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From: wkp@lanl-a.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish
Subject: Solutions or illusions?
Message-ID: <14373@lanl-a.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 5-Oct-84 00:17:39 EDT
Article-I.D.: lanl-a.14373
Posted: Fri Oct  5 00:17:39 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 6-Oct-84 02:25:30 EDT
Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Lines: 54


   >Bill,  Christianity did not Judaize the pagan world in any sense. 
   >Rather,  Christianity  paganized (Roman-ized) the teachings of  a 
   >Jewish  sect  known  as the N'tzarim  and  spread  the  corrupted 
   >teachings  to the world.  Christianity is not Jewish in any sense 
   >and cannot therefore,  Judaize. 

You can't have it both ways.  Either Christianity is not Jewish in any
sense, or it is a paganization of the teachings of a Jewish sect that
spread its corrupted teachings around the world.

   >Secondly, materialism was never the primary motivating factor
   >in the presecutions under Constantine, the Crusaders, the 
   >Spanish Inquisition, nor Hitler...the persecutions were fueled
   >by Christian concerns more than materialism.  The persecutions
   >would never have caught on due to materialism alone, but the
   >converse does not hold.  Therefore, I conclude that Christianity
   >is FAR worse than materialism.

Your view is too simplistic.  Most of the crimes which you ascribe to         
Christianity should instead be ascribed to a combination of
religious fervor, racism, nationalism, materialism, economics, etc.     

  >On behalf of that Jewish mother I'm deeply offended
  >and grieved by your callous and cavalier 'holier-than-thou'
  >attitude.  She may  be  ashamed  to confront you but 
  >someone needs to point out the effect of  such attitudes
  >and the consequences.  It is this attitude  which  has 
  >alienated  so many who were brought up in religious homes and who 
  >once  attended  synagogue themself.  You seem to think  there  is 
  >something wrong with them.  I feel there is something wrong  with 
  >the way we are doing things - and this is one. 

I don't think that I conveyed a cavalier or callous attitude in
regards to that woman.  I agree with you that we need to do something
about alienated Jews, but perhaps you should agree with me
that it is not *our* fault that such Jews exist.

Yiri, you insist that I don't have any feelings towards the poor.
What is your feeling about synagogues *selling* seats on Rosh
Hashana and Yom Kippur for $250 upward?  How can the poor afford
that?  Or *selling* aliyot to recite the brachot over the Torah? 
How can any religious Jew defend that?

No, I refuse to accept responsibility for such hypocrisy.  However,
all of us are responsible in some degree for not trying to right the
wrongs we do see.  Is that your point?  If so, do you have any
suggestions?

                  Gamar Hatimah Tovah to everyone.

                                        Bill Peter