Greedy Jewish tax collector

[Anonymous]

Bit of a digression but it reminds me of when I went to church with my extended family many years ago and the minister said in his sermon that Christian countries were democratic (in contrast to atheistic Communist countries I guess). At that time Franco was still alive and ruled Spain with an iron fist. No democracy there!

[Anonymous]

Oh get over it. There are obnoxious Christians, Jews hindus, Moslems, and probably pagans too, but I don't know any.

You know damn well the obnoxious lies each religion tells to their followers to make themselve feel superior to everyone else.

[Anonymous]

Oh OP, I'm so sorry.
I grew up Southern Baptist in a rural area of the South. (Am now a liberal Presbyterian living downtown in DC, so as you can imagine, being Southern Baptist was not for me.)

My guess is that like many Southern Baptists in the rural south, the minister may not actually know any real live Jewish people. Seriously. The definition of a religiously mixed marriage in the rural south is when a Baptist marries a Methodist. The Jewish populations of most Southern towns were minimal at best (historically German-Jewish merchants---all the clothing stores in my hometown were Jewish-owned, all the restaurants were Greek-owned---both groups held conventions across the South in an effort to make sure their progeny married within the respective ethnicity). But even those small populations have declined as the younger generation decamped for urban areas.

So his references were probably not as much intentionally anti-Semitic as they were ignorant.

Still hurtful, I know. But much as you might want to send an email---I would resist. The whole raison d'etre of Southern Baptists is evangelizing--and the minister could decide to undertake your conversion as his personal mission. Do not engage. It's just not worth it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Judaism is a legalistic religion. Follow the rules and watch what you eat and you are a good jew. In Christianity you can eat what you like. People are saved by grace and grace alone. No deeds will be enough to buy you your pie in the sky.

Islam is also a religion of rules, as are a number of other religions.
Why does this offend you?

This is yet another stereotype about Judaism. Along with the Greedy Tax Collector.

[Anonymous]

I was raised Catholic and that would make me cringe. Most of the people in the Bible are Jewish, except for the occasional Roman/Samaritan/whatever. Describing "the bad guy" as Jewish and leaving any description of the "good guy" out is definitely anti-Semitic.

They were all Jews, including Jesus.

If you want, I would send the guy an email to explain to him that he was being offensive and anti-Semitic. He probably doesn't even realize it. (You don't have to do this. It's not your job to educate the guy on anti-Semitism 101, but if it makes you feel better, I would do it. )

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was raised in a reform Jewish household and identify myself as Jewish although not actively practicing. My husband grew up southern baptist (we met in grad school in the south) and also is not actively practicing his religion. We do go to church with his family, who are very involved In the church, when we visit them around 3-4 times a year. The church is located in a southern, heavily Christian area. I went to church with them this Sunday and was stunned at the references the pastor made towards Jews. Since my knowledge of both Judaism and Christianity is very limited, I'm not sure if his comments were atypical for a church or even, out of line... I also tend to mentally check out during church so unfortunately I wasn't paying great attention to the sermon, so I lack perhaps pertinent contextual details. It appeared as though the pastor began the sermon discussing father's day and the importance of fathers. Somehow the sermon took a turn and. He began talking about what appeared to be the superiority of Christianity and then ultimately why people should donate momey to the church to help with expanding the church building. In talking about Christianity, he made a comparison to Judaism and used the term "Jewish legalism" I think in an effort to show that while Jews follow a gazillion rules to connect with god, Christians don't need to do this in order to enjoy god's blessings and grace. He then went on to discuss a story whereby a prostitute, who initially aligned herself with "Jewish spies" ended up turning on them when she encountered Jesus, bathing his feet in very expensive perfume, which others could not understand why she would use such expensive fragrances. Through helping Jesus and believing in him, he saved her...or something to that extent. Finally the pastor goes on to talk about a biblical story involving a "Greedy Jewish tax collector" and then ultimately weaves the story into the present and how people should donate to the church. My blood was boiling at all these, what appeared to be negative jewish references, and i walked out of the sermon. My husband was also troubled by the language used. I thought about writing an email to the pastor and asking him to clarify his statements. Does anyone have any insight into the references he used or whether this is commonplace? Would you have been offended?

definitely offensive and way over the line IMO ... if a church or religion cannot make its case based on its own beliefs and has to negatively speak of others and stereotype, etc., it is morally bankrupt and bigoted.

That preacher can go fuck himself IMO, he's a leech fleecing his flock (to mix metaphors).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh get over it. There are obnoxious Christians, Jews hindus, Moslems, and probably pagans too, but I don't know any.

You know damn well the obnoxious lies each religion tells to their followers to make themselve feel superior to everyone else.

yes, and just as I stopped going to obnoxious Jewish temples, I would stop going to this church and would let the in-laws know why.

[Anonymous]

I don't know if anyone can determine if what the pastor said was offensive, or not. OP cannot make that determination and she was there. OP readily admits that she was in-and-out mentally during the sermon. She missed half the sermon and cannot put what she heard in context.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was raised Catholic and that would make me cringe. Most of the people in the Bible are Jewish, except for the occasional Roman/Samaritan/whatever. Describing "the bad guy" as Jewish and leaving any description of the "good guy" out is definitely anti-Semitic.

They were all Jews, including Jesus.

If you want, I would send the guy an email to explain to him that he was being offensive and anti-Semitic. He probably doesn't even realize it. (You don't have to do this. It's not your job to educate the guy on anti-Semitism 101, but if it makes you feel better, I would do it. )

I would not engage with this person. He sounds whacky and I guess most people aren't even listening. Remember going to church and I didn't listen to the priest etc blabbering on unless it was a scream or they scared me- creepy church in DC area made me feel like I was in a catholic church horror movie. I did have nightmares when young from stuff the nuns said at CCD-no way to turn them out like in church.

[Anonymous]

Hi OP here, I appreciate everyone's responses. I'm still debating about whether or not to send the preacher an email...if I did send him an email, I think I would give him the benefit of the doubt, and just ask him to clarify what he was thinking with his references in his sermon to Jews. I think that there were 3 references to Jews in such a short period of time is what caught my attention. It was the "greedy Jewish tax collector" line that made me angry. Many people in this area of the country have never had contact with or met a Jewish person. So even though the biblical reference may be accurate, I think many individuals currently in the church may be misguided into thinking that such stereotypes of present day Jews are accurate.

The only other reference to Jews that have been made in my presence, was during their Easter pagent, a number of years ago-- They yelled out "the Jews killed Jesus." Is this also a commonly held belief by churches or just Southern Baptist churches?

[takoma]

In my best wishy-washy tradision, here's an on-the-one-hand... response:

On the one hand, I think it may be a habit of thinking of those who opposed Christ as "the Jews", forgetting that He and His followers were also Jews. More subconsious than hostile.

On the other hand, that same habit of mind is probably behind much of history's antiwemitism.

If you write, perhaps you might make it clear that you don't believe the pastor to be anti-semitic (if nothing else, your in-laws' pastor deserves the benefit of the doubt), but you feel you have to share with him that singling out the bad guys to be identified as Jews, when EVERYONE was Jewish, made you feel uncomfortable, and you fear it might bolster any anti-semitic feelings his congregants may have.

[Anonymous]

Op is jewish and went to church and did not like the sermon because it was about Jesus, so therefore we must think the pastor was an anti-Semite. He should have known that a jew was in church and avoided talk about Jesus

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op is jewish and went to church and did not like the sermon because it was about Jesus, so therefore we must think the pastor was an anti-Semite. He should have known that a jew was in church and avoided talk about Jesus[/quote

What? ]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op is jewish and went to church and did not like the sermon because it was about Jesus, so therefore we must think the pastor was an anti-Semite. He should have known that a jew was in church and avoided talk about Jesus

It makes me sad that people as dumb as this vote.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi OP here, I appreciate everyone's responses. I'm still debating about whether or not to send the preacher an email...if I did send him an email, I think I would give him the benefit of the doubt, and just ask him to clarify what he was thinking with his references in his sermon to Jews. I think that there were 3 references to Jews in such a short period of time is what caught my attention. It was the "greedy Jewish tax collector" line that made me angry. Many people in this area of the country have never had contact with or met a Jewish person. So even though the biblical reference may be accurate, I think many individuals currently in the church may be misguided into thinking that such stereotypes of present day Jews are accurate.

The only other reference to Jews that have been made in my presence, was during their Easter pagent, a number of years ago-- They yelled out "the Jews killed Jesus." Is this also a commonly held belief by churches or just Southern Baptist churches?


??? That is southern baptist all the way. That would never happen in my church.

Jesus was Jewish! Hello? Are you serious??

Don't go back. Email him if you want, but don't feel obligated.