#gentiles

We all know how awful it is, and it sucks a lot more if you’re not in a position to help. I’m also not in a position to help. But frankly, it worries me that my Jewish mutuals are spending so much energy trying to defend themselves from us.

Honestly, I have no fucking clue what my stance is on the modern state of Israel as a whole. I only just learned that it started as a British colonization project, and learned even more recently that the British started the colony in the first place because of a huge wave of antisemitism.

So yeah, I’m well aware that my knowledge is lacking. But the way we’re treating Jewish people on here needs to stop. As far as I can tell, they’ve been defending Israel’s existence (but not its actions) because we’ve been proving to them exactly why they need a place just for them. And most of the Jewish people I follow are defending it while acknowledging that the actions of its administration are still fucking terrible.

Maybe they wouldn’t need Israel if Tumblr gentiles hadn’t gone from “I can see why you’d need a homeland since everywhere else is unsafe, I hope Israelis and Palestinians can coexist peacefully as neighbouring countries someday :)” to “omg talking to Zionists is fucking infuriating, we need to wipe Israel off the map”.

Wiping anyone off the map used to be what we wanted to avoid. I still want to avoid as much human suffering as possible, and it’s fucking scary how cruel so many others became.

Christian Behaviour to One Another

1-3 We who have strong faith ought to shoulder the burden of the doubts and qualms of others and not just to go our own sweet way. Our actions should mean the good of others—should help them to build up their characters. For even Christ did not choose his own pleasure, but as it is written: “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.”

4 For all those words which were written long ago are meant to teach us today; that when we read in the scriptures of the endurance of men and of all the help that God gave them in those days, we may be encouraged to go on hoping in our own time.

5-7 May the God who inspires men to endure, and gives them a Father’s care, give you a mind united towards one another because of your common loyalty to Jesus Christ. And then, as one man, you will sing from the heart the praises of God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So open your hearts to one another as Christ has opened his heart to you, and God will be glorified.

A reminder—Christ the universal Saviour

8-9 Christ was made a servant of the Jews to prove God’s trustworthiness, since he personally implemented the promises made long ago to the fathers, and also that the Gentiles might bring glory to God for his mercy to them. It is written: ‘For this reason I will confess to you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name’.

10 And again: ‘Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people!’

11 And yet again: ‘Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles! Laud him, all you peoples!’

12 And then Isaiah says: ‘There shall be a root of Jesse; and he who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, in him the Gentiles shall hope’.

13 May the God of hope fill you with joy and peace in your faith, that by the power of the Holy Spirit, your whole life and outlook may be radiant with hope.

What I have tried to do

14-16 For myself I feel certain that you, my brothers, have real Christian character and experience, and that you are capable of keeping each other on the right road. Nevertheless I have written to you with a certain frankness, to refresh your minds with truths that you already know, by virtue of my commission as Christ’s minister to the Gentiles in the service of the Gospel. For my constant endeavour is to present the Gentiles to God as an offering which he can accept, because they are sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

17-21 And I think I have something to be proud of (through Christ, of course) in my work for God. I am not competent to speak of the work Christ has done through others, but I do know that through me he has secured the obedience of Gentiles in word and deed, working by sign and miracle and all the power of the Spirit. I have fully preached the Gospel from Jerusalem and the surrounding country as far as Illyricum. My constant ambition has been to preach the Gospel where the name of Christ was previously unknown, and to avoid as far as possible building on another man’s foundations, so that: ‘To whom he was not announced, they shall see; and those who have not heard shall understand’.

My future plans

22 Perhaps this will explain why I have so frequently been prevented from coming to see you.

23-24 But now, since my work in these places no longer needs my presence, and since for many years I have had a great desire to see you, I hope to visit you on my way to Spain. I hope also that you will speed me in my journey, after I have had the satisfaction of seeing you all.

25-27 At the moment my next call is to Jerusalem, to look after the welfare of the Christians there. The churches in Macedonia and Achaia, you see, have thought it a good thing to make a contribution towards the poor Christians in Jerusalem. They have thought it a good thing to make this gesture and yet, really, they received “a good thing” from them first! For if the Gentiles have had a share in the Jews’ spiritual “good things” it is only fair that they should look after the Jews as far as the good things of this world are concerned.

28-29 When I have completed this task, then, and turned their gesture into a good deed done, I shall come to you en route for Spain. I feel sure that in this long-looked-for visit I shall bring with me the full blessing of Christ’s Gospel.

30-32 Now, my brothers, I am going to ask you, for the sake of Christ himself and for the love we bear each other in the Spirit, to stand behind me in earnest prayer to God on my behalf—that I may not fall into the hands of the unbelievers in Judea, and that the Jerusalem Christians may receive the gift I am taking to them in the spirit in which it was made. Then I shall come to you, in the purpose of God, with a happy heart, and may even enjoy with you a little holiday.

33 The God of peace be with you all, amen. — Romans 15 | J.B. Phillips New Testament (PHILLIPS) The New Testament in Modern English by J.B Phillips copyright © 1960, 1972 J. B. Phillips. Cross References: Deuteronomy 32:43; 2 Samuel 22:50; Psalm 69:9; Psalm 102:18; Psalm 117:1; Proverbs 8:7; Isaiah 52:15; Matthew 3:14; Matthew 6:12; Matthew 27:66; Acts 9:13; Acts 9:15; Acts 15:12; Acts 18:21; Acts 19:21; Acts 20:1; Romans 1:10; Romans 1:12; Romans 1:15; Romans 12:3; Romans 12:13; Romans 14:1-2 and 3; Romans 14:17; Romans 14:19; 1 Corinthians 16:15; Ephesians 5:9; Colossians 1:8; Hebrews 2:17; Hebrews 13:20; 1 Peter 3:8; Revelation 1:6; Revelation 5:5

In Judges chapter 2, it talks about how God is angry at the Israelite's because they had forsaken and forgotten Him, and they were quick to turn from Him and continue to practice their pagan ways, prostituting themselves in service and worship to Baal. And although God's anger did burn against them, delivering them into everyone they fought against, He still ended up protecting them after all that because that's just God's heart fort His people.

"For I am merciful, says, the Lord; my wrath will not endure forever." - Jeremiah 3:12.

He was out here trying everything for real, y'all. And I realized that this might be the saddest love story in the history of love stories. The saddest, most one-sided, unrequited love story there is in existence. Even greater, the fact that we are sometimes exactly like the Old Testament Israelites, yet God still loves us tremendously and Jesus still died on the cross for us, for exactly that reason.

Like first of all, they almost always get it wrong grammatically (“I’m a goyim”), but it also doesn’t make that much sense culturally. “Goyim” translates to “nations” which historically was used for both Jews and gentiles before becoming a word that specifically means in “people from other nations/cultures” or simply “not-us”. It’s an in-word to describe an out group. So it doesn’t really track to call yourself “person from not-our culture” because you’re not part of the “our”.

Secondly, it’s weird because it’s just not your word. It’s very specifically Jewish, it’s a Jewish word, so why are y’all tripping over yourselves to use it when gentile is much more neutral? Like I’m betting most non-Hispanic white Americans would probably not call themselves gringos, so it’s hard to not see gentiles being so into it as an offspring of “haha, Yiddish word funny” that happens in American English, or the desperate need for leftist gentiles to prove that they’re ~in on~ Jewish culture (often without examining their internalized antisemitism but I digress). It’s definitely not cultural appropriation, but it is very weird to me.

And that’s the thing where tbh a gentile calling themselves a goy signals to me that they’re actually not keyed in to being an ally to Jews. Because while y’all can call yourselves whatever with impunity, Jews regularly face overt antisemitism for using the word goy despite it being our own fucking word. See: goy is a slur. See: Jews have sneaky secret words for us. See: the goyim know. It’s fucking loaded and sometimes actively dangerous for us—growing up in an antisemitic part of the word, my sister and I were fully taught not to use the word goy around gentiles because of how easily it was used as justification for antisemitism. So gentiles using “goy” as if it’s a cute word that shows how ~in~ they are with Jewish culture actually tells me that they don’t know much about historic or current antisemitism, or that they’re uninterested in unpacking their privilege to as non-Jews. Idk, it just feels like a slap in the face for gentiles to hold up a banner that says “I can use your language/culture more openly than you can because I won’t face horrific violence for it” and then like… expect extra special ally points for it.