Comments on: Why the ABC should apologise for its Good Friday interview of Rev Dr Stephen Sizer

By: Leon Poddebsky

Leon Poddebsky — Thu, 12 Apr 2018 08:32:35 +0000

In reply to Gary Inberg. The ABC derives an enormous amount of gratification from seeing Jews squirm; that is why it actually cultivates people like this ABC-revered reverend.

By: Gary Inberg

Gary Inberg — Thu, 12 Apr 2018 03:37:04 +0000

Peter,

any response from the ABC?

By: Leon Poddebsky

Leon Poddebsky — Wed, 11 Apr 2018 13:32:27 +0000

For supersessionist Christians no source of chagrin can be more dismaying than the spectacle of Jewish independence in the form of the Jewish nation-state, Israel.
That reality eats away at their innards, and causes them endless insomnia, for it contradicts one of the pillars of Christian theology, the one that asserts that the Jews must forever remain a degraded pariah people.
Hence the support for Hamas; hence the slanders against Israel.

By: Liat Kirby

Liat Kirby — Wed, 11 Apr 2018 12:47:04 +0000

This is all very disturbing. I had not heard of Reverend Sizer before reading Peter Wertheim’s article and am so pleased that a formal complaint has been made to the ABC. It’s just like them to airily respond with the fact that they received minimum complaints, ignoring the fact that it was Pesach when the interview was broadcast. Indeed, why would a Jew be listening on Good Friday morning to a programme of this kind anyway!? The ABC have a responsibility to all its listeners to refrain from scheduling this kind of sensationalist rubbish on Good Friday or any other day.

ABC RN have run documentary programmes in the past that have been highly critical of Israel, with the criticism being presented in the guise of distortion of facts and history, and the producer/writer of the material having heavy bias against Israel. So, in that sense, this effort of David Rutledge’s is not new, although it seems he’s soft, weak and lacking in perception, rather than having a particular agenda.
What a travesty, just the same. And an ironic travesty at that. On Good Friday the ABC chooses to air an interview that goes against the precepts of the man Jesus, a Jewish man paramount to Christian worship, and peddles the age old anti-Semitism existing in the Gospels written by his followers and most obviously manifest in the mind of Reverend Steven Sizer. Just what can they be thinking here? How production-wise and with time scheduling in mind, could this have happened on Good Friday/first day of Pesach? Hopefully we shall get some answers to ECAJ’S efforts.

By: Hilary Rubinstein

Hilary Rubinstein — Wed, 11 Apr 2018 04:59:43 +0000

This is an excellent critique of the ABC’s interview with the Reverend Sizer. Reverend Sizer campaigns in Africa and Asia against Christian support for Israel, and his book denouncing Christian Zionism has been translated into several languages. Many Jews will probably shrug their shoulders and say something along the lines of “What else is new? What do you expect from a churchman? Isn’t undermining Jews and Judaism what the Christian church has done virtually since its inception?” Such a view discounts the view expounded by such Christian thinkers as the 19th century English magazine editor Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna (the Canon of Norwich’s daughter) and the 20th century Reverend James Parkes – both Anglicans like Stephen Sizer – that Judaism constitutes its own path to redemption. Stephen Sizer, in contrast to them, is a supersecessionist, holding that the Almighty’s Covenant with the Jewish People is null and void and that Jews can only be redeemed by accepting Jesus as their saviour. His capacity for doing the pro-Israel cause enormous damage shouldn’t be underestimated, and it’s good to read so able a statement as Mr Wertheim’s. Although by no means as potentially influential as his ABC broadcast and not as scandalous, Sizer also got his viewpoint across on a broadcast from Adelaide on the Reverend Lynn Arnold’s programme, the latter being the same Lynn Arnold who was once premier of South Australia. Arnold encouraged listeners to look at Reverend Sizer’s two websites for more information about his opposition to Christian Zionism. The broadcast can be heard at https://soundcloud.com/lifefmadelaide-1/sets/sunday-nights-with-lynn-arnold-stephen-sizer The Reverend Sizer has also been interviewed on 3CR in Melbourne!

By: Raymond Phillips

Raymond Phillips — Wed, 11 Apr 2018 03:21:34 +0000

The fire and brimstone preaching is one many reasons I walked away from the church. I follow and practice Judaism in saying that I am still not Jewish. But does that matter?

By: Michael Burd

Michael Burd — Wed, 11 Apr 2018 02:05:12 +0000

Peter isn’t this all part of diversity, inclusion , tolerance etc

You should have been at anti Jewish rally in Melbourne to listen to our Muslim/Arab commity member day the Jews in Israel should go back to Europe
Oh multiculturalism working well here huh?