What I find odd about frustration over Governor Palin‘s pastor and his connections to the Jews For Jesus organization is the fact that anyone is offended in the first place. While it’s true that the group tries to convert Jews “through subterfuge,” I could probably count on my right hand the number of Jews who have actually been converted this way. If Jews want to convert to Christianity, they’ll just do it–they won’t be convinced by a kind of creepy halfway conversion that is rooted in the odd jealousy some fundamentalist leaning groups feel towards Jews. These people are kind of envious of Jews as a group– there’s something about that “Chosen People” thing that they can’t shake. They can’t really understand why Jews wouldn’t want to convert, and why Jews are happy with the long religious and cultural tradition that we have. It bothers them, because as long as Jews exist, in their minds, they’ll always be the “original” Chosen People.
For that reason, Jews present, in their minds, a kind of existential threat to their status as Saved, which is why they must be destroyed. Christianity’s claim to divinity is ultimately premised on the religious pedigree of the Jews; Jesus is a descendant of the House of David. So as long as Jews exist as a people, their unique status as “the new chosen” is at risk. Still, I can’t understate the stupidity of their approach: The Jewish faith has survived the destruction of two temples, thousands of years of exile, the Inquisition, the pogroms, and the Holocaust, do you think we’re going to be done in by alliteration?
But once again, Jews don’t go for this stuff. Most Jews are secular, but the ones that aren’t are fiercely opposed to converting–fear of annhilation, even among secular Jews, is a strong feeling, let alone Jews who take the time to uphold religious traditions. There is a fundamental stubbornness to even the most irreligious Jew. After years of trying to destroy us, we refuse to convert simply out of a refusal to stop being. What’s more insulting is the sense of superiority that animates Christians who actively try to convert Jews; if you believe I’m going to Hell, or that I’m somehow evil because I don’t believe what you believe, how can you really respect me as a person, or my rights as a human being? The idea that not being a Christian makes you less a human being justified violence against Jews in the past, and may yet in the future. Conversion by subterfuge is only a few steps away from conversion by violence.
Really though, what’s the difference between the Jews for Jesus and conservative Christians trying to legislate their religious views? If you ask me, not much. Ultimately the goal is the same, and neither respects the right of Jews to live by their own faith and values. Some Christians don’t get this because they see a difference between targeting Jews specifically for conversion and simply trying to convert everyone. While the former reveals the existential anxiety of some Christians about their own religious identity, the latter still has as its implicit goal the end of all other faiths.
What the Jews for Jesus presence in Palin’s church should remind us of is that the idea that everyone must be converted to Christianity isn’t very controversial among many Christian denominations. A society where laws are identical to the dogma of a particular religion is not a society where religious liberty will be respected. So while Jews for Jesus might be particularly odious, the fact is many people who think everyone needs to be converted to Christianity in order to go to heaven don’t really see what’s problematic about it, and they don’t understand that legislating their religious beliefs looks as absurd to most Jews as it would be to them if rabbis started demanding that fried shrimp and ham sandwiches be made illegal. The Jews for Jesus are the logical focused extension of a religious doctrine that refuses to respect other faiths. So if people are mad about them, they should be mad about the Christian Right’s general agenda.
Mostly, it would be nice if they would just leave us alone. We’re not trying to convert you, after all.
–A. Serwer