Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site lcuxc.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gamma!pyuxww!lcuxc!kenw From: kenw@lcuxc.UUCP (K Wolman) Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish Subject: Re: Re: Jews for Jesus Message-ID: <144@lcuxc.UUCP> Date: Tue, 15-Jan-85 08:40:49 EST Article-I.D.: lcuxc.144 Posted: Tue Jan 15 08:40:49 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 16-Jan-85 05:55:29 EST References: <186@teklds.UUCP> <246@whuxi.UUCP>, <210@philabs.UUCP> Organization: Bell Communications Research, Piscataway, NJ Lines: 31 I do not wish to make a second career out of dueling with Julie Harazduk about Jews for Jesus. But I will say this: I am not for a moment suggesting that Judaism rejects Jesus because (1) the net is the arbiter [!] of what is and isn't Jewish, or because (2) the weight of Rabbinic and post-Rabbinic Judaism stands against wandering after strange gods. My reasons for opposing groups of this kind stems in large measure from my distaste for the Do As I Say Not As I Do history of Christianity vis-a-vis Jews and Jewishness. Another correspondent to this net said "Jesus didn't sanction conversion by force." Fine, nolo contendere. We're not talking about Jesus when we talk about Jesus; we're really talking about a figure who was created by his followers to somewhat justify their own desires and actions. The mythic Jesus of Christianity has been the excuse for a history of anti-Jewishness, anti-Semitism, and wholesale slaughter. Jesus may not have sanctioned forced conversions; but (one example) Fernando of Spain had no problems with the concept or the practice. The "Jesus" you are talking about is the creation and outgrowth of a Christian faith that has had an unfortunate history of talking about Jews as their "brethren" while burning our synagogues, raping our wives, and impaling our babies, all in the name of an historical tormented Jew who may have died on a cross. As the historian Will Durant once put it, "For that one death on the cross, how many crucifixions!" -- Ken Wolman Bell Communications Research @ Livingston lcuxc!kenw (201) 740-4565 ("My doctorate's in Literature, but that feels like a pretty good pulse to me. . . .")