Oh, I can assure you I am most politically incorrect. I suspect many fundamentalist Christians will be quite upset at what I have to say. I don't care that you are supposed to be great supporters of Israel. It is support I deeply distrust.
I have a friend who is half Jewish, and I am actively sharing my faith as a Christian with her.
There is no such thing as half Jewish. That is a fundamental misunderstanding on your part. I think what you mean to say is that she has one Jewish parent. If her mother is Jewish then so is she under Jewish law. If her father is Jewish then she is NOT Jewish under Jewish law unless she converts. It is an all-or-nothing proposition. There is no half.
Is that offensive to you?
Since she isn't Jewish, no, of course not.
Doesn't she have the right to make her own decisions?
Of course. What you do not have is the right to come to my country, a Jewish state, as a missionary to try and convert Jews. You do not have a right to come to my country and to try and destroy our faith, our culture, our way of life.
Her mother is a Protestant Gentile, so does she even qualify as a Jew?
No, she does not.
Is half of her heritage gone now because her dad married a Protestant?
From a national perspective, no, and she can still move to Israel under the Law of Return. From a religious perspective, yes, it's gone unless she converts. Personally, my view is that if she does not have a Jewish mother and is not living a Jewish life, then yes, it's gone. However, it can be reclaimed if she so chooses.
I am not one of those suck-up types who shrink in the face of opposition and political incorrectness.
Anyone who has read my posts on Free Republic over the past four years knows that is something we have in common. I am willing to take positions that are unpopular on Free Republic as well if they are what I truly believe.
I am not afriad to ask you these questions. I understand fully why Jews don't try to convert Gentiles: because it is an ethnic religion.
Dead wrong. You most clearly do not understand at all. It is forbidden to encourage someone to convert but conversion itself is not forbidden. It is a religious, not an exthnic issue. One look at the ethnic diversity of Israel should tell you that this is true.
In your own bible, your own scriptures says that he will call some Gentiles His people (Do I have to look up this passage?). Exactly what does that mean? Which Gentiles share in His glory according to you?
You, like most Christians, read one small part of Jewish scripture (Tanakh, what you call the Old Testament) which has been reordered and edited and interpreted to suit Christian belief and assume you know Jewish scripture. Have you studied the Talmud? If not, how do you even begin to understand Torah from a Jewish perspective? You can't, of course. Most Christians do not understand that there is very little that Jews and Christians have in common in terms of religious belief.
Having said that, the concept of a "righteous gentile" is alien to you. Judaism isn't exclusivistic, a major difference from Christiantiy. G-d judges our good deeds and bad deeds and weighs them against each other. Ganeden, or heaven if you prefer, ins't exclusively Jewish. It's for all people who do more good than bad. There is no need for you to convert to go to heaven. Just live a good, righteous life.
As for the rest of it, most British and most Americans aren't fundamentalist Christians. It also seems, if one follows the international press and U.N. votes, that most of the Christian world would be perfectly happy to see Israel destroyed. I also believe that G-d decided when Israel should come into existance again, nobody else. Your love is poison to us if it is expressed as an attempt to convert. Please, go support the Arab and love them instead of us. I would rather die a Jew that have Christians come to Israel to destroy the Jewish nature of Israel.
We do not believe in "eternal damnation". That is a Christian concept. Where Jesus preached is totally unimportant. He was either a teacher (rabbi) who was deified by his followers after his death or else a false messiah like Sabbatai Tzvi. Either way, to me, he is an irrelevant dead person. Fundamentalist Christians (about 20% of American Christians and a much smaller percentage everywhere else) cannot respect other beliefs because they, like Muslims, believe the non-believer is doomed. Well, we believe otherwise.
I have no problems with Christians visiting Israel provided they respect our beliefs. If Christians cannot do that then they are not welcome here. If you cannot respect that Jews wish to remain Jewish, if you cannot accept that we do not wish to be conquered by missionaries any more that we wish to be conquered by armed Arabs, then you are every bit as much the enemy as the Arab is.
Tnakfully, most Americans do respect our differences.
The best way to clarify AV's comments is to *slightly* paraphrase them, then imagine them coming from the Saudi ambassador.
"What you do not have is the right to come to my country, an Islamic state, as a missionary to try and convert Moslems. You do not have a right to come to my country and to try and destroy our faith, our culture, our way of life."
"You, like most Christians, read one small part of Jewish scripture (Tanakh, what you call the Old Testament) which has been reordered and edited and interpreted to suit Christian belief and assume you know Jewish scripture. Have you studied the Talmud? If not, how do you even begin to understand Torah from a Jewish perspective? You can't, of course. Most Christians do not understand that there is very little that Jews and Christians have in common in terms of religious belief."
Isn't the Talmud Rabbinical interpretation of the Old Testament? I have somewhat of an understanding of Jewish religion, probably greater than most Christians. I go by the New Testament and don't take the Old very literally.
Thank you for your honesty. I do have great respect for you as a person. I assure you I personally am not out to convert Jews, but if a Jew is interested in hearing what I have to say, I am happy to tell it.
Great posts.