Many years ago, while a rabbi in Atlanta, I answered a knock on my door one Shabbat afternoon. Standing in front of me was a fine-looking couple - obviously non-Jewish.
"Shabbat Shalom, rabbi," they said, and asked to have a word with me.
I sensed that they were missionaries and asked them what the subject was. They replied that they wanted to talk to me about the "Son of God."
I suggested that while I respected their personal beliefs, in Judaism there is no such thing as a son or mother of God, that ours is a very strict monotheistic faith, and that our God is one, not two, and not three. I added that before attempting to convert Jews, they should consider converting Christians to Christian teachings, because throughout history, Jews had seen very little of Christian love and of turning the other cheek.
End of conversation.
WELL, AT least they were honest. Today, missionaries are much more subtle.
For one thing, they often pose as Jews themselves. And, most significantly, they do not initially ask Jews to accept Jesus as the son of God, nor mention that in Christianity, Jesus is worshipped as a divine being. [...]
I've never gotten the chance to meet any of these people. Other frum kids I knew in university did but other than some J-witnesses who were polite and backed off when they saw my switchblade, I've never gone toe to toe with one.
ReplyDeleteMy father had the zechus to, though. Fortunately, the missionary stopped before my father could convince him to undergo a bris milah. 8-)
Yup!!
ReplyDeleteWhere I live, missionaries come to the door a few times a week, they approach us in the supermarket, at the playground, getting an oil change and they come to the synagogues regularly to talk to the children in the vestibule or outside.
This is from an older Jews for Judaism site:
THE OBSESSION TO CONVERT JEWS
Over the past decade there has been an alarming increase in the influence of evangelical Christianity. This growth has been accompanied by an astonishing increase in Christian missionary activities which target Jews for conversion. The annual budget for one such missionary group, "Jews for Jesus," is over $12 million. Well over 1,000 missionary groups, which actively work to convert Jews worldwide, spend over $250 million each year on their efforts. They sponsor hundreds of full-time missionaries, as well as television and radio programs, and have created over 400 "Messianic synagogues," which strive to appear Jewish but are, in fact, Christian."
The numbers are much greater now.