wtorek, 12 maja 2009

How to kick out the evangelist

I see that my comment about my meeting with "Jews for Jesus" and messianism was removed.
I regret because it was more about different approaches to messianism and talking about messianism with Jews than about J4J.

This is "lost in translation".
Some anonymous censor have noticed only "incorrect" message about ministry of "Jews for Jesus"
G-d bless you. Everything what happens have some meaning.
By design this blog was about judaism. Now I see that I have to write more about "evangelization"

Therefore I'm coming again to the topic of "evangelization of Jews"
When this topic will be removed I will place the new one.
Stay tuned :-)

Dear, fellow Jews.
Do you know the feeling of humiliation when somebody tells you that your beliefs are piece of s*?
Do you know this feeling when you hear that the religion which was source of persecutions is the right choice for you?
Do you know this feeling, when somebody who knows nothing about you, nothing about your spiritual life, nothing about your religion, tries to tell you what is good, why you are wrong, and what you must do?
I know this feeling.

Here in Poland where we are so few that frequently we are target of many groups of different "evangelists".
They are real p* in the a* (ekhem... really disturbing, I mean)
I have several strategies. The choice depends on how much time I have and on the level of irritation.
Here are my tips:

1. Don't excite, stay calm, repeat some mantra to find internal calm (Shema Israel is the good one)

2. Don't assault them verbally (or any other way), you should be like Chinease: always nice, always smiling, showing respect to poor people you are talking with. (this is the most irritating for them - lack of emotional reaction)

Strategy 1. For "witness of Y."
Let them feel silly, stupid, not educated, not prepared by flooding them with quotes and questions in Hebrew or Aramaic. You can quote whatever, rabbis, Torah, Neviim, Psalms, morning news :-)
Usually they are not prepared for any serious discussion so even if you ask in English something what is out of scope of their "presentation" they feel totally lost :-/
"W. of Y." are nice people but frequently not educated. Really I like them and I respect them for their social work for poor people but sometimes they are really,really irritating...
This strategy is cruel but it works and you gain their respect. Sometimes they are coming back but they don't try to evangelize me, just guests, nice guests :-)

Strategy 2. For "J4J"
Ask them: what is the salvation? Why do they think that there is something wrong with you? Why they think that some other way is better for you? They feel confused because "salvation" is something so obvious for them that they don't thing about it. They don't have the answer. Then I'm asking them why they think that I need J.?
Usually they don't want to abuse judaism because they think that J. is kind of "upgrade" At this point they are totally lost.
BTW usually they don't know judaism at all. Their understanding of salvation and moshiyah is fully christian. They don't know the Jewish meaning of geula, tikkun olam and othey key terms.
They are Jews and they are very irritating, if you have time you can redirect them to the right path ;-)

Strategy 3. For "Mormons" I respect them but the really irritating thing is that they are coming mostly (only?) to people looking like middle class. Ask them about it.
Ask them why they dont go with "good message" to people who may realy need it - to slums, to drug dealers, bandits, prostitutes. Usually this question is the end of the discussion. If not, ask them why they don't try to go with "message of peace" to brothers in Iraq or Afghanistam. I'm sure they would appreciate it :-)

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