One of my Jewish friends on campus had a great IM away message yesterday. It read: “Isn’t Jews for Jesus sort of like vegetarians for meat?”
This message was meant to be funny. Yet there is nothing funny about the efforts this group is making on campus. Indeed, as one of the largest religious group at WU, Jews make an easy and accessible target for this group’s goals.
Seems the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (IV) hasn’t learned from Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC). Much like CCC’s “I Agree With Ramon” controversy two years ago, this mass-marketed proselytization of the campus causes harm. I am neither a Talmudic nor a Biblical scholar, so I will leave the religious battle of the campaign’s truth/untruth to the experts, such as the rabbi who responded in Tuesday’s issue. Instead, let me approach this issue from a logical perspective and put myself in IV’s shoes.
IV would like as many people as possible to go to heaven. Those who don’t accept Jesus, they believe, will go to hell. Now, from practical perspective, Ramon and Jews for Jesus campaigns effectively “send people to Hell.” Part of the problem with hyperactive proselytization is that for every one (if even one) Jewish person that might be “saved” by this campaign, dozens will be permanently turned off Christianity, and therefore “sent to Hell.”
When people are directly confronted with opinions contrary to their own, the instinctive psychological response is a whiplash-like “I’m right, you’re wrong.” So even just from a goal-oriented perspective, were this campaign’s methods really well thought out?
As a Christian, I am frustrated by campaigns like these. At best, they provoke “dialogue” (meaning denunciations/corrections from rabbis and ministers alike); at worst, they reinforce negative “that-guy-on-Channel-24” stereotypes of Christians as intolerant individuals who are trying to convert everyone wholesale. I am not that way, and it is tough having to continually put a verbal asterisk on my comments when I tell people I’m “Christian” (if I tell them at all).
In addition to the table in Mallinckrodt, flyers in the dorms advertise an IV perspective on “real” Holocaust stories. This leaves a bad taste in the mouth of a casual passerby, even if the program is completely innocent. Those flyers, combined with the emotionally-charged image of a Holocaust survivor to promote the group, are just blatant button-pushing that causes rifts, not curiosity. Some people are Jewish, and whether you agree or disagree with their beliefs you have to respect their right to believe them before all else.
This article is not directed against the members of IV. Indeed, the group as a whole was not invited to vote on whether to bring the Jews for Jesus campaign to campus or not, and many members of the Christian community on campus are unhappy with their presence here at WU. In fact, several years ago, representatives for Jews for Jesus attended several Interfaith Campus Ministry Association (ICMA) meetings, but in the end did not join. Wesley Fellowship Campus Minister Roger Jespersen said, “[Jews for Jesus] were about proselytizing, and the ICMA is not about that.” Campus Crusade for Christ learned two years ago from their Ramon campaign, and they are still recovering from it-InterVarsity would be wise to take that into consideration in future decisions.
Overall, our campus is incredibly religiously diverse, and that is a good thing. Since arriving at WU as an agnostic, I’ve learned about the meaning of the Jewish High Holidays, the Koran, and Buddhism-all in addition to Christianity. Hearing these differing perspectives has been a valuable and eye-opening experience.
IV, if you want to continue on your mission of spreading Christianity on campus, aim for success. Instead of these campus-wide campaigns that turn people off, focus on sitting down one-on-one with someone-go to Kaldi’s for some coffee and personal discussion. That’s what got me.