I’m literally just going to copy and paste my own damn self because I don’t have the spoons to rephrase this entire argument…again.
1. comparing atheist/agnostic Jews (a category under which both @vermiciousyid and I fall under) to messianics is a total false equivalency that needs to die in a fire.
2. Yes, messianics (who also need to die in a fire) are attempting to commit cultural genocide (WTF is a Christian Jew? Do we mean people who are ethnically Jewish who convert to Christianity? Those are non-Jews of Jewish ancestry who are vulnerable to racial anti-Semitism. Not Jews. They don’t get to call themselves Jews anymore. There’s no such thing as a Christian Jew. Thanks for playing).
Struggling with and confronting G-d is one of the central pillars of Judaism. Unlike Christians, Jews are not expected to simply “have faith,” or to blindly accept the teachings of the Torah. On the contrary, Jews are actively encouraged to question G-d on both an intellectual and spiritual level. Challenging G-d through critical thought is actually an innately Jewish act.
Moreover, Judaism as a religion values actions much more than faith. Rabbi Andrea Berlin once said “As Jews, we are commanded not to believe, but to do. While most religions also command [people] to action, to response, to feeling and hearing, and then helping, [Jews] are commanded with no expectation of belief….One doesn’t really need G-d in order to live a Jewish life. To live a Jewish life, one need only follow mitzvot; doing so with a little compassion is even better.”
In short, not believing in a supernatural deity is not really antithetical to Jewish living or to Judaism.
Believing in Jesus as the Messiah, however, absolutely does negate the tenets of Judaism in a variety of ways (arrival of Moshiach, the trinity, etc). There is no valid version of Judaism that can be practiced while holding this belief, and trying to do so warps everything Judaism stands for in offensive, inappropriate ways. Attempting to take holidays like Rosh Hashanah or Purim and making them into observances underlied by belief in JC is like trying to write a paper arguing that Pride and Prejudice is a metaphor for the Reagan Administration. The connection isn’t there because it was never meant to be, and saying otherwise is bullshit. The only way to practice a religion while believing in Jesus as the Messiah is to practice Christianity, and if one is practicing Christianity then they are not practicing Judaism. It’s that simple.
Lastly, Messianic Judaism was formed by missionaries as a way to get Jews to abandon Judaism and become Christians. It is effectively a movement appropriates Judaism in order to weaponize it against the Jewish people as a tool for cultural genocide.
Everybody please fucking stop comparing atheist/agnostic Jews (many of whom like myself are actively practicing within various movements of Judaism that were actually set up by, you know, JEWISH PEOPLE) to Christian cosplayers trying to destroy our people. Just DON’T DO IT.
P.S. Messianics are not valid and not only do you deserve to be kicked out of Jewish spaces, but you also deserve to have your entire disgusting movement flung into the furthest reaches of the sun and incinerated on impact. Please, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, fuck off and never darken our door with your predatory bullshit ever the fuck again. May Hashem piss on your fucking graves.
