[net.religion.jewish] prejudice

larryg@teklds.UUCP (Larry Gardner) (01/17/85)

This to me is getting a bit ridiculous.  Would you want me to judge
Judaism by one Jew, or 10 or 50 or even 5,000?  

Many things have been done by people in the name of someone or something
else, but that doesn't mean that their actions really subscribe to that
person or thing.

I see your point.  People claiming to be "christians" have done a lot
or wrong things, but that doesn't mean that Christianity is wrong or
that all people who are christians are the same.  

I know you don't want this really discussed but what I am trying to say
is don't judge all people by the past.  I don't think you would want
that done to you because that is what prejudice is all about.

People are still individuals.

Most of all we should not evaluate God by human beings but by knowing
Him ourselves.

karen alias larryg

de@moscom.UUCP (Dave Esan) (01/22/85)

[long quote at end]

One cannot judge the individual by the group.  That is true.  As Jews,
we live in a Christian nation, with comparatively little overt anti-
semitism;  we mix with our neighbors and call them friends.  One cannot
judge the individual by the group.

And yet, when it is our group that is being attacked by another group,
should we not defend our group?  Do we not have the right to say that
Christianity has oppressed the Jew for the last >1500 years?  I cannot
detest an individual Christian for his beliefs, but can feel a loathing
toward a group that has used its beliefs as a basis for murder,torture,
and other assorted pleasantries over the centuries.

Outside the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial is a grove of trees dedicated
to the righteous gentiles who helped, at the risk of their own lives, to
save Jews from Hitler.  And yet next to this grove is a museum detailing
the horrors of the Third Reich, a regime that couldn't have come to be
without the Christian tradition of antisemitism;  and that lived with
the approval, both tacit and overt, of the Christian leadership.  We
do not condemn the individual, but rather the group.

You suggest that we do not use the past to judge the present.  "Can
a leopard change its spots?"  You perhaps are a righteous Christian,
but has the group really changed??  Overt anti-semitism is rare in the
US, but covert anti-semitism based in Christianity is everywhere (and
has been thoroughly discussed in this net.)

Each of us should know G-d by ourselves, and in our own way.  Who can
argue?  But, why then are there missionaries from nearly every Christian
group?  And why do Jews seem to a special target?  The Israeli government
has had to pass special laws prohibiting proselytization of its citizens
by various Christian groups -- one cannot even get to know G-d in one's
own land without someone asking you to change your way.

					     David Esan (!moscom!de)


> 
> This to me is getting a bit ridiculous.  Would you want me to judge
> Judaism by one Jew, or 10 or 50 or even 5,000?  
> 
> Many things have been done by people in the name of someone or something
> else, but that doesn't mean that their actions really subscribe to that
> person or thing.
> 
> I see your point.  People claiming to be "christians" have done a lot
> or wrong things, but that doesn't mean that Christianity is wrong or
> that all people who are christians are the same.  
> 
> I know you don't want this really discussed but what I am trying to say
> is don't judge all people by the past.  I don't think you would want
> that done to you because that is what prejudice is all about.
> 
> People are still individuals.
> 
> Most of all we should not evaluate God by human beings but by knowing
> Him ourselves.
> 
> karen alias larryg