Messianic Churches
Date: August 21, 2007 10:21PM
Hello moderator:
You state that Judaism is a religion, and that Jews are allowed to determine who are Jews and who are not. Interesting that Messianic Jews that revere the Torah are not counted as members of the Jewish nation - though they clearly once were by your own admission - but Conservative Jews, Reform Jews, Humanist Jews (http://www.shj.org), and even outright atheist Jews are? Incidentally, it is curious that a great many Orthodox Jews also do not consider the other Jewish movements to be Jewish in the religious sense, but only in the other senses that you seem to deny. Such happens to be a huge religious, social, and political issue in Israel especially, but perhaps that is a discussion for another day.
But since Judaism is a religion that Jews alone are allowed to define, is that same privilege afforded to Christians? Suppose Christians were to say, for instance, that Christians that do not believe in the Trinity doctrine or in the God - inspiration, literal truth, and inerrancy of scripture are not Christians? Would the very same Jews that would rise up in vehement opposition to such Christian dogmatism - since indeed Jews have found theological and political alliances with such liberal Christians to be quite profitable - be the same ones that are similarly dogmatic against Messianic Jews (while simultaneously accommodating Humanistic and atheist ones)?
Perhaps my line of question is loaded, but I perceive it to be fair.