A New Kind of Idolatry

For many people in the world, no matter how Israelis fight back against Hamas (and Hizbollah, Islamic Jihad, Iran, etc.) they will be accused of genocide. Expelling Hamas from Gaza comes with the price of lives lost on both sides; a price that is extremely high because of the way Hamas has used its citizens as human shields. But the way protestors frame their opposition to Israel’s war on Hamas in such a narrowly focused way (genocide), ignoring larger context and realities (as well as the death cult that is Jihadism) speaks to a troubling belief system. In a way, it’s a new kind of idolatry.

We usually think of idolatry as worshipping idols, but in the history of religious thought, there are deeper understandings of idolatry.
When we see only one side of a person and mistake that for the whole person, we ignore the full reality of who they are. When we take a small part of the world and say, “This is God,” or “This is the meaning of life,” we elevate that one part, and mistake it for the whole. Similarly, when we take an ideology, say pacifism, and make that, above all else, our only guiding star, our litmus test for ethics, or even holiness, we ignore broader realities and become idolaters.
In Exodus 15:3 we read that God is a warrior, an ish milchama. How can that be? If God is perfect, why would He need to fight? What would be the circumstances? Does this mean God doesn’t care about peace? However you choose to understand this phrase, the Torah’s use of this term (as well as most of the rest of the Bible) clearly does away with the notion that humans are expected to be perfect, let alone have an absolute commitment to pacifism. While Judaism certainly values peace, as well as the life of each human being, we don’t elevate either to the point that we make them our religion, above all else.
I think there are a lot of people in this country who don’t have a broad and balanced portfolio of beliefs and practices. They have doubts, perhaps they’ve been turned off by “organized religion,” or they want to belong to something, or be passionate about a cause. All good things. But searching is a process, it takes time, and it isn’t always successful. As Don Henley wrote, people “wind up following the wrong gods home.”
Complex geopolitical issues require nuance, balance, and context. But when people adopt pacificism as their religion, they elevate the value or belief in nonviolence above any other considerations or realities. In many cases, they automatically assume that victims and underdogs are always right, and that whoever attacks them is, by definition, evil. In these ways, they are mistaking parts for the whole. In their eyes, Israel and its supporters are murderers who, through their actions, are a repudiation of how a pacificist defines the ideal person. It’s a new kind of idolatry. Throw in some antisemitism and it’s infectious and dangerous.

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