Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!bcm!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: ta00est@unccvax.uncc.edu (elizabeth s tallant) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Passover for Christians Message-ID: Date: 6 Apr 91 06:34:22 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: University of NC at Charlotte Lines: 58 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In response to the questions about celebrating the Jewish Passover - Is it just symbolic? Could there be some "religious problems" with it? I'm glad that this issue has been raised. It has been bugging me since Maudy Thursday. This past Maudy Thursday, I went to a bi-weekly regular meeting of a campus Christian group. I was surprised to find a Passover meal set a every place. There were booklets on the table, but I did not pay any attention to them at first. Our speaker got up and discussed the Passover meal, and then told us that our special guest would be leading us in the Passover meal. Then, he made a bid deal out of telling us that the "leader" is Jewish. I was rather upset, and wondered how a Christian group could condone having a Jew lead us in a religious-related event, espcially on Maudy Thursday, when we gather to honor Jesus. After all, Jews don't believe in Jesus, except for Messianic Jews, who are actually Christians (welcome to the family). So, our guest speaker told us to pick up the booklets on the table, and to follow him in recitative readings. The readings were a combination of Old Testament scripture and words addressed to God. Almost everyone around me was participating, but I stopped on the first page because the stuff sounded really weird to me - it did not sound like church literature and was deviod of praising Jesus. I looked through the booklet, and found on the cover that it was written by a local rabbi! I felt nausiated. I was participating in another religion's ceremony. I might as well be yelling "praise Mohammed." I could not stand it. I left the room. The minister, who was sitting on the side followed me out and asked me why I was leaving. I told him as explained above. He told me that I "just didn't understand what they were doing" and that they "were not having a religious cermony." So, I asked "what then do you call it when there are scripture readings and words addressed to God?" He repeated the same, accused me of not believing in the Trinity, and more or less said "It's your problem and not ours." He said that it was a "learning experience" and that he would even be willing to participate in a Moslem ceremony. He told me that this is part of my "spiritual history" because my spiritual ancestors are Jews. I told him that Abraham is my spiritual ancestor and that if Abraham were here today, he would be worshipping Jesus. On the other hand, the speaker and the booklet writer do not worship Jesus, therefore they are not practicing what my spiritual ancestors practiced. I was upset and shocked and have not gone to any meetings since. That afternoon, I went home and baked some unleavened bread and served it with browned fruit and ate it with the "fruit of the vine." We ate in remebrance of the Last Supper, and in remeber- ance of Israel's freedom the Egyptians. My conscious felt fine. In response to the original question - I am certianly no clergy or scholar, but my conscionce tells me that eating a Passover meal is either right or wrong depending on how you do it. For me, the meal at home was sort of Last Supper/Passover meal. It was a meal eaten in rememberance of Jesus Christ and the sacrifice that He made after years of persecution. On the other hand, the meal at school seemed totally deviod of Christ.