On The Other Hand

Hagee doesn’t represent all Evangelicals ...thank God. He’s just the media darling. We should speak with local Evangelicals. Heck, they might not even care about Israel.

We don’t have to love everything about everyone with whom we enter a political alliance. We do love Israel, though, and we should take help where we can get it.

How should we should approach Evangelicals? Pick and choose! I would suggest with the same guiding principles we already apply to friendships—with an openness we cultivate toward all other human beings, with the objective of truly getting to know, understand and appreciate one another as individuals (or communities): what are their deepest values, across the board, on all kinds of things I/we care about?  what is the basis of this relationship - does it elevate us as human beings/as a community? can we agree to disagree-without compromising our own core principles? and the ultimate test, would I/we ever be able to tolerate a weekend with this person as a house guest or at an intense inter-group retreat! If the answer is no, then leave such Evangelicals to the pro-Israel lobbyists who are paid to forge politial-utilitarian relationships—which ARE necessary in that arena where “shared values” are not expected nor required, merely coincidence.  All others of us in the Jewish community, we Jews who seek, whether as individuals or as part of our congregations (etc.) to engage Evangelicals, should feel comfortable being guided by the standards we would apply to any other indiv. or communal relationships.  We simply must understand when Jewish leaders, whose sole priority is pro-Israel advocacy, seek to forward their single-issue agenda (however worthy)by engaging (co-opting)us as their ‘outreach’ partners. We have every right to determine who is “good for the Jews” (or not) by our own criteria. Likewise, AIPAC has every right and, perhaps even responsibility, to forge alliances with the Hagees of the world and feature him in at their conferences. But we, who are not AIPAC’s staff, board, or its most dedicated members, have every right—and responsibility—to resist universally anointing Hagee and the like as “friends of the Jewish people”.  We who adhere to liberal Judaism are bound to stay far from anti-gay, anti-feminist, anti-whatever Evangelicals in our own personal and communal realms.