heelan, Bishop of the Sioux City Diocese, co-founded Briar Cliff College after meeting with members of the Sioux City community, who committed to raising $25,000 to support the establishment of a Catholic women’s college in Sioux City. The twelve foundresses of the College were carefully chosen by Mother Dominica. They were led by Sister Mary Servatius Greenen, who was named the first president.[2]
“Little Briar Rose“, a folk tale originally recorded by the Brothers Grimm and used as a basis for Disney’s Sleeping Beauty and Maleficent
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Saint Francis and The Perfect Master
Posted on December 24, 2014by Royal Rosamond Press
In 1987 Marilyn bid me to get a reading at the Berkeley Psychic Institute when I was in the Bay Area. I agreed, but was highly skeptical. A young woman began the reading by saying this;
“You own your own creation – You Died!”
Last night CNN did a program on people who cheat death. Ten years ago I went to a Catholic priest and asked him to hear my confession so I can complete my first communion that was interrupted when a father called me a liar. I had been reading about Meher Baba’s contact with Saint Francis. My angel bid me to return to the church and help transform it. Yesterday Pope Francis made that major change by walking in the footsteps of Saint Francis, and scolding the hiearchy.
When I was eleven, Christine ten, and Vicki, six, my sisters told me they saw a blue angel in their room. Later, the old woman up the street asked me to come fix her radio atenae that she had attached to her mattress springs. She told me she was falling asleep while listneding to the radio when there was much static. The room filled with a blue light. Se said she thought it was the boys across the canyon shining a spotlight in her room.
“It left burn holes in my curtain. Go see!”
I went to her window, and saw a circle of about twelve tiny burns in her lace curtain.
“Kay! You can’t see the other side of the canyon from here.”
In 1993 I began my autobiography ‘Bonds With Angel’ in hope I could heal my family. I had six years of sobriety. My family stole my story and gave it to ghost writers. They took my daughter and my grandson from me. They claim they have a spiritual program, but as the woman Seer went on to say;
“People keep coming into your being, and take, take, take! You are powerless to stop them. I don’t know why.”
The Holy Land of Francis
Posted on September 11, 2018 by Royal Rosamond Press
I claim King David’s Tomb where Helena the Nazarite was buried. Property owned by the Order of Saint Francis will be a neutral sanctuary for all peoples. But, this holy land will be in the care of a New Coalition of American Jews who descend from Jewish Immigrants who found Sanctuary in this Democracy. To take this linage of Democratic Jews to Israel, and place a fake citizenship upon these Americans, is fraudulent!
There are way more Jews in America than in Israel. Many of them members of Reform Judaism that was established by Frances Salvador that fought in the War of Independence. He was elected to office. This is the only image of Frances being killed by Native Americans. We need a better one. I am so busy.
Many Sephardic Jews owned slaves. Benjamin Judah was one of them. He managed the Confederacy. Slave helped build this Democracy. For this reason the property of Saint Francis should be open to pilgrimage where descendants of slaves may come and be closer to God. This can be in concordance with the IfNotNow Movement.
God has bid me to anoint the Duke and Duchess of Essex, and their descendants, Regal Caretakers of all property in Israel owned by the Order of Saint Francis.
John ‘The Nazarite’
There have been pleas from moderate Israelis to moderate Jews in America, who may consider themselves members of Reform Judaism, to help SAVE ISRAEL from the Orthodox Extremists who want the boundaries of King David’s kingdom, restored. The evangelicals want the Jews to restore David’s Kingdom – and Temple – so they can inherit God’s legacy. The OWNERSHIP OF KEY LAND is vital in fulfilling the religious prophecy of several religious groups when you throw in the Mormons who got into a dispute about whether they are a real religion.
Supporting Message to Karel Schwarzenberg
Posted on August 3, 2021 by Royal Rosamond Press
Here is the new group I formed, and my message to Karel Schwarzenberg.
Support Karel Schwarzenberg | Facebook
(8) Karel Schwarzenberg | Facebook
Dear Karel;
I came upon your article posted on your facebook about a “Pirate Party” and the “Civil War” Above is a portrait of Queen Elizabeth with eyes and ears on her dress. This denotes the spy network she established to keep track of the Habsburg Spanish Empire, that the Schwarzenberg family was an ally of. The Jessie Scouts was formed around my relative, Jessie Benton-Fremont, in order to spy on the foreigners in Mexico, including Maximillian von Habsburg. John Fremont is a co-founder of the Abolitionist Republican Party, and was that parties first Presidential Candidate. Over a year ago it was revealed you are related to them and my Rosamond kin. You may be kin to John Wilson seen above – who looks like you! You may be kin to General Robert E. Lee, and Christopher Lee who is being knighted.
I am kin to Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor, and Ian Fleming who created the spy, James Bond, who was assigned a number invented by John Dee. Dee was Queen Elizabeth’s favorite councilor. He appears to have set up the Queen’s Spy Unit. Dee was a guest of your relative, William Rosenberg, at Trebon castle where you might have stayed. Queen Elizabeth sent Sir Francis Drake on a exploration of the New World. Drake claimed California for Elizabeth, naming it New Albion.
I am looking for people to establish a Euro-California origination who would represent the interests of our Allies in trade across the Pacific. Fremont helped secure California and the Oregon Territory from the Russians and British. We would be honored if you would lend your expertise in this formation. Your openness and transparency – is stellar! California has the fifth largest economy in the world – that would become even more power with a bond with European Nations! I do not see the New Albion Union being run by politicians, but by men and women who own a certain vision, that I hope you can help define.
I was raised Catholic. Members of the Order of Saint Francis are my relatives. The Rosamond family were members of the Orange Lodge. As a theologian, I have ideas that will end the divide between the Catholic and Protestant Religion, and aim those ears and eyes at those who mean to do us harm, and take away our Common Liberty.
Sincerely
John Presco
President: Royal Rosamond Press
Support Karel Schwarzenberg. I just formed a new group. Karel Schwarzenberg and his family have stood up to the greatest tyrants of our time. My Preskowitz ancestors came to American from Bohemia. Karel complains that Putin treats the Czech Republic like a colony. Many Bohemians found a new home in Nebraska. Let us create an organization similar to the British Defence Staff of Washington so we can own a Hands Across the Water Bond, that will stand up to all tyrants, as is our Common Tradition.
(1) Support Karel Schwarzenberg | Facebook
The Great Erasmus
Posted on March 4, 2018 by Royal Rosamond Press
How easy my life would be if I claimed I was a Born Again Christian, and say;
“Let’s go to the mall and count the Demonic Baby Killers!”
Not only was my ancestor a good friend of a Pope, he was a friend of the Great Erasmus – whom he defended! Pope Adrien’s papal papers were probably thrown out in the trash by the Medici, along with Gottschalk’s papers? They were at the cusp of the Reformation and, and the center of Dutch Renaissance. Note the wallpaper behind Erasmus, that is like the work of Kehinde Wily, that took me to the very feet of Erasmus and his Habsburg backer – unknowingly!
Members of the Rosemont family were interred in the Minderbroedersklooster that was founded by the Franciscan Monks. Above are my Wieneke kindred who were members of the Order of Saint Francis. This is the real Rose Line. I was destined for the Church.
Jon Presco
Copyright 2018
Renaissance Castle
Posted on September 5, 2014by Royal Rosamond Press
Ghisburtus van Roesmont was a Dutch nobleman of some importance. His mother was jonkvrouw Adriana Theodorici Rover, the daughter of Dirk Edmondszn Roover. The Roover family appears to descend from one of the Radbot rulers of Holland who was given the name Roover, or Rover due to conquest of the Netherlands. Arnoldus Rosemont also descends to Radbot, who was employed by the Franks to fight the Normans, the Vikings, who were called Rovers. The elder Radbot was allied with the Franks to fight the Viking, many who carried a banner with the image of a wolf. Was their marriage with a Merovingian princess, and thus a marriage union to carry on this line?
The Rosemonts are mentioned in the genealogical book, Taxandria, an extinct province that was replaced by ‘s-Hertogenbosch that had no rulers, or Papal interference, which is rare. The Swan Brethren appear to have owned Saint John’s Church, and ran its affairs as a guild.
Ghisburtus Rosemont was the church warden of Saint John, and later sat in the ships chair. The chances her knew the Renaissance Artist, Hieronymus Bosch, and his father, is very high for his job to was to hire artists and craftsman.
“Only in 1454th – in 1455 were Van Aken and his wife a member of the Brotherhood of Our Lady . In 1461 – 1462 kreeg he was commissioned damaged (by fire) altarpiece of the Brotherhood in the former St. John’s Church in collaboration with the master painter Claes Schoonhoven.
This is a remarkable discover. It puts my kindred at the heart of the Dutch Renaissance, for starters.
Here is a translation of a event, a miracle. There is a box. What is the object. What is “Cloth Hall”?
“On March 16, 1384, Ghijsbrecht Rosemont, witnessed a miracle with Jacob Mertensz. [No. 322 Miracles of Our Lady at ‘s-Hertogenbosch 1381-1603].
Henrick Painter, ships from Den Bosch in 1383 shared in 1397 with Chris Ruffle Mont Tijn a box in the Cloth Hall, which had been the case. Late Godscalck Roes Mont. In 1430 Godschalk Roes Mouth, buy the high sheriff of Den Bosch and Meierij castle Maurick. In 1442 he sold it back to Henry of Vladeracken.
The emblem worn by the Swan Brethren depicts a a rose, or lily,
amongst thorns. At the root of the rose is the Latin word SICUT which
is the first word from a line from Song of Songs.
2:2. As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.
Sicut lilium inter spinas sic amica mea inter filias
http://bossche-encyclopedie.nl/personen/roesmont,%20ghiselbertus.htm
ers, who were then still underage, will have been legal children of Ghijsbrecht and Lady Margriet. Master Godschalc was born in Eindhoven around 1483, studied artes in Leuven in 1499 and was promoted there in 1502 as the third of 99 students to magister artium . In 1510 he was nominated by the OLV fraternity for a benefice in the Bossche St.Jan and since 1515 he was also canon of the St.Petrus church in Leuven. He also always resided in Leuven where he was a professor in theology from 1515 and wrote a number of popular tracts.
On September 18, 1467, Ghijsbrecht Roesmont, counselor of Den Bosch and widower of Mabelia , added a codicil to this will in the presence of Rembout Vilt (no.403). Ghijsbrecht, who previously lived in the Orthenstraat (1422), then stayed – exhausted by his old age – in his house at the Zijle. As witnesses, the codicil includes the secretary Rutgher van Arkel (no.14), Ghijsbrechts servant and clerk Sander Pyeck van Batenburg (no.313) and his servant Lysbeth Goyart Goebelens from Eindhoven. In addition to the latter two, Ghijsbrecht also left goods to the St. Lambert church in Liege, the Bossche St. Jan, the St. Peter’s church in Vught, the parish church of Uden and the Bossche OZ brotherhood, as well as Katherijn, widow of the goldsmith. Arnt vander Weyden, to Goetscalc and Jan, sons of his late cousin Jan Goetscalcs Roesmont, and to “the other heirs”. Ghijsbrecht is mentioned in the obitus fratrum of the OLV fraternity under the year 1469/70, together with Rutgher van Arkel, secretary, and master Gerit Boest, counselor and secretary (see no.57). Ghijsbrecht probably died in the beginning of 1470. He was provided with the last sacraments by Brother Alart Alartss, Minderbroeder, and will be buried in the Minderbroedersklooster, just like some other members of his family. As far as he knows, he did not leave children behind. Still, he must have had a son Goyart because on September 12, 1422, Ghijsbrecht drew up a concept in the Bosch ‘protocol in which Henric Heyme promised to pay 50 Arnoldus guilders to ” michi ad opus Godefridi, filii May “. 9)
Minderbroedersklooster (‘s-Hertogenbosch)
The Minderbroedersklooster in ‘s-Hertogenbosch was the first monastery founded by the Franciscans in the present Netherlands . The monastery stood on the corner of the current Pensmarkt and Minderbroedersstraat and continued until the current Snellestraat . The Franciscans settled in ‘s-Hertogenbosch in 1228 . This is only two years after the death of the founder of order Francis of Assisi . On a site that Henry I of Brabant had given to the Franciscans, they would establish a monastery and a church . In 1256 the church is demolished to build a new, larger monastery church. In 1263 this church is dedicated by Henricus van Vianden , the Bishop of Utrecht .
Jon Presco
The Rose Wolf and Erasmus
Posted on September 15, 2017by Royal Rosamond Press
Erasmus wrote letters to Rosemondt. One letter has the Rosemondt wolf seal on it. This is about the Spanish Inquisition. and of great interest to the history of Haarlem. This is one of the greatest genealogical studies of all time.
Jon Presco
Copyright 2017
1153/ To Godschalk Rosemondt Louvain 18 October 1520
Gottschalk Rosemondt of Eindhoven in Northern Brabant, matriculated
at the University of Louvain on 1499 and remained there until his
death in 1526. A doctor of divinity in 1516, he succeeded in 1520 to
the chair o f theology formerly held by Jan Briart. Like Briart he
was a personal friend of the future Pope Adrian V1. His prominent
position in the theological faculty notwithstanding , he retained an
open mind towards humanists studies and a measure of sympathy for
Erasmus. This letter is addressed to him in his capacity as rector
of the university for the winter term of 1520-21 (cf Matricule de
Louvain 111-1963) It was published in the Epistolae ad diverse. In
preparation for a confrontations with the theologian Nicolass
Baechem Egmondanus, to be held in the presence of the rector,
Erasmus launches an elaborate protest against his opponent, who had
attacked him from the pulpit of St, Peter’s church on 9 and 14
October,
Spitting on Christians: Extracting the DNA of hatred
When Jews spit in contempt, it is likely a symptom of deeper ills, especially ignorance and a refusal to learn about the other
OCT 4, 2023, 10:04 AM
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Orthodox Jews filmed spitting at Christian tourists in the Old City of Jerusalem on October 2, 2023. (Screen capture/Twitter/Times of Israel)
Spitting — A Diagnostic Tool
The last (and only) time I recall myself spitting was into a plastic tube, which was then sent to a lab in order to provide me with a DNA analysis, which would teach me some things about myself, in the hope of losing weight. Spitting is part of diagnosis. It can tell us something about ourselves.
The unexpected spate of condemnation, reaching up to the prime minister himself, of the latest incident of spitting comes as something of a surprise, given that the problem has been around for some time. Perhaps it was the vocal statement of Elisha Yered, a settler leader, currently charged with murder of a Palestinian youth, and formerly a spokesperson for a right wing MP, in support of spitting, that led to the widespread condemnation. This condemnation is welcome. But it is, ultimately, of limited benefit. The phenomenon of spitting must be studied for its DNA, and if we fail to go deeper into the issues it presents, then we will also fail to deal with the phenomenon.
Majority-Minority Relations
Jewish-Christian relations have had their ups and downs throughout the centuries. These have been often characterized by Jew-hatred, attacks on Jews, forced conversions, and more. Jews have been a minority among a Christian majority and have often had to endure abuses and violence. Spitting was part of it. Jews were described, beginning in the 11th century, as spitting upon the cross, and often such spitting was understood, even by Jews, as a heroic act, leading to martyrdom, in the context of the Crusades. The spitting Jew became, at some points in the Middle Ages, part of the negative stereotype of the Jew. Now it is the Jews who are doing the spitting. A new reality has emerged with the formation of the State of Israel, and with it a shift in majority-minority relations. This is the first time that here, in Israel, Jews are a majority, while Christians are the minority. Jews have lost interest in what happens in the Christian world, and a largely insular Jewish community of the faithful has arisen that has no relations with Christians, does not follow developments in the Christian world, and perpetuates negative attitudes to Christianity, as these were formed under earlier historical circumstances.Keep Watching
What that means is that religious Jews, on the whole, are unaware of developments within the Christian world. Catholic and other mainline churches have significantly revised their theology. A theology of substitution and replacement has given way to a theology that affirms Judaism’s legitimacy and clears Jews of some of the charges that had been hurled at them for millennia, like killing the Christian messiah. Churches have asked forgiveness, are fighting antisemitism, and, on the whole, are some of Israel’s best friends. Ironically, the churches that are being attacked are often the ones that have moved away from anti-Jewish views and that do not practice missionary activities. The spitters and attackers are, of course, clueless.
Rabbinic Response and the Limits of Condemnation
Rabbis, including prominent rabbis, are willing to criticize the phenomenon. Rabbi Shlomo Amar, chief rabbi of Jerusalem, issued an unambiguous condemnation, calling it desecration of the divine name. Today, he was followed by Chief Rabbi David Lau. Similarly, Rabbi Shlomo Aviner affirms that our struggle with Christianity is ideological, but not one of spitting. In the same way that Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai (first century CE) instructed that one must be the first to offer “shalom,” even to an idolatrous non-Jew, so we too must maintain a dignified and polite relationship with Christians. Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, who has a very popular weekly column, has expressed the same views. He also cites, as part of an opinion piece on the matter, Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (20th cent) that love must be extended to all, regardless of differences in religion and faith.
Is Civility Enough?
The position marshalled by Rabbis Aviner, Amar and others is basically one that upholds civility, despite differences. We will not be close spiritual friends, says Rabbi Aviner, but we ought to behave in a civil manner towards one another. Is such a perspective tenable? Perhaps it was, in the Diaspora, when Jews were a minority. I do not think it is adequate to the task today, precisely because Jews are in a majority position. If Christians have engaged in deep exploration of attitudinal roots and brought about change, Jews too must undertake similar religious investigations. Superficial treatment of symptoms, in the form of the messaging cited above, is not adequate to the task at hand. What is needed is treating the roots of Christian-hatred, and not only its symptoms.
That includes, in the first place, addressing ignorance on the Jewish side. Most Jews are ignorant of the diversity among Christian groups, and therefore make false blanket charges against all Christians based on the actions of some groups. The great majority of Christian groups living in Israel do not engage in missionary activity. Ignorance also extends to lack of knowledge of changes in Christian attitudes, to apologies issued by churches and to changes in Christian theology over the past 70 years. An analysis of today’s post by the Yered, gives a snapshot of the frame of mind of right wing, settler, Christian hatred — history has not moved, we recall all they did to us, and our small expression of revenge is spitting. No part of this logic withstands critical inquiry. But until a serious examination of internal assumptions and views is undertaken, the disease will fester. The disease is hatred; spitting is its symptom.
An important point that cannot be avoided is the status of Christianity as idolatry. The very rabbis who condemn spitting also uphold the status of Christianity as idolatry, largely ignoring what was a majority tradition in Ashkenaz for hundreds of years, to the contrary. Settler anti-Christian sentiment is formed by ignorance of halachic tradition and its complexity and by its flattening to one view only, that considers Christianity to be idolatrous. The disease of ignorance extends from history to the knowledge of Jewish tradition itself. Something other than Jewish tradition, based as it is on learning, informs the views of these youth on Christianity. Identity, othering, need for self-affirmation, the carryover from views of Arabs and Palestinians — whatever it may be (and it is all of these and more), Jewish halachic tradition is hostage to a present-day social-political mentality whose exterior manifestation is spitting. This cannot be tackled by condemnation. It requires revisiting the entire makeup of identity and how a very particular construct of Judaism is replacing generations of nuanced discussion and responsible views of the other.
What We Need Now
One must recognize that spitting is but a symptom of deeper ills. Estrangement, ignorance, hatred, contempt and the inability to recognize change in the other are the real issues. Until Jews are able to deal with the roots of their own teaching of contempt, all attempts to deal with symptoms that emerge from these deeper ills will remain just that — symptomatic treatments that ignore the spiritual ills brewing within. The vision of universal love remains. More is needed to realize it than calls for civility. This is a moment for the rabbis to rise to. Politicians may condemn. They may also reinforce existing laws. But rabbis must engage in sustained education and critical self-examination. If they are incapable of doing so, then that too is, sadly, part of the DNA of present-day Judaism.
Tim LaHaye, one of the best-selling writers in American history, died July 25 at the age of 90. Along with Jerry B. Jenkins, LaHaye, a prominent Evangelical minister, co-authored the Left Behind series—16 novels about a vision of the Christian end-times that have sold a combined 63 million copies. For comparison’s sake, that’s 13 million more copies than Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s 100 Years of Solitude.
And had it not been for an Introduction to American Studies lecture I took in (probably) 2008, this literary phenomenon would have passed me by entirely.
I forget much of what I read in college, but the first Left Behind novel—and snippets of the climactic scene of one of the final Left Behind novels—are drilled into my memory. And why wouldn’t they be? People get raptured off of an airplane in the series’ very first pages, the Antichrist (a power-hungry Romanian politician named Nicolae Carpathia) uses his position as secretary general of the United Nations to impose an anti-Christian secular world government, and the whole thing culminates in a phantasmagoric battle over Jerusalem. It’s a beach-ready, conspiracy-heavy invitation to envision the end of the world. What could be more exciting—or more baffling?
***
The 16 Left Behind novels tell the story of the period between the rapture and the return of Christ to Earth. In its telling of the apocalyptic war between Christian believers and the Antichrist, the series turns a particularly American version of an even more particularly Protestant eschatology narrative into the stuff of page-turners. Lest we get too carried away admiring Left Behind’s deft and even Dan Brown-like synthesis of the action novel with paranoia-tinged popular religious themes, the series has a notably bizarre attitude toward Jews.
In the books, Israel has made peace with all of her neighbors, and invented astounding, perhaps even miraculous, technologies that have made the desert bloom, thus fulfilling two crucial prerequisites for the authors’ vision of the end-times. Nicolae Carphatia is assassinated by an Israeli botanist named Chaim Rosenzweig (don’t worry; Nic soon comes back to life as the incarnation of Satan himself), and a Jew and rabbinic scholar named Tsion Ben-Judah is one of the heroes of the series’ apocalyptic final battle. The Jews even get to rebuild the Temple at the start of the “Tribulation,” or the seven years of the Antichrist’s persecution of religious believers.
As author Glenn W. Struck notes in Mark of the Beast: Left Behind and the Struggle for Evangelical Identity, there’s some unsavory theology hovering just in the foreground here. “LaHaye and Jenkins’s attitude toward Jews reflects the carefully nuanced viewpoint of dispensational prophecy belief,” he writes, using the scholarly term for the Protestant end-times theology that the Left Behind series novelizes. “Prophecy writers insist they are philo-Semitic, supporting the state of Israel at every opportunity. Yet their attitudes toward Judaism as a religion, along with their attitudes toward individual practitioners, reflect the latent, although occasionally more obvious, anti-Semitism found in the history of dispensational prophecy belief.”
In other words, the Jews are tolerated and even celebrated in Left Behind because of their role in bringing about another religion’s messianic redemption, which occurs at the expense of the Jews’ metaphysical truth-claims and their existence as a religion and a people. “When Jewish people such as yourself come to see that Jesus is your long-sought messiah, you are not converting from one religion to another, no matter what anyone tells you,” one character tells a terrified group of Israeli Jews before the final battle against Carpathia in Armageddon: The Cosmic Battle for the Ages. “You have found your messiah, that is all.”
Maura Spiegel, a senior lecturer in English and comparative literature at Columbia University, explained that she assigned sections of the series to my class back in 2008 because of the troubling divisions it suggested within contemporary American life. She believes there is pedagogical value in exploring the cultural dissonance the series embodies, especially for students at a liberal arts institution who are unlikely to really ever meet or even think about the Left Behind-reading demographic in non-abstract terms.
“Something in the mix of this religious narrative with this sort of low form intrigued me besides just the fact of its enormous popularity and the reality that most of the books were not sold and still are not sold on the East Coast,” she explained, suggesting that you might have to put a little extra effort into finding copies of Left Behind in the Godless Northeast. “It felt to me like, we don’t know about this. This is a massive event occurring off of our radar.
“One conclusion is that we are living in separate realities in this country. And we’re seeing it right now playing out bigger than it’s ever played out with this presidential election. It’s like two different languages.”
LaHaye wrote a work of titillating apocalypse porn, a trashy epic of conspiracism and fundamentalist wish fulfillment. Yet Spiegel’s observation of the book’s separateness from the secular American mainstream implies a certain responsibility to find a more sympathetic reading of the man and his work.
***
At its core, the Left Behind series posits that through individual and collective effort, and faith in God’s pre-ordained historical order, the world and the soul can transcend the violence and corruption afflicting them and affect a utopian redemption right here on earth. It’s a fine message. But the series poses a troubling final question: Does such a message have to come at everybody else’s expense? And would the series be as popular as it is if it didn’t?
For East Coast college students—and particularly for Jews—the runaway popularity of the Left Behind series might motion towards the dark inner yearnings within some substantial number of our fellow citizens, who are treated to the vanquishment of secular pluralism, and the attendant triumph of an evangelical theory of history and reality itself. It’s a story that ends with the Jews being subsumed into non-existence, and that’s after it’s demonstrated that their entire purpose was to bring about the return of another religion’s messiah in the first place. But horror is an insufficient response to LaHaye’s work, which was an apparent source of inspiration to millions of productive, law-abiding, utterly normal, and outwardly tolerant Americans. It’s easy to understand the appeal of Left Behind, which is an addictively readable melding of the lowbrow thriller with high theological drama. But in deference to the literary tastes and fundamental worldview of tens of millions of Americans, let’s try, momentarily, to find what’s good about them, too.
The best thing that can be said about the Left Behind series is that it’s a work of optimism. The saga begins in a world that’s utterly mundane and disenchanted, yet governed by a hidden and inevitably redemptive metaphysical order. It’s not just that history has meaning—it has a happy ending too, even if it’ll take 16 volumes and a Tribulation and war with the Antichrist and the deaths of several main characters to get there.
And you, reader, will have a happy ending as well. Messianic return and eternal life are coming, and there’s no need to fret in the meanwhile, even in your fallen and impure state. The heroes of the Left Behind series aren’t the raptured, but flawed souls here on earth who are tasked with the real heavy lifting of redemption. Imperfection is not damnation in the Left Behind books. To be “left behind” is a marker of an individual purpose, itself joined to a higher metaphysical duty.
These are worthy, ennobling messages. But they’re packaged in a way that’s almost calculated to appall most liberal sensitivities—and to keep Americans living in different worlds, speaking different languages.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Ukraine
Christianity is the predominant religion in Ukraine, with 85% of the population identifying as Christian according to a 2022 survey conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS). Seventy-two percent of the population avowed fidelity to an Eastern Orthodox Church: 54% of Ukrainians proclaimed adherence to the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine; 14% identified as Orthodox Christian without specifying a church affiliation; 4% associated with the Moscow Patriarchate. Another 9% of Ukrainians professed devotion to the Catholic Church in Ukraine: 8% Ukrainian Greek Catholics and 1% Latin Catholics. Two percent of the population declared affiliation to a mainstream Protestant Church, and a further 2% identified with some alternative sect of Christianity.[1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_Israel
Christianity (Hebrew: נצרות, romanized: Natsrút; Arabic: المسيحية, romanized: al-Masīḥiyya) is the third largest religion in Israel, after Judaism and Islam. At the end of 2022, Christians made up 1.9% of the Israeli population, numbering approximately 185,000. 75.8% of the Christians in Israel are Arab Christians. Christians make up 6.9% of the Arab citizens of Israel.[1]
Ten Christian churches are formally recognized under Israel’s confessional system, for the self-regulation and state recognition of status issues, such as marriage and divorce: the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Armenian Catholic Church, the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, the Greek Orthodox Church, the Latin Catholic Church, the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, the Syriac Catholic Church, the Syriac Maronite Church, and the Syriac Orthodox Church.[2] However, the practice of religion is free, with no restrictions on the practice of other denominations. Approximately 300 Christians have converted from Islam according to one 2014 estimate, and most of them are part of the Roman Catholic Church.[3] A certain number of Israelis also practice Messianic Judaism, usually considered a syncretist form of Christianity. The number of Messianic Jews in Israel is estimated to be around 20,000. They are mostly classified as being “without a religious affiliation” rather than being classified as either Jewish or Christian.
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/spitting-on-christians-extracting-the-dna-of-hatred/
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