I accept your apology.
They’re ethnically Jewish and religiously Christian, but from the Jewish religious and political perspective, they are recognized as having put themselves outside the “tribe.” The are “expatriots” if you will.
This isn’t really satisfactory as a cite. It does however answer my question. They are Jewish and Christian at the same time.
Religiously and politically, they are only Christians.
I don’t know too many Jews who have converted, but a couple have said to me something along the lines of “I was raised Jewish” or “in a Jewish household.” They dont typically describe themselves as Jewish and Christian.
Not well phrased. The are not observant or Israelis, like a majority of Jewish people really.
And hey! It’s me that knows them. They haven’t converted to anything and don’t practice much religion. By their heritage and ancestry they are Jews and no-one can say otherwise. They are also Christians in the same way.
This makes no sense. I think you’re using non-standard definitions here. If they haven’t converted, then they’re non-observant Jews. If they’re Christians, they’ve converted. Why would you bother to convert to Christianity if you’re just going to be a non-observant Christian? It doesn’t make any sense, even in the limited way that religion in general makes sense.
Sure there is. For instance, in pre-WWII Germany, there was a law that required you to tithe to the religious institution of your choice, and that choice was a public and official document. (That’s how we know that Hitler was, nominally, a Catholic.) Very secular, non-practicing persons of Jewish ancestry registered as Catholics or Lutherans without any intention of practicing that faith in any meaningful way, but simply to get out from under.
In certain cases, people didn’t know they were Jewish until the Gestapo showed up at their door.
I was ready to argue that Sevastopol was talking about modern-day US, where nobody has to “officially” sign up as any religion, but then I realized I have no idea where Sevasatopol is posting from, so my point is possibly inaccurate.
From the Twilight Zone.
I get the impression that he’s posting from Israel.
(Although he may prefer to say “occupied Palestine”.)
There was a comment upthread about how changing definitions make this a difficult discussion.
Even within the Jewish community, there is some discord over what it means to be a Jew, with the ultra-Orthodox dismissing the Jewishness of those converts whose conversion was conducted by a Reform rabbi, for instance.
(Which I don’t understand - is the semicha of the Orthodox rabbi greater than that of the Reform rabbi? Did he perhaps receive his from the Vilna Gaon? But I digress.)
There is a fundamental disconnect between Christianity and Judaism. “Jews for Jesus,” is, in my view, a deceptive method of prostyltizing, since it suggests that the two may be reconciled.
I (of course!) support the effort to preach the gospels to anyone who isn’t a Christian, and to lead them to conversion. But conversions by any method other than an open and sincere explanation of what you’re explaining are meaningless.
I heartily reject any assertion that the mere attempt to preach Christianity to Jews (or any non-Christians) is hateful or evil. But I agree that sulking under a “Jews for Jesus” cover is wrong.