So I just came across this:
Here are some things I noticed:
Most of the questions were framed in ways that put the Jews on the panel on the defensive and needing to justify why we don't hold Christian beliefs. It seemed like this was less a conversation about both religions, and more like making Jews defend Judaism.
Also, as Tori noted at the end, the Christian women were trying to convert them. This was particularly apparent when Chantelle's statement about what she took away from the conversation had nothing about what she learned and was just evangelizing-boilerplate.
Some of the questions were so Christian that they didn't even really make sense in a Jewish context. Tori did a great job trying to turn them around in order to be able to share, though. She was the real MVP honestly.
There were no counterpart Jewish questions that pushed the Christians.
I noticed that the Christian women (especially Chantelle) often used terms, phrases, and concepts that have specific meanings in their Christian communities and expected everyone to know what they meant, while Tori made sure to translate everything she said.
The selection of panelists on the Jewish side was interesting. While I think the perspectives shared by the secular Jews on the panel were very valuable and really challenged the Christian panelists, I don't think it made sense to have only one religious Jew and three secular Jews. I also did not think those panelists were as poised and prepared as someone could have been and I think folks more solid on their stuff (secular or not) might have been a better choice. It felt at times like five-against-one.
There also was no Orthodox or Conservative voice (though, the missing participant might have been).
On a similar note, I would love to see a panel with more diversity of Christians. I could be wrong but it seemed like all of them were some sort of evangelical, and it would have been great to see a Catholic or a liberal Protestant or even an Orthodox Christian.
I wish there had been more focused discussion of history; explaining the different denominations could have helped Kaleaa who was wrestling with the concept of (as she saw it) Jews not following the Torah. And discussing the destruction of the Temple would have helped the person who was trying to understand why and how prayer replaced sacrifices.
This goes back to my first point -- by putting Judaism on the defensive, it left so little space for the Jewish panelists to actually educate and share about Jewish frameworks and practices, something that I think the Christian women would have gotten more out of.
On that note, I don't actually feel like I learned much about Christian theology or doctrine from this. Even if we understand this as debate rather than education, I would have loved a question that addressed even the most basic Jewish challenges to Christianity, like "How can the Messiah have come if we are not in the Messianic age? Where does the idea of a second coming come from?"
All in all, I think this is about what one could expect from a Christian channel, and I do think that both the video and the comments reveal things about the evangelical perspective. Not necessarily positive things.
Let me know what you think!
