I had read all about this when I was living in New York City.
But the reality of it did not hit home until Jan and I moved - in November, 2001 (several months after 9/11, when Jan was working a few blocks away from the towers) to South Carolina.
I'll never forget the first week, standing in line at the checkout counter, overhearing a conversation in the next checkout line between the cashier and a customer.
CASHIER: Are you Jewish?
CUSTOMER (fingering the jewish star necklace she was wearing) Yes, do you go to Bob Jones University (a Christian nationalist/fundamentalist university, one of the largest in the world)
CASHIER Why yes. We love your people. We're studying your people in class.
***
Why do the Christian nationalists love the Jews? Because, according to their belief in the "Rapture," when all the Jews around the world return to Jerusalem, large gaping holes in the earth will open up around the world. The good Christians who have been saved will rise up into the air, and watch (no doubt, of course, with "great compassion,") as all the unsaved - including, naturally, all the jews they claim to love - will fall down into the pits of hell where they will experience unimaginable tortures for all of "eternity" - ie, literally, endless eons, as this is the only way they understand "the eternal").
I had read all about this when I was living in New York City.
But the reality of it did not hit home until Jan and I moved - in November, 2001 (several months after 9/11, when Jan was working a few blocks away from the towers) to South Carolina.
I'll never forget the first week, standing in line at the checkout counter, overhearing a conversation in the next checkout line between the cashier and a customer.
CASHIER: Are you Jewish?
CUSTOMER (fingering the jewish star necklace she was wearing) Yes, do you go to Bob Jones University (a Christian nationalist/fundamentalist university, one of the largest in the world)
CASHIER Why yes. We love your people. We're studying your people in class.
***
Why do the Christian nationalists love the Jews? Because, according to their belief in the "Rapture," when all the Jews around the world return to Jerusalem, large gaping holes in the earth will open up around the world. The good Christians who have been saved will rise up into the air, and watch (no doubt, of course, with "great compassion,") as all the unsaved - including, naturally, all the jews they claim to love - will fall down into the pits of hell where they will experience unimaginable tortures for all of "eternity" - ie, literally, endless eons, as this is the only way they understand "the eternal").
With friends like these.....
Does reconstructionism distort the image of Christ the saviour of the fallen?