Anti-semitic potpourri bag?!

[Matokah]

I don't think this can count as spam, since they've accepted me.  I like to think of this as a somewhat subtle, yet cheap way to woo me (a full tuition scholarship would work better, though).

[pico135]

As a mormon I would like to thank all of you that have ever met a mormon missionary and treated him/her with kindness. I was a missionary in Mexico from 1996-1998 and it was the best experience of my life, but sometimes people could be extremely mean and abusive. I was punched, pushed down stairs, stoned (not the pot kind, the big rock thrown at you kind) and almost stabbed and runover twice. A pretty rough experience for a 19 year old from a small town in WA. But I would definitely do it again. So next time you see a mormon missionary, just be nice, if you aren't interested say so and everything will be cool. Remember he/she is probably a 19/20 year old, away from home for the first time, with no contact from family and friends, no TV, no movies or newspapers, with an average work week of 70-75 hours for two full-years!!!! The last thing he/she needs is to be hasseled. Whether you are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Agnostic, Diest or Athiest I respect anyone who is willing to sacrifice for their religious or social beliefs. My experience as a missionary has actually made me much more open to new ideas and people, I always make a point to listen to represenatives from any religious and social/political group because you never know, you just might learn something.
Pico Abides!

[SuicideNixon]

As a mormon I would like to thank all of you that have ever met a mormon missionary and treated him/her with kindness. I was a missionary in Mexico from 1996-1998 and it was the best experience of my life, but sometimes people could be extremely mean and abusive. I was punched, pushed down stairs, stoned (not the pot kind, the big rock thrown at you kind) and almost stabbed and runover twice. A pretty rough experience for a 19 year old from a small town in WA. But I would definitely do it again. So next time you see a mormon missionary, just be nice, if you aren't interested say so and everything will be cool. Remember he/she is probably a 19/20 year old, away from home for the first time, with no contact from family and friends, no TV, no movies or newspapers, with an average work week of 70-75 hours for two full-years!!!! The last thing he/she needs is to be hasseled. Whether you are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Agnostic, Diest or Athiest I respect anyone who is willing to sacrifice for their religious or social beliefs. My experience as a missionary has actually made me much more open to new ideas and people, I always make a point to listen to represenatives from any religious and social/political group because you never know, you just might learn something.
Pico Abides!

Although I am an atheist, I do sympathize with you. I live in a town very strong anti-religious sentiment, and sometimes I see people being rude to religious folk who come to convert us. This makes me sort of sad. There is no reason to be rude to someone who hasn't been rude to you. I applaud mormons for never resorting to the sort of tatics that evangelical christians of various stripes have often used in our town i.e. standing on a street corner and asking passers-by if they have accepted the lord jesus christ as their savior and then screaming at them and calling them whores or satan-worshipers if they do not reply. Unfortunately, it is a reasonably frequent occurance here that some evangelical preacher or another will come to town and try to 'shock' us into their beliefs by yelling about all of us being sodomites etc.

[Matokah]

As a mormon I would like to thank all of you that have ever met a mormon missionary and treated him/her with kindness. I was a missionary in Mexico from 1996-1998 and it was the best experience of my life, but sometimes people could be extremely mean and abusive. I was punched, pushed down stairs, stoned (not the pot kind, the big rock thrown at you kind) and almost stabbed and runover twice. A pretty rough experience for a 19 year old from a small town in WA. But I would definitely do it again. So next time you see a mormon missionary, just be nice, if you aren't interested say so and everything will be cool. Remember he/she is probably a 19/20 year old, away from home for the first time, with no contact from family and friends, no TV, no movies or newspapers, with an average work week of 70-75 hours for two full-years!!!! The last thing he/she needs is to be hasseled. Whether you are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Agnostic, Diest or Athiest I respect anyone who is willing to sacrifice for their religious or social beliefs. My experience as a missionary has actually made me much more open to new ideas and people, I always make a point to listen to represenatives from any religious and social/political group because you never know, you just might learn something.
Pico Abides!

Geez.  I can't believe people would actually do that.  Okay, scratch that.  Yes I can.  If someone's dumb enough to pin a potpourri bag to my office's bulletin board with a message of hatred on it, then they're dumb enough to harass missionaries, too.  I'm sorry you had to deal with that.  Personally, I haven't had very good experiences with missionaries in general (the whole, "you're going to hell" statement after I mention I'm converting to Judaism really doesn't make me feel inclined to listen to what they have to say next), but of the few Mormon ones I've run into, they've always been very kind and eager to share and talk about their religion with me.  They do get a little uncomfortable when I decline their offer to take me to a service or if I mention Judaism, but none that I've met have said anything negative about another religion in my presence.  That's actually kind of refreshing.

[The ZAPINATOR]

What the heck is WRONG with people at my school?

Right before I enter work today, I take a quick scan of the bulletin board outside our office and notice a cute little hand-made potpourri bag pinned to the board.  In glittery glue blue and green letters it reads:

"I know what a Jew is.  Someone who killed our LORD."

Okay, WTF?  Someone went through all the trouble of hand-stitching a potpourri bag and then glitter-glueing that phrase on it?

It's finals week, and people STILL have enough time on their hands to do stupid darn like that.

So, this is the least threatening thing that could've shown up on our bulletin board, but it's getting tiresome, since Jewish professors in our department have been getting anti-Semitic literature in the mail (one even got two videos), and last August, a group of older people (who apparently didn't go to our school even) cornered one of the Hebrew teachers in her office and started harassing her.

Now that's scary.  But a potpourri bag with glitter glue?  Not so much.  People are stupid. 

/end mini, cold pill induced rant.

Could you explain to me how this is different than the blockbuster movie, "The Passion"? It is a central tenet of Christianity that we are responsible for killing JC. There is no ambiguity as far as the scripture is concerned. Naturally anyone who believes that the scriptures are divine will follow also this teaching. Sometimes it appears in a backpack, sometimes in movies, sometimes in people's comments, etc..

Not to get all theological on your ass or anything, but that's not a central tenet of Christianity.  The central tenet of Christianity, around which the entire faith revolves, is the concept that God so loved us that he sent his son into this world to be an atoning sacrifice for the sins of all who will accept the sacrifice.  Furthemore, Jesus had to die because it was part of the plan of salvation, there was no other way, so the Jews are not to blame.  It is true that Jews killed Jesus, yet they're not responsible for his death; it had to happen.  Instead, ALL humanity is responsible for his death.  Through our sins, we made his death necessary for our salvation.  So any and all anti-Semitism in Christianity relating to Jesus' death is a misconstruction of what his death means in Christian thought.  It doesn't make any sense to blame Jews for it, because ultimately we're all responsible for his death on the cross. 

Besides, even if you were to hold "Jews" responsible, it would obviously be only those Jews who lived then, not Jews today, and at that only the Jews that specifically killed him (as, you'll recall, most of his early followers were also Jews). 

On top of this, Jesus forgave the Jews from the cross that killed him.  "Father, forgive them, for the know not what they do".  And in his death, that forgiveness was extended to all of us for our sins, contingent upon our acceptance of it.

So basically, anti-Semitic Christian misunderstand the most central tenet of their faith.  I would argue that these people aren't really true Christians, if they don't even understand what the death of Jesus meant from a Christian standpoint.  Of course, that's an assessment for every person to seek his or her heart and find true of false.  I am not the judge, God is. 

ZAP

[murkydreamer]

On a slightly different note...

There are evangelical Christians.  Are there non-evangelical Christians?  Is the distinction more or less that they do/don't evangelize?  Or do they have a different take on certain beliefs within Christianity?  Also, how do the various different protestant denominations factor into this?

I feel like I should know all this, but I don't so I thought I'd ask.   

[The ZAPINATOR]

Yeah, evangelicals are the ones with the big emphasis on conversion, missionary work and outreach.  At least that's how I understand it.  Thus, some denominations may become more or less evangelical over time.

ZAP

On a slightly different note...

There are evangelical Christians.  Are there non-evangelical Christians?  Is the distinction more or less that they do/don't evangelize?  Or do they have a different take on certain beliefs within Christianity?  Also, how do the various different protestant denominations factor into this?

I feel like I should know all this, but I don't so I thought I'd ask.   

[giffy]

As a mormon I would like to thank all of you that have ever met a mormon missionary and treated him/her with kindness. I was a missionary in Mexico from 1996-1998 and it was the best experience of my life, but sometimes people could be extremely mean and abusive. I was punched, pushed down stairs, stoned (not the pot kind, the big rock thrown at you kind) and almost stabbed and runover twice. A pretty rough experience for a 19 year old from a small town in WA. But I would definitely do it again. So next time you see a mormon missionary, just be nice, if you aren't interested say so and everything will be cool. Remember he/she is probably a 19/20 year old, away from home for the first time, with no contact from family and friends, no TV, no movies or newspapers, with an average work week of 70-75 hours for two full-years!!!! The last thing he/she needs is to be hasseled. Whether you are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Agnostic, Diest or Athiest I respect anyone who is willing to sacrifice for their religious or social beliefs. My experience as a missionary has actually made me much more open to new ideas and people, I always make a point to listen to represenatives from any religious and social/political group because you never know, you just might learn something.
Pico Abides!

Wow, I am sorry you had to go through that although I am sure it made you both stronger as a person and helped you to grow in your faith. While I am an atheist/agnostic I too have immense respect for people who sacrifice for their beliefs/religion. I do not however have any respect for the self righteous a-hole who call other names and threaten them in the name of their religion.

In my experience Mormon missionaries have been friendly and respectful and I have enjoyed my conversations with them. A good friend of mine from HS was a Mormon, although we lost touch when he went on his mission trip.

 

[kristay]

As a mormon I would like to thank all of you that have ever met a mormon missionary and treated him/her with kindness. I was a missionary in Mexico from 1996-1998 and it was the best experience of my life, but sometimes people could be extremely mean and abusive. I was punched, pushed down stairs, stoned (not the pot kind, the big rock thrown at you kind) and almost stabbed and runover twice. A pretty rough experience for a 19 year old from a small town in WA. But I would definitely do it again. So next time you see a mormon missionary, just be nice, if you aren't interested say so and everything will be cool. Remember he/she is probably a 19/20 year old, away from home for the first time, with no contact from family and friends, no TV, no movies or newspapers, with an average work week of 70-75 hours for two full-years!!!! The last thing he/she needs is to be hasseled. Whether you are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Agnostic, Diest or Athiest I respect anyone who is willing to sacrifice for their religious or social beliefs. My experience as a missionary has actually made me much more open to new ideas and people, I always make a point to listen to represenatives from any religious and social/political group because you never know, you just might learn something.
Pico Abides!

Wow...that is incredibly uncool of people.  I don't know why anyone would treat another human being this way.  It is totally uncalled for...

On another note, I have a question for you, pico.  Should I stop accepting the Book of Mormon from missionaries ?  I honestly do not intend to convert (although I find ALL religions very interesting)...

[pico135]

-Pico says...
The missionary in me says read it cover to cover and then pray about it, but the realist in me say next time they offer just say that you have several and that you don't need anymore. Then they will invite you to read it along with the bible and you say Cool I will, and if you decide to or not, in the end everyone is happy. As an added bonus ask them how their day is and you might be surprised at the answar you might hear.
Pico Abides