Resolution on Missionaries and Deprogramming

Cultic Studies Journal, Volume 2, Number 2, 1985, pages 286-287

Resolution on Missionaries and Deprogramming

Department of Interreligious Affairs

United American Hebrew Congregations

While the right to proselytize in our society is protected by constitutional guarantees of religious liberty, we are concerned, nonetheless, by the current intensification of missionary activity directed towards Jews in many parts of this country. Those guarantees neither legitimize nor justify tactics which some missionary groups and cults use when directing their efforts towards Jews: coercion, misrepresentation of the meaning of religious symbols, abuse of religious rites and practices. This deception and manipulation often violates the civil rights of those members who are its victims. Membership in some cults is frequently sustained by tactics of physical and emotional coercion which represent a violation of civil liberties; specifically, freedom of choice and freedom of religion.

We are also concerned with the false assertion that it is possible for Jews, without leaving Judaism, to accept a basic principle of Christianity or cults, that Jesus or any designated leader of a cult is the Messiah. 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 same time. Judaism further rejects any suggestion that one is “fulfilled” as a Jew by becoming a believer in or follower of Jesus Christ or any designated leader of a cult. To teach otherwise is to teach false doctrine, to misrepresent Jewish belief and to distort Jewish teaching. Such misrepresentations and abuses are offensive. They should be exposed and vigorously opposed. We 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. We applaud their condemnation of such unacceptable practices. They realize, as do we, that the danger of these groups is not so much that they will convert Jews, as that such approaches stigmatize all Christianity and jeopardize legitimate interreligious communication and efforts.

We further oppose the practice of those cults that use deceit, fear, Satanism and the distortion of our Bible in their attempt to lure youngsters from their family and their faith. We find particularly abhorrent the assertion that the 6,000,000 Jews who died in the Holocaust were paying indemnity for having killed Jesus. Such “teachings” are outrageous and intolerable. We commend those Jews and Christians who have brought to public attention the dangers and the deceits in such groups.

We affirm the right to use legal deprogramming efforts. We fully understand the motivations of and empathize with Jewish families who may have lost a child to a missionary movement or to a cult, but we cannot affirm the right of the use of illegal deprogramming efforts which use illegal coercive measures, even when they are designated to return an offspring to the family faith.

The book of Proverbs teaches, “Train up a child in the way he should go and even when he is old he will not depart front it.” (PR. 22:16) It is an admonition worth our serious effort.

We recommend that our Movement:

1. Sponsor education programs for youth and adults on comparative religion with specific attention to the historical period at the beginning of the Common Era and to the development of such religious ideas as the meaning of Messiah and messianism in Judaism which distinguish Judaism from Christianity.

2. Develop programs and materials which would enable Jews to respond to missionary pressures.

3. Disseminate information to our youth and adults concerning the approaches used by missionary and cult groups and suggest techniques to deal with them.

4. Oppose rescue efforts that illegally use force, violence, or restraint.

5. We further urge the proper agencies of government to investigate alleged violations of civil liberties and rights of victim of religious cults.

6. Consult with and take advantage of the resources of the UAHC’s Department of Interreligious Affairs.

7. Work locally and nationally with others both in the Jewish and Christian communities who are concerned with missions to the Jews and with the implications of these efforts on Christian beliefs and practices and on interreligious relations in this country.

8. Work locally and nationally with individuals and groups concerned with activities of cults. Join in an effort to remove the influence of such groups from within our communities.

* This Resolution was adopted by the United American Hebrew Congregations on November 21, 1977.