I find it very interesting that the Republican Presidential candidates who are criticizing Ron Paul for being isolationist focus on Paul’s unwillingness to support Israel. Are they really that dedicated to Israel’s survival, and if so, why?
Republicans tend to be very militaristic when it comes to foreign policy. They criticize President Obama for not stopping Iran’s nuclear weapons program and imply that they would use military force to stop Iran from getting the bomb. They also criticize Obama from leaving Iraq. They believe in applying American power and influence to the rest of the world and call it national security.
So certainly they are not on board with Ron Paul’s isolationism. Rep. Paul says he would stop all foreign aid to everybody and pull troops back from almost everywhere. He would drastically cut back the GOP’s cherished military-industrial complex. If a Democrat wanted to do those things, the Republicans would say he is weak on defense, puts the nation’s security at risk, etc etc.
But with Ron Paul, they don’t say those things. They say he doesn’t support Israel. Knowing the history of Christian feelings toward Judaism, I find this line of attack quite surprising. Apparently, the Evangelical community, so important in Republican internal politics, think risking Israel’s security is worse than risking our own! Where does this attachment to Israel come from?
As near as I can tell, the reason is because Christian prophesies say that Israel has to exist as a pre-condition for the Messiah coming again. So ironically, Christians believe all Jews are going to hell unless we recognize Jesus as the Messiah, and they would convert us all to Christians if they could, but they are totally devoted to the survival of the State of Israel. I can’t remember ever seeing greater irony than this is my lifetime. How very strange!
Quite recently there has been a scrap of papyrus written in Coptic from the 4th Century decoded which contains a phrase never seen in any piece of Scripture. I quote, “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife….'” The fragment is smaller than a business card with 8 lines on one side. Just below the line about Jesus having a wife, the papyrus includes a second provocative clause that purportedly says “she will be able to be my disciple.” The finding was made public in Rome on Tuesday Sept. 18, 2012 at the International meeting of Coptic scholars by historian Karen L. King. Ms. King has published several books about new Gospel discoveries and is the first woman to hold the nation’s oldest endowed chair, the Hollis Professor of Divinity. Experts of papyrology and Coptic linguistics have concluded it is most likely NOT a forgery. This once again ignites the question of whether Jesus married Mary Magdalene and whether he in fact had a female disciple. I was raised as a Baptist, however, upon reaching adulthood I became an Agnostic who continually searches for the truth in religion. Quite frankly, I have never believed in virgin birth as I majored in Biology all through college. There is only one way to get a child into this world and it requires copulation between male and female. So, who in fact was Jesus’s father? And where does he truly belong in religion. Is he the Son of God as Christians believe or is he the Son of Man as he himself stated?