c. 1997 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ Southern Baptist-Jewish relations have reached an angry new low following an exchange of sharply worded letters underscoring how differently the two faith groups approach the subject of Christian evangelization of Jews.

The letters, written over a three-month period ending in March, began with an attempt by Southern Baptists to engage Jewish groups in dialogue over the contentious issue of missionary activities aimed at convincing Jews that Jesus is the Messiah.

The exchange ended in recriminations that were expressed even more pointedly in interviews Monday (March 31).”These letters have only confirmed for us the absence of any common ground,”said David A. Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee.”(Southern Baptists) have shown a combination of ignorance and arrogance.””The more irresponsible voices in the Jewish community have engaged in fearmongering,”said Jim Sibley, who directs Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) missionary activities directed at Jews.”They want to undercut the very tenets of Christian faith.” Since June, Southern Baptist officials of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination with 15.6 million members, and leading Jewish religious and community officials have been trading brickbats over a resolution passed at the 1996 SBC meeting in New Orleans calling for a renewed emphasis on evangelizing Jews.

Evangelical Southern Baptists generally believe Jews, like others, must accept Jesus as the Messiah to be saved. Mainstream Jewish groups reject that viewpoint as theologically insulting.

The two faith groups also disagree on whether a Jew who accepts Jesus remains a Jew or has become a Christian. Southern Baptist leaders say Jewish identity is ethnic and is not negated by faith in Jesus. Jewish leaders say Jewish identity is religious and accepting Jesus makes one a Christian.

The latest public flare-up in this theological tug-of-war began with a letter sent in late January by the SBC’s Home Mission Board to the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League calling for”serious dialogue in an atmosphere of mutual respect and honesty.” The letter was signed by Phil Roberts, director of the Home Mission Board’s interfaith witness department, and Sibley. They suggested”a small, private dialogue”to be held in Philadelphia on March 5 and to include”at least one Jewish Christian”_ Susan Perlman, an official with Jews for Jesus, the leading group devoted to prosyletizing Jews.

The inclusion of a”Jewish Christian”_ a term considered oxymoronic by mainstream Jews _ incensed the Jewish groups. Particularly galling to the Jewish groups was the inclusion of a member of Jews for Jesus.”Clearly they were trying to confer a mantle of legitimacy on so-called Jewish Christians by having (Perlman) there,”said Harris.”We certainly won’t do that.” The Jewish groups rejected the overture, saying there could be no mutual respect until Southern Baptists rescind their resolution and reject the belief that a Jew who accepts Jesus is still a Jew.”… We do not and cannot dialogue with those who have so blatantly challenged our spiritual legitimacy and authenticity, and, who have, by extension, called for the disappearance of Judaism as a living faith,”the Jewish groups wrote in a February letter sent in response to the overture.

In March, Roberts and Sibley replied to the response, writing that they were”shocked and dismayed to hear that (the Jewish groups) would not agree to discuss our differences. When there are tensions between individuals and organizations, it is our conviction that conversation is more needed, valued and important.” In an interview, Sibley, who is based in Dallas, angrily accused the Jewish groups of wanting to”remove evangelicals from their basic biblical commitments”by having Southern Baptists”deny that Jews need the atonement that faith in Jesus brings.” He also called Jewish insistence that Jewish identity is religious and not ethnic”a propaganda ploy.”He said that if the 5.6 million-member U.S. Jewish community can encompass both Orthodox and Reform Jews it can also include Jewish Christians.

Jewish Christians, also known as Messianic Jews and Hebrew Christians, said Sibley, are simply another category of Jews, which in his view includes anyone descended from the biblical patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”We reject the definition that equates Judaism with rabbinic Judaism and a rejection of Jesus as the Jewish Messiah,”he said.

Excluding Messianic Jews from the dialogue would be”artificial,”Sibley added. Jewish leaders”are not dealing with reality by not talking to a Jewish Christian,”Sibley said.”They may wish it were not so, but they cannot deny reality.” He also accused Jewish leaders of stirring up fear among rank-and-file Jews that”the Baptists are coming”out of their own”insecurity”over the diminishing of Jewish religious observance and said their refusal to meet was”childish.” Harris, speaking from American Jewish Committee headquarters in New York, said Sibley”has no right to define what is authentic Jewish identity. I can’t cede that to them.” He also said Southern Baptists are failing to recognize the”basic theological differences”that separate Christians from Jews.”You can’t have it both ways. You can choose to be Christian or you can choose to be Jewish. You can’t be both,”he said.

Last fall, the Home Mission Board’s Roberts participated in two panel discussions on Southern Baptist attitudes toward evangelizing Jews. One panel was held at a meeting of mostly liberal Jewish and Christian religious leaders. The second was at a meeting of the Anti-Defamation League. Both sessions turned into raucous attacks on the Southern Baptist positions.

MJP END RNS