Who is a ''Real'' Christian??

The following piece was written by an ex-fundamentalist Christian minister.

When one asks any fundamentalist Christian why their ancestors launched the Holocaust or the Inquisition, ten out of ten will retort that ''they weren't real Christians.'' They will continue, ''real Christians love the Jews and wouldn't do that.''

So, what then, do ''real Christians'' believe about Jews?

Real Christians care little about Jews on a personal level, but care a lot for Jews on a spiritual level. Real Christians will go to any length to convert a ''damned Jew.'' Real Christians affirm that all non-believers are lost. Real Christians have a love-hate relationship toward the Jews. While believing the original Hebrew Scriptures to be the infallible and inspired word of God (despite the fact that Christian interpretations are not accurate according to true, biblical Hebrew), they also believe the Christian Bible to be equally, though supersedingly, inspired. Real Christians believe the anti-Semitism in the Christian Bible to be true. Furthermore, real Christians believe that Jews and non-Jews should become one people; one community of faith. Real Christians believe they have replaced the Jews as the chosen people. Real Christians believe the Torah is null: ''Christ is the mediator of a new covenant that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, now that he has died to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant'' (Hebrews 9:15). Real Christians regard observance of the Torah as an impossibly futile exercise. To real Christians, the Jews are currently in a state of spiritual blindness and rebellion and subject to the wrath of God. (Many believe the Holocaust was a payback for the Jew's role in the crucifixion).

Real Christians, as stated above, will go to any lengths to convert a Jew to Christendom. A converted Jew is awarded special significance; he or she is the fulfillment of the ultimate Christian mitzvah. While many fundamentalist Christian leaders express contrition for the historical abuses against the Jews, their baseline objective has not shifted: Bring the Jews to faith in Christ by any means possible.

Today's Jews are a spiritual anachronism for real Christians. The fundamentalist theopolitical agenda has no room for pluralism or tolerant co-existence with people of divergent views. You are in or out, saved or lost, redeemed or damned. All non-Christians are in darkness and need a savior. All non-Christians must hear the message of salvation. Belief in that imperative keeps the money flowing to fulfill the Great Commission to reach all the world.

How is this new goal to convert Jews by introducing ''Messianic Shuls'' any different than the evils done 50, 500, or 1,000 years ago? The answer: There is no difference! Perhaps the real Christians could love Jews a little less and justice Jews a little more.