It’s a sad story Michael Rosen tells on Jewcy.com of continual rejection by Christians:
In trying to make sense of the media and conference acceptances and rejections, the anthropologist in me sees a chasm between Jewish and Christian communities-one welcoming of, the other so far largely uninterested in my message. My inner-anthropologist also sees no right and wrong in either community’s acceptance or rejection. But since my writer-self wants to be wrapped with Christian communities in rapt dialogue about social-change-as-sacred, I do search for the schism. Part of the Christian-Jewish / rejection-acceptance experience I am trying to make sense of is certainly no more complex than understanding I "belong" to one group and not the other, to one culture and not the other.
…Armstrong explains the priority of belief in Christianity and practice is Judaism, and understanding the place of each in making sense of our history. Of her own theology, "I say that religion isn’t about believing things. It’s about what you do. It’s ethical alchemy. It’s about behaving in a way that changes you, that gives you intimations of holiness and sacredness." My theology is Armstrong’s. And I wonder, in my desire to embrace my Christian brothers and sisters in a dialogue of social justice inspired by our common religious background, what I can do to bridge a gap I sense and so much want not to exist?
