Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site cmu-cs-k.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!harpo!decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!godot!harvard!seismo!rochester!cmu-cs-pt!cmu-cs-k!tim 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.