Jewish people: how do you view Christianity?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a Hindu married to a Jew. The way it worked is neither of us is religious. We observe some holidays and traditions we grew up with, and teach our kids about their heritage, but we also teach them discrimination based on religion is wrong, including in marriage. Love is love.

Wow, that’s amazing. I wish you continued happiness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s possibly your DD has expressed a willingness to explore conversion. Over 1/2 of the Jewish moms I know were raised another religion but converted before marriage or before the birth of a first child.

Yes, she has asked how I would feel about that and worried we would be unhappy. Not at all. I wonder if his parents would be unhappy if he did marry a convert? We are just glad he’s intelligent and successful and is caring to DD. We are going to to meet him next week. Excited. Any advice?

They’d be a lot happier if she converts than if she doesn’t. Are you truly ok with it? With your grandkids not celebrating Christmas or Easter? Not that it’s really up to you anyway, of course.

I am Jewish and grew up among lots of Christians, attending an episcopal day school. I’m very “live and let live” and comfortable being a minority. I don’t care for proselytizing. Other than that, I have no particular feelings toward any Christian sect. Anecdotally I’ve met a lot of lovely Mormons. From a historical and anthropological view I think Christianity has given a lot to the world. It’s core tenets are lovely and a real departure from the “eye for an eye” mentality that reigned 2000 years ago. In the modern day I’m not fond of hypocrites of any religion so I have thiughts on evangelicals in politics, but on a personal level I take people as they come and I think most people do the same. I don’t think most Jews look down on Christians if that’s what you’re asking. But there are still many negative views associated with intermarriage. If your daughter converts it will not be intermarriage though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are different levels of being "observant." He's probably not orthodox and definitely isn't Hasidim if he's dating your daughter.

I view Christians as ... nothing, really. I personally think it's nuts to pray to a dead, Jewish guy. I personally believe Mary was raped by someone who refused to admit to being Jesus' father. But none of that matters.

I've worked with and been friends with Christian people active in their church, and they've been a pleasure to be around. I've also worked with Christian people active in their church who have surprised me with how petty, passive-aggressive and all around awful they are.

I take everyone individually. Not all jews are cheap, you know?

Thank goodness all Jews aren’t as obnoxious, cynical, and as disrespectful as you are.

I'm Christian/Catholic and I didn't think the response was obnoxious or disrespectful. OP asked for her opinion and she answered. Stop being so sensitive.

Just because you were not offended doesn’t mean that others may not have been. The OP was very respectful and to be given the response “well I think that Mary was a rape victim” is just so unnecessary, especially considering that the poster went on to say “not that it matters.” If it didn’t matter, then why bring it up at all except to be an ass?

Try to imagine a similar comment being made about a fundamental belief of say, Islam, w, or for that matter Judaism, and how quickly do you think it would be before folks expressed outrage?

[Anonymous]

I guess this makes me the downer on the thread, but not only did my Jewish boyfriend in grad school drop me abruptly for a Jewish girl right after he proposed, two of my non-Jewish friends had similar experiences. We had many talks about this. It was very hard, and the consensus seemed to be that the Jewish guys we had had the misfortune of dating believed they were serious about us and that they didn't care that we were not Jewish, but once the relationship crossed a certain line and became very serious, each one realized quite suddenly that he really wanted a Jewish woman.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s possibly your DD has expressed a willingness to explore conversion. Over 1/2 of the Jewish moms I know were raised another religion but converted before marriage or before the birth of a first child.

Yes, she has asked how I would feel about that and worried we would be unhappy. Not at all. I wonder if his parents would be unhappy if he did marry a convert? We are just glad he’s intelligent and successful and is caring to DD. We are going to to meet him next week. Excited. Any advice?

I'm Jewish, and my brother married a girl who converted to our religion. My advice is don't mention religion. My brother and I are SO MUCH MORE than our religion.

Ok, I wasn’t planning on it and now will definitely say nothing about it. I am curious about going to a kosher restaurant and have been looking at the menu so I can figure out what to order in advance. Thank you.

You can actually find pretty much anything vegetarian that you’d normally eat. And quite a few fish dishes. If it’s a dairy restaurant, you won’t find any meat or poultry. I recommend blintzes as these are almost always amazing. If it’s a meat restaurant, you won’t find any dairy, but you might find non-dairy versions of familiar desserts. These usually aren’t good so don’t bother trying them for the novelty.

[Anonymous]

I had a Jewish boyfriend in grad school as well. He made it pretty clear that he would want me to convert if we got married. He wasn’t particularly observant, but he felt that it was his duty as a Jewish man to raise Jewish children. That there were so many times in history that people had attempted to get rid of the Jewish people, and he would be kind of passively contributing to that if he didn’t raise his children Jewish.

I am not sure if I am explaining this right, but I remember thinking that what he said made sense.

Really, I think it’s more important to BE the same religion and to have the same level of observance in a religion than it is to be raised in the same religion.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It’s possibly your DD has expressed a willingness to explore conversion. Over 1/2 of the Jewish moms I know were raised another religion but converted before marriage or before the birth of a first child.

[/quote]

Yes, she has asked how I would feel about that and worried we would be unhappy. Not at all. I wonder if his parents would be unhappy if he did marry a convert? We are just glad he’s intelligent and successful and is caring to DD. We are going to to meet him next week. Excited. Any advice?

[/quote]

They’d be a lot happier if she converts than if she doesn’t. Are you truly ok with it? With your grandkids not celebrating Christmas or Easter? Not that it’s really up to you anyway, of course.

I am Jewish and grew up among lots of Christians, attending an episcopal day school. I’m very “live and let live” and comfortable being a minority. I don’t care for proselytizing. Other than that, I have no particular feelings toward any Christian sect. Anecdotally I’ve met a lot of lovely Mormons. From a historical and anthropological view I think Christianity has given a lot to the world. It’s core tenets are lovely and a real departure from the “eye for an eye” mentality that reigned 2000 years ago. In the modern day I’m not fond of hypocrites of any religion so I have thiughts on evangelicals in politics, but on a personal level I take people as they come and I think most people do the same. I don’t think most Jews look down on Christians if that’s what you’re asking. But there are still many negative views associated with intermarriage. If your daughter converts it will not be intermarriage though. [/quote]


I absolutely have zero problems if she decides to convert and they marry. I suspect that may be on the horizon, but as pp said, I am not going to rush in and assume anything or be overly supportive when it’s just dinner. And yes, he is from NYC and his family has money and I am sort of worried if they ever did marry, his mom or family may not like a convert DIL. My aunt had to convert to Catholicism and promise to raise their children Catholic when she married my Catholic uncle. Her MIL was always cold and rude and mean to her, even though she did as they demanded before they would “support” their marriage. I would never intrude on the raising of any possible grandchild.
I know also he wears a kippa, my daughter says it’s something he wears everyday and very small and I won’t even notice it because it’s tiny and he’s taller.
I just want to go to the dinner and be appropriate at this point.

[Anonymous]

Jewish person here, answering the OP's original question.

My view on Christianity, by sect, in no particular order ...

Ethiopian Christianity: No opinion.
Coptic Christianity: Cred for being the oldest surviving form of Christianity. Other than that, I guess it's sorta like Ethiopian Christianity?
Eastern Orthodox: Gonna go out on a limb and lump Greek, Russian, Ukranian, Armenian, and other Balkan state flavors into this group. I like the antiquity of these guys, plus avoiding the whole Mary thing streamlines the religious doctrine. I'm a fan of long services in foreign languages so bonus points there. Excellent uniforms for clergy and there's the incense, which is nice.
Catholicism: I'll be adding Episcopals into this category because setting aside the Pope thing, I can't tell the difference between them. I LOVE Catholicism. You got the antiquity (although a lot younger than the Coptics), you got incense and chanting in foreign tongues, and the uniforms. Solid hierarchy keeps things good and structured for both the religious services and doctrine. The Mary thing throws me for a loop. Why can't you just stay focused on Jesus, people?! I do like the Papacy since it serves as a nice homage to our long-defunct Head Priest of the Temple. Demerits for the Holy Trinity though. You're either a monotheistic religion or polytheistic. Pick a side!
Non-Evangelical Protestantism: Inoffensive.
Evangelical Protestantism: Magic words, wishful thinking, the "Gospel of Prosperity", and snake-handling. Blech. Embarrassing. A blight on Christianity as a whole.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: You might think that based on from my views of Evangelical Christianity I would HATE Mormonism. In fact, I do not. Yeah, it is lacking in the antiquity department and holds Rochester New York in high esteem, but there's something very PROFESSIONAL about LDS. When a Mormon shows up at my door it is readily apparent that this is a Christian sect that cares about the nuts and bolts of converting souls. No skimping on training. And the post-mortem conversion of souls is pure GENIUS. All other religions are mad that Mormons do this because it's a fabulous idea that they didn't come up with. Oh, one last thing ... it pisses me off that I have to keep non-caffeinated beverages around in case Mormons drop by. That is sub-optimal.
Messianic Judaism: The worst.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess this makes me the downer on the thread, but not only did my Jewish boyfriend in grad school drop me abruptly for a Jewish girl right after he proposed, two of my non-Jewish friends had similar experiences. We had many talks about this. It was very hard, and the consensus seemed to be that the Jewish guys we had had the misfortune of dating believed they were serious about us and that they didn't care that we were not Jewish, but once the relationship crossed a certain line and became very serious, each one realized quite suddenly that he really wanted a Jewish woman.

Likely he really just wanted Jewish children.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It’s possibly your DD has expressed a willingness to explore conversion. Over 1/2 of the Jewish moms I know were raised another religion but converted before marriage or before the birth of a first child.

[/quote]

Yes, she has asked how I would feel about that and worried we would be unhappy. Not at all. I wonder if his parents would be unhappy if he did marry a convert? We are just glad he’s intelligent and successful and is caring to DD. We are going to to meet him next week. Excited. Any advice?

[/quote]

They’d be a lot happier if she converts than if she doesn’t. Are you truly ok with it? With your grandkids not celebrating Christmas or Easter? Not that it’s really up to you anyway, of course.

I am Jewish and grew up among lots of Christians, attending an episcopal day school. I’m very “live and let live” and comfortable being a minority. I don’t care for proselytizing. Other than that, I have no particular feelings toward any Christian sect. Anecdotally I’ve met a lot of lovely Mormons. From a historical and anthropological view I think Christianity has given a lot to the world. It’s core tenets are lovely and a real departure from the “eye for an eye” mentality that reigned 2000 years ago. In the modern day I’m not fond of hypocrites of any religion so I have thiughts on evangelicals in politics, but on a personal level I take people as they come and I think most people do the same. I don’t think most Jews look down on Christians if that’s what you’re asking. But there are still many negative views associated with intermarriage. If your daughter converts it will not be intermarriage though. [/quote]


I absolutely have zero problems if she decides to convert and they marry. I suspect that may be on the horizon, but as pp said, I am not going to rush in and assume anything or be overly supportive when it’s just dinner. And yes, he is from NYC and his family has money and I am sort of worried if they ever did marry, his mom or family may not like a convert DIL. My aunt had to convert to Catholicism and promise to raise their children Catholic when she married my Catholic uncle. Her MIL was always cold and rude and mean to her, even though she did as they demanded before they would “support” their marriage. I would never intrude on the raising of any possible grandchild.
I know also he wears a kippa, my daughter says it’s something he wears everyday and very small and I won’t even notice it because it’s tiny and he’s taller.
I just want to go to the dinner and be appropriate at this point.
[/quote]

Jews aren’t supposed to even mention that a person was a convert.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s possibly your DD has expressed a willingness to explore conversion. Over 1/2 of the Jewish moms I know were raised another religion but converted before marriage or before the birth of a first child.

Yes, she has asked how I would feel about that and worried we would be unhappy. Not at all. I wonder if his parents would be unhappy if he did marry a convert? We are just glad he’s intelligent and successful and is caring to DD. We are going to to meet him next week. Excited. Any advice?

Be chill. Not too nervous. Not too over the top supportive.

Greet him and treat him as the man your daughter is dating, not the Jewish man your daughter is dating.

[Anonymous]

I think the main concern of many Jewish grandparents to be is that they have Jewish grandchildren. So if your daughter converts that won’t be an issue unless they are very inflexible (and from a religious doctrine viewpoint they’d be in the wrong to be inflexible on conversion).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Catholicism: I'll be adding Episcopals into this category because setting aside the Pope thing, I can't tell the difference between them. I LOVE Catholicism. You got the antiquity (although a lot younger than the Coptics), you got incense and chanting in foreign tongues, and the uniforms. Solid hierarchy keeps things good and structured for both the religious services and doctrine. The Mary thing throws me for a loop. Why can't you just stay focused on Jesus, people?! I do like the Papacy since it serves as a nice homage to our long-defunct Head Priest of the Temple. Demerits for the Holy Trinity though. You're either a monotheistic religion or polytheistic. Pick a side!

Messianic Judaism: The worst.

Catholic by birth here. Agnostic now. I love Mary very much and it’s one of my favorite parts of Catholicism. Like you I enjoy long services in a foreign language and I like rituals.

There is a Jews for Jesus temple right around the corner and my Jewish friend always sneers at it. Can you elaborate more as to why it’s the worst? (Believe me I think it’s totally bizarre)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Catholicism: I'll be adding Episcopals into this category because setting aside the Pope thing, I can't tell the difference between them. I LOVE Catholicism. You got the antiquity (although a lot younger than the Coptics), you got incense and chanting in foreign tongues, and the uniforms. Solid hierarchy keeps things good and structured for both the religious services and doctrine. The Mary thing throws me for a loop. Why can't you just stay focused on Jesus, people?! I do like the Papacy since it serves as a nice homage to our long-defunct Head Priest of the Temple. Demerits for the Holy Trinity though. You're either a monotheistic religion or polytheistic. Pick a side!

Messianic Judaism: The worst.

Catholic by birth here. Agnostic now. I love Mary very much and it’s one of my favorite parts of Catholicism. Like you I enjoy long services in a foreign language and I like rituals.

There is a Jews for Jesus temple right around the corner and my Jewish friend always sneers at it. Can you elaborate more as to why it’s the worst? (Believe me I think it’s totally bizarre)

DP because they go around claiming to be Jewish when they’re Christian. Nothing wrong with being Christian but it is wrong to misrepresent oneself and one’s beliefs. Pretty much the definition of Christianity is believing that Christ is the savior. You can’t be Jewish and believe that. Yet they try to claim both traditions. Very offensive to most Jews. Our ancestors were persecuted and fought for our beliefs and here’s this group perverting them while claiming to be Jewish.

[Anonymous]

The real question is how do you view Judaism and are you ok with it, which clearly you are not or you would not be posting. Obviously they are ok with it, you are not.