Missionaries are an affront to this diverse community
by Lisa Glass,
RC Sophomore, Co-Chair Half Shekel Campaign
My Catholic neighbor pops her head in my door on her way home from work, and notices a flyer on my door, for a lecture entitled “Battle for the Jewish Soul,” sponsored by Jews for Judaism and the Hasbara fellowships. “There is something I’ve been meaning to ask you.” I brace myself for the question. “Who are Jews for Jesus?” asks my second gentile friend in two days. My typical response: they are evil people who are trying to convert me to Christianity. And don’t forget to glare when they offer you a flyer.
Uniting against Jews for Jesus and those ugly green shirts filling the Diag is a common theme among the diverse Jewish population on campus. By and large, every Jew on this campus is angered by their missionary work and the work of others like them, which specifically targets Jewish students who attend this University.
Jews for Jesus have failed to put Jesus on the Jewish religious menu, however; and I have begun to question why Jews are so often singled out for conversion. A missionary organization such as Jews for Jesus targets Jewish people who feel their Judaism lacks spirituality and depth. As with any advertising or marketing scheme, Jews for Jesus is successful in attracting people who are confused and disconnected. It is difficult to convert a Jew with an extensive Jewish education; a person cannot easily manipulate familiar teachings.
Most Jews, myself included, have incredible difficulty comprehending the rationale that one can be a Jew for Jesus. One of the largest distinctions between Judaism and Christianity is the Christian concept of the Trinity. One ceases to be a Jew the moment they pray to Jesus and not to Hashem (G-d). Jews for Jesus claims to bridge this obstacle by claiming that praying to Jesus is simply an extension of Jewish worship, since we pray for the coming of the Messiah. That extension is called Christianity. Despite this insurmountable obstacle, conversion campaigns continue to target Jews.
The diversity of this campus taught me to respect people’s differences. I do not consider flooding the Diag with Jews for Jesus volunteers, during and leading up to the High Holy Days, to be respectful. Nor is it respectful for a person to hand out copies of the New Testament on Erev Rosh HaShanah (the beginning of one of the holiest days of the Jewish year). Missionaries have carefully chosen to do their work during a period of the year when my religion commands me to look inward and contemplate my Judaism. These missionaries lack respect for my faith because their very presence is meant to suggest that embracing Jesus and Christianity will make me a “better” Jew. No, it will not.
I am not saying that religious affiliation and activism don’t have a place on this campus, because they absolutely do. And that place is through Hillel, Chabad House, Jewish Resource Center, Muslim Student Association, Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, Chinese Christian Fellowship, Campus Crusade for Christ, etc. It is one thing to be handed flyers for a religious student organization; it is quite another to be accosted on my way to class by adults who have no affiliation with this university. There is a huge difference between activism and preaching. I respect people’s opinions and their right to free speech. However, I do not respect blatant attempts at conversion on my way to class or at any other time. If we are to be a tolerant community on this campus, we must respect each other’s right to freely practice our religions. I respect the right of everyone on this campus to be of whatever affiliation he or she chooses. In turn, I ask that you respect my right to be a Jew and join the Jewish community in its outrage against missionaries.
|
Offering Salvation is our duty
by
Allison Miller, Alum, Administrative Assistant, U of M Campus Crusade for Christ
He carries a sign that says, “Repent, the end is near!” You’ve seen cartoons of him, standing on a wooden box and yelling, “You’re going to Hell” at passers-by. Maybe you’ve even seen him on the Diag, yelling at you on your way to class. Maybe he’s quietly holding a black sign that says “John 3:16” in the stands under the uprights at the “Big House.” These images come to mind when we think of proselytizers. For some of these personalities, the message is universal condemnation for everyone who walks past them: An “Inevitable Hell.” Is this why Jesus came? Is the “good news” that Christians talk about really that God will judge you and condemn you to Hell, regardless of what kind of person you are?
This was not the argument of Jesus. This is not what we see in the Bible. It’s true that Jesus called his followers to proselytize. In the Gospel, “According to St. Matthew”, Matthew quotes Jesus as saying “…go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19-20). Everything Jesus commanded His disciples, however, wasn’t based on fear and judgment. It was rooted in love. When asked by one of the religious teachers of the day what the greatest commandment in all of God’s teachings was, Jesus replied, “The most important one…is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:29-31). Proselytization, like all of the tenets of Christianity, flows out of this statement.
Followers of Jesus believe that knowing God is the ultimate adventure, and out of love for others, we want them to share in that adventure. Yes, we believe in a heaven and a hell. We also believe that people go to both. However, we believe that God provided a way out of Hell and into Heaven through Jesus Christ. No one is perfect; that is the message of Christianity. Since we can’t measure up to God’s standards of perfection, it is our obligation, then, to accept the free gift of salvation that God has provided for us. If we don’t accept His gift, then the result is eternal separation from God.
There are loving forms of proselytizing on this campus that aren’t as obvious as the seemingly unloving forms. Christians who quietly share their own personal relationships with God with their friends and family often get overlooked in the face of people who talk into megaphones on the Diag and at football games. People who talk about God while handing out boxes of food during the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons go unnoticed, as well. Believers who extend an invitation to those who otherwise might not ever attend a church service or a Bible study are ignored. But these are the more subtle forms of proselytizing that don’t fit in with the negative “status quo” of Evangelism.
Christians proselytize because they are commanded to by their faith. Jesus didn’t command His followers to stand in public places with a megaphone or to go to football games and proclaim that the end is near. Though some may choose different avenues for proselytizing than do others, the fact of the matter is that part of Christianity is the necessity of telling other people about the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and how to avoid Hell. This isn’t proselytizing for its own sake, or for the sake of getting as many people as we can to become Christians, so we have higher numbers and therefore more funding. This is proselytizing out of love for people and obedience to God. Choose to ignore it if you wish, but Christianity teaches Heaven and Hell and therefore, requests the use of proselytizing, in whatever forms it may take on this campus. |
