@kolev@babka.social @laxla@tech.lgbt I'm very secular, so I usually say the actual word. However, if I'm talking to someone who is observant, I try to be respectful of their feelings and not say the word. In writing, that is easy. When speaking out loud, I'm never sure how to indicate the word without actually saying it, so I usually avoid it altogether and say something like "those people outside the train station with the racks of religious booklets". How do you deal with the name of that group? Do you say "J's Witnesses"? If so, do people understand what you mean?

@laxla@tech.lgbt @kolev@babka.social I wasn't being sarcastic. I was genuinely shocked at the idea of Christian missionaries going to a country that is majority Jewish and trying to convert people. That isn't what I'm used to here. The only missionaries that I encounter here are Mormons and J------'s Witnesses (members of two minority Christian sects). I don't know what they do in other places, but in my city they mostly approach other Christians and try to get those Christians to switch from their current churches to the missionaries' church. They are very annoying, but what they do is much less offensive than approaching Jews and telling Jews to become Christians. I was shocked to learn that there are people doing that, and am surprised that the Israeli government gives visas to missionaries to enter the country.

@kolev@babka.social What I've heard from progressive, educated Christians is that Pharisees AS A GROUP weren't bad people. Only the specific INDIVIDUAL Pharisees who butted heads with Jesus behaved badly. Unfortunately, the writers of the New Testament were sloppy, and they often just wrote "a Pharisee" instead of using the individual's name. I believe that this is a major factor in the rampant antisemitism in some churches, especially the so-called "Bible churches". It would have been so much better if Jesus's enemies had been identified as named individuals. As a comparison, it would be okay for someone today to say "Pierre Poilievre and Bonnie Henry are bad people", but it would be sloppy and harmful to say "Canadians are bad people". Using actual names makes it clear that the individuals, not the entire group, are at fault. I'm really lucky in that I live in a neighborhood where most of the churches are progressive, and there are good relationships between Jews and Christians. How are things where you live?