Bagels and Grits: A Jew on the Bayou ... A Ministry Review of a Tragic Book

This summer I read a book that brought tears to my eyes. Bagels and Grits: A Jew on the Bayou is a autobiographical account of a "Yankee" Jewish woman who moves with her family to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Hers is a true fish-out-of-water story as she travels about seeking spiritual answers but tries to avoid the towering steeples that surround her.

I wept over this book because I was struck by the reality of a woman who on one level would love to believe in Jesus but on another was afraid of what it might require. She also found nothing within the Christian witness she observed that made becoming a believer in Jesus appealing. The Christians she met often blamed her people for killing Jesus.

Yet, and despite everything, she actually tries to seek out Jesus. However, she never finds the truth of Messiah Jesus. Therefore, the book ends as it begins with a Jewish woman attempting to find religious fulfillment within Rabbinic Judaism that offers only rules and regulations and no true hope for eternity. I am still heartbroken by her story.

However, the great tragedy of this women's account of living a Jewish life in the Bible Belt south is found in the postscript. I searched for her on the internet in hopes of finding a way to contact her. She and her husband have left the "Bible Belt". They are living in New Jersey but with no address information to be found. Who will reach her now?

So what should we ask ourselves regarding this ministry review? Why did she not hear a clear presentation of the Gospel while she lived in a land of churches and Bible colleges? Is it because on a basic, core level many Christians ignore "to the Jew first"? I pray this is not the case because we as believers in Jesus have a sacred duty to make His Chosen People jealous for the Gospel (Rom. 11:11). I just wonder who will find a way to make the writer of Bagels and Grits jealous for Jesus in New Jersey.