(RNS) — The deadly violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the images of white nationalists, the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis carrying Confederate and swastika flags shouting, “Jews will not replace us!” and “You will not replace us!’ has stunned millions of people throughout the world.
But I was not surprised. As a Jewish youngster growing up just a couple hours’ drive away in Alexandria, Virginia, these sentiments were plain to see.
I first encountered them in the early 1950s at an outdoor revival meeting in a huge tent erected about ten miles south of Alexandria on US Route 1. While it was my first revival meeting, it was old stuff to my three high school friends — all evangelical Christians — who had invited me to join them on a hot Saturday night in May.
But I was not surprised. As a Jewish youngster growing up just a couple hours’ drive away in Alexandria, Virginia, these sentiments were plain to see.
I first encountered them in the early 1950s at an outdoor revival meeting in a huge tent erected about ten miles south of Alexandria on US Route 1. While it was my first revival meeting, it was old stuff to my three high school friends — all evangelical Christians — who had invited me to join them on a hot Saturday night in May.
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