Someone forwarded me a post by Craig White on one of the fundamentalist COG news groups. Craig, who hails from Australia, is a well-known apologist for BI in the Churches of God, and operates the Origins of Nations website. His message reads in part:
I would like to recommend two other balanced, quality British-Israel publications: ... - 'The Ensign Message' - http://www.ensignmessage.com/
Intrigued at the possibility of "balanced, quality" BI material, I clicked across. What I found on the site was spiritual pornography of the most blatant kind in the form of an article called "Who Killed Christ?"
"Pastor" Sheldon Emry, currently rotting in hell, was a blatant anti-Semite and racist. His article has the sole purpose of perpetuating the obscene libel that Jews are Christ-killers. He was a leader of the "Christian Identity" movement, a deviation that melds Nazi sympathies with extreme biblicism. When he wasn't vomiting up filth about Jewish people, he was slagging off Blacks and Catholics.
Nice bloke! Very balanced. The quality speaks for itself.
"Emry was a major figure in the Christian Identity movement that argues that the White peoples are the Old Testament Israelites and, therefore, God's chosen people, Jews are Satanic in origin, and people of color are intended by God to be the servants of the Whites. Emry allied himself with the armed Identity group, the Citizens Emergency Defense System, and was frequently published in "Spotlight", the magazine of the anti-Semitic Liberty Lobby and, in the book sold by the CLR accused the Jews of starting World Wars One and Two, the Vietnam War, and the assassination of President Lincoln. Emry has also written denying the Holocaust." (Source)
This creep, a slimeball of the first order, is recommended to COG members for his "balance" and "quality"? To its credit, WCG - even under the Armstrongs - worked hard to distance itself from these extremists on the fringes of Fascism. The WCG version of BI was far more benign.
British-Israelism is usually as harmless as a thousand other loopy ideas that people adopt. But in the hands of sick, hate-promoting individuals and groups, it becomes something else again; something downright evil.
14 comments:
"BI" as you label it, is true (there is sufficient historical evidence--including information in Scripture--to prove it), but racism is evil, sinful and false. Scripture teaches us to "love the stranger", not enslave him! The decendants of Israel were chosen because of the faithfullness of the Fathers, not because they were the greatest nation on earth at the time--far from it, they were slaves in Egypt. In modern times, we (I descend from Levi and Manasseh) are the most wicked purveyors of liberalism and pornographic filth that the world has ever seen--and we will be punished unless we repent. As to the Jewish people, if there is a superior race, it is the Jews (much to the chagrin of the Nazis; face it, if you want to be the superior race, the first thing you must do is eliminate the Jewish people). Far from being inferior, the Jewish people excel in virtualy every human endeavor (except certain athletic sports)--particularly those in the intellectual sphere. Their race has produced a disproportionate amount of the most brilliant achievers in the fields of medicine, the other sciences, music, military prowess (I would put a Moshe Dian up against any non-jewish military leader any day). The most renown "think tanks" are heavily populated with Jewish individuals. They descend from Judah, the son of Israel (Jacob), the son of Issac, the son of Abraham--not Satan (Emry was apparently unable to read the Bible where Judah's lineage is revealed--poor chap). BI is for real--deal with it!
--anonymous
A personal anecdote: About 20 years ago I came across a little bit of Christian Identity/Sheldon Emry propaganda at my grandmother's house. I was surprised by the discovery, not only because I wasn't aware grandma was reading things that were pretty close to Armstrongist British Israelism, but also because I wasn't previously aware of Christian Identity or other non-Armstrongist versions of British Israelism. I was definitely repulsed by the anti-Semitism of Christian Identity, and I hope my grandmother never believed any of that stuff. Most likely she didn't. Rather, she, a Presbyterian, was probably just trying to understand the bizarre, disturbing religion that her daughter, son-in-law, and grandsons belonged to. Stumbling upon Emry's "ministry," she may have thought it was the same as Armstrong's beliefs and sent away for a packet of Emry's propaganda.
"'BI' as you label it, is true (there is sufficient historical evidence--including information in Scripture--to prove it)"
Yeah, yeah, we've heard that before. "Brith-Ish," "Saac's Sons," "Tea-Tephi," "Lia Fail," "Tuatha De Danaan," and "Dan's Mark" don't count as historical evidence. Misinterpreting biblical prophecies about the House of Israel as "the United States and Britain" don't count either. So what exactly did you have in mind as "sufficient historical evidence"?
Anonymous - Is ignorance really blissfull? How are things on your planet?
To its credit, WCG - even under the Armstrongs - worked hard to distance itself from these extremists on the fringes of Fascism. The WCG version of BI was far more benign.
British-Israelism is usually as harmless as a thousand other loopy ideas that people adopt. But in the hands of sick, hate-promoting individuals and groups, it becomes something else again; something downright evil.
With all due respect, Armstrongism using British-Israelism, managed to generate all those false prophecies and was the source of the power that Herbert Armstrong had over people. In one sense -- a very strong sense -- British-Israelism was the very foundational core without which the Radio Church of God and the follow on Worldwide Church of God could have existed. Proceeding from this identity theft was the doctrine of not going to doctors which killed a lot of people. The RCG / WCG and now all the xcgs, have destabilized peoples' lives to the point that they live extremely dysfunctional lives under the control of a ministry which holds each person in contempt in their elite society. Wolves all, and predators who seek only their own validation, power and money. Without British-Israelism, they could have none of that.
Not to put too fine a point on it, Herbert Armstrong split in rebellion from the Church of God Seventh Day because they wouldn't accept his "truth" of British-Israelism. He rebelled soley on this cause. Those of us who have read the early "Bible Advocate" issues of the 1930s note that Armstrong was nattering on about prophecies back then -- and when his rebellion came to light, it should have been of no surprise to anyone.
Living well, as they say, is the best revenge. The Church of God Seventh Day is still stable and going strong at 10,000 members or so. They have adopted the more modern Evangelical Sabbatarian community based religion which has a lot more appeal than Armstrongism. Their services are dedicated more to praising Jesus without spouting any prophecies rooted in British-Israelism. They do have their problems, but about 40% of the congregations seem to be made up of former WCG members who couldn't tolerate the noise and confusion of an environment devoid of love, friendship, fellowship and brotherly affection. They are a warm and friendly group unlike the splinters of the xcgs.
This is not, by the way, a call to induce people to go to CoG7. They do have their problems. It's just that the problems are less visible and the environment is a lot more humane than the sterile dysfunction of the cult of gods. If you can tolerate 92 decibels of Chri$tian Rock Mu$ic, go for it.
The first "Anonymous" posted up above:
"Far from being inferior, the Jewish people excel in virtualy every human endeavor (except certain athletic sports)--"
"Certain Athletic Sports" ?? LOL!- Yes the achievements of the Jews in intellectual fields is very impressive, but hey, how about a little reality here, for no human group can be perfect at everything! The Jews just have not done much in the sports world.
The "Jewish Sports Hall of Fame" would be a room no bigger than a "walk in closet"! Other than Max Baer in boxing,& Sandy Koufax and Hank Greenberg in baseball, you start scratching your head real quick to come up with star Jewish athletes in any sport.
In the history of the Olympics, Israel has won only one gold medal, and only one silver medal. Even Latvia and Luxembourg have more medals historically!
But hey, lets analyze the stats that "really count"...The history of the winners of the "Miss World" and "Miss Universe" contests. Israel has 2 winners in the combined history of these contests, vs. a total of 8 for the USA, and even a total of 5 for little Puerto Rico!
So hats off to the Jews for all they have accomplished! Truly a great people, but not good bets to be the "King and Queen" at High School Proms!
Anti-Semitism is a natural outcome of the BI theory. You begin to look at how different he Jews are from Northwest European “Israelites” and you begin to have doubts – not about the Northwest Europeans, of course, but about the Jews. I first encountered anti-Semitism among faculty members are Ambassador College Big Sandy back in the late Seventies. Their prescribed reference work was “The Thirteenth Tribe” by Arthur Koestler, in which the author claims that the Ashkenazi Jews are really descended from the Gentile people of the Khazar Empire. At the time, there was a great suspicion of Stanley Rader on the Big Sandy campus. Scripturally, these false Jews were the “Synagogue of Satan”.
I asked one of these anti-Semites (I think he now teaches at UCG’s Ambassador Bible Center), where I might find the real Jews if the Ashkenazic Jews were actually Gentiles. He said that the real Jews were “somewhere on the North American continent.” In other words, the real Jews were racially indistinguishable from the Northwest European people of the US and were not the people of Mediterranean countenance originating in the Middle East that the world believed to be Jews.
But there is an important semantic game being played here. If you were to accuse one of these people of anti-Semitism, they would tell you that they were not anti-Semitic at all and that they did not know what you were talking about. Then things might get confusing. But what they are actually saying is that the people they are bigoted against are not really Jews by their standards so how could they be anti-Semitic. They stand against “Gentiles” who are pretending to be Jews. That is not anti-Semitism. In fact they are strong supporters of the Jews, who happen to be people indistinguishable from Northwest Europeans. This is similar to some of the White Supremacist groups that write extensively of Jesus being an Aryan.
You see, if you can believe one dumb theory, you can believe lots of dumb theories.
-- Neo
"The 'Jewish Sports Hall of Fame' would be a room no bigger than a 'walk in closet'!"
Actually, back in the 1940s and 1950s, basketball in the U.S. was dominated by Jews, such that people began to wonder if there was something genetic about Jews that made them better basketball players than everybody else.
Now, of course, people are wondering if there's something genetic about black people that makes them better at basketball than everybody else.
It's not really a racial, genetic advantage we're seeing, though. It's just the effect of cultural and societal trends at play. Back then a lot of Jews were attracted to basketball, and got good at it. That in turn discouraged non-Jews, especially anti-Semitic people, from getting into the sport. That was before blacks were allowed to play, of course. Now they dominate the sport, and non-blacks, especially racists, aren't too keen on playing alongside blacks, so they've ceded the basketball floor to them.
Don't be surprised if in the future some other ethnicity or race begins to edge out the blacks in basketball, the way they edged out the Jews.
Interestingly, it was a Jew (I believe it was Abe Saperstein) who, back in the '30s or '40s, created the Harlem Globetrotters, the first eminent and famous black basketball team. Their shining example (continuing to this day) of good clean family entertainment and ambassadors to the world--representing that which is best about American culture--perhaps began the process of encouraging African-Americans to excel at basketball.
Wasn't George Mikan, the first major star of professional basketball (late '40s/early '50s) a Jew? Also, when the University of North Carolina Tar Heels won the NCAA basketball championship in 1957, their biggest scorer was a New York City Jew, Lennie Rosenbluth. I think that Rosenbluth perhaps represents the end of the major Jewish presence in high-level basketball.
I recall on a discovery channel program some years ago, that the Aryan Nations was using herbies BI crap to justify their racist position. Armstrong still speaks to ALL racists 20 years into the decaying process.
How one man could create and render such destruction on humanity? Recall his mentor, none other than Adolf Hitler. (DNA link here?)
His spiritual offspring to this day still feed the fire of hate and "inclusive identity" as their link to reality! Have them put their faith forward and be tested. DNA testing that is. Can one "prove" they are from the tribe of Manasseh? How about Levi or any other? Let them post this on the web along with an address to the clinic that did the testing. (Just to keep them honest!)
Kscribe.
Kscribe makes the obvious point: let the BI belivers PROVE their relationship to Jews (and, by extension, other "semitic" peoples such as Arabs) by DNA (mitochondrial DNA) testing. If anyone of proven Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, or other northwestern European stock can show DNA proof (and replicated by testing a significant pool of peers) of such close genetic relationship, then they will have made a strong point. I haven't seen examples of anyone of BI belief offering to be so tested.
The other day I saw this comment about Jacob's Pillow Stone at Bob Thiel's website:
"Some in the COGs have speculated that Jeremiah may have been the one to have taken that stone to Ireland (or perhaps Scotland) from the Middle East originally."
Some in the COGs have speculated???? Oh my. Poor Bob Thiel has lapsed into heresy. It wasn't a speculation. It was the very Apostle of God proclaiming the Truth of God. Herbert Armstrong said in his (partially plagiarised) book, "The United States and Britain in Prophecy" (fomerly British Commonwealth, but times change) that the Stone of Scone IS the coronation stone of the House of David that Jeremiah and Baruch brought to Ireland along with Zedekiah's daughter Tea-Tephi. Bob Thiel dares to contradict the Apostle of God???
Hard to believe that anyone can still swallow the British Israelism theory after DNA tests have shown that Anglo/Saxons are not even Semitic but Arian blood.
On the other hand, it was interesting to see that the mitochondrial DNA tests have shown that Palestinians and Samaritans are more Israelite than even the Jews are. Now, that's a hoot! Israelites fighting each other over the same country and don't even realize it.
"On the other hand, it was interesting to see that the mitochondrial DNA tests have shown that Palestinians and Samaritans are more Israelite than even the Jews are. Now, that's a hoot! Israelites fighting each other over the same country and don't even realize it."
I think that makes a lot of sense; Palestinians and Samaritans have more or less hung around Palestine and environs over many centuries, whereas the bulk of the Jews were scattered away from that part of the world in the first and second centuries C.E. So Jews, while maintaining a distinct ethno-religious identity, have also had nearly two millennia to assimilate/intermarry with other ethnic groups, thus altering the "semitic" makeup in their DNA. But yes, that's ironic, the question of who's the most "Israelite" (or Palestinian semitic) people in Israel...
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