�the texts all come from the old testament and hence do not apply.�
Once again, at the risk of belaboring the point, it seems worth noting that, according to Orthodox Judaism, for example, the so-called (by Christians) �Old� Testament scriptures are absolutely relevant and, despite all claims to the contrary, have never been either superseded or abrogated. To Judaism, the so-called �New� Testaments writings are not acknowledged as scripture or as in any manner inspired. Hence, the texts from the Old Testament, at least in certain quarters, do absolutely apply.
Small wonder, then, that the Vatican, for example, seems so hopeful that the secular laws of the State of Israel will be not overturned and the Torah of Moses return as the predominant law of the land in Israel. Otherwise, the �friends of Israel,� especially those of the Christian Fundamentalist variety (such as Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and John Hagee) might sing another tune, or, at the very least, get a different view (like a stoning of St. Stephen) from their religious tour busses as they ferry through Israel. Consider what might happen in such an event, if Orthodox Jewish Fundamentalists (like their Muslim counterparts in Afghanistan and elsewhere) were to gain absolute power:
�� All forms of �idolatry or idol-worship,� but especially Christian ones (for traditionally Muslims, who are not considered to be idolaters, are held in less contempt than Christians), would be �obliterated,� in the words of Shas party leader Rabbi Ovadia Yossef. According to conditions laid down by Maimonides, whose Halacha rulings are holy writ to the fundamentalists, those Gentiles, or so-called �Sons of Noah,� permitted to remain in the Kingdom could only do so as �resident aliens,� obliged under law to accept the �inferiority� in perpetuity which that status entails, to �suffer the humiliation of servitude,� and to be �kept down and not raise their heads to the Jews.� At weekday prayers, the faithful would intone the special curse: �And may the apostates have no hope, and all the Christians perish instantly.� One wonders what the Jerry Falwells and Pat Robertsons think of all this; for it is strange, this new adoration by America�s evangelicals of an Israel whose Jewish fundamentalists continue to harbor a doctrinal contempt for Christianity only rivaled by the contempt which the Christian fundamentalists reserve for the Jews themselves ...�
My point, again, is simply to address the Christian claim, or some might say presumption, that the texts from the �Old� Testament no longer apply. To some, they most certainly do.
Serv
Ref: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20040216/hirst