ADL to Southern Baptist Convention: Stop Efforts To Convert Jews

New York, NY, September 21, 2005…The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today condemned as "insulting, disgraceful and dangerous" plans by leaders of Southern Baptist Convention – the nation's largest Protestant group - to consider forming a partnership with a Messianic Jewish group in order to missionize Jews in the United States and around the world. The League called on the Southern Baptist Convention to stop their efforts to convert Jews.

On September 20, the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention approved a proposal to study whether the SBC's North American and international mission boards should formally recognize the Southern Baptists Messianic Fellowship – a Messianic Jewish group – as "an evangelistic mission to Jewish people in the United States and throughout the world."

The executive committee's vote to recommend that the proposal be put on the agenda at next year's SBC annual convention follows the launching last year by the SBC of the Pasche Institute of Jewish Studies at Criswell College in Dallas, whose purpose is to teach Baptists leaders how to minister to Jews.

Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, issued the following statement:

The idea of the Southern Baptist Convention using a so-called Jewish messianic group – which misrepresents two faiths – to target Jews for conversion is disgraceful, insulting and dangerous.

We are outraged over the continuing efforts by the Southern Baptist Convention to target Jews for conversion, especially by considering 'deputizing' a Jewish Messianic group, part of a deceptive movement that falsely claims they are interested in Jewish practices when the real goal is to convert Jews to Christianity. These efforts should be stopped once and for all.

Together with the establishment last year of an institute aimed at teaching Baptist leaders how to minister to Jews, the Southern Baptist leadership continues to show its disrespect and disregard for the validity of Judaism and the Jewish people.

http://www.adl.org/PresRele/ChJew_31/4798_31.htm

I find it funny that the same people who targeted whites for destruction via “civil rights” and “affirmative action” laws apparently don’t take well to being targeted for religious conversion by Christians. While I’m no fan of Southern Baptism, this incident/article does a good job of revealing the oft-cited “double standard” principle upon which jews routinely operate.

The rhetorical structure of this ADL release makes me think that the jews must liken the baptismal tank to the vaunted Auschwitz gas chambers.

The rhetorical structure of this ADL release makes me think that the jews must liken the baptismal tank to the vaunted Auschwitz gas chambers.
This would explain their legendary tribal aversion to taking a bath. Quite a reveral from ancient times when baptism was Jewish; I guess once the gentiles started doing it, it became traif, so to speak.

From what I can make out, the Messianic Jews are a bunch of Jewish leaders trying to get Christians to Judaize. The Southern Baptists are a bunch of Christians programmed by the Jews to do their dirty work for them. The converting Jews issue gives the ADL a reason to get their name in the press and complain about "anti-semitism"... from their own minions.

Do you guys know why he posted this? About 9 churches are now burnt to the ground. Most likely by jews. This is huge, hopefully we can get these bastards shut down.

The Christian leaders are going to have a press conference today on this. Well, I'm sure Gonzales is the very man to crack the case for them.

You know if it was synagogues we'd be hearing the press sing a different story about motives and race. This article could be called "Everything is under control, calm down and go back to sleep."

What's behind church burnings? White churches are the most frequent targets - and crime is often the motive.
By Patrik Jonsson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

ATLANTA – Three torched churches were discovered in Alabama Tuesday - the latest in a string of suspected arsons that damaged five churches in Bibb County.
Investigators have not discovered any apparent motives. Four of the five churches in Bibb County - three of which burned to the ground - were white Baptist congregations. The other was black.

Nationally, such patterns are not unusual. Most arson targets are white congregations, whereas mosques and synagogues get hit in much smaller numbers.

In a country with more than 350,000 churches, motives are as varied as the denominations they target, experts say. According to the Insurance Information Institute, the top reasons for torching a church include the coverup of a burglary, vandalism, and revenge. Racism, insurance fraud, and thrill-seeking are less common.

In fact, church burnings are common. The nation sees 15 to 20 church arsons a week, scattered from Florida to California.

Nearly 1,000 churches burned between 1996 and 2000 nationwide, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). Authorities nabbed about 100 suspects, a pace that has only decreased slightly.

Since the summer of 1996, when a spate of racially motivated Alabama church fires drew national attention, investigators are not much closer to knowing what fuels the church arsonist. Confessions range from the hateful to the mundane: In Suffolk County, Va., an 18-year-old pleaded guilty to torching St. Mary's Catholic Church in October 2005, after stealing a few hot dogs and some sacramental wine in the course of an inebriated evening.

"There is really nothing unusual about the rate of church fires," says Conrad Goeringer, who has written about the issue for American Atheist magazine. "There's a tendency to construct a conspiracy theory or link fires together that are totally unrelated."

The National Fire Protection Association agrees, citing a five-year investigation in the late 1990s by the Department of Justice, which concluded there was no broader racial conspiracy. The motives for church arsons mirrored reasons given by arsonsists for torching homes and businesses, says John Hall, vice president for fire analysis at NFPA in Quincy, Mass.

"Especially with juvenile fire-setting, which applies to most church arson, motive is rarely as grand as the damages," he says.

Still, religious motivation may lie behind the Bibb County fires.

RICH CLABAUGH - STAFF

"If you burn a church and nobody's there, then it's not murder, it's a message," says Joe Barnhart, a religious studies professor at the University of North Texas. "Because we do have freedom of religion, consequently it sends a double message: Even as religion binds people together it also often alienates people."

So far, authorities think a local resident is the culprit in the Bibb County fires, someone who would know exactly where the small, out of the way churches are located - all far from the main road. Often a church arsonist is someone the congregation knows, law enforcement experts say.

"There's been many times when those people who are committing the crime lived in the neighborhood and often frequented the churches," says ATF Special Agent Austin Banks. "Definitely, to commit a crime such as this, there's a deep, deep psychological and emotional trauma that's going on in a person. You definitely have deep-seated issues if you're involved in burning a church."