Eclectic Topics in no Particular Order
Various Topics Discussed
/>
Someone pointed out that Jews for Judaism remarked that over 500,000 Jews had converted to Christianity. The entire reason that Jews for Judaism and this blog exist is because of the ongoing onslaught by Christians to convert uneducated Jews. Sadly far too many Jews are raised with little to no Jewish education. Many are raised entirely secular, with no religion at all. A major problem in America (in particular) is that so many of these people wind up marrying non-Jews. Since the majority of Americans are Christian they usually marry a Christian and in turn "convert" to Christianity as they raise their children. As to how many are actually religious compared to just converting to make a spouse happy or to "fit in" with mainstream America, it is hard to say... It seems this person's point was that somehow conversions by Jews to Christianity "proved" that Christianity is viable or "more true" than Judaism. That leap in logic is ridiculous. Consider the following Pew Research information which shows Americans are leaving Christianity in droves. Read "In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace" "65% of American adults describe themselves as Christians when asked about their religion, down 12 percentage points over the past decade. Meanwhile, the religiously unaffiliated share of the population, consisting of people who describe their religious identity as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular,” now stands at 26%, up from 17% in 2009." Regarding Jews Pew Research reports: "Judaism is the largest faith group in America after Christianity, and its relative size in America has grown slightly since 2007, from 1.7 percent of the U.S. population in 2007 to 1.9 percent in 2014... When it comes to religious retention rates, American Jews come in third, retaining 75 percent of those raised Jewish...Sixty-five percent of American Jews who are married or living with a partner are with a Jew and 35 percent are with a non-Jew....But 17 percent of us have found Judaism: Seventeen percent of American Jews say they were raised in another religion. Six percent say they were raised unaffiliated, 4 percent as mainline Protestant, 3 percent as Catholic, and 2 percent each as evangelical and in some other religion." While the Jewish statistics are depressing, the decline is primarily attributed to secular and less observant Jews, not to observant Jews. This is why the work we do here is so critical. Converts to Christianity for reasons other than marriage or simply to "fit in" tend to be swayed by emotions -- either the "Christian love" they are shown by the missionaries trying to convert them, or sometimes a "personal revelation" that sways them emotionally to believe in Jesus. They only tend to try to support their conversion with "proof texts" after the fact, but I have yet to meet even one who converted based on studying Christianity and making an intellectual choice. The Torah warns us to not be swayed by personal visions and revelations -- all religions except for Judaism are based on personal revelations. From the followers of Jesus reporting "third hand" on him being a god, to Mohammad to Joseph Smith of Mormon fame, all other religions are based on one or two people (or anonymous groups) having visions which they relay to followers. The Torah warns us against these personal experiences and tells us that G-d is testing our faith in Him. Judaism is the only religion based not on personal revelations, but on national revelation. G-d spoke to the entire nation (3 million people) and made a contract with us Jews -- warning us that any other religious experience we did not know at Sinai was false and not to be fooled by them. D'varim / Deuteronomy 4:32-33: "You might inquire about times long past, from the day that G-d created man on earth, [exploring] one end of heaven to the other. Has there ever been anything like this great thing or has anything like it been heard? Has a people ever heard the voice of G-d speaking from the midst of the fires as you have heard, and survived?" Converts to Judaism from Christianity tend to be on the opposite end of the spectrum. They were often religious Christians or Muslims who begin to see the inconsistencies and errors in the Koran and Christian bible. They begin to research and search for G-d -- and they usually find him. While fighting missionaries who spend hundreds of millions of dollars to try to convert Jews to Christianity is an ongoing battle, there is good news. Observant Jews are growing in numbers and thanks to kiruv (Jewish outreach) many Jews who were raised secular or with limited education are returning to Judaism. From "Will Your Grandchildren be Jewish?
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
|