The Museum of the Bible--a treasury of information and history

Today I've been listening to podcasts from The Museum of the Bible. https://www.museumofthebible.org/museum-of-the-bible-podcast   Great programs and panels. If you thought diversity and inclusion weren't possible, you need this channel. This is true diversity--of ideas, of history, of stories. Today I've listened to programs on the Mayflower Compact, the origins of the Armenian Bible and Christianity in the 400s, and the Jews in England in the 1100s. Fabulous stuff. Others I'll check out later are at least four presentations on the Haggadah, the Bible and the Qur'an, Shroud of Turin, and the Bible and War.

 Also, how do you teach middle school students about American history? USE PRIMARY SOURCES. Let them speak for themselves if you want to smash the lies of the 1619 project. Let President Lincoln remind you what he believed about slavery, and not "woke" ideologs from the NYT. A real treasure.

From the website: "On November 18, [2021] the museum will host a panel discussion on the 1620 Mayflower Compact — the shortest American political document of enduring significance. With these few words, however, the Pilgrims sowed the seeds of liberty and self-government that made their small New England settlement a cradle of American democracy. This event will explore the idea that these seventeenth-century Pilgrims were the true forerunners of America’s Founders and examine the Compact as a blueprint used to frame this nation's founding principles as embedded in the US Constitution."

"On October 21, 2021: Does the importance of the Bible extend beyond Jewish and Christian traditions? How has the Bible played a role in the origins and development of Islam? Join Museum of the Bible for a discussion about the relationship between the Bible and the Qur’an. Hear from Dr. Gabriel Reynolds – author of The Qur’an and the Bible and Allah: God in the Qur’an – on how the Qur’an is part of the larger story of the Bible’s impact on the world. The evening will include a panel of engaging respondents and an audience Q & A. This is both an in-person and virtual event."

What not to say to a convert

“When I walk into a room and say to people I meet ‘I’m Jewish’ often I will get the response ‘but you’re Black.'” Since when are the two mutually exclusive? People often make offensive racial assumptions about Jews (and converts) of color. Just like we’re not all named Rosenberg, one convert of color says it’s helpful to note that “Judaism is not a ‘race’ of white people. One of the things people should be mindful of is not to assume all people of color in the synagogue are converts (or the help, for that matter).” Yavilah McCoy (The Color of Jews)

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-dos-and-donts-of-talking-to-converts/?

Goy jokes are not funny.

“Words like shiksa (gentile woman) and shaygetz (gentile man) both derivations of the word for “dirty” in Yiddish, don’t make converts feel welcome either. Blondes with blue eyes, converts or not, tend to hear these words more often than converts like me with olive skin and big brown eyes. Still, my first Passover went south after someone repeatedly threw the word shiksa around along with some other ugly words about non-Jews. At the first bar mitzvah I attended, jokes about non-Jews were flying all over the place.”

Much of the advice in this article also applies to Christians. I stopped attending a Bible study by a pastor on a topic in which I was interested because of the sly little digs at Catholics, since I knew some of the invited guests were Catholics, or some grew up Catholic.

Much of if boils down to being an insider or an outsider whether a small town, a group, a church, a club, a resident new to the neighborhood, an alumnus, or a political campaign.  We just can’t assume we are all like minded.

Bigots attack Christians and Jews for their beliefs on marriage and family

Homosexual “marriage” and religious liberty cannot co-exist—because gay activists will not allow it. As marriage expert Maggie Gallagher puts it, same-sex “marriage” advocates claim that religious faith “itself is a form of bigotry.” Perez Hilton's recent attacks on a white, heterosexual woman are just the tip of the iceberg of bigotry and intolerance.

Read why at Chuck Colson’s BreakPoint