Shalom everyone,
Yeshua said, “Be as cunning as snakes, and as innocent as doves” (Mt 10:16). There is a tendency among people who are inherently good, to subconsciously refuse to admit that evil even exists, and as a result, bad people succeed in taking advantage of our good nature. In the face of this growing onslaught of ill-intent, good people have to remain good, without letting ourselves become naïve – that was the purpose of Yeshua’s saying. Remain good people, without becoming naïve, oblivious, or careless over personal safety.
I am a centrist moderate, both in terms of religion and politics; extremism of any kind makes me very uncomfortable. I don’t demonise people, and I don’t hate anyone. I listen to all sides, I weigh up the evidence, and I form my balanced opinions based on the evidence (I tend to have the mind of a detective, built on years of reading and watching ’Whodunnits’ and procedural dramas). I proceed this way, because I want the absolute surety of defending a position which is true; I don’t settle on any position lightly. I pray, I research, and I turn to God for guidance.
I am writing this article, because it disturbs me to the core, how so many people in western countries have been willingly fooled, to the extent that they now demonstrate in support of groups whose social and political values are an anathema to them. We have certain demographic groups out on the streets and on college campuses, that would otherwise be persecuted, ill-treated and actively discriminated against or even murdered, yet still they support an extreme religion and an inherently fascist culture which, on their home turf, would want to see them either completely subservient or dead.
Free to criticise every religion but one
It is normal in our society to say what you don’t agree with, and not be ashamed to say it. As an intellectual person with strong and deeply-held values, I can criticise Christianity, Buddhism, Polytheism, even Judaism, but there is one religion that I am never allowed to criticise, because the very moment I do, I will be labelled as a racist and ‘phobic’. But why?
Over decades, that is how our society has been intentionally conditioned to react; it’s become second nature. We have been made to feel ashamed to criticise this one religion, even when it does evil things, even when its shameful history is exposed, even when its founder’s violent, murderous, paedophilic history is proved from that religion’s own writings, and even when its adherents do wicked, cruel things in plain sight, and are openly proud of it – they don’t even try to hide it any more.
In the west, we have been trained to be deaf, blind, and ashamed to criticise evil when it is committed by this one religion (an equally important question we need to ask ourselves is, what was the hidden purpose in making us react this way?) But who made you ashamed to criticise evil? Who conditioned you to feel too ashamed to point the finger when wicked acts are committed? Who trained you to hang your heads and turn away, and pretend not to see or hear when they speak and do things which mentally balanced human beings should never say or do? Who taught and tutored us to sympathise with a bunch of psychopathic religious fascists?
We have to stop feeling ashamed to open our eyes
I am the type of spiritual person who wants to see the good in everyone, and I put my hope in that good, but sometimes, someone with evil actions and wicked purpose comes along, and you finally have to face the harsh reality that not everyone shares your belief in human goodness, or in a positive future. They are the type of people who, if you give them an inch, they will take 10,000 miles! That is not an exaggeration. They will take full advantage of the freedoms you give them, and use them all against you.
When people commit evil, it is natural for decent-minded people to oppose them, and that is why I don’t agree with the approach of the far left in the west, who follow the warped logic that if a particular group of people face concerted opposition from all sides, then therefore they must be the underdog and the victim. So they support them, and demonstrate in the streets for them, regardless of whatever disturbing things they might do or preach. But there are certain people in this world who are universally opposed for a reason: because they are openly committing evil, and openly telling people that they are going to commit evil. When a society only arrests those who criticise the ones who openly call for evil, that society has truly lost its way (it happens a lot in the UK).
People who know me personally, know that I am a man of peace, and I want everyone to be treated fairly, and to get along, even those who hate me, and who consider themselves my enemies. I don’t judge people on pre-conceived ideas. I give people their space to be who they are, to explain their ideas and opinions. Within any given group, I make a strong distinction between the innocent who just want to get along with everyone, and extremists who want to exert their control over everyone. I genuinely wish that I didn’t have to spend my time warning people about the activities of certain groups of people, because that’s not what I want to waste my precious and limited time on earth doing. I don’t want to have to expend my spiritual energy on voicing my fears; I would prefer to broadcast my hopes for humanity.
I never thought in a million years that I would ever be called ‘phobic’. The thing about the definition of ‘phobias’, is that they are irrational and not based on any evidence; sad to say, I have a fear that is perfectly rational, and based on copious amounts of historical and modern evidence. I actually listen to these people myself; I listen to what they say they are going to do and want to do – and quite openly so – and I ask myself, why are people turning a deaf ear to what they are saying, and a blind eye to their actions? Why does the moral compass change, or get turned off altogether, when it is applied to this religion?
In the countries where they come from, where they are the majority, there are no freedoms, and yet in free countries, they are allowed free rein to spread their subversive hate. In those countries where they are the majority, because of what their ‘holy book’ says, people who don’t belong to their religion are persecuted and disadvantaged; women are considered less than a man, people who leave their religion are put to death, slavery is acceptable (the western slave trade pales in comparison to theirs); democracy is judged to be Satanic and evil, you are forbidden to ask uncomfortable questions about the religion, and gay people are executed by being thrown off roofs. And yet we have women and gay people on the far left supporting these very same religious fascists; if they went to these countries, they would be jailed or executed.
How did we get to a stage where the far left in western countries supports religious fascists? I know the history of these people – history that most people don’t know about, or don’t want to know; I for one have actually spent 30 years reading their own writings, their so-called ‘holy book’, and their own history books. I know the kinds of things they are proud of, and their man-made religious ideology was historically spread by war, oppression, slavery, cruelty, murder, and fear. The far left refuses to realise they are being played for fools, co-opted into the openly stated task of taking down their own people and their own culture.
I guess my personal practice of listening to all sides has opened my eyes, because unlike some people, I actually listen to what these people are saying themselves, regarding what they are going to do in my own back yard, and it absolutely terrifies me.
Our reaction as Talmidis
Timidity and ignoring the problem will not protect us; cowering and keeping a polite silence will not protect us. However, in dealing with these people, we must never be tempted to abandon our deeply held values – as Talmidis, we must never fight evil with evil. I believe that maintaining the values which the Prophet Yeshua taught us, and openly professing them, will protect us and save us from a bleak, authoritarian future of religious fascism. When faced with the negative actions of people from this religion, use it as an opportunity to tell people what Talmidaism stands for instead.
We cannot face persecution and hate by turning to the use of oppression and hatred ourselves; these things do not serve YHVH’s righteous purpose. In whatever we do, we have to be blameless – there must never be an occasion when someone is able to accuse us of doing something wicked ourselves, even when confronted with overwhelming wickedness.
The only way to combat this religion’s creeping fascism is to educate yourselves on who they really are, and what their religion truly teaches – and don’t learn it from their apologists, because lying and deceiving others on behalf of their religion are deemed to be virtues. Learn the truth instead from those who have left this religion – those who have put it behind them, because the culture it created was so suffocating, cruel and oppressive. Learn from those who have seen its true darkness, and have experienced its cruelty for themselves. I hope that you will open your eyes, before you have no other choice but to end up experiencing that darkness and cruelty for yourself.
Blessings
Shmuliq