Tovia Singer: Gospel channel targets vulnerable Jews in attempt to convert

While Singer said there is “nothing new about Evangelical fundamentalist Christians seeking to convert Jews to Christianity,” he noted that the method that GOD TV is using is “completely novel.”

By JEREMY SHARON, JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Rabbi Tovia Singer (photo credit: YOUTUBE SCREENSHOT)
Rabbi Tovia Singer
(photo credit: YOUTUBE SCREENSHOT)
In an Interview with Israel News Talk Radio, Rabbi Tovia Singer claimed that the new Hebrew-language channel Shelanu is GOD TV’s way of trying to convert Jewish Israelis.
“They intend, they say, to bring the gospel of Yeshua the messiah to nine million Israelis. ‘Bringing the gospel to nine million Israelis’ is another way of saying they intend to convert the elderly and they say it: men, women and children, which is against the law in Israel,” Singer told Israel News Talk Radio.
While Singer said there is “nothing new about Evangelical fundamentalist Christians seeking to convert Jews to Christianity,” he noted that the method that GOD TV is using is “completely novel.”
“They know it and they have just confessed it on a video up on YouTube [in which] they are seeking to raise money for Shelanu, which in Hebrew means ‘ours,’” Singer added.
GOD TV, an international Christian media corporation whose stated mission is “preaching, teaching and discipling. Taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth,” started broadcasting on Shelanu TV last week.
GOD TV claims to be available to 310 million homes around the world and has 15 million people accessing its material on social media.  
In a video announcing the new channel, GOD TV CEO Ward Simpson states that, “God has supernaturally opened the door for us to bring the gospel of Jesus into the homes, lives and hearts of his Jewish people.”
“Encounter Israel from the international Christian embassy: Jerusalem,”  the narrator in the same video announcing the channel says.
The narrator also describes GOD TV supporters as “Israel’s friend, defender, advocate and watchmen on her walls,” the same words Simpson used in a YouTube video update about the new channel.
One recognizable name associated with the channel is Kirt Schneider, a Messianic Jewish leader and host of Discovering the Jewish Jesus, a television show which attracts 1.6 million views in the US weekly, and is broadcast in 200 nations worldwide.
Many are concerned that the channel breaks Israeli law, which prohibits missionizing to minors without their parents presence or consent, and promising any monetary or material compensation for converting to another religion.
Singer argued that GOD TV “blurs the distinction between Judaism and Christianity in order to lure Jews who would otherwise avoid straightforward Christian messages.”
“They already launched this channel on HOT TV and now it’s up to HOT TV to perhaps drop this broadcast station because it violates their contract. They are not allowed to use this station to convert people to Christianity, let alone minors, which is illegal in the State of Israel,” Singer concluded.
HOT has said, “The Shelanu Channel is an independent religion channel similar to other religion channels broadcast in Israel, which have received a license from the Council for Cable and Satellite Broadcasting. The [HOT] company is cooperating with the relevant officials in the council and will act in accordance with the decisions of the council.”
Donna Rachel Edmounds contributed to this report.


Related Tags
conversion
Christians