Christianity & Judaism - ILANA MERCER

JUDAISM: “Do those ultra-orthodox rabbis who stand bravely against ‘Zionism,’ also reject the indubitably hubristic concept of ‘Chosenness’—of Jews as His Chosen People? Or, do they, like most other rabbis, simply reassuringly frame ‘the Jewish idea of a chosen people’ as ‘the most liberal and tolerant approach to religion possible’; a burden only to Jews; but a blessing to gentiles, as does another rabbi, Shmuel Kaplan, of Maryland.”—ILANA Mercer, “The Judaism-Zionism Bifurcation (Part 2): Tikkun Olam: Fixing The World, But For What, For Whom?” May 30, 2026
JUDAISM: It’s a religion surety, I had surmised, that benevolence is meant to improve society, not the State; and to do so through personal, not political, acts in the community. Charity ought to be about fellow-feeling, not factional preferences.”—ILANA Mercer, “The Judaism-Zionism Bifurcation (Part 2): Tikkun Olam: Fixing The World, But For What, For Whom?” May 30, 2026
JUDAISM: “With respect to the ultra-Orthodox anti-Zionist Jewry; although the question of messiah’s arrival is more than likely immaterial—the question of ethics is not.
In particular, the question of situational ethics and ethical relativism. Having, attached yourself to the Palestine solidarity movement as an ultra-orthodox Jew; I’m not yet lavish in my praise for you. What excites suspicion is that your conduct, vis-à-vis Palestinian possessions, could be tied to the religious edicts surrounding the coming of messiah. History, more significantly, is replete with people who followed a false messiah. There is even a concept for this eventuality in Hebrew lore: משיח שקר (mashiach sheker).”—ILANA Mercer, “The Judaism-Zionism Bifurcation (Part 2): Tikkun Olam: Fixing The World, But For What, For Whom?” May 30, 2026
JUDAISM: “My modest, morally universal interpretation of Tikkun Olam is not the one adopted by Jews who are ‘chosen’; namely favored, esteemed and elevated by gentiles and by institutional Jewry.”—ILANA Mercer, “The Judaism-Zionism Bifurcation (Part 2): Tikkun Olam: Fixing The World, But For What, For Whom?” May 30, 2026
JUDAISM: “Contra classical natural law theory, my own religious order, Judaism in its popular rendering has always appeared to me quite sectarian. The faith to which I was born frequently seemed a we-only litany, more about Jews and for Jews than about the world, or for the good of the world. For “a spectacular sense of otherness and unity” (Jon Krakauer, Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith, p. 262), only the Mormons, tethered to their territory of Utah, equal Jews, with whom Mormons also strongly identify.”—ILANA Mercer, “The Judaism-Zionism Bifurcation (Part 2): Tikkun Olam: Fixing The World, But For What, For Whom?” May 30, 2026
JUDAISM: “A faith is more than a doctrine; it is the manner in which the faithful act and speak.”—ILANA Mercer, “The Judaism-Zionism Bifurcation: Chosenness (Part 1)“, May 20, 2026
ZIONISM: “The Chosen-People belief is as old as the Hebrew Bible itself. It is thus in the ‘Chosen People’s’ philosophical marrow. For what—pray tell?—are foundational, early teachings like Deuteronomy 14:2, if not a declaration of Jewish superiority for posterity?”
ZIONISM: “Biblical Chosenness is certainly a facet of Judaism. Does it relate not at all to the Jewish supremacy that animates Jewish-Israeli expression and express action? Are these not connected? If so, should the question posed, then, really be a Jewish-Israeli question? Or, perhaps a Judaism Question is more apropos? And, am I permitted at all to even ask?”—ILANA Mercer, “The Judaism-Zionism Bifurcation: Chosenness (Part 1)“, May 20, 2026
ZIONISM: “Pro-Palestine commentators and activists, Jews and non-Jews, are religious about maintaining a bifurcation—a divide—between Judaism and Zionism. Advocates of this duality portray Judaism as humanistic, universal and pastoral, and Zionism as its opposite. In the commingled rumble of commentary over Zionism; Arab commentators have been conditioned, by necessity, to internalize the split and the exact fissure-lines, as though mouthing these were a protective amulet, a matter of survival; theirs, ours. It is, in a sense.”—ILANA Mercer, “The Judaism-Zionism Bifurcation: Chosenness (Part 1)“, May 20, 2026
ZIONISM: Why this near-religious bifurcation between Zionism and Judaism? Is Zionism, to some extent, not an excrescence of Judaism?—ILANA Mercer, “The Judaism-Zionism Bifurcation: Chosenness (Part 1)“, May 20, 2026
GENOCIDE: “The near-none—near-none—number of righteous people present in ancient Sodom and Gomorrah obtains in the modern-day Serial-Killer State. Capital-Crime-by-state-proxy (and plenty Cardinal Sin) is very, very popular in the Serial-Killer State.”—ILANA Mercer, “Sodom & Gomorrah Media Vs. God: How The Almighty Would NOT Approach The Modern Serial-Killer State,” April 28, 2026
JEWISH BILLIONAIRES: “Larry Ellison, who is heavily invested and vested in the IDF (as the multi-billionaire who is the Israel Defense Forces’ largest donor, supporter and promoter”) and their necro-industry, successfully led a Trump-approved financial putsch on American media conglomerates that’ll entirely curtail, even criminalize, speech critical of Israel.”—ILANA Mercer, Team Netanyahu/Trump Sinks Iran Talks; Kushner Beefs Up Rap-Sheet,” April 15, 2026.
GAZA: “Sects of Christianity can no longer distinguish Satan from God, mutually exclusive categories. They favor AIPAC’s edicts over the commandments of the Prince of Peace.”—ILANA Mercer, “The Real Israel Vs Hasbara History,” May 16, 2025
“This Hebrew takes the biblical view tested by time. It is that, as stated in Genesis 8:21, the instinct of man is evil from his youth. (Or, wackily mistranslated: ‘the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.’) Evil is integral to the human condition, always has been, always will be. Evil can’t be wished away, treated away, medicated away or legislated away. Evil is here to stay.”—ILANA MERCER, “2-Party Pox: The Republicans Suck AND The Democrats Want To Kill You,” May 26, 2022
“What we observe in the political landscape is a function and a reflection of human nature, acting in aggregate. Over and above the idea that we get the government that we deserve is the devastating reality that this government doesn’t stand apart from us. It is us.”—ILANA MERCER, “2-Party Pox: The Republicans Suck AND The Democrats Want To Kill You,” May 26, 2022
“Christianity’s missionary mandate is global, not parochial. This explains why a global proselytizing faith often fetishizes The Other and why the church rarely defends its own.”—ILANA MERCER, “For The West To Survive, Christians Must Toughen Up,” October 22, 2021.
A Christmas Story: “This was boyhood before the Nerf gun and ‘bang-bang you’re dead’ were banned; family life prior to One Dad Two Dads Brown Dad Blue Dads, and Christmas before Saint Nicholas was denounced for his whiteness, and ‘Merry Christmas’ condemned for its exclusiveness.”—ILANA MERCER, “A Christmas Story Before Nerf Guns Became a No-No,” December 24, 2020.

“A man of some eminence, Edward Gibbon in 1776, seemed to have pointed toward Christianity’s ostensible self-immolating, progressive inclusivity, remarking on the courting by early Christians of ‘slaves, women, reformed criminals, and other persons of small importance’ [his, not my words].”—ILANA MERCER, “White Guilt: Where Does It Originate And How To Fight It,” WND.COM, September 11, 2019.
Following from the Gibbon thesis, I posited that, “Christianity might be called the Social Justice movement of its day.”—ILANA MERCER, “White Guilt: Where Does It Originate And How To Fight It,” WND.COM, September 11, 2019.
“Undergirding what Christians call the Old Testament is a message of particularism, not universalism.”—ILANA MERCER, “Busted: Scripture-Twisting Reverend Pushing Borderless US,” WND, December 13, 2017
“The Hebrew Testament is not the New Testament. Although Christians often appropriate the Hebrew text to their humanistic ends, it’s not the text you want to use in spreading the Christian, ‘We Are The World’ dogma. For the Hebrew Bible revolves around distinguishing the Jews and their homeland from the nations of the world.”—ILANA MERCER, “Busted: Scripture-Twisting Reverend Pushing Borderless US,” WND, December 13, 2017
“Jews like presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders have forgotten that riches are a reward for work well done. In the Jewish faith, wealth justly acquired is a sign of God’s blessing.”—ILANA (October 16, 2015)
“On Christianity in America: No longer doctrinaire or demanding, the mishmash of pop-religion practiced in churches across America is an extension of the therapeutic culture: festooned with feelings, mostly misdirected. Untempered by intelligent interpretation of scripture.”—ILANA (December 27, 2013)
“On American pop-theology: light on doctrine; heavy on hellfire and damnation.'”—ILANA (December 27, 2013)
“Not for nothing was the vow of silence once considered a test of character and spirituality in Christianity and in other faiths. This universal value has been inverted by American pop culture and pop religion. In the US, a deeply private person is considered defective; a blabbermouth who does and says anything on camera is canonized.”—ILANA MERCER, “Will The ‘Pussy Riot’ Sisterhood Storm The Sistine Chapel?” March 15, 2013.
“American public life is such that even our pick for pope (Cardinal Timothy Dolan) struts his stuff like a ‘Jersey Shore’ reality star. Let us give thanks that the world was spared the self-promoting sins of a ‘superpower pope.'”—ILANA (March 15, 2013)
“Although the breakdown of boundaries in society is at the root of the rot around us, the Roman Church will not be permitted to survive in the only way it was intended to function since antiquity: as a hierarchical organization.”—ILANA (March 15, 2013)
“The Christian faithful no longer see themselves as members of a community of believers, but as members of gay, lesbian, feminist, black, brown and plain angry clans. Unless the Church recognizes and recompenses their brand of identity politics—the masses will bring it down.”—ILANA (March 15, 2013)
“Christianity in our country is a lot like what the Ducksters of ‘Duck Dynasty’ profess. No longer doctrinaire or demanding, the mishmash of pop-religion practiced in churches across America is an extension of the therapeutic culture: festooned with feelings, mostly misdirected. Untempered by intelligent interpretation of scripture.”—ILANA Mercer “Duck Dynasty: A Decoy For Dummies,” December 27, 2013
“Pray tell, what is the matter with Christians that they hunger to forgive evil, without any evidence of expiation? Some sins are simply unforgivable.”—ILANA Mercer, “Obama, Love Means Never Having To Say You’re Sorry,” November 15, 2013
“The righteous give secretly. The pious give publicly.”—ILANA (January 22, 2010)
“It is impossible for a commentator to credibly expatiate upon America, in particular—and the West, in general—without reference to the Christian tradition.”—ILANA (December 7, 2007)
“It is impossible to appreciate the greatest composer of all times—Bach—without acknowledging the contribution of his muse—Christianity—to the glory of his music.”—ILANA (December 7, 2007)
“Christian forgiveness is… contingent on the sinner’s repentance, and can be granted only by the one sinned against, and not by the various proxies of popularity. Instant expiation flows more from the values of the 1960s than from any doctrinal Christian values.”—ILANA (November 25, 2005)
“The proper metaphor for the relationship between Judaism and Christianity is that of parent and progeny. Self-anointed Jewish leadership, however, has managed to cast Jews as a mere faction among a multicultural mob, a position Jews (being liberals) love.”—ILANA (May 4, 2005)
“The Catholic Church’s consecration of condoms will have the same overall effect on African AIDS infection rates as its condemnation of sex outside marriage.”—ILANA (April 29, 2005)

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