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How do you handle Religious people who come knocking on your door, or just generally pushy about saving you?
I generally smile, then shake my head and say "I'm truly sorry they quit feeding you people to the lions." then I close the door in their faces
I'll have to remember that one.
Whenever one of these awful happy-clapper starry eyed evangelists asks me "have you heard the Good News" I'm tempted to say "yeah, in 1968. Where the **** were you? Now get off my lawn."
I tell them very nicely that I respect their position and that I'm sure they mean well, but that I have my own religious beliefs and I am not interested. Then I tell them to go see my neighbor who I'm sure would love to talk to them.
What i find interesting (from anecdotal experience, I admit), is that Jews who are not serious about religion tend to be the ones at risk of converting. Jews who are seriously involved in the dogma of the religion are literally almost never at risk of leaving.
From how i understand it, Chrstians are exactly the opposite. Chrstians who are uneducated in their religion tend to be rock solid. Maybe they'll switch from one denomination to another, but they don't tend to reject the overall Jesus message. However, some Chrstians who dig deep into their religion, and i mean deep, are the ones I tend to see as Jewish converts. I know dozens of people who converted to Judaism, and nearly all of them are the same, in that when they began to dig deeper into the meaning of their religion, things stopped adding up, and they switched paths.
The same can't be said of people born Jewish who have left Judaism. They don't leave because things don't add up after a serious review. They leave because somebody charismatic recognized they were totally uneducated in their own religion, and by offering them just a few simple (false) answers to some of their questions, boom, another Jewish soul is lost.
I tell them very nicely that I respect their position and that I'm sure they mean well, but that I have my own religious beliefs and I am not interested. Then I tell them to go see my neighbor who I'm sure would love to talk to them.
Sorry Whoppers. But while I do understand Jews have reasons for leaving the religion (the #1 reason is that they were never given a proper Torah education, and then subsequently find the religion to be lacking), I don't condone the decision in ANY situation.
That can probably be said of many (or some) people who leave their religion (not just the Jews), but it certainly doesn't apply to all
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Furthermore, I feel like the Messianics and Unitarians "prey" on these vulnerable Jews, and are able to pick them off like flies. As I'm sure you know, Jews do not proselytize to non-Jews. But if we don't start doing a better job of proselytizing to our own, we'll continue to lose these Jews on the fringes.
How do you explain people who have converted to Judaism simply because they wanted to marry a Jew. (is it offensive when a non-Jew uses the term Jew? I hope not, but I've never been sure...) Were they "tricked"? Was there no proselytizing in those cases?
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Help me out here, but in your experience (maybe you know, maybe you don't), have you met any or many Torah observant Jews who leave Judaism and join other religions? I've seen observant Jews become less observant, or not observant at all, but I've never ever heard of a single Torah observant Jew become a Christian, Buddhist, Muslim or other.
My child's Christian school has a Bible teacher who converted from Judaism to Christianity...I assume he was Torah observant. But, I am not absolutely certain on what you mean by "Torah observant".
Now, that's funny. Love it. I'd have no problems with my neighbor sending them to my house. Sadly, the mormons tend to avoid my house.
Dang!!!!everybody tends to avoid my house. The driveway winds around into the woods, can't see the house from the road, can't even see the lights of my closest neighbors. I have two signs nailed to a tree on the edge of the drive. the first one says "No Trespassing" the second one says "Beware of Dog" it's actually 4 dogs, three really nice German Shepherds and one genuine rescue mutt puppy. The insurance company insisted I put up those signs. 2.5 acres are cleared, it contains, the fenced in back yard for the dogs, my garden on the northern edge of the yard and the house, the other 9 or so acres is densely wooded.
Nah, not an atheist. More like a hopeful Deist, lazy Methodist and half ass Taoist.
lol
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I hate people knocking on my door to sell me stuff. I get enough of that in my job, so I have a low tolerance for door-to-door salesmen. Don't bother me at home!
Anti-religion AND salespeople! I see! j/k
I understand, to some of us, our home is our sanctuary. I get the desire to be "left alone"! Do mother in laws fall under that category? I appreciate my MIL sometimes, but to be honest, I am less stresed when I see a JW coming than when I see her coming!
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I'm just kidding about the girl scouts, I am nice to the kids.
Dang!!!!everybody tends to avoid my house. The driveway winds around into the woods, can't see the house from the road, can't even see the lights of my closest neighbors. I have two signs nailed to a tree on the edge of the drive. the first one says "No Trespassing" the second one says "Beware of Dog" it's actually 4 dogs, three really nice German Shepherds and one genuine rescue mutt puppy. The insurance company insisted I put up those signs. 2.5 acres are cleared, it contains, the fenced in back yard for the dogs, my garden on the northern edge of the yard and the house, the other 9 or so acres is densely wooded.
How do you explain people who have converted to Judaism simply because they wanted to marry a Jew.
The rabbi's forbid conversion for the reason you noted above. And if you've heard of a conversion like that, I can assure you it wasn't a conversion that is accepted by all Jews. The Torah demands that in order to convert to Judaism, one must accept all 613 commandments in the Torah (including keeping kosher and observing the Sabbath). If one is converted by a rabbi who does not demand this level of observance, than it is not a univerally accepted conversion, and de facto, the person has not converted.
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My child's Christian school has a Bible teacher who converted from Judaism to Christianity...I assume he was Torah observant. But, I am not absolutely certain on what you mean by "Torah observant".
I can assure you he was not a Torah observant Jew. See above - Torah observant Jews follow all 613 mitzvahs (commandments) in the Torah that were given to Moses on Mt Sinai. Any convert who does not accept the 613 is not a convert. In your case, I'd be shocked if you checked and found out your kid's teacher was following the 613.
The rabbi's forbid conversion for the reason you noted above. And if you've heard of a conversion like that, I can assure you it wasn't a conversion that is accepted by all Jews. The Torah demands that in order to convert to Judaism, one must accept all 613 commandments in the Torah (including keeping kosher and observing the Sabbath). If one is converted by a rabbi who does not demand this level of observance, than it is not a univerally accepted conversion, and de facto, the person has not converted.
I can assure you he was not a Torah observant Jew. See above - Torah observant Jews follow all 613 mitzvahs (commandments) in the Torah that were given to Moses on Mt Sinai. Any convert who does not accept the 613 is not a convert. In your case, I'd be shocked if you checked and found out your kid's teacher was following the 613.
Well he sure isn't now!
Thanks for the info. I learned a few things. Are obervant Jews the same as Orthodox Jews? Or Hassidic (not sure the spelling on that)?
Are you?
What are your thougths on "Reform Jews"?
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