At a Knoxville, Tennessee gun show, a Christian man noticed my Jewish book and asked me if i was Jewish. I said yes.
He said that I was the first Jew he had ever met. He wanted permission to ask me a serious question. I said yes.
He told me that he had been told that Jews hate Christians, and was this true? It led to a lengthy but very useful conversation. Here were my bullet points:
1) Jews by and large absolutely do not hate Christians.
2) Christians saved my family during the Holocaust. I’m very grateful for that.
3) Jews are not a monolithic bloc just as Christians are not uniform.
4) The main division in America is not religious, but ideological. Politically liberal Jews tend to agree with politically liberal Christians due to shared values. Similarly, politically conservative Jews tend to agree with politically conservative Christians due to shared values.
5) While the heart of Judaism rejects Jesus as the son of God, we absolutely respect that Christians believe he is. This fundamental disagreement does not prohibit us from loving each other.
6) Jewish law only applies to Jews. Jews are forbidden from eating bacon. If we see a Christian eating a bacon cheeseburger, we do nothing. We tell them to enjoy it. There is no violation because non-Jews are not required to obey Jewish laws.
7) Jews are forbidden from proselytizing or trying to convert non-Jews to Judaism. We respect that other people have different faiths, and we accept that. All we ask is that others respect that we are Jewish and do not try to convert us as well.
The man was fascinated and gave me a vigorous handshake. He thanked me for answering his questions. He was a decent, thoughtful man. I told him that there are many parts of the country with zero Jews. If I am the first Jew a person meets, that comes with a major responsibility for me. I have to conduct myself honorably so that their first experience meeting a Jew is a positive one.
This man had an open mind and an open heart, and I genuinely hope our conversation leads to him telling his Christian friends about a positive experience meeting a Jew.
Some of my Jewish friends ARE terrified of Christians. Part of this is because of social issues, but others are just scared of Christians trying to convert them.
My advice to these Jews: talk to Christians. You’ll find most of them to be good, loving people. They’ll disagree with you about Jesus but they’ll respect that you disagree based on deep religious convictions.
This one Christian man asked me what I believed rather than just accept conclusions without having facts.
Imagine if we all did that with everyone else. This would go a long way toward healing the world.
eric