I take a new tack in Part 2. I prefer to call it “The Controversies” because although it is not what we expect, what most experienced Noahides are acquainted with are a few controversy’s in our lives.  A newer Noahide soon will be faced with any number of them. There may be some other way to classify these problems but I think this is a good way to organize the controversies:

1. Personal Controversies
2. Spouse, family and friend objections
3. Private objections
4. Religious leader objections
5. Public Controversies
6. Intra-faith objections
7. Inter-Faith objections
8. Societal objections

Personal Controversies

A religious leader like a Reverend, Priest or Minister may object to the “heresy” of your new faith, as if it were a cult. A book could be written on this subject or any of the “controversies” for that matter.

Your own account may include things like, “Isn’t Jesus my personal savior” and then “If not, how then do I obtain personal salvation?”. These ideas are very difficult to get a handle on and may lead to an irrvesable loss of confidence and thus a move away from being Noahide and all that it means.

If you have a spouse or significant other and you take on the task of introducing them to the Noahide faith, you may face intense controversy and many objections. Needless to say, but I’ll put it out there, your personal  “Noahides Journey” will be less a rocky road if you and your spouse or significant other are in agreement about your new path from the “gitgo” and that’s Texan meaning, “from the beginning”. In the end, a family member or friend’s objections may differ only in degree in difficulty of explanation.

Perhaps you have a steely constitution or consider yourself accountable to no one but HaShem. Then there are no “controversies”, but that is rare indeed.

Public Controversies

Societal objections the least of our problems but may include the notion of when different holidays and festivals present themselves or how they are conducted and the interaction with society in general.

The controversies between faiths (inter-faith) may consider questions like are “Rabbis’ evil or good”? or “are Jews really chosen by G-d and isn’t that arrogant of them?” These considerations are more like a cheval-de-frise (military barbed-wire fence) than any other difficult impediment for Noahides. In time and with knowledge obtained from the Rabbis’ and other sources, a Noahide will overcome these kinds of objections.

So now we come to the great “buggabo”, that is Texan meaning “big scary controversy”, and that would be the crux of how Noahides relate to one another (intra-faith).You would think that once the personal controversies were handled that all would be smooth sailing. Not so much.

I consider intra-faith, a public controversy because it’s out there on the internet “sometimes” and the Noahide gossip circuit “always” and these public squabbles usually involve many people with polar concepts on many Noahide issues. So, batten down the hatch! Let us list the common misconceptions of how Noahides relate to one another:

1. Noahides all believe the same thing.
2. Noahides all pull in the same direction.
3. Noahides all have the same agenda.
4. Noahides all speak with one and the same voice.
5. Noahides do not engage in “lashon hara” (to gossip and backstab one another with words).

At one time I actually believed all of the above statements to be true. Today I know that each and every statement is--so not true-- and each carries a unique “controversy”.  However there is hope!

We are all monotheist, we have a common book of reference called the Torah and we have a common ancestor, Noah. We do, as a group, call ourselves Noahides and mostly think along the same lines and we organize all our activities around the 7 general laws of Noah and finally we have a source of wisdom and guidance, the Rabbis’. So, there is hope! There are many things that bind us together.

The modern era baseline Noahide principles, looking back to Noah, were established in 1990 by Vendyl Jones and several prominent Rabbis’ and other prominent Noahides of the era when he conducted the first World Wide Noahide Conference (WWNC). General principles and great accord was achieved and we, as Noahides, should go back and study this event and the principles and accords that arose from it. Why not? I sense it would be productive and informative for those who weren’t there. So, go look at the Researcher website for that.

And lastly, the most important controversy is to engage in “lashon hara” against a fellow Noahide (or any human soul) and such is a great offence to HaShem. Why do we do it to each other anyway? I have seen these great offences conducted up close and personal and I have witnessed otherwise great Noahides engage in lashon hara. Joking around and jokes and disagreements in general are one thing entirely but to actually do deliberate “lahon hara” damage to a personal soul is hard to understand. When it is deliberate, for any reason, little can be done other than to pray for all souls involved and ask HaShem to straighten it out. We could each do our part by not tempting Hashem to action. Our lives and our Noahide experience would be far richer without it. Up next:

THE POST MODERN ERA AND A WAY BACK, PART 3