David:

On this one, think of a spectrum or a road. There are things on the edges that are problematic, but much of it is solid, simply living as James and the Jerusalem church did in the first century. Nothing wrong with that, said Paul and Peter. The same complaint you raise could be said of Christianity and the use of its name. People use the name who give it a bad name and have poor theology. What is now taking place is that conversations are happening directly between people where before that was not happening. This is a process and will take some time to sort itself out. Hopefully it will be a good and healthy process for all concerned.

One more thought. There are three categories that rarely appear in this discussion. One is the issue of acting out of faith (Rom 14-15), which reflects what freedoms an individual person is comfortable with. A second is the idea that the reconciliation that God has brought through Jesus is of JEW AND GENTILE in the one NEW man Jesus has formed (Ie, not merely tacked on to Judaism nor a Christianity detached from its past). Note how it is not to make us all exactly the same but so the world can see reconciliation at work. We do not remove the ethnicities, but show how they now have a key point of unifying identity. This is slow to take because people usually most identify with their roots. Finally, there is a category in Scripture called Divine advise. We see it in 1 Corinthians 7, where Paul is asked if one shoudl marry or be single. He says his adice is to be single, This he encourages, but if one marries, they do not sin. Thus to encourage a Jew to live with an eye to his people can be encouraged, but to choose and live otherwise is not sin. This is "divine advice". (Remember that for many in this movement, they are discussing keeping the Law as Jewish people) What is problematic is to force or demand it. If the discussion can come to appreciate these ideas along with the law-covenants-grace disussions we will all be helped.