Is it Okay to Proselytize?

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) recently condemned the Southern Baptist Convention for considering a proposal to partner with a Jewish Messianic group (the Southern Baptist Messianic Fellowship, an organization of Jews who have converted to Christianity) to evangelize other Jews. The ADL called the move "insulting, disgraceful and dangerous," was "outraged over the continuing efforts by the Southern Baptist Convention to target Jews for conversion," and criticized the Messianic group as "a deceptive movement that falsely claims they are interested in Jewish practices."

First, the SBC does not "target" Jews for conversion. It targets everyone for conversion. It is an equal-opportunity proselytizer. The ADL is simply sloppy in painting the SBC as having a special interest in evangelizing Jews.

Second, the ADL exists to fight "bigotry, hatred, and prejudice," according to their website. Clearly, the ADL places proselytizing in one of those three categories. In an earlier statement, it said that it "is pure arrogance for any one religion to assume that they hold 'the truth.'" I wonder what Moses would say about that. A truth claim isn't arrogant unless it's wrong, and then I'd be more concerned about being wrong than being arrogant. Proselytization is not an act of hate unless you believe that reason is a sham, intellectual disagreement is a struggle for power, and the attempt to persuade someone is an act of conquest instead of conversation. Of course religious conversation must always be done with sensitivity and friendship, but the blanket conflation of proselytization with persecution is intellectually lazy at best, ominous at worst. How long before they claim that the statement "My religion is true" is hate speech?

Last and most disturbing, considering the good work the ADL carries out, is the ADL's attitude towards the Messianic Jews. For an organization dedicated to fighting prejudice against Jews, one might expect them to muster a little more respect for fellow Jews. The Messianic Jews profess to retain their full Jewish identity, believe that "Yeshua [Jesus] is the true Jewish Messiah promised by God through the writings of the Hebrew Scriptures, and...worship within the framework of traditional Jewish patterns." As quixotic as that might sound to non-Messianic-Jewish ears, we might treat their claims with the "mutual respect and understanding" the ADL champions. Instead, the ADL acts as if it gets to say who counts as a "real" Jew and who doesn't. This from an organization that in the last breath condemned people who claim a special access to impartial truth. Apparently there is no truth except what the ADL decides to defend.