Liberal Judaism and Christianity: The Left Wing Takeover of Religious Institutions

For those who want to understand how and why American Jews remain so liberal, the answer begins with the takeover of Liberal Jewish and Liberal Christian institutions by the far left. Formerly liberal and patriotic, the radicalization of Liberal Jewish and Christian institutions has been a marked triumph for the far left. Today Reform, Presbyterian and Unitarian institutions serve as propaganda outlets for Islamic terrorism in line with the agenda for the far left.

Hijacking Churches and Synagogues

The mission of the left has been to take over American culture by taking over American academic, media and religious institutions. The assault on religion has involved removing religion from Reform Synagogues and Churches and recreating them as political institutions.

The particular means of transforming Jewish religion among liberal clergy and Reform and Conservative Synagogues into outlets for left wing ideas has been to associate the left wing agenda with a kind of warped and denuded "Jewish Spirituality" based not on Jewish law, but on "Prophetic Vision" or "Prophetic Values." This is basically a Jewish version of the Liberal Christian idea of transforming religion into a "What Would Jesus Do" checklist that begins and ends with social welfare and Gandhian non-violence. Substitute the "The Prophets" for Jesus and you have Prophetic Vision marketed toward Jews.

Of course once folks like Michael Lerner get hold of them, the Prophets begin to sound a whole lot like the platform of the Democratic party. The irony is that the very people so vehement about the separation of Church and State are creating a Convergence of Church and State by making the politics of the State identical with their religion. Rather than allowing religion to guide their politics, they allow their politics to guide their religion.

Michael Lerner Unmasked

A good snapshot of the takeover of Liberal Jewish culture and religion by the far left begins with Michael Lerner. Michael Lerner has worn many masks going from a dedicated Marxist and the leader of violent riots in Seattle to Hillary Clinton's personal guru to the editor of Tikkun Magazine, a figure in the current left wing anti-war movement and a supposed commentator on Jewish "spirituality." As part of this persona, Michael Lerner commonly refers to himself as Rabbi Michael Lerner, even though no Rabbi or institute has been found to take credit for giving him any Rabbinical ordination.

Michael Lerner began his career by writing "The New Socialist Revolution", a Marxist work describing the strategy and tactics for creating a Marxist revolution in America. The book in turn inspired many other radicals and helped Michael Lerner create the New American Movement. The New American Movement itself was Communist inspired. Michael Lerner was a founder of the Seattle Liberation Front and one of the Seattle Seven arrested for leading a Seattle riot that saw paint bombs and rocks thrown at police officers.

Today Michael Lerner postures as a "moderate" critic of America and Israel, but the reality is that Lerner was and remains a member of the far left. His Tikkun Magazine is a Gramscian front, part of the Left's "Long March Through the Institutions", in this case Jewish institutions, transforming Judaism into Left Wing Radicalism.

The Long March Through the Religious Institutions

The battle between religion and political radicalism has been a long one. Left wing politics has long viewed religion as an obstacle because religion is inherently traditional and therefore often conservative. Left wing politics is premised on the idea that there is no solution except immediate reform, radical reform. Religion believes that this world is only a staging ground for the world to come. Most of all religious is a source of morality that is in competition with the political morality of left wing ideology.

Liberal Judaism and Christian represent the political takeover of religion, political radicalism hollowing it out and transforming it into a mirror of itself. "Prophetic Vision" has become the central point of Reform Judaism, a social welfare agenda magically transformed into religion. The worship of a welfare state devoid of a G-d.

Religion Without Religion

The result is Religion Without Religion in which religious is reduced to the level of culture and politics becomes the new religion. There was another word for that, it was called Marxism.

The greatest victory of the left has been its takeover of sectors of American religion, a process that began in the earliest days of Marxism. Today in the liberal camp, religion has now become impossible to separate from liberal politics.

A final note on Rabbi Michael Lerner, the American equivalent of the Red Archbishop of Canterbury, comes from a former student of his.

"On the day that Patty Hearst announced that she was now a supporter of the SLA criminals who kidnapped her, he told his class "this is a very good day for the people."