Now do you love me? Do you love me in a future in which Jesus doesn’t come, and you continue to hold on to your faith, and I to mine?
Or, at least, can you keep the narrative about my seeing your light to yourselves?
That’s we’re really asking. As far as Orthodox Jews are concerned, Evangelical Christians are to be envied with their serious approach to God and to the Scriptures. We like very much your acts of charity, we admire your political stubbornness – even if we disagree, and we do, about abortion being murder. It’s still heart warming to see religious people willing to give up a lot, for the most part in non-violent ways, to abide by their faith.
There’s so much over which we could collaborate. I’d like us to establish together banks without usury. Religious humane societies to protect animals from cruel treatment, humans from insane government food policies, citizens from a political system gone cynical and vicious. Of all the gentiles in the world, I’d rather work together with you than anyone else.
But you must keep your missionary urges to yourselves. You can even lie to me and say you don’t have them – I’ll accept it. I’ll lie to you in return and say that my tradition says your teachings have value. We can co-exist this way for generations, bettering our societies and contributing good to the world.
Just do something about your impulse to convert me.