In the last few weeks, I have been writing five articles a day for Indyposted.com. It has represented an opportunity to actually write professionally. Indyposted has a policy of claiming exclusive rights to all articles posted on their site. It is as much for my good as for theirs. I have no problem with it. Writing for them looks like a major step to writing professionally and deriving my entire income from it. I write about 35 articles a week for them.
I had been writing on rantrave.com and crossposting from rudistettner.com and from magdeburgerjoe.com. During the last few weeks, my contributions have dropped off. This post will be the last one on rantrave.com for a long time, for reasons that I shall soon explain.
I am an orthodox Jew. I am also far from literate in Jewish subjects. I try to increase my knowledge and my observance from day to day.
A recent post on rantrave.com attracted over 50 comments. I did not see it, because I had been feverishly busy with writing and with personal matters, to the tune of almost 80 hours a week. The post dealt with Jews converting to Christianity, which it advocated with links to missionary videos. A lone dissenter, Markbyrn, advocated against converting to Christianity, and cited Jews For Judaism for an erudite rebuttal to Christians who want to convert Jews.
Late in the comment string the author asked me "Rudi,Any comment my brother?"
I must be frank. The thought of Jews converting to Christianity is as repugnant to me as suicide bombers in Israel targeting Jews. One attacks the body. The other targets the soul. There are those who would tolerate missionising as the price of political support for the state of Israel. The ancient prophets condemned the idea of relying on political alliances for national security. They advocated relying on G-d alone. I believe that in our time that this applies to turning a blind eye to missionaries converting Jews.
I support religious freedom for persecuted Christians because it is the right thing to do. I have written more articles on this subject than anyone else on rantrave.com. I also work with religious Christians on matters of common opinion such as fighting abortion and supporting government money to private schools.
A cardinal rule I follow in working with Christians is not to disparage their faith. I believe that their religion is man made. They believe my faith is false or incomplete. No one is kidding anyone. We work together and put our differences to the side.
But if you advocate the conversion of Jews to Christianity and then ask" Rudi,Any comment my brother? don't expect me to smile and act like we are talking about the best way to grill a steak. We are both talking about the difference between what is true and what is false.
I looked at the comment string. One guy who I once counted as a friend said "Sorry to bust your bubble OOTB. Christians are just another outside tribe to rule economically."
It hurt to read that. There are plenty of Jews who live close to or below the poverty line who would love to have the keys to the bank. The man from Cypress makes me feel right at home. We have people like that here in Brooklyn hawking Farrakhan's "Final Call" newspaper. Although it hurt to read that comment, at least it opened my eyes. The man from Cypress is at least honest. I wouldn't want to kick back and have a beer with him, but at least he says what he feels. That's better than being all warm and fuzzy and trying to convert ignorant Jews to Christianity.
I do not want to inadvertently help missionaries targeting Jews by adding to a comment string and keeping missionary propaganda on the front page for longer. Let those who advocate apostasy keep each other company.
Additionally, in every faith are the more and the less educated. I am less educated. I do not want to hand missionaries a victory by waging an inept defense of Judaism. This is a serious issue for me with high stakes. Aiding a Christian missionary in converting Jews (G-d forbid) would be as bad as shedding blood.
I will not be drawn into religious debates when I am putting in almost 80 hours a week on secular news articles. It would be like an 8th grade biology student doing brain surgery in a McDonald's rest room. The task is vitally important. It must be done properly. I share with my adversaries a belief in the hereafter. I 'm sure they know where I am coming from.
I will be taking a vacation from rantrave.com until further notice. I am resigning as an administrator although I will leave my articles up. I will remain an inactive member. recognising the legal right of missionaries to ply their trade does not mean that I must condone or aid them. If I am no longer posting on rantrave.com, my silence will not be construed as assent. A long hiatus is in order. I am grateful to rantrave and wish its owners success. I must say that I have learned some things about certain Quarters of the Christian right that perhaps I was trying to ignore. But I have always believed that getting bad news is always in reality good news, because it is an opportunity to deal with the truth. So thank you, Huey and Cypress. I know now where I stand.
http://www.jewsforjudaism.org/http://www.jesuscult.com/Luther_Anti-Sem...http://www.nobeliefs.com/luther.htm