At an Israel fellowship I was in during college, one of the research librarians "Yuval" got engaged to his partner, "Donny". We were all joyful for the two of them. A true stereotype of Jews is we do love a good celebration. So the fellows decided to throw a small engagement brunch, where we'd all chip in to order in a lunch and a small but tasteful gift to the happy couple.
One of the Christian Zionists was scandalized. She complained to our director that we were being mean to her by having this "abomination." 'It's offensive to me that they are hosting this party for some F****T who defies God's word."
We fellows gathered and explained that majority of Jews support LGBT rights, that she's free to attend, she's free to boycott, but we want to make Yuval and Donny a party because our culture celebrates marriage and frankly, we're having the party whether she liked it or not, because we love Yuval and by God, we're pelting him and Donny with candy and singing "Mazal tov" to them.
She threw a hissy fit. "No wonder people hate Jews. When people try to love you guys, you treat them horribly. All I'm trying to do is be a part of your work, and you're being so nasty to me. Don't you want Christian allies?"
Ummm...throw Jews under the bus for Christian allies? Not happening.
Or another Israel trip. It happened to be on Yom Hashoa so the Jewish students had a private service for all the victims of the Holocaust. I helped organize it, and I think it was nicely done. We had prayers for Jewish victims, disabled victims, Rom victims, LGBT victims, innocent civilians.
Some of the Church group who was with us came in. Most were actually amazing, they sat respectfully and bowed their heads during the prayers. I was about to invite one of them to say a prayer when one begins sobbing loudly.
"It's so sad. They're all in Hell, because they didn't know Jesus." We nearly threw her off the boat.
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branchandroot
warning for homophobia
Date: 2013-04-09 11:49 pm (UTC)One of the Christian Zionists was scandalized. She complained to our director that we were being mean to her by having this "abomination." 'It's offensive to me that they are hosting this party for some F****T who defies God's word."
We fellows gathered and explained that majority of Jews support LGBT rights, that she's free to attend, she's free to boycott, but we want to make Yuval and Donny a party because our culture celebrates marriage and frankly, we're having the party whether she liked it or not, because we love Yuval and by God, we're pelting him and Donny with candy and singing "Mazal tov" to them.
She threw a hissy fit. "No wonder people hate Jews. When people try to love you guys, you treat them horribly. All I'm trying to do is be a part of your work, and you're being so nasty to me. Don't you want Christian allies?"
Ummm...throw Jews under the bus for Christian allies? Not happening.
Or another Israel trip. It happened to be on Yom Hashoa so the Jewish students had a private service for all the victims of the Holocaust. I helped organize it, and I think it was nicely done. We had prayers for Jewish victims, disabled victims, Rom victims, LGBT victims, innocent civilians.
Some of the Church group who was with us came in. Most were actually amazing, they sat respectfully and bowed their heads during the prayers. I was about to invite one of them to say a prayer when one begins sobbing loudly.
"It's so sad. They're all in Hell, because they didn't know Jesus." We nearly threw her off the boat.