In Jews for Jesus we were taught to use trickery. We were not instructed to lie; instead, we were instructed to somehow be "up front," but not always give quite the whole truth. By doing this, we helped to make Jews for Jesus look more powerful.
Here's an example:
During Summer Witnessing Campaign in New York City, there were about twenty to twenty-five Campaigners. We were told by the Campaign Director that we needed to fool New York City into thinking there were many more than just our little group; that is, Jews for Jesus needed to give the appearance that there were hundreds of us spreading JFJ literature throughout the city.
In order to do that, we changed the color of the t-shirts we wore every other day. (I imagine there was a punishment for showing up wearing the wrong colored shirt, but I don't remember what it was. In fact, the shirts we wore were called "Colors.")
If someone asked how many of us there were, we were not supposed to give out that information. We were supposed to answer with, "Oh, yes, there is also a blue team," or with something similar. We were supposed to be vague.
Also, we were not supposed to give out our real names to people we met on the streets.
As a Christian, I found being taught to use tricks as I shared about Jesus very uncomfortable. Jesus taught about honesty and in order for me to do things the way Jews for Jesus wanted me to do them, I had to be deceptive. This just did not seem right, but I followed JFJ's guidelines.
In San Francisco, I observed discussions among the JFJ executives where discussions on ways to use trickery on an individual could be used for JFJ's advantage. Individuals could be "set-up" to be taught a lesson too. Once I was "set up" and being the scapegoat of one of JFJ's leadership's lessons was not a good experience.
Also, JFJ leadership did not always tell the whole truth and sometimes was not always consistent in the things told to me and others. The pattern of not being totally honest makes everyone who has ever worked with JFJ very suspicious of what trick JFJ may pull next.
http://www.exjewsforjesus.org/
8 comments:
Power and Control leading into Character AttacK. SoUnDs Link JFJ.
There are plenty of examples of Jews for Jesus exercising power over people.
For example, if someone was born "Jason" and while with Jews for Jesus they went by the name "Ya'akov" and then left JFJ, the Senior staff would make a point of always calling that person "Jason" when they saw them or talked about them negatively, instead of their prefered name: "Ya'akov"
It shows a lack of respect for people.
What does the above comment have to do with trickery in JFJ?
The trickery that JFJ used caused a culture of never trusting anyone associated with the organization.
Your best friend could be asked to spy on you or to help in humiliating you!
This feeling of never trusting anyone involved with JFJ causes even genuine acts of friendship to be looked at with some doubt.
I had a friend of mine approach me once. He told me that my branch supervisor had asked him to spy on me and report everything I did to the supervisor. My friend actually had more respect for me afterward becasue he saw all the work that I had to do in one day. I'm not sure what troubled me more -- the fact that my supervisor sent spys out after me, the fact that I was spied upon, or wondering what excuses the supervisor must have given to convince my friend to spy on me!
you make it sound like jfj was a suspicious group of people. if this rosen character was as bad as some of you say, he would have had cameras hooked up to videotape the employees (whether they worked with money or not), and would have had a tv set in his office so he could watch what was going on.
Well maybe Rosen didn't have cameras hooked up to watch us when we were on JFJ staff, but he did send spies to our
ex-jewsforjesus confidential list.
For the critic commenting about Rosen and spying, please view the related comment at this link:
http://exjewsforjesus.blogspot.com/2005/02/how-to-determine-if-group-is.html#comments
Jews for Jesus had a good friend spy on me. He was very upset at abuse stuff he saw in Jews for Jesus. He was a professional in another field, that they sucked into their net and convinced him they were "The only way to do Jewish evangelism."
He spent hours crying on my shoulders, over a period of years.
When things really began to get hot for me in Jews for Jesus, he offered his shoulder for me to cry on.
All the time, he shared everything I told him or wrote him with Moishe Rosen. Rosen had told him that the biggest sin of a Jews for Jesus missionary is "DISLOYALTY" to Jews for Jesus. Moishe had spent months and years sucking the guy in, which wasn't hard because the guy had idolized Rosen.
Everything I told the guy went from Rosen to Brickner (Brickner was executive director of Jews for Jesus at the time...still is).
They used what were private and confidential conversations and communications (yes the guy told me that everything we talked about would be confidential, just as I kept everything confidential when he was crying on my shoulder).
He was coached by Rosen the entire time. He told me that he lied to me and led me along, that he never intended to keep anything confidential. When I asked why he did that after being friends for so long, he said, "Because you broke the cardinal rule. You were disloyal to Jews for Jesus."
Then he had the Chutzpah to say, "I hope you understand. I'd still like to be friends. No hard feelings?"
That is what the world needs to know about Jews for Jesus. They need to know that Jews for Jesus leadership intentionally goes out of their way to set people up and hurt them.
These people act on Mafia principles.
They can not be trusted. They should not be paid for going to churches to speak. They should not be given money at all!
They are Satan incarnate, using a little bit of the Word if God in just the right amount to make it look like they are good, but all the time leading you down the road to hell!
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