DiscussMormonism.com

In the kitchen stands Joanna Brooks, an accidental, unofficial and admittedly unauthorized source for all things Mormon. She’s making “funeral potatoes,” a classic Mormon casserole, and heaped on the counter are the ingredients: a not-so-healthy dose of cheese, butter, sour cream, hash browns and chicken soup. Her Jewish husband strolls by, takes a look at what’s cooking, and grimaces. Bespectacled and freckled 6-year-old Rosa, standing atop a chair, proudly announces, “I’m Jewish and Mormon!”

SAUCE


Sorry little girl, but your parents are only confusing you. It's an either/or proposition, you can't be both.


Thoughts?

Think of all the children who have faced this ambiguity concerning Certs. Surely Certs cannot be both a candy mint and a breath mint. Eventually these children grow up and turn to Prozac as their answer to this confounding mystery.

Funeral potatoes should be non kosher. Yuck.

MrStakhanovite wrote: It's an either/or proposition, you can't be both.

Thoughts?

I am not very confident about saying what people can or cannot be in the religious sphere. So like some others I tend to accept their self-identification - as, for instance, that Mormons are Christians.

Some Jews were the first Christians, and there are even some people today who inform us emphatically that they are Christian Jews. Since I can't think of any basis for telling them they just aren't allowed to think of themselves that way (what authority would I have?), I am inclined not to object.

So if someone wants to say they are a Jewish Mormon, then although that is clearly an unusual kind of Mormon, as well as an unusual Jew, what is the problem?

Chap wrote:So if someone wants to say they are a Jewish Mormon, then although that is clearly an unusual kind of Mormon, as well as an unusual Jew, what is the problem?

Because being Mormon and being Jewish are mutually exclusive. Anyone identifying as a Mormon could not celebrate Yom Kippur in the way the Jewish community does, because the theology and religious ideas behind the day of atonement runs counter to Mormon beliefs.

If you strip most if not all meaningful content behind what it means to be part of a religious community, you begin to make the labels of “Mormon” or “Jewish” so trivial that it can almost apply to anyone.

Just like being Catholic and Mormon are mutually exclusive. THAT could make for major confusion. Comparing the Deuterocanon and the Book of Mormon is only a beginning.

At one time I claimed to be Jewish. blush

MrStakhanovite wrote:

Chap wrote:So if someone wants to say they are a Jewish Mormon, then although that is clearly an unusual kind of Mormon, as well as an unusual Jew, what is the problem?

Because being Mormon and being Jewish are mutually exclusive. Anyone identifying as a Mormon could not celebrate Yom Kippur in the way the Jewish community does, because the theology and religious ideas behind the day of atonement runs counter to Mormon beliefs.

If you strip most if not all meaningful content behind what it means to be part of a religious community, you begin to make the labels of “Mormon” or “Jewish” so trivial that it can almost apply to anyone.

Oh, I agree that most self-identifying Jewish communities would not regard a person who said they were a Jewish Mormon as a member of their community. I am not however happy about taking on myself the role of someone entitled to say who is Jewish (or Mormon for that matter) or not.

By the way, I have close personal relationships with more than one Jew who would smile at the idea of observing Yom Kippur. Their forbears, who mostly thought the same way, were still Jewish enough for Hitler to want to kill them. So I don't think find your 'Yom Kippur' test attractive.

Your mileage may however differ.

I've cumulatively spent many months in Israel, spending much time with Israelis and seeing the sights all over Israel.

I can say with much confidence that a person can, indeed, be Mormon and Jewish simultaneously.

The fact is that the adjective "Jewish" is not reserved solely to describe one's theology.

One can be considered Jewish based solely on your maternal ancestry, and not one bit about what you believe. One can be Jewish because of the culture in which you were raised, without necessitating that you subscribe to any given belief system.

If Benjamin Netenyahu were to convert to Mormonism, he would certainly be correct in saying "I am Jewish and I am a Mormon"

Of course, the fact that he can does not imply that he should...

Some people are more prone to cultural self-identification than religious self-identification.

beefcalf wrote:One can be considered Jewish based solely on your maternal ancestry, and not one bit about what you believe. One can be Jewish because of the culture in which you were raised, without necessitating that you subscribe to any given belief system.

That is a bit misleading, just because a secular Jewish person has a maternal link doesn’t ipso facto make them an active person in a community, even at a Reform congregation, they’d still have to go through an official process that isn’t far from a converts.