Kraft Kosher

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Jesus Saves...Moses Invests

I've mostly been an incidental Jew at work. I do what I have to do, but don't bring up religion for its own sake. However, I had lunch with one of my coworkers, and it turns out she's not so shy about religion. She's a pretty devout Catholic, about my age, and asked a lot of questions, not just about things I do, but about Jewish belief in general. I did my best to answer (although that is not always easy. Try to be Halachic and PC at the same time.), but it also begs the question- what are the limits? The conversation mainly stayed on me and Judaism, mainly because I was afraid to broach Christian theology. See, one of the reasons to keep religion personal is that their is often an urge not just to find out about other religions, but to react to them. How do I be respectful of the person of faith that is telling me about their sincere beliefs that I could pull apart with childish logic? I wouldn't appreciate somebody doing the same to me. But at the same time it seems like a crime to overlook the apparent emptiness of another's claim. I've just always been trained to question the illogical.

I decided to restrain myself. But I do hear a lot about Jesus this, Jesus that from some of the people here. They don't mind opening up. I don't know if they see me as a missionary target- or if my visibly religious exterior simply inspires some kind of harmonious spirit.

Either way, it's never a good idea to go around the office smirking.

2 Comments:

  • My mother recently passed away, and a Jehovah's Witness nurse from the hospice who took care of her ahd the gall to send me a handwritten letter, to my home, preaching to me about Jesus!

    I just could not believe they could stoop so low...she at first expressed sympathies for my loss, then charged right into a 2 page sermon about why I need Jesus.

    I took the letter, contacted the hospice, sent it to them and to make a long story short, she was terminated.

    I also took the trouble to file a report with the US Dept of Health and Human Relations since it was a violation of the HIPAA regulations.

    These people need to learn that gathering confidential information which they have access to due to their job, and misusing it to proselytize, will cause them to lose their job.

    Chana

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:45 PM  

  • Bro -- you're right that the stories offered by these proselytizers are ridiculous. But what on Earth makes you think the story you're repeating at synagogue is any less ridiculous? All religious stories are just that - stories. We have NFI what created the Universe, no reason to believe there's only one Universe, no plausible reason to imagine a Universe-Creator is anything other than an automatic process (just like galaxy formation or star formation or a chemical reaction)...if you seek truth, go to scientific inquiry. If you seek tribal comfort, go to Synagogue. But don't confuse the two.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 1:34 PM  

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