An educational campaign calling for effective and legal measures to counter the tactics used by certain missionary cults was overwhelmingly approved at the 54th biennial General Assembly of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC). Some 3500 delegates met here last week for the five-day conference.
The program, which reinforces the existing UAHC interreligious department program dealing with missionary cults, is a response to “the coercion, misrepresentation of the meaning of religious symbols and abuse of religious rites and practices used by some missionary groups,” it was stated in the resolution dealing with this problem. While UAHC does not object to legal deprogramming efforts, the resolution said, it deplores “all forms of illegal deprogramming or other illegal coercive measures even when they are designed to return an offspring to the family faith.”
The UAHC decision recognizes that “the right to proselytize in our society is protected by constitutional guarantees of religious liberty, but that these guarantees neither legitimize or justify tactics that some missionary groups use when directing their efforts towards Jews.
“We are also concerned,” said Rabbi Balfour Brickner, an author of the resolution, “with the false assertion that it is possible for Jews, without leaving Judaism, to accept a basic principle of Christianity, that Jesus is the Messiah.” He explained, “Judaism rejects the theological belief that Jesus was the Christ–the Messiah. Since one cannot be a Christian without subscribing to that notion in some form, it follows that one cannot be both a Christian and a believing Jew at the some time.”
The resolution went on to “commend the efforts of those in the Christian community who have demonstrated their sensitivity to this problem by refusing to endorse or cooperate with ‘missions to the Jews’ which engage in these practices.”
The resolution called on congregations to “sponsor education programs for youths and adults on comparative religion, to develop techniques and materials which would enable Jews to respond to missionary approaches,” and to work with others who see missions to the Jews as a threat to interreligious relations in this country.
The resolution added: “We further urge the proper agencies of government to investigate violations of civil liberties and rights of victims of religious cults.”
SOUGHT TO AVOID MENTION OF RESOLUTION 242
Meanwhile, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency learned today that Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher, who provided the first detailed response of the Carter Administration to Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s visit to Jerusalem, did not originally intend to mention in his speech at the conference last Tuesday that the United States adheres to the view that the basis for negotiations must be United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338.
According to an authoritative source, Christopher was persuaded to insert that reference after a number of UAHC leaders, who read the original text, explained that the omission would create misgivings and anxiety among the delegates.
The source also noted that Christopher’s heavy emphasis on the participation of the Palestinians and the Soviet Union in the peace discussions at Geneva represented “the Brzezinski line. I can guarantee you that.” Christopher stated, at one point in his speech: “Just as we cannot avoid the reality of Soviet interest and participation, we cannot avoid the Palestinian question–not if we want a real chance for peace.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
