“Jews for Jesus is a christianist faith that mimics Judaism in order to proselytize actual Jews. Convert and extinguish. It is deeply offensive and triumphalist.”
I did’t know that. Well good luck with that. Going way back to childhood, we were told to “pray for the conversion of Russia”. We had zero concept of communism. Never once were Jews mentioned. We had two Jewish families in a town of 6500.
"And you should, if you please, refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews. "
– Andrew Marvell
Pence would invite the Klan on MLK day.
Pence would invite supporters of John Wilkes Booth on Lincoln’s birthday.
Pence would invite anti gay gays on pride month.
Or what Stalin did after WWII with his concept, “Victims of Fascism”.
good ole religion
Has more quirks than a democracy trying to survive a hostile takeover by a dictator wanna be.
I’m probably over-thinking this, but I’m wondering if this was a bungled attempt by Epstein to reach out to constituents in the heavily-gerrymandered district for specifically religious reasons.
MI-11 is a typical gerrymandered monstrosity sprawling across both southwestern Oakland County and northwestern Wayne County. Several of its cities in Oakland County—Bloomfield Hills, West Bloomfield, and Farmington—have long had substantial Jewish populations, which resulted largely from the influx of Jewish Detroiters who left the central city during the rise of inner suburbs in the '50s. Epstein is a fourth-generation member of Temple Beth El in Bloomfield Hills.
However, much of the district is in outlying Wayne County areas, and I’d guess the percentage of Jewish residents in those areas is substantially smaller than in Epstein’s home base in Bloomfield Hills, and probably more heavily white working class and Evangelical to boot.
Epstein’s Democratic opponent Haley Stevens attends a non-denominational Evangelical megachurch in Troy, MI, so presumably she’s able to reach out to Evangelicals and other conservative Christians in a way that Epstein might find challenging. Inviting a Jews for Jesus fake rabbi might have been a ham-handed attempt by Epstein to reach conservative Christians in the district as well.
Either that, or she’s a complete fucking idiot.
"She is also a third-generation co-owner and general manager of Southfield-based Vesco Oil Corporation, a family-owned distributor of automotive and industrial lubricants and supporting services. “I was in the Trump camp from the very beginning because he represents a change from the status quo; an outsider with real business experience and success who is frank and honest with the American people,” said Epstein. “I am excited to recruit fellow millenials, the Jewish community and the women of Michigan to demonstrate that their futures and economic prosperity lie with Trump and the GOP.”
OK, she’s an idiot.
This seems comparable to having a conversion therapist speak at an event right after the Pulse nightclub shooting.
Then by this logic, would it be equally intolerant to criticize having a Satanist Priest offering a prayer to a Christian religious gathering?
According to media reports, all of worshipers killed in at the synagogue were Conservative Jews, as opposed to Orthodox or Reform.
This ‘Rabbi’ also only offered prayers by name for local GOP candidates. Not only were the prayers not inclusive, but the names of the victims were not mentioned at all.
When I was in college many decades ago, I met someone who was a ‘Jew for Jesus’. She felt she was living more like Jesus did during his lifetime by following kosher law, etc. (aka a better form of Christian) She also felt it was her special mission to convert Jews to Christianity because she believed their ancestors ‘failed to recognize Christ as the Messiah’ two millennia ago.
Josh is a bit overly harsh in his piece. Their brand of Judeo Christian belief is no more invalid than anyone else’s and no one is empowered to declare what constitutes a valid Jew or a fake Jew. The term is largely a religious one at this point. To what degree it is an ethnic term the Messianic Jews have an even stronger legitimate claim that connection to “jewishness” is separate from religious belief. Indeed that actually follows most interpretations of halachic law. What is true however is that having anyone who follows a Christian tradition pray for these dead who did not follow that tradition, however kindly intended, is terribly tone deaf. The same may be said of offering a prayer to a Hindu God for a Christian dead. It would be like having an atheist read a moving essay about existentialism at Mike Pence’s own funeral, or reading anything other than short simple positive press pieces about Trump at his funeral, may they be soon. No matter how kindly it might have been intended or how moving the offeror may have found it, it clashes with the outlook and beliefs of those dead you are trying to honor, whose moment it is. In defending that honor we need not belittle the beliefs of entire classes of others, due to the actions of a few. We all hold beliefs that are different than others and which we can strongly find reasons to disagree about. The terrible offence here is that Pence truly does find Judaism so repulsive that to honor these dead, he cannot bring himself to find someone who actually fully shares their beliefs to share the spotlight with him for a moment to offer words of religious comfort after their tradition while he respectfully observes and must instead find someone who shares a faith closer to his own than to thiers lest he be tainted with their sinful ways.
If Jesus were actually the messiah then he would have fulfilled his promise to return within the lifetime of the listeners hearing the promise. BTW: That promise, and the timeline associated with it, is one of the very few things ALL the synoptic gospels agree upon.
Well since “Satanism” is not a sincere religion but a political religion used to test boundaries of religious freedom the equivalence is disingenuous. But the problem is the premise is wrong. It is not a time for religious unity in the sense that other religions need a turn on the stage. It is a time for mourning and comfort. The only religion on the stage should be the religion of the dead. Religious unity should be expressed through tolerant respect for that faith by people of all faiths. Turning this into a criticism of a particular type of Judeo Christian thought such as Messianic Judaism misses the point, as does being overly concerned about classification of that religion. The only thing of importance is that it was not the religion of the dead and therefore was the wrong choice and insensitive.
I agree. The rabbi was not a rabbi under Jewish law, and Messianic Jews are not just another ‘denomination’ of Judaism. Not to mention that it was not just denominations that were offended, it was Jewish people who may belong to different congregations with different practices or to no congregation at all.
It’s sort of like the Pope saying Luther had it right.