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Bill McCartney's latest goal: Improving relationships between evangelicals and messianic Jews
Promise Keepers founder and former University of Colorado football coach Bill McCartney "has quietly founded Road to Jerusalem, a Denver-based group whose stated goal is to improve relationships between evangelical Christians and messianic Jews," Denver Post religion writer Eric Gorski reported yesterday. The Toledo Blade had reported in March that the group "will rally churches to support Israel and Jews." Here's what Blade reporter David Yonke wrote back then:

"With what the headlines are today, with what's going on, we must stand with the Jew and we must let him know we support him," [McCartney] said.

The Road to Jerusalem will not try to "assimilate" Jews into the Christian church, he said, disagreeing with critics who say that Jews who accept Christ as the Messiah are no longer Jews but Christians.

"That's not true. That can only be perpetuated by unbelievers. Read Romans 9:1-5," he said sternly, referring to scriptures in which Paul writes, among other things, that God's promises are for the people of Israel and that the ancestry of Christ is traced to the Jewish patriarchs.

"That's Paul. He's a messianic Jew. That's his heart, and that's the same heart I see in all these messianic Jews," he said. "I see a sacrificial heart, a courageous heart. I believe messianic Jews are among the most courageous people in the world."

It seems, however, that supporting messianic Jews may be a larger thrust of Road to Jerusalem than supporting the nation of Israel. After all, there are many conservative Christian organizations aiming to support Israel, but few designed to improve relationships between evangelicals and messianic Jews. It's doubtful that McCartney and Road to Jerusalem president and CEO Raleigh Washington (a popular black preacher who was Promise Keepers executive vice-president) would launch something that duplicates or repeats others' work.

A report from the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations meeting earlier this month says that both aims are part of RtJ's mission. "Coach McCartney is calling Christians to express their love for Israel and the Jewish people by standing with the messianic Jewish community." Weblog can't find a website for Road to Jerusalem, though the UMJC report page lists an AOL e-mail address.

PCUSA aims to improve battered bridges with non-messianic Jews
Whenever you talk about messianic Jews, you can expect some degree of backlash from non-messianic Jews. But Jews right now are more frustrated with the Presbyterian Church (USA) than they are with Bill McCartney. B'nai B'rith has called for an end to interfaith dialogue with the denomination, calling its votes on messianic congregations and the Mideast conflict "hostile and aggressive declarations against the Jewish people and the State of Israel." The organization was upset with three resolutions passed at the General Assembly, one supporting messianic congregations, another to study whether the church should divest from companies doing business in Israel, and a third condemning the Israeli security barrier because it "ghettoizes the Palestinians and forces them onto what can only be called reservations."

Anti-Defamation League director Abraham H. Foxman also issued a press release, calling the votes "offensive and distressing." The American Jewish Committee has not issued a press release, but the group's James Rudin is quoted as calling the votes "a catastrophic disaster."

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July (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48