Vice President Mike Pence was roundly criticized on Monday for appearing at a campaign rally in Michigan at which a Messianic rabbi invoked Jesus in mourning the deaths of 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.
Pence invited Rabbi Loren Jacobs to the stage at a rally in Waterford Township, a suburb of Detroit, for Lena Epstein, a Republican candidate for the open congressional seat in Michigan’s 11th District.
Jacobs, the founder and senior rabbi of Congregation Shema Yisrael in nearby Bloomfield Hills, opened by invoking “God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, God and father of my lord and savior Yeshua, J’ the Messiah, and my God and father, too.”
Many people excoriated Pence for what they said was insensitivity, at best, toward Judaism and, at worst, a deliberate insult. Several characterized Jacobs as a “fake rabbi” and a “Christian rabbi.”
Read more at NBC News.
{Matzav.com}
That’s because pence is a j- freak
Religious freedom is a two-way street. You live in a medinah that protects you and doesn’t persecute, but the nuts and bolts of the country’s historical background is Christian. Pence’s religion is Christianity, and it’s unrealistic to think that he wouldn’t be biased toward it. I am a Christian but I admit Messianic Judaism is not to be taken seriously, it is built on sand, I have done my homework on ancient Jewish-Christianity and MJ is essentially no closer to it than any Christian movement… as far as we can understand what it was. It died away by the fourth century because despite its rigorously conservative approach to being the “sect of the Way” it found itself sunk into the chasm created by the deep “parting of ways” of the church from the synagogue. That’s sad to me but not even as sad as Messianic Judaism which could never be the revival of such an organism. Moreover, getting this guy (who BTW, I agree shouldn’t be going by “rabbi” if he’s sincere about following the New Testament instead of selling himself) to “represent” is not responsible by Pence who knows what he’s doing.
I hope to remind you that when other people see men with big beards, giant side-locks and shaved heads head-to in black and white, putting on even more black and white in the form of striped sheets and black boxes with black straps and contorting around inexplicably in “prayer”, it looks like the nadir of lunacy to THEM.
Dear Andrew, whether other people thinks someone it is lunatic is IMHO not the central point, but rather, what matters is the truth. Is a person who believes human beings can travel to the moon or transplant hearts, a lunatic, a visionary, or an average schoolchild? In our days we can agree it’s probably the third; a hundred years ago, it was either the first or second, and it may not have been obvious to determine which. I do not mind that other people may think I am a lunatic, that is within human evaluation error.
I do mind something else. Pence is an elected official and I expect elected officials to set aside their beliefs and biases and just do their job. Or, if their duty conflicts with their beliefs, to step aside. I believe he used his sacred scriptures to swear an oath to the constitution, rather than using the constitution to swear allegiance to his sacred book.
I don’t understand. When rabbi lau didn’t call the synagogue a beis haknesses, the reform and conservative say “what gives the orthodox the right to decide what is authentic Judaism?” But when our good friend v.p. Pence picks a messianic rabbi to speak, the reform and conservative say, “ he’s not an authentic rabbi. We don’t consider him Jewish”
Moreover, Reform and Conservative continuing to even exist as two separate things is laughable. The ‘conservatives’ proved that once you open up the floodtides to the forces of counterculture gender-nihilism and caustic Biblical criticism that calls your Torah itself a patchwork antique rather than scripture, you end up no different than Reform. The only difference is that ‘conservatives’ earn a little bit nicer incomes and have even more pretentious ideas of how their communities can retain a more “pro-halachic” right-wing option for whoever is still into that sort of thing. Which makes no sense if the rabbi is a lesbian of course. (facepalm)
Dear Andrew I am not a Christian and would not dare commenting about the authenticity of Lutherans vs Catholics or about the Anglican Church raison d’ètre. I believe other religions and beliefs should be entitled to the same courtesy.
Someone on Pence’s staff goofed. I’m sure it wasn’t intentional. To them a rabbi is a rabbi. How were they supposed to know Messianic Judaism isn’t real Judaism?
Pence is a Rino. Enough said.