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Q: Dear Rabbi, as a practicing Roman Catholic, I was not happy with the letter you received hoping you will abandon your faith. I would remind the writer that Jesus himself said, "Salvation is from the Jews." Not to mention the small detail that Jesus himself was a Jew. I do not understand the mindset that thinks that God got up one morning and said to Himself, “Hmm. Yeah. I made a mistake choosing the Jewish people for my own. That was a bad idea. "Really? God is by definition perfect, and his words and decisions are thus, by extension, perfect. Do I wish everybody knew the love that loving Jesus brings? Sure. But if God says that He has established His eternal covenant with the Jewish people, who am I to question that? I will only add that when I say my daily prayers and pray for my Jewish friends (and their safety in the frightening world we inhabit), I pray for their salvation just as I do for my Christian friends. I don't pray for their conversion because for all I know, they are where they are supposed to be. Praying for salvation assumes that we are all flawed and need God's help to be saved, as opposed to assuming that only I have the answers as to who checks the right boxes. Along with my other prayers, I always say the Fatima prayer which closes with: "Lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of thy mercy" – which would be ALL of us. – (From L)

A: Thank you, dear L, for your compassionate words. What your loving kindness has taught you is that you cannot understand yourself as a Christian without understanding Christianity first as a religion that worships a Jewish messiah. You correctly point out that God’s perfection and love make it impossible for God to annul the covenant with the Jewish people that began with Abraham.

However, and this is a huge however, honoring the eternal nature of God’s covenant with the Jewish people does not mean that Christianity is required to abandon evangelism. Gospel means “Good News” and part of what it means to be Christian is to spread the Good News of Jesus’ atoning death and resurrection to all the peoples of the earth. All the people, that is, except the Jewish people who live in the holiness of God’s covenant with Abraham and his descendants. People who have never heard the Gospels preached remain an important object of Christianity’s mission. The two great religions of the world that are explicitly evangelical are Christianity and Islam. Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism all teach that the righteous of all peoples will inherit heaven. As for the competition between Christianity and Islam the result of their missionary efforts will determine the future of the Abrahamic faiths here on planet earth.

I want to urge my Jewish brothers and sisters to not feel insulted or angered by Christian evangelism. I would hope that the religion you take into your heart is a faith you believe to be true. I believe that the very best way for Christians to propagate their faith is to become a living witness to its truth. The best way to show Christian love is to live it, not just speak it. Recently I have seen public service ads on television which attempt to reduce antisemitism. In one, a Jewish high school student finds an antisemitic sticker posted on his backpack, but a friend intervenes and covers it up. In another anti-antisemitism ad, a Jewish mother and daughter find antisemitic graffiti painted on their garage door. Their non-Jewish neighbor sees this and repaints the door when they are away. Those well-done ads do more to show Christian love than a hundred sermons. During the Gulf War I was watching TV show images of missiles exploding in Israel. Suddenly my front doorbell rang at night. It was Father Tom. He said, “I figured my friend might need some company tonight.” As we sat together in the glow of the TV, I knew that Christian love was stronger than Jew-hating and that the priest on my couch was my best friend.

All sacred texts from all the world’s great faiths are filled with verses that sound exclusionary and verses that sound inclusive. I believe that the task of every true believer is to select the texts that bring others in, not those texts that push them out.

On my birthday one year I received the following note from Tommy:

There are different gifts but the same Spirit.

There are different ministries but the same Lord.

There are different works but the same God who accomplishes all of them in everyone … it is one and the same Spirit who produces all these gifts, distributing them to each as He wills. (I Corinthians 12:4-11)

If we can all just believe those words everything will be OK.

(Send ALL QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS to The God Squad via email at godsquadquestion@aol.com. Rabbi Gellman is the author of several books, including “Religion for Dummies,” co-written with Fr. Tom Hartman. Also, the new God Squad podcast is now available.)

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