Christian and Jewish Acceptance ?
In my experience, neither Christians nor Jews think very much about this subject. Most have never heard that Celts are really Israelites so the news that Jews and Celts are cousins comes as a bit of a shock. Of the few people who have shown serious interest, most have opinions conditioned by their cultures, but few have actually studied the subject even a tiny bit. Some Christians and Jews automatically disagree with this history as a knee-jerk reaction.
Hard line Roman Catholics seem uniformly adamant that there is nothing here to contemplate. These ideas violate the "traditions" of that church thus cannot even be examined.
Mainline Protestant Clergy often seem fearful of exploring these ideas since they were quickly and shallowly written off in their Seminaries as "British Israelism". The intellectual courage to explore new archeological and historical evidence in the light of Biblical prophesy seems absent. Narrow tradition rules.
Secular and Reformed Jews react the most noisily as though their very being and culture are threatened. But they have a uniformly poor Biblical background, conditioned instead by their ethnic culture, political Liberalism, and secular Humanism. Orthodox Jews are generally interested at least, and many are knowledgeable about the Torah. It is among them that I find the best reception and have the most enjoyable discussions.
It is after all all, virtually impossible to seriously disagree with the Biblical history recalled in the first 5 paragraphs at www.losttribes.net and in paragraph 8. They are merely a recitation of common Bible history ready to be stipulated in order to narrow the discussion. Agreement on such basics is a huge step towards a common understanding and in focusing the few real issues involved.
That leaves paragraph 6 to address the Northern Kingdom Israelites not being assimilated into the South or elsewhere and not disappearing from the face of the earth; plus those other Israelites who left Egypt prior to the Exodus and others who left before the Assyrian captivity.
Paragraph 7 flows naturally from paragraph 6, and the broader issues of Celtic history are focused for discussion. The abundant supporting historical and archeological evidence plus Biblical analysis can now become the center of serious dialogue.
Most mainline Christians have never heard of these subjects and their response is often a mixture of disbelief and boredom. Since neither Catholics nor Protestants read the Bible very much, at least not the Old Testament, they are at a loss to quote even the first verse of Genesis. But that lack of Old Testament background sometimes manifests itself as an intellectual curiosity unburdened by the need for a lot of "unlearning" before new learning can take place.
Many Fundamentalist Christians I've encountered are more inclined to preach than to discuss, and their listening is more like just waiting their turn to talk. "Talking" can quickly escalate into a confrontation with someone who has memorized the question and answer manual for cold calling at the door. A quick canned answer often substitutes for a reasoned one, and the prospects for engaging in sincere intellectual dialogue are remote. Yet others are quick to see how the evidence fits in and become very supportive.
Both Mainline and Fundamentalist Christians are preoccupied with the New Testament, having frozen any hazy Old Testament concepts into a few simple Sunday School stories about good and evil. That makes serious discussion difficult without a lot of remedial catching up.
Messianic Jews are very supportive and Bible literate. Orthodox Rabbis are by far the best informed Old Testament Clergy and are generally open minded and even supportive of some or all these historical ideas, but most feel unable to "go public" at this time. Hopefully that will change.
An increasing number
of open minded Christians and Jews agree there is something here worth
exploring. The simple idea that the huge Northern Kingdom did not really
disappear or assimilate is intriguing, and with a little background study it intuitively rings true.
When this bright light shines on the Bible, old shadows disappear and a whole
new dimension of understanding and promise beckons us.