Frankly, I disagree.
It seems to be a nice compromise. And its probably better than providing them with no religion at all.
Raise a kid with no religion, Jewish or Christian, and might end up with a wacko like Bill Maher.
Call it my logical streak, but as the rabbi said, it is impossible to believe simultaneously that Jesus is and isn't the Messiah.
Raising a child in two intrinsically different religions is as sensible as raising a child to be both a liberal and a conservative.
Compromise could be acceptable in a religious context in some cases, but not when it involves two religions that don't share what would best be described as "first principles." Raising a child as both Christian and Jewish is like telling him that two plus two might equal four, but might also equal 73.
This inter-marriage trend is a big threat to the population size of Jewish Americans. (The other threat is low birth rates.) A lot of kids with Christian and Jewish parents don't idenitfy themselves as Jewish or Christian. These children of American Jews move from the Jewish category to the nothing category. The other problem is that Christians reach out to people in the nothing category to become Christian. Jews don't recruit.
You said: Frankly, I disagree.
It seems to be a nice compromise. And its probably better than providing them with no religion at all.
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Sorry, I disagree. Your suggestion may work while the children are very young, but when one begins to actually learn about the tenets of one's faith, choices have to be made. I am Christian, so my views are slanted that way, but it seems to me that Christianity is the better choice in this situation, for at least a couple of reasons. First, but least important, is the social factor that Christianity is the majority religion in this country. That may help with some potential acceptance issues dealing with parents of different faiths. Second, Christianity is not, or at least should not be, antagonistic towards Judaism. The central figures of the Christian faith were Jews. Jewish traditions are not necessarily inconsistent with Christian beliefs. Celebrating Passover by a Christian isn't inconsistent with Christian beliefs, while celebrating Christmas as the birth of the Messiah doesn't comport with Jewish beliefs. Christians believe the Messiah has come, Jews are still waiting. And there are Messianic Jews, aren't there, who believe Christ IS the Messiah?
Anyway, sorry to disagree with your view on this.
Setting a child up in a dual-religion situation is worse than no religion at all. Two "equally valid" religions are equally meaningless when forced to take together. This sounds like a pukey PC-situation similar to parents who force a crappy hyphenated last name on their child because they are too selfish to give up their maiden names. Eventually those kids have to choose which parent they want to insult by dropping their half of the last name-----either that or have a preposterous triple or quadruple hyphenated name when they marry down the road and refuse to drop their maiden name just like mommy.
You're wrong, IMO. It's exactly the same thing. There are many, many examples (like Geraldo Rivera) of why its the same thing as nothing. In fact its almost a guarantee; nothing confuses like confusion.
Compromise? Either Jesus is or is not the Messiah. Which is it? These aren't things one can just "compromise" on. One is true; the other is false.
Do you suppose it's better for your children to have no firm concept nor conviction of truth? This is supposed to be a better condition than no religion?
I have to kindly disagree with you. As a teacher in a Hebrew and Jewish religious school I get a lot of children from mixed marriages and they are for the most part very confused. It is impossible to teach someone that there is only 1 g-d and then say oh but if your dad is Christian then Jesus is alright too. too many mixed messages.