If I could speak with Abby Stein

Abby Stein was born Yisroel Stein in New York City. She was a boy her first twenty years of her ultra-Orthodox Jewish life living among the Haredi community of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. She will be visiting Australia and speaking at the Jewish LGBT+ World Conference to be held in Sydney from 21-24 March next week. I would like to sit with her. I would like to hear more of her story. I would like to share with her some of my journey as well. If I could speak with her, here are some of the topics which might come up.

I like your perspective on tolerance and celebration. You are quoted in the Australian Jewish News (15 March 2019, page 11) "My motto over the past year has been about moving from tolerance to celebration... I think tolerance is great when it comes to dairy. Lactose intolerant, that's what tolerance is for. But tolerance is not for people; people you celebrate!" I've never liked using tolerance in how we relate to one another. Sometimes we tolerate misbehaving children when they visit our house, but we would never tolerate their parents behaving in the same out-of-bounds manner. Tolerance needs to be replaced with acceptance, and in that, Abby we agree!

Your Wikipedia page calls you an activist. The AJN calls you an activist. I think anyone who knows you, and you are only 27-years-old would certainly agree with that nomenclature. You are active and trying to bring your representation of trans into a black and white world where transgender behavior is out-of-bounds. Certainly, the Haredim of Williamsburg would have no time for you. And the pain you describe concerning your own father is palpable. I feel sorrow for you and for him. When I was 19, back in the US, I came to believe something different than my Orthodox father, and he told me to exit the house. And I did, never to live there again. We did return to civility in the years that followed, but he would drop the trump card of un-welcome and disowning me again and again. So I know your pain. And I wish the pain would ease. One day it might for you. I'll hope so.

You had a baby with your arranged wife, from whom you have now been divorced since 2013. I wonder if you still see David. And I wonder what his perspective on life and LGBT+ and on Judaism is. Of course, he's not even 10 yet, so he has plenty of time to develop and grow as a little boy, then as a man. The world in which you grew up is not his world, and that's probably ok with both you and Fraidy Horowitz. What happened to her? Is she understood in the Haredi community? Shunning can be painful for the shunned, but what about others who have no reason to be shunned. I hope she is doing well in life, today.

Gender fluidity is the rage in these days, and whether you are dating a man or a woman (the article wasn't clear) or your voice will ever catch up to your new female appearance, your sense of belonging seems to be a major factor that drives you. Maybe I'm wrong, but you belong to a new community with all those initials L,G,B,T,Q, and more! The media has certainly given you a wide berth and lots of air time to express your views on a wide range of topics. And you are articulate in expressing those views. What will happen if you amend your views again, say in 3 years? I'm not even hinting that you might, but what I'm saying is that your manner of life was strict in your youth, you became an ordained rabbi at 20, maintained Jewish life and practice devotedly, even siring a baby with Fraidy. And now your views are changed. What will happen if they change again? Will your new community allow that? In other words, what would happen if you and others "off the derech" find a new derech? What if you take on board a more traditional Jewish view about marriage or about gender? I'm imagining your becoming a believer in Yeshua, like so many of us have, and finding a new community of faith. What would happen to you then? Just wondering.

Finally, I hope you have some good read of great scholars of our people like Amy-Jill Levine of Nashville (originally NYC: die-hard Yankee fan) in her book The Misunderstood Jew. You may find in A-J's writings about Yeshua, about whom she writes with great sympathy (albeit not with personal faith), a man who swam upstream like you are doing. And maybe in the person of Yeshua, you will find a deep personal connection. He certainly had his own people upset at him. He was often misunderstood. He took it on the chin, and brow, and hands and feet and in his kishkes, and he had deep sorrow for our people. If we meet up next week (my book shop is in Bondi Junction), I'll give you a copy of A-J's book. And we can have a cup of coffee. I'd like that. Maybe you will also.

Shabbat shalom.

Censorship (Michael Jackson, Amazon, Michael Brown, Professor Catherine Strong)

The documentary "Leaving Neverland" went live this week and the reaction online and in the radio stations went ballistic.  The ABC in Australia's comments are here. In this report, they cite the bias of the director/ producers in that none of the Jackson estate is represented. The report reminds us that one of the two accusers had a very different story to tell under oath not long ago. And the report shows the kickback of many of Jackson's faithful via social media. No surprise there.

Australian Damien Shields, the author of a book about Jackson's artistic process and a longtime fan who has come out against the documentary, said the MJ supporters felt motivated to protect the star's legacy.

"I've heard a lot of people say that the Michael Jackson fans are biased, and they don't see anything other than Michael is not guilty, and that they don't raise any points other than all the things that they believe exonerate him. And that's true," he said.  "But the reason we are in a position where that is necessary is because the other platforms that are telling this story are not telling that side of the story." (from the ABC article)

It's happening in New Zealand and up in Canada, "Michael Jackson isn't currently on any MediaWorks (NZ) Radio stations' playlists," Leon Wratt, the company's director for radio, said in a statement to the CNN.  "This is a reflection of our audiences and their preferences—it is our job to ensure our radio stations are playing the music people want to hear." “We [MediaWorks] aren’t deciding whether Michael Jackson is guilty of paedophilia, we’re just making sure our radio stations are going to play the music people want to hear.” In Canada, three major Montreal-based radio stations have also stopped playing Jackson's music. Even the Simpsons have pulled their Michael Jackson episode. Wow.

Michael L Brown is a trend-watcher, an honest critic of the press and a Ph.D. from New York University. His latest blog on censorship is here. He starts his commentary with "With the news last week that Amazon has banned Mohammed’s Koran: Why Muslims Kill for Islam, co-authored by British activist Tommy Robinson and Peter McLoughlin, Amazon has crossed a very dangerous and precarious line."

After Brown demonstrates the books one can buy on Amazon including some pretty horrible books for terrorists and anti-Semitic drivel, he wonders what is next. The issue for Amazon is clear. Brown says, "By banning this book, Amazon is opening up one of two possibilities: Either Amazon will not be consistent, thereby demonstrating extreme hypocrisy. Or Amazon will start banning many other books, leading to a very dangerous precedent. Which books and authors will be next? And what can conservative, Bible believers expect? Perhaps our books opposing LGBT activism or exposing the evils of abortion will be next?"

Censorship is the issue. I listened to a radio interview yesterday on International Women’s Day here on the ABC radio in Sydney. Catherine Strong, a professor from RMIT ( @hellharpy) was answering the question of censorship. She had written on the Jackson topic the day before. Her article in The Conversation is here.   She raised excellent thought questions, like, “More importantly, however, is the question of what happens to the stories of the victims. If we stop listening to Michael Jackson, does that simply allow us to avoid something uncomfortable, to not have to think about those little boys and what they allege happened to them?” She likens banning the music to “have put a tiny band-aid over a gaping wound.”

Let’s talk about morals; let’s talk about representatives. Let’s be honest about banning things which are ruinous to society if we can even do that in a free marketplace of ideas world.  But silence and silencing is not the answer. Is it?

I liked the placard in the Jackson piece. "Seek truth; think for yourself" I find so many of my Jewish people are keen underdog supporters. I find we have an innate concern to seek the truth and to follow that, no matter what others think. We are raised to think for ourselves. (Of course, within certain boundaries, of course) Maybe that's why I'm ever attuned to such matters as these. Many rabbis would have banned the Newer Testament (the story of Yeshua) to me when I was a lad. Censorship is not really the way to deal with things. It's best to allow people to read for themselves, to discuss, and then make up their own minds.  Think about this... have you ever read the story of Jesus? Honestly?

I'd be disappointed if every Kevin Spacey movie or "House of Cards" episode or Bill Cosby sitcom or repeats of "Billie Jean" were removed from our annals. Should we never visit a gallery and see a Toulouse Lautrec painting? Was what Mozart did in his mad-cap, out-of-bounds, libido-crazed life evidence we should turn off the radio when "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" is played? Who makes those decisions for us?

Think for yourself. 

Colleagues in ministry

Last month we conducted a colloquium, and this month began as many of our colleagues in ministry returned to their homes after a conference in which we participated in suburban Melbourne. At each, I was blessed to be part of something bigger, knowing full well that the work we conduct in the harvest fields of the Lord is but a sampler of so much of what He is doing to accomplish His plan. But at each of these gatherings, one for a single day, and the other over several days, I was challenged and informed of that once again.

The picture of the jigsaw puzzle reminds me, that is, it puts into my mind once again, that a part may well represent the whole, but it is NOT the entire whole. That one puzzle piece on the left when held in my hand is the representative. If I hold it up and have a look of curiosity on my face, you might think, "Bob needs to find his place" or "Bob is trying to finish something of a puzzle" or "Bob stole a puzzle piece off Larry's card table and is being cheeky." Whatever your conclusion, it's clear that synecdoche is in play.

Synecdoche is the figure or trope in which a part is used to represent the whole. Like 'cutthroat' for 'assassin' or "threads" for 'clothing' or "wheels" for "automobiles." This puzzle piece represents the whole, and thus is a synecdoche.

Now, grammar lesson aside, what prompts this consideration today is that my work is part of the whole. And when people at Keysborough last weekend or Rowville this weekend, or in Houston at the beginning of next month or... wherever I travel... when they say to me, "I love your work--" what they mean is they love the whole puzzle, that is, the work (and the workers) who are participating in the work of Jewish evangelism. They are commending the work of God, all the work and all the ministry, of all the workers in Jewish evangelism. Wow, that's a significant amount of folks, in a wide swath of territory from Geraldton in Western Australia to Sydney to Israel and London, from San Francisco to Johannesburg and Essen and Berlin. From 187th Street to Wall Street in NYC. And it's not only geographical. It's from Jews for Jesus to Celebrate Messiah, from Chosen People to Friends of Israel, from the HIT network (Hosting Israeli Travelers) to Awake to Israel, and every messianic congregation worldwide.

Sometimes workers in a particular field, like Jewish evangelism or marriage strengthening or pastoral homiletic development or campus "ministry" battle with one another. They hear about another similar work and about someone commending it. All of a sudden they become territorial. I remember at the university which I attended and where I was part of a ministry team back in the 1970s. Our campus ministry was significant and to this day continues under a new name. One of the wrong behaviors I remember and about which I'm embarrassed concerned other ministries. We called one of them "The Ohio House" although I don't think they ever titled themselves as such. Our work was similar to theirs on many levels. We both had Bible classes. We each had the university as our major focus. We both believed in Jesus as the only Savior and hope for the world. Theologically and at times sociologically we were indistinguishable. But they were 'the competition' and thus when I heard about what they did, I had difficulty in celebrating their successes. Shame, I know, but it's in part true.

I guess that's what made this collegiality I experienced the last week, and last month so pleasant. Under the rubric of the Lausanne Movement and specifically one of the 36 subgroups, the Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism,  the conference this week highlighted to me the beauty of real fellowship and real support. To outsiders, there is probably competition among us, but when it's only us, it was a great feeling. We started each morning in public prayer together and it's almost impossible to badmouth or compete with someone with whom you pray.

Synecdoche is the word today.
And prayer.
And this Scripture: Romans 12:15: "Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep."
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If you want to see photos from either the colloquium or the LCJE conference they are here:
Colloquium:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/bobmendo/albums/72157689572066053
LCJE:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/bobmendo/albums/72157689987616123