Article Discussion: How to Talk to Your Kids about Jesus

Jewish parents, rabbis and teachers need to be very careful (much more careful than they realize) about how they talk about Jesus. Because unless you live in a predominantly Jewish community (most people in America do not) Jewish children will be exposed to Jesus and Christianity when they grow up--even if raised exclusively Jewishly. In other words, you may be able to keep Jesus out of your Jewish home, but once your children are on their own chances are pretty good they are going to meet "Jesus." It is critical that what they've been taught does not contradict what they experience when they encounter real Christians in the real world. Or the carefully chosen words used because "we're afraid that we'll lose our kids to Christianity" may actually destroy the credibility of parents and rabbis.

Our daughter's Jewish boyfriend knew we meant it when we said we loved him not in spite of his Judaism but because of it. He seemed completely confused to be so warmly embraced by Christians. The Christianity we live in no way resembled the Christianity he had been taught about in Confirmation and Post-Confirmation classes with his rabbi.

For instance, his rabbi must have quoted Rabbi Wolpe to define the difference between Christians and Jews. "The difference is that Jews believe that when the Messiah comes the world will be different. We believe that if the Messiah had come, the world wouldn't be as messed up as it in fact is. That is the central difference." But the problem is that when you say something like this the implication is that the 2+ billion people in the world who believe the world did change after Jesus and that He will come again are either ignorant or just plain wrong. Such a statement leaves very little room for respectful differences of opinion and/or belief.

As a Christian, I find Cohen's approach to leave much more room for mutual respect despite our differences, "just as some Jews use the phrase HaShem for God's name, Christians use the name Jesus for God...for Christians, God came in a human form and had a name, but...this is not a Jewish belief."

"I am loath to say one religion is superior to the other," Cohen adds. "I do say that Christianity needs to be respected, but it is not our belief. It gets tricky when my daughters want to know which one is right. I say that one is right for Christians and one is right for us."

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