The secular Jewish film maker Steven Spielberg is releasing a film with a religious message that is probably not going to be well received by Christians. Haven’t seen the movie yet, but it is predictable from my religious perspective. I am Jewish. I have had my Bar Mitzvah. I consider myself Conservative, not Orthodox or Reform.
I consider Reform Jews essentially no different from any secular Christian or agnostic or atheist. They may maintain some of their religious heritage, but these secular Jews, like Spielberg, are smug in their belief in nothing, and though many are very successful, they find the Conservative Jews or Orthodox Jews fools. Given the evidence, that is, the horrors of things like the Holocaust, pain, suffering – how can this God exist? Where is he?
The Breitbart article that described the movie – perhaps is overstating Spielberg’s message: Christians will be questioning their faith after seeing this movie. Certainly secular Christians and Jews in name only have already been there – done that. I don’t think they need a Spielberg movie to confirm their disbelief in the Church. Spielberg may have a minor point that there are absolutists that take every word from the ancient texts as words from God and based on modern science, that is absurd. I agree. Though inspired by God, it is clear that things like the earth being created in six days is not literal. There are many things that are clearly either scientifically impossible or clearly not possible in our modern understanding of the physical world. But we are not dealing with the physical world when we discuss the realm of God and the “afterworld”. It is “belief”. It is “faith”. And those things cannot be proven by logic or experience. So much we have learned. Yet, so much we do not know. So, it is easy to be an agnostic or atheist in this modern world where science has given us much – through logic and experience.
I believe. But I cannot tell you that I believe absolutely everything written down in biblical texts. After all, even Jesus was presented to us as man – not as a god. But I do believe that history of the 20th Century – with all of its scientific advances has shown that atheists who have no God inevitably become pawns in a deathly cult when an evil man decides he is God. I give you Hitler, Mao, Stalin, and any number of godless dictators as examples. No, I am not a biblical absolutist because I do not believe God actually did much more than inspire. The stories, parables, truths, lies – they’re man made. But I clearly see that if nothing else, the belief that there is a higher power than man, and that laws are “god given” – not man given – is what has made America’s ideals exceptional. Yes, a nation that believes in natural laws from a higher power. And in this age it is important if our exceptional nation is to survive beyond the 250 years we are about to celebrate that Christians and Jews unite.
Jesus was a Jew and he read and studied the same bible Christians and Jews study today. Yes, Christians have added a New Testament, but that does not negate the Old. It is past time for Christians and Jews to realize they have more in common than differences. Religious Jews and Christians are more alike than not. Secular Jews and Christians are essentially atheists and where both religious Jews and Christians must fight. Yes, fight godless Marx and his followers. Remember and fight godless Mao, Hitler, Stalin and their followers. History shows they clearly lead to mass slaughter in the name of their godless Dystopia.