Thanks to my Kiwanis friend John Surratt for interviewing me for a hour or two, taking a photo, and writing it up in the religion section of the Vicksburg Post 7/21/2017
Text of his write up, below.
Christian man who says he's a student of religion strives to teach Judaism to Christians as a way to further understanding.
By John SurrattThe Vicksburg Post
Andrew Harrell is trying to bridge a gap between religions.
"I have received a calling, I believe the calling I received was to teach Judaism to Christians. That's basically what I try to do. It's not to change any theology, but teach Christians a little more about meditation, Judaism and Jews, and teach Jews a little more about Christianity. I'm a student of religion.
"I have studied Judaism for a good part of my life, and I want to pass it on."
Harrell's interest in religion goes back to his childhood in Vicksburg, when while he was a member of Crawford St. United Methodist Church, he became interested in Judaism through the father of a friend.
"I attended the Friday evening Sabbaths one or two Sabbath dinners" he added.
That led me to a study of theology and other religions.
"I started studying Hebrew in order to understand the Old Testament prayers better, and translated a lot of the prayers; studied the psalms a lot, and started writing prayer letters to people, monks who studied the psalms, Mother Teresa, who answered several of my letters, Pope John Paul answered some of my letters through the Papal Nuncio in Washington, he prayed for me.
"I've been around the world studying different religions."
Harrell tries to reach people in several ways. He has an online program called theYHWH School of Christianity,after the Tetragrammaton, the hebrew symbol for God, which is also called Yahweh. He also has an online Monday afternoon (and Saturday afternoon) prayer meeting on meetup.com (and at his house).
"You go in and put in 39a80 (to join), he said" I have a group of 28 Christian and Jewish people signed for it, but very few come very often."
" I AM VERY SATISFIED JUST TRYING TO TALK TO PEOPLE (ABOUT FAITH), NOT REALLY TRYING THAT MUCH TO TEACH, BUT DISCUSSING THINGS. I HAVE FAITH IN GOD TO DO THE TEACHING. I JUST TEACH HOW TO MEDIATATE AND PRAY AS A CHRISTIAN (AND A JEW). " ANDREW HARRELL VICKSBURG RESIDENT
And, there are discussions with people he meets, and people who go to his Drummond St. home to discuss religion and matters of faith.
"I am very satisfied just trying to talk to people (about faith), not really trying that much to teach, but discussing things," he said. "I have faith in God to do the teaching. I just teach how to meditate and pray as a Christian..
"I believe in saints inside of people. You can see a saint inside a person. Christ appeared to me in a man. Mother Theresa believed that, "he said, referring to a quote from Mother Theresa: "I see Jesus in every human being. I say to myself, this is hungry Jesus, I must feed him. This is a sick Jesus. This one has leprosay or gangrene, I must wash him and tend to him. I serve because I love Jesus."
"That's where I got that. She said she sees Jesus inside of people through prayer, contemplative prayer."
Harrell said contemplative prayer, a meditative practice where the individual focuses on a word and repeats that word over and over for the duration of the exercise to clear their mind of outside concerns so that God's voice may be more easily heard.
"The purpose of contemplative prayer is to see the Christ another people, and I feel I have achieved that with some people. There's something inside of yourself helps you do that, but I don't know what it is."
Some of Harrell's discussions with Christians about Judaism centers on the Old Testament and Torah, the Hebrew Bible, and his prayers with others either at his home or during his online Monday prayer meeting are combined Hebrew and Christian prayers, which he said is a common practice with some Christian faiths.
"There is so much more to the Torah than the Old Testament; not, in particular, the translation of the words, but the way the Hebrew letters and the phrases are put together," he said.
"The Book of Psalms is basically a psalm prayer book. Most protestant ministers will teach you that the Book of Psalms was Jesus' prayer book. I think translating the Hebrew words and just studying the details and meditating on the phrases themselves, the words themselves, more (understanding) comes out than the St. James English (Bible)."
Although he does not attend a local church, Harrell says he prays daily and plays hymns on piano and organ.
"And, I help people. Anyone whoever knocks on my door and has problems, I pray with them. I credit Jesus. I try to keep the door open. Jesus said, 'Go into your room and close the door,' but I leave my door open.
Although he wears yarmulke, the skull cap worn by Jews, and has practiced Judaism for 40 years, Harrell said he considers himself more Christian than Jewish.
"I do it my own way. I'm not a conservative Christian.
"I'm more a liberal protestant than a conservative. I believe in the Bible, and I believe once you preach it, it's going to happen. I'm still a student. I consider myself a man of God, that's what my name means, and I try to be the best person I can be."
/b
Below is the public statement I gave him before the interview, with the request not to put any of it in the paper if he thought it might offend anyone. Thanks, John, for improving my statement by recording our discussion and rewriting it all.
Public Statement to the Vicksburg Post, Approved for Release
Questions: “How did you come to be a Rabbi?” “What are you
trying to accomplish and with what beliefs?”
Answer:
I could talk to you about all my wondelful experiences I
have had in prayer, in getting called to this calling of teaching contemplative
Christian Jewish prayer outside of Churches and in my home, and in trying to
witness Christ here and elsewhere to others but that might make you think I am
better than you, but I am not. You might think you can expect to have all those
experiences, and you may not. After 20 or thirty years of trying to do I have
to expect that most of you won’t, unless you actually try to learn it yourself
over a long period of time and actually try to teach it to others this long of
time….Most of the people I have tried to teach it to haven’t.
Question asked me by many people I run into and talk to in
town.
What is the black and white skull cap you wear on your head?
How does it stay on?
Answer: It is Jewish and signifies not necessarily that you
are Rabbi, but that you practice Judaism,, as you believe it, studying the
Bible, either Old or New Testament, land are ready to pray faithfully with God
whoever you meet about whatever helps and heals problems they are having in
their lives. Black ones are worn on weekdays, White ones on the Sabbath, which
is either Saturday or Sunday, if you are a Christian Jew. It is held on by a
couple of star like clips which weight it down a little when the wind is not
blowing too much.
Statement of beliefs and teachings:
I am not an ordained Rabbi, or Minister, or Priest, but I am
a Jew, having been Bar Mitzvah, given yalmulka, prayer shawl, and Tefillem or
prayer boxex and cords you wrap around your arm and forehead you put on your head while holding the
corners of a beaitufiul embroided white prayer shawl you cover your shoulders
with while standing to pray while facing a Torah, by an Orthodox Jewish Book Store Owner in
Washington DC in the 1970s who knew Dr. Feurst an Orthodox Jews who invited me
over to his house on East Ave. for Friday Sabbaths, gave me puzzle books in
mathematics to study and lived in Vicksburg and whose son Irving was my friend
in high friend. have been to most churchs and prayed and studied with them and
I believe as a result I am a Rabbi, a Minister, a Priest.
But, what kind? I teach contemplative prayer like I believe
Jesus practiced and taught it as something you do basically not in a Church or
Synagogue but by yourself with God there… not necessarily shut in a room…it can
be done, and is very helpful to do it, outside in nature like the Buddhists
teach it…or it can be done in your house, hopefully with the door open to let
others in who want to share in it.
Churches can fail you two ways:
1)
They make you too dependent on them.
Or 2) The ministers,
rarely the members, more often the ministers,
refuse to take time to take and pray with you separately, suggesting it
would be better for you just to attend the services and rituals.
I have had both of these ways happen to me, and its not very
pleasant, I wouldn’t recommend it…once you feel you have had enough good
experiences with God inside of the Churches not to need finding help that way. [1]Especially
if you have a received a direct calling and relationship and your prayer life
directly with God has developed to the degree it did with Jesus and most of his
Apostles.
A recent dialogue with God
Question: But, why do we need communion more than once? Or
twice? If its done right, like Jesus did
it with his disciples you won’t
Answer from a Catholic priest I know: The reason has to do
with the fact that when we are Baptised we are Baptised in Christ, not away
from sin. This reflects the reality that we are all interconnecd, and even
after you get saved you are not saved entirely from the sins of yourself or
others, just free from them because of
Christ’s future glory and triumph in it.
Hindu’s believe the crowning glory of your life can be to
become a God believing re-nunciate… a wandering man or woman of God, always at
home with God and your Self wherever you are…not attending Church rituals or
necessarily not attending them but set apart by dedicating your life as awhole
to God and others and yourself, not any Church, or group of Churches so do I.
Dr. Andrew W. Harrell
Phd Mathematics, UC Berkeley 1974
LTC EN USAR (RET)
[1] Of
course, if you are mattied and have children a Church can be helpful to you in
educating them in Christianity, Judaism, good character, habits, morals. It is
so difficult to teach this, it is often easier to do it with a group of fellow
believers. This said, really well-grounded core values often depend on God, and
only God, helping us to understand them,
