It’s complicated. Back in the 70s I remember telling my Roman Catholic mom about these folks who called themselves “Messianic Jews” who believed in Jesus as the promised Messiah but also said that they were Jewish. I think her head almost exploded and was all the more convinced that I’d gone mad. Good thing I didn’t know about or tell her about the Jews who didn’t believe in God. That would have been it. 

It was hard for her to understand that one can be ethnically Jewish but not religious, or ethnically Jewish and broad spectrum of religiously Jewish. Then again, she thought it was wrong for someone to be Mexican-American and not be Roman Catholic. It’s complicated. Modern Judaism is both a people and a religion. Speaking of which,  I have a favorite t-shirt titled “World Religions” that explains the differences between religions using a twisted “shit” metaphor. Rastafarians understandably say, “Let’s smoke this shit,” while the Jews say, “Why does this shit always happen to me?” It’s a horribly inappropriate t-shirt (but funny). It turns out that religion is not just one thing, practiced one way and modern Judaism is a perfect example of that. Enjoy. 

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Tags: Crash Course Religion, modern Judaism, shit happens, video Tuesdays, world religions

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