Wednesday, November 16, 2005

ADL PREPARES TO FIGHT THE WRONG BATTLE

ADL Breaks With Pack On Church-State
Foxman signals shift in tactics with attack on Evangelical power in U.S.

Warning that the Evangelical right has made alarming gains in social and political influence, a leading Jewish church-state watchdog is calling for a tougher and more unified Jewish response. Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, speaking to the group’s national leadership here last week, signaled a sharp shift in ADL policy by directly attacking several prominent religious right groups and challenging their motives, which he said include nothing less than “Christianizing America.” Among the groups he cited were the powerful Focus on the Family ministry and the Family Research Council. Foxman said as these groups seek to use the government to further their missionizing goal, Democrats and Republicans alike are “pandering” to the religious conservatives. The ADL leader also called for a national Jewish summit to respond to the growing challenge.

DR. STEVEN STEINLIGHT, FORMER POLICY DIRECTOR AT THE AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE WROTE AN ARTICLE LAST YEAR WITH AN EXCERPT THAT'S RELEVENT:

High Noon to Midnight
“Reality is dawning on many American Jews that something is amiss, although it seems lost on some of the country’s most venerable Jewish organizations. There’s a sad, if comic irony associated with the fact that employees at organizations like ADL, the American Jewish Committee, and the Presidents’ Conference must pass through a gauntlet of concrete barriers, armed guards, metal detectors, and double bulletproof anterooms as they come to work each morning to protect them from radical Islamic terrorists, in order to spend their days studying and disseminating reports on the "threat" posed by Evangelical Christians.”

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