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From: tim@cmu-cs-k.ARPA (Tim Maroney)
Newsgroups: net.religion.christian,net.religion.jewish
Subject: Re: What is a Jew?
Message-ID: <20980046@cmu-cs-k.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 1-Jan-85 21:46:45 EST
Article-I.D.: cmu-cs-k.20980046
Posted: Tue Jan  1 21:46:45 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 3-Jan-85 07:34:20 EST
References: <480@mako.UUCP>
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI
Lines: 30
Xref: watmath net.religion.christian:56 net.religion.jewish:1176

To keep this in perspective, recall that there exist various Christian
evangelical groups which seek to convert Jews to Christianity by dishonest
means, specifically by pretending to be Jewish.  (The infamous "Jews for
Jesus" is, I understand, one such group, and was created by evangelizing
Christians who had never been Jews.)  They come across at first, that is, at
the beginning of the semester, as a purely Jewish group, and have meetings
where they discuss Jewish topics.  Then they start bring up "The Prophet
Yeheshua" who was "hung on a tree" and his sayings -- since most Jews are as
ignorant of their religion as most Christians are of theirs, the audience
thinks this is part of the Torah.  It gradually becomes more and more
Christianized, although only very late do the organizers let anyone in on
this.  As such, this is a deceptive and intolerable practice.

And that, I'll wager, is why whoever it was objected to the phrase "Jews who
happen to be Christians".  Understandable in the light of the previous
paragraph, even if you can make a case for the possibility of such a thing.
To avoid the appearance of such impropriety, please refrain from such
phrases.

(This has been posted to net.religion.jewish as a warning to Jews who may be
unfamiliar with this sort of evangelizing, and to invite first-hand accounts
from any Jew who may have run into one of these groups.)
-=-
Tim Maroney, Carnegie-Mellon University Computation Center
ARPA:	Tim.Maroney@CMU-CS-K	uucp:	seismo!cmu-cs-k!tim
CompuServe:	74176,1360	audio:	shout "Hey, Tim!"

"Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are
but as shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains."
Liber AL, II:9.