You mean, these two groups got together, without overt political motives on the part of say, John Hagee. Of course, that could be that John wasn’t involved:
They talked about Israel and about proselytizing — but perhaps the most important thing about the recent meeting between nearly 40 Jewish and evangelical Christian leaders was that they were talking at all.
Organizers believe the two-day meeting last month in Washington was the first time, at least in recent memory, that rabbis, pastors and other on-the-ground leaders of the two faith groups had sat down to have a conversation about their respective faiths and concerns about various issues.
“There were relatively few people who knew who to call when there was tension between the communities,” said David Neff, editor of Christianity Today.
Neff came up with the idea for the conference with a close friend and fellow Chicagoan — Rabbi Yehiel Poupko, Judiac scholar at the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago.
The event, held June 15-16, attracted leaders representing large swaths of the more than 50 million evangelical Christian adults in the United States — and, in the process, underscored the changing face of the movement.
Many U.S. Jews tend to associate evangelicals with heavily pro-Republican political preachers such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, and outspoken backers of Israel such as John Hagee. Neff noted, however, that while evangelical Christians do tend to lean conservative politically, most evangelical churches shy away from participation in electoral politics.
