The Jerusalem Post has a story today about Jewish (Israeli) Scientologists. Which lends a whole new twist to the conversation over whether one can be a Jew without believing as a Jew.
If we accept that you don’t have to believe in God to be a Jew… this brings up a new (equally hard) question… Can you be Jewish without believing exclusively in the Jewish God. It’s funny… the ranks of Jewish Unitarians (Jewnitarians), Buddhist Jews (BuJews) and even Hindu Jews (HinJews) are growing, and I haven’t heard a word of protest from the pluralistic Jewish world. But for those of you who are totally cool with Jews of other faiths… how do you feel about this? Jewish Scientologists? For real? These people are apeshit crazy! What about Jewish TM practitioners (i.e. Yogic Flyers– where I lived in Iowa, we had a LOT of em. We called em floaters)? And if you’re that pluralistic, if you can extend that far, where does that leave us with the Jews for Jesus? Seriously, folks… ignore your gut and use your logic… where do we draw the line? I’m lost on this. Can anyone help me? If we don’t have to believe in the Jewish God to be Jews, where do we draw the line regarding Jews with other gods?
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