OTHER VIEWS

Stealth Evangelism

Baltimore
he Jewish communities of
metro Detroit and Ann Arbor
will soon be subjected to a new
attack by an old foe. From today
through Sept. 24, missionaries from the
Jews for Jesus organization will descend
upon the area as part of their "Behold
Your God" campaign.
This five-year initiative, targeting cities
outside of Israel with Jewish populations
of 25,000 or more, will spend more
than $22 million to convince Jews to
embrace Jesus. The deceptive thrust of
this shameless crusade will be to pro-
mote the absurd-idea that converting to
christianity is the most Jewish thing one
can do.
Jews for Judaism and Jewish federa-
tions throughout North America have
worked tirelessly against this kind of
misleading proselytizing for the last two
decades. While we understand the
desire of Christians who seek to share
their faith, we have always maintained
that their outreach should be conducted
in an open and honest fashion. By pur-
posely blurring the distinctions between

Judaism and Christianity and cynically
co-opting sacred Jewish symbols and rit-
uals, Jews for Jesus and similar groups
fail the test of ethical evangelism.
Interfaith councils around the coun-
try have condemned this form of decep-
tive and aggressive proselytizing. It
should also be noted that mainline
Protestant, Roman Catholic and
Orthodox Christian denominations
have long ago repudiated the offensive
tactics of groups like Jews for Jesus.
This has not always been the response
from the Evangelical Christian commu-
nity. A notable exception was Dr.
Charles McVety, president of Canada
Christian College, in an important col-
umn he co-authored last year for the
Toronto Star before the conversion cam-
paign there.
McVety argued that one of the most
serious challenges to the progress that
has been made in interfaith relations is
"the ongoing attempt by some Christian
groups to lure Jews away from the faith
of their ancestors in a manner that is
both devious and deceptive." He specifi-
cally chided Jews for Jesus for manipu-
lating language in a way that is mislead-
ing and unacceptable. As a corrective to
this kind smokescreen semantics,
McVety felt compelled to assert the
obvious: "Judaism and Christianity are

T

Scott Hillman is the Baltimore-based

executive director of Jews for Judaism,
www.jewsforjudaism.org His e-mail
address is scott@jewsforjudaism.org

-

two different religions."

that, "After all, Jesus was a Jew;
and all his followers were
The Undercurrents
Jews." Well, those who wor-
It's important to understand
shipped the golden calf may
what drives Jews for Jesus'
also have been Jews — but that
obsession with claiming that
didn't validate their activity.
"it's Jewish to believe in Jesus."
When the followers of Jesus
In truth, it is part of a shrewd
eventually redefined the Jewish
SC OTT
marketing strategy that was
concept of Messiah from a
HILL MAN
developed at numerous mis-
human king who will preside
Spe cial
sionary conferences decades ago
over a redeemed world to a
that struggled with overcoming
Comm entary divine savior who dies to atone
centuries of poor results evan-
for sin, they created a new reli-
gelizing Jews. Their research
gion. The differentiation was
revealed the existence of certain baseline concretized when they adopted a differ-
axioms that are universally held even by
ent set of scriptures than the Jews who
the most assimilated Jews with virtually
continued to follow the path of Judaism.
no religious education.
Nevertheless, Jews for Jesus realized
In addition to the belief in one God,
that their approach was effective in
one of these truisms is that Jews do not
overcoming the guilt Jewish people nor-
believe that Jesus was the Messiah or the mally felt when accepting foreign doc-
Son of God. In choosing their organiza- trines such as the Trinity and the divini-
tion's name and provocative tactics cal-
ty of Jesus. They've been successful to
culated to generate maximum exposure,
some degree in creating the impression
Jews for Jesus has sought to square a
that being a Jew who has converted to
theological circle. Jews for Jesus labors
Christianity is not a contradiction in
to legitimize through misleading rheto-
terms. Of course, this has been accom-
ric and mass marketing what was once
plished by carefully speaking out of
an impossible oxymoron on par with
both sides of their mouths. While play-
"atheists for God" or "vegetarians for
ing up their "Jewishness" when seeking
meat."
converts, they sing a different tune to
A frequent refrain in making their
their supporters.
case, often repeated by their converts, is
Years ago, they circulated "What

y Catholic Grandchildren

I

am remarried to a man with
three children. My youngest
stepson, raised Catholic, married
a Catholic woman who gave birth to
two of the most wonderful children
on earth. Why are they so wonderful?
Because they are my grandchildren.
So, let me tell you about my
grandchildren. They are Samantha
who is 11 and Thomas who is 8.
They attend Catholic schools. They
live in Ohio about 130 miles from
us. Their family situation like many
other families is complex. Our son
and daughter-in-law are divorced. We
are blessed with a wonderful daugh-
ter-in-law and a very accommodating
new husband. They do everything
they can to make the children avail-
able to us, when we are able to see

Rabbi Miriam S. Jerris, Ph.D., is the

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9/ 3

2004

38

community development coordinator for
the Society for Humanistic Judaism in
Farmington Hills. This commentary first
appeared on IntelfizithFamily.com

.

them.
Last year, we drove to Florida with
them and spent 10 amazing days
bonding and getting to know each
other in ways that you simply cannot
when you are visiting for only a few
hours.
Most of the time, the religious dif-
ferences between us are not notice-
able. We play cards and board games,
go to museums and watch movies.
We cuddle and read together. And
yet, there are times when the differ-
ences are evident.
I don't usually discuss religion with
them. The 8-year-old, however, likes
to talk, and he likes to talk all the
time. In one of his stream-of-con-
sciousness series of statements came
this: "I know why the world is a safe
place — because Jesus died for us,
right Grandma?" My initial thought
was, "Ask your mother!"
I then thought about it some more.
Wanting to have open and honest
relationships with my grandchildren,
do I tell him that the statement that

makes him feel safe in this
often-frightening world is a
matter of personal belief? Do
I lie and just agree? Do I try
to explain that I am Jewish
and I believe different things?
By the time I finished think-
ing he was on to something
else and didn't need validation
of his belief, after all. I was
reminded that the things that
often cause adults angst don't
even enter into the radar of
children.

love him, and we have fun
together, but does he know
me? I tell myself that he is
only a child, but my reaction
was enough to cause me to
think about a variety of
things.
What do my grandchil-
dren
know about me? Do
RABBI
they
even
know that I am a
MI RIAM
rabbi?
How
important is it to
JERRIS
our
relationship?
Do I feel
Community
sad
that
I
am
unknown
to
Perspective
them?
The reason why I shared
these anecdotes is because if I, as a
Allaying The Fear
rabbi and a psychotherapist, have
A short time ago, it was our grand-
these thoughts, wouldn't then laypeo-
son's birthday. We called to talk to
ple kal v'khomar (all the more so), as
him on a Sunday morning. To make
the rabbinic sages would say, have
conversation, I asked him, "Are you
these questions and concerns. In
going to church today?" He said, "I
sharing, I hope that the issues will
become normalized, something to
think later, what about you?"
I realized that my grandson didn't
explore, think about, but not some-
really know me very well. I had a
thing frightening and destructive to a
mixture of feelings. He, of course,
very precious relationship.
The relationship between grand-
knows that I am his grandma and I