Being a Religious Minority (in Public Schools)

[cbayer]

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wildhunt/2012/10/being-a-religious-minority-in-public-schools.html

October 4, 2012 By Jason Pitzl-Waters


Hint: The “Fifth Quarter” is about Jesus.

What’s it like to be a religious minority in a Christian-dominated culture? Jews on First has published a must-read in-depth exploration of what it’s like for Jewish students going to public schools in the South, consistently exposed to peer pressure and conversion attempts by their Christian classmates, behavior often (directly and indirectly) supported by faculty.

“It can be the little stuff, like my classmates wishing me to have a ‘blessed day’. I know that really means that Jesus blesses you,” says Jane. “I have a friend who introduces me as her ‘Jewish friend, Jane’. It’s always in your face. Not a day goes by that I’m not reminded that I’m a Jew.” [..] One parent relates how his son would eat breakfast in the school cafeteria when a group of athletes would come in and “perform” for the students. “They would basically lift weights for about 30 minutes,” then go to the microphone and “announce that Christ helped them become athletes. After five or 10 minutes of sermon, they would pray and leave,” but meanwhile the students eating breakfast were not allowed to leave the cafeteria and were obviously a captive audience with no option to “not hear.”

Because court rulings have largely forbade faculty and staff from directly proselytizing, local churches use various tricks like the aforementioned “performance” to introduce stealth missionary work into the student body. One Rabbi in Atlanta notes that Christian students are urged by their churches to work towards the conversion of non-Christian students.

“…according to Rabbi Greene, one of the largest evangelical churches in Atlanta’s northern suburbs, the Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, even provides literature to its young members about “how to approach your Jewish friends.” He calls the effort “love bombing.” Rabbi Shalom Lewis of Congregation Etz Chaim, which isn’t far from Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, agrees that ‘they are very aggressive in their proselytizing and will teach Christianity to anyone who will listen. One of my former Hebrew School students came to me recently and said he accepted Christ; he’s confused.’”

more at link

[Dawson Leery]

1. The only religious people who have ever attempted to convert me

have been Conservative Christians. No one else.

[cbayer]

2. That has been my experience as well.

[Dawson Leery]

3. When I say no other religion has attempted to convert me, I mean it.

Jehovah Witness, Mormon, Evangelical, and a few old-world Catholics

[dmallind]

4. I have no problem with personal evangelism

Perfect opening to discuss religion right back at them.

The problem starts when evangelism becomes institutional and backed by authority. 100 people telling me I'll burn in hell is 100 chances to attack the simplistic and nuttty idea of hell such people always have. 1 cop/teacher/boss/elected official telling me God is all goodness and light is an imposition or establishment of an "acceptable" faith.

[cbayer]

7. Agree and I think that is what the article speaks to.

[no_hypocrisy]

5. I counter-argued that Jesus was a rabbi and I should be converting them,

although it would mean giving up bacon.

[dimbear]

6. The reason Jane's friend introduces her as her 'Jewish friend' is to assure that the

new acquaintance doesn't immediately say something repulsively offensive. It's a service sort of a thing.

"You must get a lot of guff because you look like those people."

[cbayer]

9. I think that's probably true.

[Igel]

8. It's background noise after a while.

You just tune it out. Or, rather, most people do. Some are offended pretty much continuously.

Had one kid in my class called "Jew boy" a lot. He was okay with it. Most kids had no idea what "Jewish" meant in his case (far too Hispanic and non-observant).

But I'm Xian and don't keep Xmas or Easter or even Halloween. Confuses the heck out of everybody. Some Muslims I've met assume I'm sort of crypto-Jewish, Jewish but too embarrassed at the very obvious wrongness of being Jewish to actually admit it.

The real run-ins I've had with attempts at conversion since I turned 18 have been the very infrequent newbie Campus Crusader for Christ and the occasional atheist.

[cbayer]

10. But, should he be OK with being called "jew boy"?

Maybe the kids didn't mean it as a slur, but others certainly do.