Difficult As It Is for Hard-Core Jesus-Landers to Accept...

there really are people in this world, the humble Mazeppist among them, who love Jesus too much to ever accept being mistaken for a Christian.

When my dental-hygienist here in Jesus-Land wants to tell me about the many, subtle ways that God has blessed her in her life, I am thankful that her fingers are in my mouth so that all I can do is grunt and nod.

Not that I doubt for one moment that God has indeed blessed her in many subtle ways; I do not question such an assertion. What I question is why she feels compelled to share such things with me while she is scraping the plaque from my teeth.

No doubt she feels that "God" has moved her to "witness" to me. But I just think that such behavior reflects a lack of cultural sensitivity at best (and, my God, we share the same culture, at least in theory); at worst, it is an exhibition of her ego-driven desire to tell me that she has something that I need. She "has" Jesus in a way that I don't "have" Jesus.

I truly doubt that she could ever appreciate the fact that I not only "lack" Jesus in the way that she "has" him, but I thank God that I lack Jesus in such a way.

I have no desire to make Jesus my personal savior, my private deity. I have too much love and respect for the man I meet in the Gospels (canonical and otherwise) and in the Qur'an to ever wish to appropriate his memory in such a fashion.

It was through my love for Rabbi Jesus that I was able to find my way out of Christianity and the Christ-idolatry it tragically entails. May I never so dishonor my Rabbi as to worship him as a god.