Can You Be Half Christian?

[YasmanSoBe]

I just read an article:
http://news.aol.com/topnews/articles/_a/skater-stunned-by-christmas-carol-cutoff/20061215124509990002?ncid=NWS00010000000001

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (Dec. 14) - Olympic figure skater Sasha Cohen was "stunned" to learn that a U.S. high school choir had been ordered to stop singing Christmas carols at a holiday show because she is half Jewish, her mother said on Thursday.


On another note, this girl I share an office with at work also claims to be half Christian. Her mother/mother's family is Jewish and her father/father's family is Catholic.

I don't understand that reasoning of being "half" of a religion.

Your thoughts?

 

[Lusa]

I guess you can be half-christian if it's part of your heritage rather than a reflection on your own personal beliefs or daily walk.

 

[Shimmie]

Being a Christian is a matter of the heart. It's ones' personal choice in accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and choosing to follow Him.

Many people have been mistaken that they are automatically Christians because their parents are. Being a Christian does not have a human bloodline as would a Jew, African American or Indian, etc.

However, it is from the Bloodline of the shed blood of Jesus Christ for our sins, that when we accept Him, we become a part of.

Another thing as well, being a Jew or any culture does not always denote their faith. People choose to make choices. Such as many Jews have chosen Christianity (Messianic - meaning they have accepted the Messiah (Jesus Christ), or have chosen other faiths as do other cultures who have chosen the faith of another culture to worship. There's a lot of 'faith' crossing going on.

Even Sammy Davis Jr. adopted the Jewish faith and later returned to Christianity. It's life and it's peoples' choices.

Bottomline: Christianity is not inherited, it is a chosen faith by an individual of their accord. So there is no half/half faith-wise.

 

[PaperClip]

No.... being a half-Christian is WORSE than being all the way IN or all the way OUT.... It's like spiritual adultery....

Revelation 3:15-16 (New Life Version)
15 I know what you are doing. You are not cold or hot. I wish you were one or the other. 16 But because you are warm, and not hot or cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.

 

[YasmanSoBe]

Being a Christian is a matter of the heart. It's ones' personal choice in accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and choosing to follow Him.

Bottomline: Christianity is not inherited, it is a chosen faith by an individual of their accord. So there is no half/half faith-wise.

I was waiting on you to get in here

I agree with your comments, esp. the bolded part. I think my office mate is just claiming her half status out of heritage, as Lusa mentioned, not because it is what she believes in her heart.

She's quick to say "I'm half Jewish" and celebrate all the Jewish holidays, but she's celebrating Christmas, too - and believe me, I highly doubt it has anything to do with Jesus on her part.

 

[PaperClip]

I was waiting on you to get in here

I agree with your comments, esp. the bolded part. I think my office mate is just claiming her half status out of heritage, as Lusa mentioned, not because it is what she believes in her heart.

She's quick to say "I'm half Jewish" and celebrate all the Jewish holidays, but she's celebrating Christmas, too - and believe me, I highly doubt it has anything to do with Jesus on her part.

Oooh... looks like I misread.... My answer is probably more apropriate re. an answer on being "half-spiritual".... Sorry.

 

[YasmanSoBe]

Oooh... looks like I misread.... My answer is probably more apropriate re. an answer on being "half-spiritual".... Sorry.

No need to be sorry! I understand what you meant. I had to go pull out my Bible!

I find it odd and even a bit offensive when she says, "I'm half this."
To just give lip service and celebrate the traditions of a religion but not have faith bothers me. Does that make sense?

 

[StrawberryQueen]

The half Jewish refers to their ethnicity and not as much to the religion. Because Christianity does not have the genetic roots/differences that Jewish people do, no you cannot be half Christian in the same manner.

It's been studied and Jews have a genetic makeup that is different from other races. Maybe I'll look this up if it's that serious. So to participate in their "ethnic" traditions, many "half-Jews" partake in their religions ceremonies as well, because of the cultural value even if they do not pratice their religion. She may also be celebrating the Christian faith because she feels spiritually closer to it than Judaism.

You can have one parent who is Christian, and one who isn't but that does not equal 1/2 Christian 1/2 something else. I liken it more to a breakdown of a racial background and someone who may celebrate the holidays of one parent's culture and the other parents culture even though they were not born in said country and don't speak that language.

 

[Shimmie]

I was waiting on you to get in here

I agree with your comments, esp. the bolded part. I think my office mate is just claiming her half status out of heritage, as Lusa mentioned, not because it is what she believes in her heart.

She's quick to say "I'm half Jewish" and celebrate all the Jewish holidays, but she's celebrating Christmas, too - and believe me, I highly doubt it has anything to do with Jesus on her part.

Hey Darlin'...you had the answer all along. . Rehab really topped it with the right scripture, for there is no middle ground in being a Christian.

I was thinking about Christmas and Easter and going to mass at our neighborhood Catholic church. Before I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior, I used to believe that I was a Christian because my dad was Catholic and he and my mom were married in a Catholic church and because I was 'Christianed' as a baby in a Catholic service. Gee so much for me being a Christian. So I can understand how your co-worker may feel. But it's something how the Lord always knows how to capture our hearts with the truth about Him. He wooed me right on in.

I thank God for you YasmanSoBe. Have a wonderful Christmas holiday and all that comes with, during and after it. All of God's blessings and miracles.

 

[sbg4evr]

Being half Christian is like being a bit pregnant.

You are a Christian by your faith, you are not born into it, you choose it.

 

[Almaz]

Nope if her mother is Jewish then SHE is Jewish if she chooses to be a Christian well that it on her, but you cannot be both

 

[hurricane]

Nope if her mother is Jewish then SHE is Jewish if she chooses to be a Christian well that it on her, but you cannot be both

__________________________________________________________

Is this biblical. David was from the tribe of Judah and Bathsheba was a Hitite. Was King Solomon jewish or not?

 

[GV-NA-GI-TLV-GE-I]

__________________________________________________________

Is this biblical. David was from the tribe of Judah and Bathsheba was a Hitite. Was King Solomon jewish or not?

Hahahaha!!! And to think they give the children of Solomon and Makeda, a convert, hell on earth for being Black Jews! Ahahahahaha BTW, certainly! People are getting hung up on the spiritual implications of Jewish or christian. The issue is whether one can be ethnically 1/2 Jewish or christian...and the answer is a resounding....YES! It might not make you "halachically" christian or Jewish according to practice...but there is such a thing as heritage. Ruth wasn't Jewish. And her descendants? That would negate Jesus' Jewishness if you really looked at it. I don't see why the big deal about it anyway. There are ethnic Jews and christians...has nothing to do with practice and spiritual law. Gawd I hate these types of arguments.

 

[Nonie]

We're back to semantics.

What is a Jew? One definition is "a member of a race of people whose traditional religion is Judaism". Whether one is actively involved in the religion or not, it doesn't change the fact that they are Jewish.

Christian could mean different things depending on what point of view you have.

1. If you were born to a family whose religion was Christian and didn't really care one way or another, and may or may not have gone to Sunday school as a kid, and never converted to any other religion, then if you were asked what religion you belonged to, you would say Christian because that's the only religion you've ever been affiliated with.
   
   
2. Now if you are a believer in and follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, that by definition is what the English word "Christian" means at its simplest.
   
   
3. Then there are those who believe that a Christian is one who has confessed Jesus Christ and believed that God raised him from the dead and thus are "saved".
   
   
4. And then yet others will say that all of the above could apply but if you're not practicing the Word of God and living according to its teaching, ie bearing good fruit, then you do not qualify as a Christian.

So suppose one is not a practicing Jew or Christian but just happened to find themselves belonging to parents of either religion, if they said they were half Christian and half Jewish, they'd be right. Of course those who refuse to recognize all the other meanings of the word except 3 and 4, then would disagree with me, and they're entitled to their opinion.

 

[FlowerHair]

She probably celebrates both Christian and Jewish holidays...

 

[Almaz]

That is almost bi-polar to me if you believe in Jesus than you are a Christian. If you are Jewish then you don't pray to jesus. It is a choice. Ruth became a jew by choice

 

[Nonie]

That is almost bi-polar to me if you believe in Jesus than you are a Christian. If you are Jewish then you don't pray to jesus. It is a choice. Ruth became a jew by choice

A Jew (Hebrew: [FONT=&quot]יְהוּדִי[/FONT]‎, Yehudi (sg.); [FONT=&quot]יְהוּדִים[/FONT], Yehudim (pl.); Ladino: [FONT=&quot]ג׳ודיו[/FONT], Djudio (sg.); [FONT=&quot]ג׳ודיוס[/FONT], Djudios (pl.); Yiddish: [FONT=&quot]יִיד[/FONT], Yid (sg.); [FONT=&quot]יִידן[/FONT], Yidn (pl.))[3] is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation.[4][5][6] Converts to Judaism have been absorbed into the Jewish people throughout the millennia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jew)

​

So what if you're Jewish by heritage but practice Christianity instead of Judaism? To me the words are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

 

[GV-NA-GI-TLV-GE-I]

A Jew (Hebrew: [FONT=&quot]יְהוּדִי[/FONT]‎, Yehudi (sg.); [FONT=&quot]יְהוּדִים[/FONT], Yehudim (pl.); Ladino: [FONT=&quot]ג׳ודיו[/FONT], Djudio (sg.); [FONT=&quot]ג׳ודיוס[/FONT], Djudios (pl.); Yiddish: [FONT=&quot]יִיד[/FONT], Yid (sg.); [FONT=&quot]יִידן[/FONT], Yidn (pl.))[3] is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation.[4][5][6] Converts to Judaism have been absorbed into the Jewish people throughout the millennia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jew)

​

So what if you're Jewish by heritage but practice Christianity instead of Judaism? To me the words are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

I'd say the exact same applies to the christian. Conversion or halachic status aside, ethnic.

 

[Almaz]

Then you have forfieted being Jewish you are Chrisitan. Be whatever but dont' confuse what it is. If you are practising Christianity then you maybe be or have Jewish heritage or even be a halalchic Jew but you are still practising Christainity. If you are a Christian practising Judiasm without converting then you are a noahide. It kind of peeves me that people want to accept Christianity full but when it comes to Judaism you can be half and its okay. Just be a whole Christian.

 

[Nonie]

Then you have forfieted being Jewish you are Chrisitan. Be whatever but dont' confuse what it is. If you are practising Christianity then you maybe be or have Jewish heritage or even be a halalchic Jew but you are still practising Christainity. If you are a Christian practising Judiasm without converting then you are a noahide. It kind of peeves me that people want to accept Christianity full but when it comes to Judaism you can be half and its okay. Just be a whole Christian.

So are you saying that one cannot be Jewish and a Christian just the way one can be African and a Christian?

I don't know who said that when it comes to Judaism you can be half and it's OK (Your second to last sentence). I think if you practice Judaism, then you cannot practice Christianity. The religions are mutually exclusive. But being Jewish does not only exclusively imply that you who practice Judaism. Being Jewish could simply mean you do not practice Judaism (the religion) at all, but rather you were born into the Jewish heritage.

 

[dicapr]

Then you have forfieted being Jewish you are Chrisitan. Be whatever but dont' confuse what it is. If you are practising Christianity then you maybe be or have Jewish heritage or even be a halalchic Jew but you are still practising Christainity. If you are a Christian practising Judiasm without converting then you are a noahide. It kind of peeves me that people want to accept Christianity full but when it comes to Judaism you can be half and its okay. Just be a whole Christian.

I'm confused. I thought you could be ethnically Jewish, but not necesssarily practice the reliion-ie be Buddist but have two Jewish parents making you Jewish by heritiage but not religiously. Are you now saying that is incorrect?

 

[Almaz]

Okay you can be "ethically" Jewish but if you don't practise you faith then does not matter just be a buddist. Just don't go back and forth. I see people do this and it is very confusing to me. I grew up Orthodox and if you don't want to be Jewish fine. Isn't that the same as someone who grew up with Catholic Parents and decide to become a Baptist or a buddist. Now he is the twist about Jews being a religion or a race? Be whatever just don't bop back and forth especially when children are involved cause I have seen this happen and the children grow up Whacked sometimes cause they are confused.

I'm confused. I thought you could be ethnically Jewish, but not necesssarily practice the reliion-ie be Buddist but have two Jewish parents making you Jewish by heritiage but not religiously. Are you now saying that is incorrect?

 

[dicapr]

Okay you can be "ethically" Jewish but if you don't practise you faith then does not matter just be a buddist. Just don't go back and forth. I see people do this and it is very confusing to me. I grew up Orthodox and if you don't want to be Jewish fine. Isn't that the same as someone who grew up with Catholic Parents and decide to become a Baptist or a buddist. Now he is the twist about Jews being a religion or a race? Be whatever just don't bop back and forth especially when children are involved cause I have seen this happen and the children grow up Whacked sometimes cause they are confused.

Kinda. However, I know some families will still believe once a Catholic always a Catholic and believe that their children have just "strayed" rather than changed their belief system. Then there is the fact that Catholics and Baptists are still both Chrisitian, just worship and believe differently so one does not really change their faith just how they express it-if that makes any sense.

 

[Almaz]

Oh Jews are most welcomed back into the fold if they stray from the faith. I have seen many people who have strayed and came back to Judiasm.

 

[divya]

Good topic. I agree - one cannot be half of a religion.

Then you have forfieted being Jewish you are Chrisitan. Be whatever but dont' confuse what it is. If you are practising Christianity then you maybe be or have Jewish heritage or even be a halalchic Jew but you are still practising Christainity. If you are a Christian practising Judiasm without converting then you are a noahide. It kind of peeves me that people want to accept Christianity full but when it comes to Judaism you can be half and its okay. Just be a whole Christian.

Okay you can be "ethically" Jewish but if you don't practise you faith then does not matter just be a buddist. Just don't go back and forth. I see people do this and it is very confusing to me. I grew up Orthodox and if you don't want to be Jewish fine. Isn't that the same as someone who grew up with Catholic Parents and decide to become a Baptist or a buddist. Now he is the twist about Jews being a religion or a race? Be whatever just don't bop back and forth especially when children are involved cause I have seen this happen and the children grow up Whacked sometimes cause they are confused.

I understand where you are coming from. I knew one "Jewish" girl who didn't practice in any way, at least from what I saw. She worked every Sabbath and the only thing Jewish she spoke about was a Bar Mitzvah. But when "Passion of the Christ" came out, she was oh so Jewish. It was sort of surprising. One would never know that she truly valued being Jewish from the way she acted. Maybe she was only speaking about ethnicity because she surely didn't deal much with Judaism.

 

[Laela]

NO.

 

[blazingthru]

paul and peter were Jewish they remain jewish - but they practice the christian faith. Did they not confess often enough that they were jewish? I believe you are jewish but practice the christian faith. You will still remain jewish. I had thought of converting, but realize that once I accepted Christ i was grafted in anyway so AMEN. If I were her I would not say half of either. I would say whole of both. Christian is a walk. As I understood it. A walk in the newness of life. Not to say you are no longer what you are but you have a different outlook of it. Anyway this is my thoughts on it.