Really don't like seeing the signs on Christian churches offering Seders

[Anonymous]

Sorry, but it just bugs me. Why does a Baptist Church need to have a Passover Seder as part of their "walk with Jesus?" Yes, I know the Last Supper was a Passover Seder. But experiencing Passover as a way to e a Christian seems icky to me. Can someone talk me down?

[Anonymous]

I can. I am a Catholic. As a Catholic, I feel it is very valuable for me to understand what the Seder is about so that I can have a deeper feeling for what that event meant to Jesus and his disciples. I appreciate that you do not accept Jesus as the Messiah, but the reality is that Jesus was a Jew. He did not actually set out to create a new religion, he set out to reform the religion of his day. Also, as a pretty liberal Catholic who has many Jewish friends, participating in a Seder gives me a greater appreciation for their rituals and improves my understanding of the practice of Judaism. Done properly, a Christian recreation of the Seder at Easter is a wonderful expression of interfaith understanding and of our joint belief in the same God. Granted, not all churches do them properly (I prefer a pretty faithful recreation of an actual Seder), and not all will necessarily share my point of view exactly, but I really don't think this is something to be up in arms about. I don't get annoyed when our fairly secular Jewish friends put up a Christmas tree. I know that's not a fair analogy, but the reality is no one is trying to mock or co-opt Judaism through this practice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, but it just bugs me. Why does a Baptist Church need to have a Passover Seder as part of their "walk with Jesus?" Yes, I know the Last Supper was a Passover Seder. But experiencing Passover as a way to e a Christian seems icky to me. Can someone talk me down?

PP provided a very good explanation. I'd just add that this is in no way part of a proselytizing effort. As PP said, it's an effort to understand Jesus and what the Last Supper meant to him and the disciples. Communion, which is a legacy of the Last Supper, is conducted in churches today on a weekly basis, or less often depending on the denomination. As a consequence, these Seders are conducted with the utmost respect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, but it just bugs me. Why does a Baptist Church need to have a Passover Seder as part of their "walk with Jesus?" Yes, I know the Last Supper was a Passover Seder. But experiencing Passover as a way to e a Christian seems icky to me. Can someone talk me down?

Read the eloquent post that followed yours. And ban the word "icky" from your vocabulary, unless you're talking with your 2 year old about a knee scrape.

[Anonymous]

Jesus said "DO THIS IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME." So we do it - each church in its own way, whether they call it communion or the eucharist or seder or passover dinner. We are just doing what Jesus told us to do. Plus he is the 4th or 5th cup of wine or whatever. He fulfilled it. If Mohammed told muslims to do something or Moses told jewish people to do whatever, I'm sure generally they'd do it.

[Anonymous]

OP, I don't understand why you even care.

[Anonymous]

I'm Jewish and I can't understand why this would bother you, OP. Honestly.

[Anonymous]

OP, are you off your meds or something?

[Anonymous]

You really called someone else's faith practices "icky"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm Jewish and I can't understand why this would bother you, OP. Honestly.

Why do I care? Someone put it recently in a New Yorker article about Bar Mitzvahs for Evangelical Christian teenagers like this (paraphrasing) -- there's a difference between building bridges between religions to improve cultural understanding, and building bridges so you can run across to the other side and grab goodies and run back. If it's to increase cultural understanding, great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You really called someone else's faith practices "icky"?

I said it seems icky to me. Can you not see the difference. Or are you really that hostile?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm Jewish and I can't understand why this would bother you, OP. Honestly.

Why do I care? Someone put it recently in a New Yorker article about Bar Mitzvahs for Evangelical Christian teenagers like this (paraphrasing) -- there's a difference between building bridges between religions to improve cultural understanding, and building bridges so you can run across to the other side and grab goodies and run back. If it's to increase cultural understanding, great.

Okay well, 9:26 here and I think having a "bar mitzvah" for any Christian child is weird too. We have a similar ritual for teenagers (confirmation) in the Catholic church but we would never think to call it a bar mitzvah. I hope you will understand that this is an extremely rare practice, and that Christians are not out en masse to co-opt Jewish rituals. Far from it. I really think you are stretching pretty hard to find a problem that is not really there, except amongst the extreme fringe.

[Anonymous]

9:26 and 10:14 again. OP, I have a serious question for you. Even if some fringe evangelicals are having what they call a "bar mitzvah," what exactly do you mean by "grab goodies and run back?" What goodies? Granted, I've seen some pretty lavish bar mitzvahs, so are you talking about the practice of receiving gifts (which yes, Christian children do receive at confirmation) or some spiritual "goodies" of your imagining?

[Anonymous]

Jewish person here. It would not bother me- fwiw.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You really called someone else's faith practices "icky"?

I said it seems icky to me. Can you not see the difference. Or are you really that hostile?

"It seems icky to me" is pretty much the same thing, and I think you can probably see that. It's a hostile statement, and we're trying to avoid that sort of thing in this forum.