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Mulling The Millennium
Jesus For Jews
Southern Baptists urge holiday prayers that Jews will find Christian religion.
JULIE WIENER
Jewish TelegraphicAgency
T
he High Holidays are tradi-
tionally a time of Jewish
soul-searching. But during
this year's festivities, a num-
ber of evangelical Christians will also be
eyeing those souls.
In an effort Jewish leaders describe as
"arrogant" and "offensive," an organiza-
tion that claims to represent almost 16
million Southern Baptists is distributing
a new booklet offering suggestions on
how to pray that Jews find Jesus.
The booklet, tided "Days Of Awe"
offers background information on
Jewish traditions around the High
Holidays and urges Baptists to "pray for
Jewish individuals you know by name."
The booklet offers prayers for each
day from Rosh Hashanah to Yom
Kippur, asking Baptists to focus prayers
on Jews of different countries each day,
although it does not include American
Jews. For example, on the first day of
Rosh Hashanah, the book suggests
Christians pray for the Jews of Israel.
"On Rosh Hashanah, when obser-
vant Jews around the world begin 10
days of seeking God, Southern Baptists
will be praying they find his Son,"
according to an article about the effort
in the Baptist Press.
The same article quoted Randy
Sprinkle, director of the convention's
International Mission Board, as saying
that the effort is an act of love."
"Christian intercessors are people of
love," he is quoted saying. "They love
the Jewish people, even scattered across
the earth as they are, because God first
loved the Jewish people."
The group also targets other non-
Christians. It published a similar guide
to help Christians pray for Muslims
during Ramadan and plans to publish
guides for prayer efforts focusing on
Hindus and Buddhists.
Jewish critics see the prayer effort as
an outgrowth of the Southern Baptist
Convention's vote three years ago to
direct energies and resources toward
converting Jews to Christianity.
Rabbi A. James Rudin, national
interreligious affairs coordinator for the
American Jewish Committee, said this
is the first such prayer effort he knows
of timed to coincide with the Jewish
High Holidays.
"Many Southern Baptists, particular-
ly politicians, want to put the Ten
Commandments in schoolrooms and
courtrooms, but this program counters
two of the commandments: thou shalt
not steal and thou shalt not covet," said
Rudin, saying the action was equivalent
to stealing Judaism from Jews and
"expropriating the Jewish religion."
"It's particularly offensive and it's not
going to work," he said.
He said the International Mission
Board does not represent all Southern
Baptists.
Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the
Reform movement's Union of
American Hebrew Congregations, said,
"We are deeply offended" by the effort.
James Beasley, the director of the
Richmond, Va.-based International
Mission Board's resource center, said
that "a large number" of Southern
Baptist congregations had requested
copies of the prayer guide, but did not
give an exact count.
Asked to respond to Jewish criticism
of the effort, Beasley referred to the
comments of Don Kammerdiener, the
International Mission Board's executive
vice president, in the introduction to
the prayer guide.
Kammerdiener acknowledges that
"many Jewish leaders reject such efforts
as being wrongheaded, arrogant or even
contributing to the spiritual and cultur
al equivalent of the holocaust." But, he
writes, "the Bible is clear in giving
Christ's followers guidance regarding
the necessity of sharing the gospel with
the Jews." Fl
7TH ANNUAL FAMILY SUKKOT CONCERT
„ ,
CHABAD'
CHILDREN
CHERNOBYL
-,gtrafiff:e41,..
In memory of Joanne Zuroff 5t
Wednesday, September 29
Southfield Centre for the Arts
24350 Southfield Road
Doors open 7:00 pm.
Concert begins 7:45 pm
Concert will feature singing sensations Shlomo
Simcha and Abie Rotenberg
A HUMANITARIAN
MEDICAL RELIEF
PROGRAM FOR
RUSSIAN JEWISH
CHILDREN
TICKETS:
Adults: $25 in advance/$30 at the door
Child: $10 in advance/$1 5 at the door
For reservations call (248) 586-0222 • Family rates call (248)855-6170
Tickets available at: Borenstein's, Spitzer's and Esther's or at the door
Proceeds from the concert will help fund a flight to transport children from Chernobyl to Israel!
9/10
1999
1.8 Detroit Jewish News
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