From: davidh@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu (David Klein)
Subject: Re: SCJ HAS BEEN DECONTAMINATED!
Organization: Brandeis University
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 15:15:25 GMT

bc744@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Mark Ira Kaufman) writes:


>   While there may have been a spate of Christian propaganda here
>in scj, there response to it was swift, intense, non-stop, angry,
>educated, and sincere.  Most of you who responded to the preacher
>infestation have knowledge of Judaism that is way beyond mine.  I
>know that your knowledge is what drove these nuisances off.  As a
>Jew who has no interest in, or patience for, Christianity in this
>group, I would like to thank all of you who aided, by virtue of a
>sound knowledge of Judaism, in getting rid of these preachers.  
>   It has been proved once again that Jewish education is the one
>and only way of dealing with these people.
>   Over the years, I have encountered many JFJ's.  But I have not
>ever met one who, if he was REALLY Jewish, had been given much of
>a Jewish education.  I qualified my statement, because I have met
>several "Jews" for Jesus who were NEVER Jewish!  These phony Jews
>seem to think that by posing as Jews, they can attract uneducated
>Jews, who simply don't know any better.  The JFJ's who really ARE
>born Jewish don't know much of anything about Judaism.
>   I am sure that we have not seen the last of these folks.  They
>seem to be like cockroaches in an NYC flat.  You can't get rid of
>ALL of them, but it is possible to keep them under control.  
>   To all of you who helped..., WELL DONE!  And Thank you.

>                             -Mark

  I find that this article is very upsetting because the intolerance
Mark casts of other people is very poor. I can understand your
resentment and anger towards those who would disrespect our culture,
but does holding a similar attitude towards them do anything but give
you a cultural ego boost. Life is not a game of "we are better than
you". I some how get this expression from you when you state, "You
can't get rid of ALL of them, but it is possible to keep them under
control." Intolerance of any form is unacceptable. While we might be
upset at the intolerance these people express towards us, it is not
acceptable for us to be equally intolerant. Education is the only way
to truly remove ignorance. 

If everybody believes in an eye for an eye,
doesn't that leave the world blind?

  Mark, I have felt anger and frustration towards these "superior"
moralists. I agree with you that their message is very painful, and
should not be accepted, but that means destruction of their ignorance,
not the idea that they are people. I grew up in Houston, TX, and out
of necessity my mother moved to Wichita, Ks. My best friend and I went
to the abortion lines to prevent the "moralists" from spreading their
hatred, and imposing it on other people. We did not go there to pick a
fight with them or to,"put them in their place". I find their views to
be very sad. I pity the children who grow up in these environments
because they are doomed to live in the same closed minded world that
their parents teach them to live in. If in that situation I had acted
in a similar manner that they acted in and picked a fight with them,
what would their children think (remember they brought their children
with them to stand in the lines)? By rising above intolerance,
hopefully this will lead the children to think that there might be
something different, something that is not as full of hatred as their
parents are. 

It truly makes me sad to see the spread of intolerance and hatred
regardless of which culture it springs from. It makes me even sadder
to see it come from our own culture. 
-- 
David H. Klein        davidh@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu      Brandeis University
"The single most creative thing that a person can do is run a company."     
                           -Jerry Sterner   author of Other People's Money
 <The opinions reflected herein have no relation to Brandeis University>