Remnant

Uch, I have strep throat, so sorry if this isn't coherent. It was interesting seeing Kirk Cameron in action (had a huge crush on him when I was 3). I wonder if Candace will be in a sequel to Remnant? Anyways, I think a lot of the class discussion focused more on the Jewish perception of evangelical Christians than the Christian perception of Jews. On one hand, the Christian description of the end of days can be useful for Jewish international policy (i.e. Israel). On the other hand, I don't know that it's so beneficial for actual Jews living in America. As Professor Cohen pointed out, most the Jews in the tale are Orthodox and men. But most American Jews aren't Orthodox (and about half aren't men). Jews in the story are basically a tool for Christians. The head rabbi is useful because he's learned and eventually comes to the conclusion that Jesus is the messiah. But what about the Jews who don't agree? Orthodox Jews are basically reduced to a kitschy, almost mystical entity while non-Orthodox Jews are dismissed (or worse maybe they're considered the liberal leaders of the Crusade against Christmas FOX News likes to talk about). Of course, I prefer this friendly, if somewhat condescending, view of Jews to a hostile rally against them. But this current view does not actually accept Jews for what they are, only what they can be. I wonder if the attitude will change when they realize that not all Jews are moving to Israel or accepting Jesus or if the second coming starts taking too long to come.

Sidenote--Since "anonymous" was so keen on hearing my thoughts on the anti-Christ, here we go. Based on the excerpt of the movie we watched, what about the anti-Christ makes him such a bad guy? Is the main root of his bad-guy-ness the fact that he's trying to take Jesus's place? Is he getting his special powers from the devil? I guess when people talked about the anti-Christ, I always pictured some big devil-looking beast or a metal band from the '70s, not some guy who ends world hunger. Although I do think it's smart of them to make him an anti-Christ appropriate for the age we live in. If you need to have tons of money, great media coverage, and good looks to win an election nowadays, I guess you'd need the same to work as an anti-Christ.