Sally Interviews Dave About His Objections to 'Xians' Who Practice 'Crosstianity'

Photo by Wesley Tingey on Unsplash

For today’s Sunday spiritual podcast Sally asks Dave about particular forms of Christianity which he has rejected and now regularly critiques. Here’s the thoughtful Substack article at

Magen Yehudi

from gifted Jewish writer

Yisrael M. Eliashiv

which inspired the discussion:

Yoshke? Xian? Why not just write the full thing?

Here’s the meat of his point at the start of the article, which we read and discuss in the podcast:

In every piece I am writing and will publish in the future on Judaism's relationship with xianity, historical dissertations, refutation of missionary material, and so on, a pattern emerges: I never write the full name of the religion I am discussing or the name of the man worshipped by its followers. It can come as puzzling or even insulting to readers. It's not the intention. Please, let me explain:

In Judaism, we are forbidden to write or pronounce the name of idols. To be blunt, the worship of Yoshke constitutes idol worship in the eyes of Judaism, at least for Jews. I know and understand that the typical xian answer to this is, 'Of course not! We are monotheists; in fact, we believe in the same one you do!' The thing is, it's true from your perspective but not ours. Remember that you yourself protest the very same way we do when Muslims claim that you worship the same one they do!