Christians Embrace Jews But Not Mormons Or Muslims

[Freedom]

http://www.examiner.com/religion-science-in-salt-lake-city/christians-against-mormons-and-muslims-but-embracing-jews

This compentator considers the irony or christians embracing jews who reject the savior and the new testament but reject muslims who accept Jesus for at least being a great prophet and mormons.

[zelder]

The article makes a good point. The so-called christian world should love and embrace all people especially mormons since we have so much in common. How ironic that they embrace Jews who reject Jesus and the New Testement alltogether. I don't understand it. Maybe it has something to go with all the sympathy gained from the holocaust. Prior to WWII Americans didn't like jews all that much.

[Sky]

Is it really ‘Jewish dogma’ that Jesus was an imposter? I know they don’t accept Him as their Messiah, but to say he was an imposter strikes me as going too far. I thought they took more of a middle ground approach.

I think Christianity in general (including Mormonism) maintains a strong affinity towards Judaism because Judaism has been around a lot longer, and both ‘mainstream’ Christianity and Mormonism derive a lot of their beliefs from the Old Testament/or the Torah.

Isn’t it interesting that Christianity has an extra book from Judaism, and Mormonism has a few extra books from mainstream Christianity? And I believe that is a big part of the reason why we haven’t always been able to get along with each other.

But Islam is viewed as a separate religion altogether – and also the religion of terrorists. I’m not saying this is right, but that seems to be a common perception.

[Robert F. Smith]

The article makes a good point. The so-called christian world should love and embrace all people especially mormons since we have so much in common. How ironic that they embrace Jews who reject Jesus and the New Testement alltogether. I don't understand it. Maybe it has something to go with all the sympathy gained from the holocaust. Prior to WWII Americans didn't like jews all that much.

Being a Jew in the 1950s invited immediate persecution (bullying) among children. I met Jews in the 1960s who told of being beaten as "Christ killers" and "kikes" while simply walking to elementary or high school a decade earlier. Nowadays, Judaism (and the Jewish people) has such a high reputation that this no longer happens, unless motivated by elemental Muslim anger toward Jews. I have even had friends who converted to Judaism.

[Robert F. Smith]

Is it really ‘Jewish dogma’ that Jesus was an imposter? I know they don’t accept Him as their Messiah, but to say he was an imposter strikes me as going too far. I thought they took more of a middle ground approach.

I think Christianity in general (including Mormonism) maintains a strong affinity towards Judaism because Judaism has been around a lot longer, and both ‘mainstream’ Christianity and Mormonism derive a lot of their beliefs from the Old Testament/or the Torah.

Isn’t it interesting that Christianity has an extra book from Judaism, and Mormonism has a few extra books from mainstream Christianity? And I believe that is a big part of the reason why we haven’t always been able to get along with each other.

But Islam is viewed as a separate religion altogether – and also the religion of terrorists. I’m not saying this is right, but that seems to be a common perception.

Jews often think of Jesus as a "cousin" and blame St. Paul for creating the Messiah Jesus as the literal Son of God -- not very monotheistic in their view. They are still waiting for the Messiah to come.

After centuries of murdering Jews, some Christians now treat them with great respect. Part of that has to do with the dogged success of intellectual Jewry, and of the State of Israel, along with a realization that prophecy puts the Jews at the center of events in the last days. Very few Mormons appreciate just how important Jews are in the theology of Joseph Smith, and are quite surprised when it is pointed out to them. The restoration of all things cannot happen without the full participation of the Jews.

When Apostle Orson Hyde knelt on the Mount of Olives in 1841 and dedicated the land to the final gathering of the Jews, he was acting on direct orders from Joseph Smith.

[Jaybear]

The article makes a good point. The so-called christian world should love and embrace all people especially mormons since we have so much in common. How ironic that they embrace Jews who reject Jesus and the New Testement alltogether. I don't understand it. Maybe it has something to go with all the sympathy gained from the holocaust. Prior to WWII Americans didn't like jews all that much.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Jews don't send missionaries out to the "Christian" world to proselytize.

[volgadon]

Is it really ‘Jewish dogma’ that Jesus was an imposter? I know they don’t accept Him as their Messiah, but to say he was an imposter strikes me as going too far.

At least from my experience that is a common perception.

[volgadon]

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Jews don't send missionaries out to the "Christian" world to proselytize.

How cute.

[Jaybear]

How cute.

Wasn't going for cute.

I was throwing out a life preserver for those claiming to struggle to come up with a reason why EV will embrace Jews, but not Mormons.

[Calm]

Antisemitism is alive and well, unfortunately, it's just not publicly acceptable anymore and many people will present themselves as accepting when they really aren't.

I was recently watching a documentary on this very thing (can't remember or find the name, blast it) and while it presented Israelis (at least teenagers) as believing that they were hated by everyone (which if they are taught creates a filter that will see everything in a negative light which is very troubling, if understandable) and some acts that were interpreted as bigotry seemed just as likely to be caused by something else, there were still some very troubling portrayals such as a group of intelligent young men talking about the Protocols of Zion as if they were real.

[BCSpace]

This compentator considers the irony or christians embracing jews who reject the savior and the new testament but reject muslims who accept Jesus for at least being a great prophet and mormons.

I think the problem is only half as bad as you say. Embracing Jews is obvious as they are at the root of Christianity. Not embracing Mormons, while expected, is a serious mistake as Mormons have the true doctrine and authority. Islam is embraceable by Christians only to the extent they reject the majority of their beliefs in which case it is no longer Islam.

[supersnail]

For the foreseeable future, attitudes toward Jews will be a litmus test of whether we have overcome fascist thinking.

That said, much public "embracing" of Jews is false or not very genuine for various reasons. I'm suspicious of anyone who appears to be friendly to Jews, but bashes Mormons or Catholics in countries where Mormons and Catholics aren't mainstream. Apparently a lesson was never really learned there.

In my mind, the Book of Mormon very clearly opposes anti-Semitism, and Mormons tend to be familiar with the Hebrew Bible more than the average Christian.

But Islam is viewed as a separate religion altogether – and also the religion of terrorists. I’m not saying this is right, but that seems to be a common perception.

OK, but at least Jesus is in the Koran.

[Freedom]

Fundamentally, people love to hate. If we are not gay/jew/evangelical/communist bashing we are walking around with self-righteous indignation. I often hear people call into talk radio and make a comment like 'I am not racist but...' and then go on a racist rant. It is bigotry mingled with anecdotal reports. It is like the comment 'with all due respect...' or 'no offence but...'.

I like to think of myself as open minded but I know I am not. I advocate for Israel but in the same breath feel resentment at all the Jewish Nobel prize winners. I love my Muslim neighbor but cannot shake the ingrained belief that Islam equals terrorism and repression. I am frustrated by the anti-mormon diatribes but I know I am guilty of the same behavior, just to a different degree.

[supersnail]

Jews often think of Jesus as a "cousin" and blame St. Paul for creating the Messiah Jesus as the literal Son of God -- not very monotheistic in their view. They are still waiting for the Messiah to come.

Clearly monotheism is a major reason Jews today don't accept the deity of Jesus. Since the Trinitarianism of so-called orthodox Christianity is poorly justified, and even a few Mormons on the Internet seem confused about whether their own theology is monotheistic or not, it has to be said Jews kind of have a point (which is not to say that the supposed Christians embracing Jews, but not Mormons or Muslims, understand it).

[Avatar4321]

I don't see it as ironic. In fact, it makes perfect sense to embrace the jews. If you believe the Bible, then they are the Lord's covenant people. It was their prophets and apostles that gave us the Bible. And that same Bible promises that the Jews will be blessed and gathered back into the fold.

If you believe the Bible, then it makes perfect sense to embrace the Jews and seek their interest because the Bible says that's important to the Lord. Even if they do reject the Lord right now.

As for why they don't embrace Mormons the same way, i think its mostly because most still dont understand what we actually teach or who we are.

[Calm]

If we believe the Bible, it seems to me we should be embracing everyone even if we don't accept all their beliefs or see all their ways as righteousness.