Welcome to the second installment of a look behind the curtain of my life. If you're confused by the terms used here, you can check out the first installment of the Internal Culture Wars to get caught up.

Today we are going to be dealing with the two major factions within the Hebrew Roots Movement: the Wanna-be Jews (WBJs) and the Too-Weird-to-be-Christian Christians (TWCs).

I first encountered these two factions about 15-16 years ago when I was under the impression that the Hebrew Roots (generally referred to as the Movement) was a little more homogenous than it really was.

My family and I had been attending a handful of religious gatherings which had been put on by a number of people who had also come out of the World Wide Church of God. There was familiarity there, and things were run pretty well.

But then the leadership of the group began to lean heavily in the WBJ camp, with many of the speakers and the general culture reflecting this shift.

It was around this point that the Movement had its first major split from my perspective. The lines were clearly drawn and the gatherings dropped to a third of what they were in total population.

The reigns were handed off to someone else as the main leader took a step back to recuperate from running an event with hundreds of people attending.

This new leader was more on the TWC side of things if not the Proto-cult side. But that's a story for another day.

Let's look at some of the major problems of both of these sides and how they impact the Movement.

WBJs

The WBJs are, in my mind, one of the first problems that anyone in the Movement encounters. This is because of the faction's adoption of traditional Orthodox Jewish practices.

This is mostly related to things like Talmudic traditions than any reference to the Law of Moses.

Now the Bible, especially the New Testament, warns against the "Traditions of the Elders" and "Jewish Fables" leading people away from Christ and the Old Testament Law. Many modern Christians confuse the Traditions with the Law Moses resulting in many Christians thinking that anyone who does the Law of Moses is trying to earn their salvation.

It's mostly because of the behavior of the WBJs that lend credence to this position.

There's a wide spectrum of WBJs, but we'll mostly deal with the ones who are borderline with becoming Orthodox Jews. This is the area with the most contention.

One of my good family friends was in this part for a long time and he was insufferable until he became an Orthodox Jew. This pattern I've seen multiple times, but then never hear about after those individuals ostracize themselves from the Movement.

It's in that transitional phase that many of the problems of the WBJs occurs. Orthodox Judaism and Modern Christianity recognize that the Jewish Traditions are for the Jews only. My family friend stopped trying to get us to practice them once he converted because he realized that we were Jews according to the Orthodox.

We fell outside of that ruleset and so we were not judged by my friend for not following those rules. However those in the transitional phase don't recognize this distinction, and instead think that everyone needs to do the traditional Jewish practices.

This means eating in a traditional Kosher way, which is more than just not eating pork and shellfish but in the actual process of preparing food, and dressing in more formal Jewish attire while using many of the weirder Talmudic commands.

Not using a light switch on the sabbath, putting your shoes on a certain way, and saying the traditional prayers all become extremely important. In addition to this there begins an almost fanatic regard for the Rabbis.

This is not surprising, because Talmudic practices are built to inflate the Rabbi's position and they are the ultimate authority within Orthodox Judaism.

This essentially replaces Christ and God with a conglomerate of men, both living and dead. And whenever situations like this occur we get a lot of problems.

The biggest problem with a lot of WBJs or borderline WBJs is an emphasis on the outward holiness of an individual. They will dress is very strange outfits, sometimes to the extend that they look like they just walked out of the Middle East some 600 years ago.

Many of the individuals I've encountered who behave this way are very mean spirited. They are harsh and will tear someone a new one if they deem that individual's actions are interfering with their traditional practices.

Unlike the Orthodox who do not care what people do outside of their domains, WBJs will think of everything as being part of the Orthodox domain.

This means everyone needs to be forced into complying or at least the look of complying with these practices. all the while they are being ignored by most of the Rabbis because they are not actively trying to become converts.

It's like the worst aspect of a fan group. People thinking that just because they follow a set of individuals that it means they have a personal connection and relationship with them.

These individuals are offset by the next major faction, the TWCs.

TWCs

The TWCs are the antithesis of the WBJs, which is why I pair them together so often. The next major faction within the Movement is closer to traditional Christianity than anything.

I know several individuals who I would classify as TWCs who are part of their local Christian church councils but are not considered "part of the church" because of their beliefs in the Law of Moses and Christ.

TWCs can easily blend in with any Christian Church and hold many of the same ideals. Because of this they have their own problems when compared to WBJs.

My personal view of Christianity is that while there are many well meaning and good hearted people in the Church, they are being ill-equipped to actually deal with the world.

It's like reading the titles of books and expecting to know everything about the book. They lack an understandable structure.

This means a lot of individuals in the church just kind of float around with some general guidelines but very little in the ways of practical application. TWCs are similar in this regard.

If we portray WBJs as hyper focused on the rules and legalistic, then TWCs are the opposite. Their structure is lacking and they figure it out as they go. While this can be beneficial it poses a problem when we deal with things of God.

God was very particular in the Bible with how He was worshiped and how is followers were to behave. With TWCs and Christians a lot of this source material is forgotten. But then a lot of the Movement doesn't seem to read the bible anymore.

The overall preference is to listen to someone else who read the Bible and has some ideas. This is not limited to the Movement or religion but in out context this is a significant problem.

This lack of understanding of the source material results in just about everything being fair game. It also leads to a very problem set of circular reasonings involving the necessity of Christ.

TWCs tend to hyper focus on one aspect of God, instead of the whole in-depth character of God. Usually this is the aspect of Love. But this Love aspect is not tempered by anything. It's the World's Love. A love that says you have to accept everything or you don't love that individual or group.

But God's Love is tempered with care and pragmatism. It helps us to try and improve ourselves and combat evil and immorality.

If we are going to do any of that with success we need a strong foundation and strong structures built on that. TWCs tend to lean towards not having those structures.

Those who are part of the TWCs who have success generally already had structures in place to make it possible. If someone comes in without those structures, they are at a significant disadvantage to be effective.

The followers of Christ are often portrayed as being a human body. And just like the human body, if there are no supports we fall apart with ease.

The Law of Moses and the Bible provide those structures and examples we need in order to grow and combat those things we have to face in our lives.

Conclusion

Most of the problems from these groups come from the extremes that they take. One has too much structure, the other has too little.

A balance should be struck between the two that allows people to be able to deal with the world around but not be upset when others do not follow rules they did not agree to follow.

This comes down to each individual being responsible for their faith, rather than someone else being responsible for it.

Think about it.

Sincerely,

The Irreverent Gentleman

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