“Events kept eventing, as they are wont to do, and after a time there was a significant Jewish population there.”
American Milk and Honey, p. 32
Fact and Meaning
“We need to engage with antisemites over the sheer fact of the Nazi atrocities against the Jews. That genocide and attempt at complete genocide really did happen. But we also must debate the meaning of the Holocaust with the Jews. It does not mean what many Christ-rejecting Jews are claiming it means. If Christ rose from the dead, it cannot mean that.”
American Milk and Honey, p. 25
One of Our Regular Horrors
“For the Jew who wants the Holocaust to be treated as absolutely unique, and not ever to be compared with other historical events, what the Holocaust means is either that the Jews themselves are absolutely unique, or that Gentiles are uniquely evil, or a combination of the two. Neither of these are options for consistent Christians.”
American Milk and Honey, p. 23
The Holocaust Hustle
“Over time, movements tend to turn into rackets. There is such a thing as the Holocaust hustle . . . But while some have a vested interest in the Holocaust’s uniqueness, there are others who have a vested interest in the opposite direction. They want to say that the Holocaust didn’t happen at all. Everywhere you go, you run into people.”
American Milk and Honey, p. 20
Let’s Follow the Pauline Plan
“We are actually talking about the blessings of Deuteronomy coming to the Gentile nations that have received the Messiah of the Jews. These Gentile nations will consequently become the head, and not the tail, and Paul knew that this was a strategy that would actually work on his people. Carping envy from Gentiles only reinforces Jewish unbelief. It feeds and nourishes Jewish unbelief. It is a central complicating part of the problem of Jewish unbelief.”
American Milk and Honey, pp. 17-18
Which Would Then Be Another Form of Superiority
“Now if the dogma of egalitarianism has you by the throat, when confronted with hard statistics like this, you only explanation is that the Jews must be cheating.”
American Milk and Honey, p. 14
Outsized in Both Directions
“What antisemites want to do is point to the outsized Jewish involvement in things that really are nefarious, or in things considered by them to be nefarious. What they overlook is outsized Jewish involvement in things that are helpful, wholesome, and good.”
American Milk and Honey, p. 12
Anger Porridge
“This is why some conservatives need to stop eating their anger porridge every morning . . . for those who have been around the kind of things I write, you will know that I believe we are supposed to have enemies. And I also believe that it is most necessary that we fight them. At the same time, and this cannot be emphasized too much, we are under the strictest of orders to love our enemies (Matt. 5:44; Luke 6:27,35). Love is not inconsistent with a vigorous polemic. It is not inconsistent with prophetic rhetoric. It is inconsistent with scurrilous abuse.”
American Milk and Honey, pp. 10-11
Impossible In Fact
“It is hard to see straight and see red at the same time.”
American Milk and Honey, p. 9
And the Beads Are Green
“Our modern political tangles are a veritable festival of envy, everywhere you look. Trying to find envy in our political disputes—and especially when it involves the Jews—is like trying to find some beads at the New Orleans Mardi Gras parade.”
American Milk and Honey, p. 9