My hand slipped
omg YES there are more bingo cards.
Can someone explain the majority of these to me?
Broadly, almost all of these fall into a few categories: “Judaism = Christianity” “I don’t know much, if anything, about Judaism but I feel entitled to talk about and criticize it from a place of ignorance” “I am entitled to whatever I want from Judaism, even things that never had any connection to me or my heritage, despite the fact that it is a closed religion”.
To expand on each of those in order:
Judaism is not Christianity. We’re not even particularly similar. Given how much Christian history has tended to go for a path of “murder or exile the Jews and steal their culture (and belongings and children...),” we tend to object to being conflated with them. Most problems about Christian hegemony impact us. Frequently, they impact us a hell of a lot harder than they impact you, particularly if you’re still functionally culturally Christian. They damn sure don’t benefit us; there’s no special solidarity relationship going on there -most Christians don’t know much about Judaism either.
The problem with a lot of criticisms of Judaism in this context is that they come from people who don’t know much, if anything, about what we believe, what we practice, how long we’ve been around, why we do/say what we do, and what our cultures look like. And... well, I’ve seen a lot of people going off on downright antisemitic rants complaining about “the Jews” for stuff that we don’t actually do. If you’re going to have a problem with Judaism as someone who is not and never has been Jewish, you’d better make damn sure you know what you’re actually talking about, because when you don’t, there is a decent chance that not only are you spreading misinformation, you are spreading misinformation that can and does get us killed.
Taking things that are sacred from a closed culture without permission is appropriation. Taking things from a minority group that they get penalized for doing is appropriation. And, if you come from a [functionally] Christian background, you’re just continuing the misbehavior your people have practiced towards us for centuries. Our practices don’t exist for your spiritual benefit. Join us, join another group, or make up your own, but we’re not window-dressing for other spiritualities.
I really appreciate you answering me and that did help a bit! 💙💙💙
However I have difficulty processing and correlating information so if it wouldn’t be to much to ask could you break it down into each bingo square with however much information you want? I just want to make sure I understand and I don’t say the wrong thing.
If not that’s ok too! I understand it can be taxing on a person to explain stuff all the time 💙
The above categories are pretty spot on. Here's a box by box rundown cause why not.
Spirtual but not religious - already answered
Abrahamic - already answered
Organized religion - already answered. people sometimes say this when they actually should say "Christianity." They don't know about Judaism, but they're judging it from their place of ignorance.
Blaming Judaism for spreading Christianity - exactly what it says on the tin. Christians have killed and oppressed more Jews than any other group - don't blame us for their existence, that's on their own heads lol
Saying religion when they mean Xianity - self explanatory. don't judge other religions you know nothing about. And as a Xian or former Xian, I can almost guarantee you know nothing about us.
One Twue Way - a mocking phrase from the kink community for a dom who thinks they're the divine gift to all subs, that their way is law, and that they have the ONLY twue way to practice BDSM correctly. Similarly, lots of culturally Xian antitheists and alternative religious people are reacting strongly against their Xian upbringing or culture. They now think that they're enlightened about religion and their approach to religion is the One Twue Way and that all others are in the dark.
Raised in an Xian family - nothing wrong with that obviously but its always a pattern that when you see a Wiccan or a pagan or an athiest shitting on Judaism and Islam, that they were raised Xian. They keep the evangelizing "my truth is the only truth" pattern and assume that the Xian view of other religions is how those religions actually are, which it never is.
Still proselytizing but without Jesus - what I just said above. They're still convinced that ONLY THEY know the truth about theism or G-d or religion or culture, and they keep centering themself as an authority and eclipsing other groups to serve their own agenda
Speaking over LGBTQ+ Jews about intracommunity issues - I've gotten so many nasty comments about being religious and queer, about being jewish. It's so antisemitic and 99 times out of 100 it's based on Xian misconceptions, NOT on judaism
Appropriating from Judaism - lots of high ceremonial magic, hermeticism, and witchcraft/ritual/etc is appropriated from Judaism. Its gross. Stop it.
Studies C/Q/Kabbalah - Kabbalah is ONLY for Jews. Xians steal it and sell it with a C, hermetics steal it and spell it with a Q
The old gods - already answered
Everything they know about Judaism they learned in Xian sunday school - Xian interpretation of the OT and Jewish interpretation of the Tanakh are NOT the same. We don't have a lot in common with Xianity and they don't understand us as a religion. If you only know about Judaism through an Xian lens, you don't know shit
The bible says/doesn't say [speaks over Jews] - similar to above. don't tell us what our Tanakh says, we know what it says, and unless you're Jewish or listening to Jewish voices, you probably don't.
Unnecessary uncensored tetragrammaton - the name of G-d is the most holy thing. We can't say it, and if its written down it cannot be erased, it has to be buried with full funerary honors. Attempts to render the name in english (the Y name or the J name) are blasphemous. Lots of atheists use the name to deride our religion, and pagans use it for similar reasons.
Judeo-Christian - already answered. It doesn't really exist. Just say Christian.
Opinions based on personal experience, not study - the problem is that culturally Xian people have personal experiences with Xianity, NOT with Judaism. Your personal experience with your religion cannot tell you anything about MY religion.
But you can't be religious and an athiest - I assure you that you can. When people say this, they're erasing and shaming Jewish athiests, and talking over them about their own identities. Athiesm isnt consistent with Xianity, a belief based religion, but many Jews find it consistent with Judaism, which is a religion based not on belief but on practice.
Old Testament - we don't call our scripture that, that's a Xian term and its frankly offensive. If you arent Xian and talking to other Xians, don't use that term. Say Jewish/Hebrew Bible or Tanakh.
Chosen People - people don't understand this term, and they either fetishize us or assume were racist and think we're better than other people. Neither is true. It just means that we were chosen to have this religion, it doesn't make us better or more special than anyone else, and Judaism doesn't believe that our religion is for everyone, so why should it matter if you werent chosen for our tribal religion? And like if you want to be chosen that much you can convert. People constantly twist this term to either fetishize us or attack us, and sometimes it even makes people steal our identity and pretend they are the lost tribes or the real jews. Unfortunately TONS of groups and people do this. It's so gross.
All religion is bad (except my own) - this is the enlightened witch railing against the evils of organized religion and saying her spirtuality is somehow different, its the fiery anti-theist who has decided all religion is evil but hasn't yet realized that their own belief and practice are a form of religion, usually still STRONGLY rooted in Xianity, and that they're still colonizing, just not in the name of Jesus anymore
Raised in an Xian country - same as family. Xian hegemony is so dominant that most people from Xian countries (even debatable ones like the US) know nothing about Judaism, but still paint it with the same brush as Xianity
Speaking over religious athiest Jews about athiest - same as the former religious atheist one
The Hebrew G-d - same as the Old Gods/Abrahamic/Tetragrammaton ones. It's a weird archaic phrase that 9 times out of 10 means they are uninformed and intentionally inflammatory.
this opened my eyes to so many things i hadn’t even thought of before. pagans, wiccans, atheists, etc. please read this whole thing and the links as well.
