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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. . . .")