What is Redneck Rastafarian? Rastafarians are black idolators who believe the Emperor of Ethiopia was the reincarnation of Yeshu.
The Redneck Rastafarian is my Noahide friend and Chaim's friend. I assure you that he is kosher.
"Admittedly, "The Redneck Rastafarian" may seem at first glance to be an unusual title for a Noachide web site. However, in addition to the standard Noachide message this web site wishes to stress three principals: Theonomic positvism, Theocratic Judaism/"Palaeozionism," and "Redneck Rastafarianism." Actually, the first two should be implicit in any Noachide philosophy. The latter, however, is admittedly an idiosyncratic position of this web site maintainer. It arises, however, out of not only careful thought but also personal experience. I beg the reader’s indulgence while I now attempt to define and explain the philosophy which provides the title of this web site.
It must first of all be understood that in choosing this designation I do not mean to endorse the actual "rastafarian" religion, which worships a deceased emperor of Ethiopia. No, this site endorses only the most orthodox Torah Noachism. Why then that particular designation? Because the rastafarian religion of Jamaican Blacks developed in response to a deep and legitimate need of that ethnic group. It is my thesis that the poor Anglo-Saxon Fundamentalist Protestants of the rural American heartland have that same need, and that Nochut can legitimately fill this need (in addition to being the objective responsibility of all non-Jewish humanity). In fact, in the absence of having Nochut presented to them, some members of this community are turning to other things to fill the void—things that are at best totally vain and at worst, downright evil and dangerous.
This problem shared by the "African diaspora" in the New World and by rural Fundamentalist Anglo-Americans is the absence of a clear ethno-cultural identity and heritage. One can see how a people snatched away from their homeland and culture and transported a hemisphere away, scorned as inferior and treated thus, would seek to fill the void created by this experience. Indoctrinated in Protestant chr*stianity, it was only natural that they would adopt Ethiopia, the ancient home of indigenous African chr*stianity, as their spiritual homeland (in spite of the fact that most Blacks brought to the Americas were from west Africa). In addition to this, ancient legends connect Ethiopia with Biblical Israel, to the extent that the Ethiopian monarchy is said to be descended from King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, and even the Ark of the Covenant supposedly rests in an Ethiopian church. One can despise and reject the creation of a false and idolatrous religion and at the same time see the legitimate need that caused it to arise.
Now is there not something strangely familiar about the above scenario? Is there not another people whose ancient roots and heritage have been totally erased and who suffer because of it, even turning to some outrageous and dangerous philosophies to fill this need? I believe the similarities are obvious.
In the United States of America, the poor rural descendants of the English (and later British) settlers suffer the same lack. Having no memories of England (whence they may have been deported as unwanted, and which their American heritage has taught them to despise as the Ancient Primal Enemy) they have been relegated to the status of Abstract Host Population in contemporary multicultural America. While every other heritage is celebrated and encouraged (and contrary to the idiotic claims of white bigots, it isn’t just people of color who benefit from this policy, as the examples of the Irish and Armenians should illustrate), they are told to mute their heritage, replace their traditional festivals with those of the multicultural "guests," downplay their history, de-canonize their national heroes (apparently the same Left that idolizes medieval Irish kings as predecessors of Sinn Fein’s contemporary Marxist "national liberation struggle" find George Washington too hard to stomach—despite the fact that Washington was almost certainly far to the Left of any Irish king!), and generally withdraw from the public square and keep quiet as they perform the necessary functions of keeping the general society running for the benefit of all the quaint ethnic types from which they are excluded. In fact, in a way the rural Anglo-Saxon American is remarkably like the Levi in ancient Israel, who was not allowed to have a landed inheritance with the other tribes but who had to keep the Sanctuary running for the benefit of everyone else. Of course, this was at the command of the Creator of the Universe, and at least they received some remuneration in the form of tithes and shearings!
Part of this abstractionism seems inherent in the Anglo-Saxon character, for we are a people who have swarmed over the entire earth and identified ourselves with new lands rather than an ancient one. Even in the land named for our ancestors--England--this abstractionism reigns. While Wales, Scotland, and Ireland have always asserted their unique heritage and tongues, the English derive the totality of their identity from their "Britishness." England is therefore the only unit of the United Kingdom that has no wish to exist.
But it is the Anglo-Saxon of the United States who suffers most. In other nations—Australia, New Zealand, even Canada—Anglo-Saxons have built a genuine national identity. The United States of America, as befits a country that doesn't have a real name, is an abstract nation of people from all ethnic backgrounds. Unlike the other nations in which he lives, the Anglo-Saxon in the USA is indeed the abstract host to all the beautiful cultures. He is constantly scolded for being a bad host, and the only one scolded for being an invader. Perhaps the well-off don’t suffer so much, but the poor—the ones who traditionally make up the folk Protestantism of the American heartland—find themselves denied even the basic compassion given to the poor and wretched of other cultures. In fact, even the Biblical Fundamentalism of other cultures doesn’t seem to attract the criticism that theirs does!
It is only natural in this situation that the legitimate yearnings of the human soul would find expression in various ways. One is to find a national identity in "chr*stian America," despite the fact that the Founders of the present nation were primarily rationalists and deists of the enlightenment type and that chr*stianity provides the national identity of numerous other nations who are more or less celebrated even by the Left. Others illogically identify with pagan/leftist Celtic movements. The Anglican/Catholic high church Old South provides another psychic homeland, though its culture was very different from the "Bible Belt" South of today. Others are being reconciled to "their chr*stian heritage" by affiliating with the ancient liturgical churches—the Catholic, Orthodox, Non-Chalcaedonian, and Nestorian. And that other great stream of American Biblical Fundamentalism, the Black community, is being told to seek its roots in islam, or at least a bizarre cult that has appropriated that name. It is obvious that an identity, a heritage, is a very basic and legitimate human need that is not being met for thousands of Americans.
The most twisted and detestable pseudo-heritage being offered to the dispossessed of the Anglo-American hinterlands is the blasphemy known as "chr*stian identity." This spreading pestilence is spreading among our people by telling them that the "white chr*stian race" are the true descendants of the Biblical Israelites and that the Jews are "the Devil’s people" (chas vechalilah!). This is no joke. I myself was recently forced, while in an auto repair waiting room, to listen to a pitiable old man (a World War II veteran, of all things!) harangue another customer about how the Jews are the enemies of the "white chr*stian race." I found myself grinding my teeth as I wished I had brought my own copy of the TaNa"KH (in the original Hebrew) with me to show this pathetic old man how far from an "Israelite" he really was!
The whole "chr*stian identity" blasphemy is based on the fact that our people, while having a reverence for the TaNa"KH unparalleled in the chr*stian world, simply cannot conceive of an "Tanach" standing on its own without being organically united to "the new testament." Since the "white chr*stian American" reverences the Bible, is it not "obvious" that he is the true son of Israel? And is not the passionate enmity of the liberal secular American Jewish community identical with that of the ancient Jerusalem Sanhedrion to J*sus? The answer of course is that the first has nothing whatsoever in common with the other; the Jerusalem Sanhedrion was the government of a Theocracy judging a heretic, not a forerunner of the ACLU prosecuting a "religious fanatic" (indeed, our own secular Jewish liberals have so much in common with the Nazarene that it really is a wonder that they object to him so much!). But ignorance of the genuine `Am Yisra’el is not the only problem with this philosophy. The "new testament" is supposed to be a negation of the covenant with Israel and its replacement with a universal covenant with all humanity. How does "chr*stian identity" sell the continuance of the ethnic covenant with "chr*stian Israel" after the "new testament?" It is merely another way of resolving the deep tension and contradictions in "the two testaments." Lacking any knowledge of the true Torah Nation, with only the example of secular Jewish liberals to go by, and with absolutely no knowledge of ancient liturgical chr*stianity (what would the "identity" people do with the ancient non-white chr*stian communities of Africa, the Middle East, and southwestern India?), and desperately needing roots which their true history fails to give them (since they are the historical by-product of the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons by Pope Gregory the Great and, later, the Protestant Reformation), all logic flies out the window when they are offered an identity as a fake "Israel" in which the traditional "two testaments" remain fused together.
As stated above, this evil and dangerous philosophy is, despite its illogic and contradictions, poisoned sugar to people despised by everyone else and impoverished amongst the ancient heritages of the peoples they find all about them. It is spreading and the situation is going to get much worse if it is not combated. But the vileness of this doctrine does not change the fact that it feeds off a very basic and legitimate need. And what is needed to save out people not only from "identity" but all the others false paths that await them is not merely to attack them, but to offer a real solution to the hunger off which it feeds.
It isn’t evil to want a heritage. And there is an answer that is almost uniquely suited to our people. Our history since the Radical Reformation is one of an ever greater rejection of historical chr*stianity and a desire for ever greater Biblical purity. This is the source of multitudes of religious denominations among us. But the answer that is simplest and that should be most obvious is studiously ignored.
One of the most obvious characteristics of our people is its attraction to things Jewish, which it subconsciously acknowledges is the only authentic Biblical religion. This is acknowledged by our enemies who attack this as "Judaeo-chr*stianity" and misunderstood by most Jews who see the attraction to Judaica as a dishonest attempt to snare Jewish souls. It is instead the penultimate stage or our people’s religious evolution. There remains but one more step to take.
In the Middle Ages the Turkic-Caucasian nation known as the Quzarim converted to Judaism. For a while this seemed the only available model for our people. But there is in fact another, and a Biblical one. Rabbi Shelomoh Rotenberg on page 205 of his book `Am `Olam: The History of the Eternal Nation, Volume I (Keren Eliezer: Brooklyn, 1988) reminds us that when the Jewish exiles fled to Egypt from the Babylonians they found there
[F]ive cities whose people spoke the language of the Bnei Yisra’el of Kena`an, were loyal to Hashem, took their oaths only by His Name, and even had a Mizbe’ach built for Hashem. (These were the descendants of the masses of captives from Mitzrayim and Kush whom Sancheriv had taken along on his three-year siege of Shomron. Upon Sancheriv’s miraculous defeat at the gates of Yerushalayim, Chizkiyahu freed all the captives. Having witnessed Hashem’s great miracles, they now believed in Him and upon returning to Mitzrayim they started bringing offerings to Hashem.)
In fact, probably on the authority of the prophet Jeremiah, the men among them brought offerings to HaShem there as well!
Perhaps these G-d-fearing Egyptians were Benei Noach. If so, they provide one example of a people adopting the Hebrew language and culture to an extent without converting to Judaism.
It has been suggested that proponents of traditional morality have lost the "culture wars" and should simply withdraw from general society, adopting an insular, Amish-type approach. However, as long as our people remain an English-speaking abstract host population this will not be possible. In order to truly create an insular culture it will be necessary to become an ethnic community. Thus, instead of scolding other groups for retaining ancestral loyalties ("hyphenated" Americans), retaining their ancestral languages, and displaying the flags of their homelands alongside that of the United States, Anglo-Americans should instead emulate their example (as some Americans do when they fly the Confederate Battle Flag).
We thus return to the peculiarly appropriate example of the Jamaican rastafarians. Anglo-American Fundamentalist Protestants (those who have not been lost to us by defecting to some of the negative philosophies mentioned above) already have emotional ties for Medinat Yisra’el similar to that of the "rastas" for Ethiopia. But what should be obvious is that Judaism and Israel provide the authentic and literal Biblical heritage for which our people so yearn and which other traditions can only mimic. It is almost incredible that there has never been a movement among our people in this direction, similar to the "nation of islam" among Black Americans.
It is time for our people to shake off their inexplicable and unthinking loyalty to chr*stianity, whose authentic and historical form we have always rejected. What is hindering us? Why is no one offering the Truth to our people, who remain easy prey for false teachers? It is indeed lamentable that the Benei Noach movement has become so moribund while we lose more and more of our people to everything from Roman Catholicism to "identity." Israel and Benei Noach have not only the Truth for all humanity but an answer that seems custom fit for our own experience as poor rural Anglo-American Fundamentalists. That this solution remains unoffered and unexplored is not only a shameful waste of an excellent opportunity, but--with the escalating ethnic tension caused by the ever greater numbers of immigrants from new and exotic cultures, and with the false and dangerous "solutions" being offered us from every quarter--is a disaster waiting to happen.
May G-d speedily open our eyes."
http://redneck_rastafarian.tripod.com/redras.html