Judaism and its Aspects

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I can see from various posts and polls that the forum here is predominantly christian, as to be expected. I have a few curiosities and I'm posting this thread in case my queries are shared by others.

Christian opinions on Judaism varies extremely from one sect to the next, some christians believing one way and other christians believing another. Some christians even know almost nothing about Judaism, nor are they taught. So I want to know, what do you think about judaism? What is your belief about the religion, or your opinions about the jewish people? What is taught at your church?

I'm atheist and the only Jews I knew were atheist also.

Specifically I'm referring to the religion rather than the ethnic group, and aiming my query toward christians although any imput is appreciated.

I was raised by two non-practicing Protestant Christians. I never attended church much growing up, so I don't really know what Protestant churchs believe in relation to Judaism. My dad is NT and my mom AS. Both were and continue to be extremely strong supporters of Jewish people and their faith. My dad's best friend married a sephardic jewess from Morocco, and my mom's AS dad was rumored to have been a quarter Jewish (he was adopted, so his background is unclear). My AS counselor's parents were both Holocaust survivors. Several years ago I developed a fascination with reading about Jewish history, spirituality, and ethics, and I devoured everything I could get my hands on. I can't begin to explain the positive impact that Jewish people have made on my life...from my counselor, to the writings of the great rabbis, to the amazing filmmakers, to the hilarious comedians who make me laugh until I'm sick, to the Holocaust survivors whose stories show me every day that when life knocks you on your #%&, you get up and keep going.

agnosticism with hints of satanism.

No offense, but I think you missed the purpose of the thread. Good to know, though.

i am here on request.....

well lets unpack this....

i believe that Judaism is the wellspring from which the light of god was displayed before christ came, the religon is just as valid as christianity, only its covenant has ended. but as to its relationship with christianity... there are two schools of thought in christendom on this -:

1) 'Grafted on the vine' Theology
2) 'Replacement' Theology

the 2nd one is by far and away the most common, unfortunantly the Catholic Church is responsible for alot of this (before Catholics start getting the stake out, i must point out that there is/was a move away from this, but they hold the blame of starting replacement theology). this entails 'Zion' being the church, that we technically replace the Jewish people, an analogy would be a man could replace his unfaithful wife and remarry. the belief is that god did so, so the 'wife' of the old testiment is replaced by the new 'wife' (the Church). it is my belief that this is an unscriptual and unsound theology.

the 'Grafted on the vine' theology is not only scripturally accurate and sound, but logical....

god cannot go against what he says, and there are a number of promises he gave the children of Israel that have not yet come to pass, plus there is the fact that he will restore his people in the second coming of christ.

we do NOT replace the vine, we are GRAFTED on, we are ADOPTED co-heirs to gods kingdom... we have been graciously taken on board as children of the promise and as such, we must be very careful not to incur god wrath by denying the true-born their birthright...

after all, how would you deal with a step son that tries to kill off your natural children and tells them they arnt your children any more.... i know what i'd feel like doing.

an aside note, my church sadly believes in 'replacement' theology, but i am not the only one to feel this is wrong.

ahhhh....well i grew up in catholic school so the general view of the jews was a good one. though i generally got the impression that judaism was basically christianity without the christ part.

I'm agnostic; I'll state that right up front. I think of Judaism as the most no frills of the major religions, because they don't really have much iconography, and their belief system is a bit more abstract and more open to interpretation than, for example, the Christian concept of hell or the five pillars of Islam. As a person who isn't especially religous I can say that, on a cultural level, I love the concept of the Sabbath. When I was younger I had friends who belonged to an Orthodox church, and it's striking how going one day a week without working or technology changes your perspective on things. If more people did that it would be hard to take things for granted. On the other hand, other religious have similar traditions, like Lent or Ramadan, but I more like the idea of fixed intervals than long stretches of time.

This is actually an atheist forum.

2/3's of the people here are agnostic, atheist, buddhist or LaVey Satanist.

I think we have a Muslim somewhere around here.

And I think we have a few Jewish people.

not sure how the poll is to be interpreted, re the first post. Just put down what I am. An other.

As to Jews, I've known them from all over the spectrum - essentially agnostic to very devout(an atheist jew - what does that really mean? Are there atheist Christians?). All have seemed more reasoned than their Christian counterparts that I've met. Maybe being in a minority does that.

One can be either jewish in religion, or jewish in ethnicity. That's probably what that the atheist jew was all about.

To explain the poll, the object of this thread is to satisfy my curiosity about christian opinions and conceptions of judaism across the christian spectrum. Therefore, it's sort of a christian/jewish conversation and so I created spots only for those two groups and the obligatory 'other' for anyone else who'd like to chime in about their personal or group's views and opinions.

As far as many christians around my home town are concerned, judaism is something akin to the stereotypical view of satanism and is inherently evil. It's easy to see where a belief like that could spawn, however. Christianity is a religion that seeks converts, the secret to its enormous success. Evangelical churches all over the world focus on this principal that the more converts they get the better, even going so far as to claim every human being on the world as their goal. By converting people, they're actually doing them enormous favors by saving them from their eternal damnation because these churches are obviously right. Finally, after thousands of years of differentiation in the christian church, they believe they have found the correct path and that it is the only one. Under that precept, you can see how some christians might view nearly -all- other religions as inherantly evil.

I agree. I have more religious people call me 'closed minded' then any other group. The irony is that I'm the one questioning their beliefs while they do piss all to question mine (Most walk away not even knowing what I believe in NOR do they care). The term 'closed minded' is reserved for these individuals who toss the word out carelessly.

Face it, no religion knows the absolute truth so to pick one over the other is like picking 'Santa Claus' as real but suggesting 'the Tooth Fairy' is not.

When we all know that it is the opposite.

It appears highly illogical for some of my fellow-Christians to not even attempt to learn about Judaism, considering how deeply indebted we are, and how scurvily the debt has frequently been repaid by us over the centuries. I enjoy Yeshayahu/Isaiah. I appreciate that the Christian cooption of the Tanak might potentially be an issue. What are your feelings and opinions on this subject?

Jews are awesome! period. err. exclamation!