This is a religious war (but not the kind you think). We cannot afford to lose it.
It’s not a battle of “my God vs. your God.” It’s a war to SAVE God - and the world - from the apocalyptic extremists controlling Iran, Israel and the US.
There was a moment last weekend when I looked up and thought, “Our fate is in the hands of people who are intentionally steering the world toward an apocalypse.” It’s not a comforting feeling when your bus is being driven by a malevolent Mr. Magoo.
Such was not the case during the Cuban Missile Crisis or even World War Two. During the Cold War, we assumed that even the Soviets understood the dangers of mutually assured destruction. President Kennedy, to my knowledge, never stared bare eyed up into the sun during an eclipse.
But last weekend, I had reason to fear that all the relevant governments were on board to set the whole world aflame, and that it didn’t matter what risks they took because God was on their side. That’s because all three of the principal governments in this war are controlled by religious crazies, all of whom act with few scruples, have little regard for telling the truth and even less for preserving innocent human lives.
If you are as concerned about the takeover of religion by our idolatrous, extremist, immoral, messiah-wannabees, and want to demonstrate that sacred texts belong to blue-staters too, here’s a sign for you to carry at “No Kings” rallies this weekend:
Here’s a quick disclaimer: I added the words “in office” to the literal translation. While I have no idea what the psalmist wanted for his enemy, I’m assuming that when he said, “May his days be few,” he was referring to his days in office, and the assertion was not health related. But you can never be too careful about being misinterpreted these days.
Here’s a pdf for you to download, for your convenience.
Let me take this opportunity to remind you to attend a No Kings rally near you. There are 3,000 scheduled and it is so important to show up to protest peacefully, as we both celebrate democracy and strive to sustain it. I believe it is mitzvah to attend, even on Shabbat. And I will be at my local rally - and am honored to be speaking.
You know how we always see those biblical signs situated behind home plate or the goal posts for maximal exposure? Usually they say “John 3:16” or some such. If you look up that verse, which the sign holder wants you to do, you’ll find that the Gospel is saying, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Cool. Evangelists gotta evangelize, and evangelism doesn’t offend me unless it’s stuffed down my throat… even though John 3:16 is a Tim Tebow thing, which makes me a little queasy (long story)1. But otherwise, I can tolerate signs that are moderately disrespectful of my positions. God bless the first amendment, which both protects proselytizing and levels the playing field in the marketplace of religions. And hey, on the scale of annoying religious intrusions, I’m sure it’s not easy for non-Jews to tolerate three aisles of matzah products at the supermarket this week. Live and let live.
But two can play at the sign game. I know my Bible every bit as much as Pete Hegseth does - maybe a little less for the “New” part, but more for the “Old.2” And I know my Book of Psalms.
So I found the perfect verse for No Kings rallies. Psalm 109:8
May his days (in office) be few;
may another take over his position.
Tattoo this, Pete Hegseth!
Verse 11 of the same psalm works too:
May his creditor seize all his possessions;
may strangers plunder his wealth.
How about verse 17?
He loved to curse—may a curse come upon him!
He would not bless—may blessing be far from him!
Or verses 15 and 16:
May GOD be aware of his family always
and cause their names to be cut off from the earth,
because he was not minded to act kindly,
and hounded to death the poor and needy man,
one crushed in spirit.
And the ever-popular verse 7:
may he be tried and convicted;
may he be judged and found guilty.
I’m telling you, Psalm 109 is the Golden Ballroom of Psalms. But verse 8 is the absolute best.
So I think it would be cool for people to show the spiritual power of a Blu-ish Bible if some carry signs at “No Kings” that say “Psalms 109:8.”
A Religious War
This current Iran war is at its core a religious war, but it’s not a battle of “my God vs. your God.” It’s a war to SAVE God - to save Judaism, Christianity and Islam from the captivity of extremist messianists controlling Iran, Israel and the US.
And this is a war we must win.
Now I’m not some moral relativist saying that Iran’s crimes are on the same level as those committed by the governments at war against it. The blood on the mullahs’ hands - just including the tens of thousands of its own people it has butchered in 2026 alone - guarantees that regime a unique place in hell. There is every reason to want them seriously weakened or replaced.
But make no mistake, all three countries, Iran, the US and Israel, are being controlled by religious extremists right now, some of whom also happen to be psychologically unstable, and who do not in any manner represent the majority of their populations. All three countries have leaders that seem hellbent on bringing us all to the edge of a global apocalypse - in no small part for their own selfish political purposes - and they seem to be relishing that thought. We are not safe right now, and the defcon 1 bluster of this past weekend, the open threats and counterthreats to commit war crimes against mass civilian populations that could blow the world economy to bits, demonstrated that once again.
I do not trust any of these leaders for a minute3 and I see it as my purpose in life right now to help change that, now, while such change is still possible. The way to save the world right now is to save religion from its most virulent, messianic strains, as embodied in these governments.
We see religious extremism in the Christian nationalist rhetoric of Pete Hegseth that is now filtering down to the marching orders delivered to US troops. He is heavily influenced by imagery from the Crusades, which can be seen on two of his tattoos, the Jerusalem Cross and the phrase “Deus Vult,” or “God wills it,” which Hegseth has called “the rallying cry of Christian knights as they marched to Jerusalem.”
It should be noted that, aside from liberating Jerusalem from Muslim rule, the Crusaders’ major goal was the elimination of the Jewish people, through death or forced conversion. At least 4,000 were killed in the Rhineland in 1096 alone, and many others along the way, including Jerusalem, where, on July 15, 1099, the Crusaders drove all the Jews into one of the synagogues and there burned them alive.
Nice tattoo, Heggy!
Hegseth’s inky homage to the Crusades is abhorrent for Jews. It would be like a government official wearing a KKK tattoo or doing a sieg heil salute at an inauguration rally and doubling down on it. I would love to see Peter Doocy ask Hegseth about his offensive tattoos at his next press availability, before he starts yelling at the reporters like a Himmler with hemorrhoids.
The point is, Hegseth’s White Nationalist Christianity is extremist, messianic and dangerous. And, for the vast majority of Christian believers in this country and world - including James Talarico, who is sending that message loud and clear in his campaign for the Senate - it is not reflective of Christianity. Which is why the far right is terrified of Talarico, and why I see his candidacy as potentially a game changer for religion in America.
Neither is the extreme form of Shiite Islam of the Iranian mullahs considered mainstream by most Muslims, or even many Shiite Iranians. Reports indicate that a 2023 speech to students by high-ranking cleric Mohammad Abolghassem Doulabi stated that two-thirds of that nation’s mosques — 50,000 out of 75,000 — have been closed due to declining worship attendance. Iranian youth are turned off by the religion of their parents. A far more moderate Islam is just waiting to emerge in Iran. Time will tell whether the past month has helped get us there.
Meanwhile, the Israeli government has done its best, even as the missiles have been falling this week, to promote the agendas of the Ultra-Orthodox and extremist Jewish nationalist components4 of the coalition, furthering army exemption for Yeshiva students and the intimidation of West Bank Palestinians. The majority of Israelis do not like it and hopefully by the fall they will change their leadership.
So the most significant war going on right now is a war to defeat religious extremism, in Iran, to be sure, but also a concurrent struggle in the US and in Israel. In many ways, it’s all one war. We need to defeat extremist religion everywhere.
And how do we do that?
By not backing down. By not allowing the extremists to incorporate religious symbols and sacred texts. By promoting values of kindness and love. By turning up at No Kings rallies to fight for a better America. By showing that God belongs to everyone.
You may have noticed that this has become for me something of a…Crusade. Yes, I even use the “C” word, without the tattoos.
And I use the “P” word too - “P” as in Psalms.
May his days (in office) be few! And may another take over his position.
OK, if you insist: Here’s the audio chapter of Mensch-Marks regarding my Tim Tebow experience, narrated by me. Hear it and weep. Click here for the full audiobook.
Jews actually don’t distinguish “New” Testament from “Old,” since for us, only the Old is considered sacred. What Chrstians call the “Old Testament” Jews call the “Hebrew Bible” or Tanakh, which is an acronym for the three parts of the Hebrew Bible, the Torah, Prophets (Nevi’im) and Writings (Ketuvim). Still, I do consider the New Testament a valuable source for unsderstanding both the origins of Christianity and the Jewish world from which it evolved, and I respect its sanctity for Christians and its legitimacy as a commentary (a Midrash) on the Tanakh, Here’s a Tanakh primer.
As Paul Krugman wrote following the Trump announcement of talks and a possible deal, “I’m not going to say that Iranian state media is necessarily a credible source, but the odds are that they are in fact telling the truth and the President of the United States is either lying or fantasizing or both. There’s really no reason at all to believe that anything like what he said is happening is in fact happening.”
From The Forward:
To be clear: most Israelis do support the war. The Iranian regime has posed a threat for decades. Its stated hatred for Israel, its sponsorship of armed proxies devoted to harassing the Jewish state, and its nuclear program have defined Israel’s strategic environment for decades. Even if the regime does not fall, the consensus position in Israel holds that hitting it carries real value. Setting an enemy regime back is worthwhile; so is creating space for the Iranian people to overthrow their oppressors — although no such domestic movement has manifested since the onset of war.
That consensus creates a willingness to sacrifice. But within Israel’s productive classes — the several million people responsible for the technological miracle known collectively as Start-Up Nation — there is a growing fear that some of the sacrifices to which this war might lead may prove to be too dear.
Netanyahu’s efforts to establish an authoritarian regime might move forward; his pandering to the Haredim, whose rapid growth risks creating a devastating demographic crisis, would continue; and any prospect for a lasting future peace with the Palestinians would fade away. Emboldened by once more scraping out an electoral victory, the Netanyahu coalition, which depends on the messianic settler lobby, would keep expanding settlements in the West Bank. It might succeed in making the attachment of that territory to Israel irreversible.
Without offering the millions of Palestinians who live in the West Bank citizenship, charges of apartheid, including from liberal Israeli Jews, will grow. Israel will become a non-democratic and totally binational state at permanent war with itself.
Is potentially sacrificing the country’s democracy worth it to defeat — or temporarily hamstring — a bitter foe?
I had planned to recycle my old sign from October (Do not forget: Epstein! Epstein! Epstein!), sadly still appropriate. But thanks for the new ideas, one of which I may steal. Maybe all those people marching off to shul who will be passing by our small local demonstration will pause and think.
This NO KINGS day… Shabbat shalom as we peacefully gather for democracy