‘Trying to convert us’: Purple envelope turns up in Charlotte mailboxes, alarming some
Heather Mirman received a purple envelope in the mail on April 1, and its contents did not turn out to be an April Fools’ Day gag.
Mirman received a paperback copy of a book attempting to convert her from Judaism to Christianity.
The book is called “Changed” by Tom Cantor, a California-based author, businessman and founder of the San Diego-based Israel Restoration Ministries. Before receiving the book, Mirman said she had read about others in her local Jewish Facebook group who had received the same purple envelope.
“I just kind of saw [the Facebook posts], but I didn’t really think of anything,” Mirman said. “About two weeks later, I got a purple envelope in the mail.”
Cantor’s book is an autobiography that chronicles his Jewish upbringing and his conversion to Christianity in 1970.
“He basically wanted to tell his story to all of the Jewish community in hopes that we will turn to Christ and he will save us,” Mirman said. “It was basically like a book trying to convert us.”
While Mirman said she can’t speak for everyone in the Jewish community, she and other Jewish people she knows are often approached by people or delivered materials that try to convert them.
Cantor, founder and president of Scantibodies Laboratory Inc., hosts a national radio program called “Friendship with God.” It’s currently being broadcast in some states, including California, Nevada, Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia and Massachusetts.
“Tom sees the urgency of reaching the lost (especially his Jewish people) as on the road to an eternal disaster and he is trying to give it all he’s got to see them saved,” according to Cantor’s biography on the Friendship with God website. “Tom is able to teach Bible principles that empower and encourage Gentiles, as well as teach the Jewish people about their God and Messiah.”
Neither Cantor nor a Scantibodies Laboratory representative replied to requests for comment from The Charlotte Observer.
‘Freaked out a little bit’
The Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte has been aware of Cantor’s book being sent to members of the local Jewish community since March, group CEO Sue Worrel told the Observer.
Worrel said the group learned that Cantor had been distributing his book to various communities across the country since 2013, and that he has invested millions of dollars from his Life & Light Foundation in an effort to convert people.
Over 370 negative reviews of Cantor’s book can be found on Amazon, with users from across the United States claiming that he sent them a copy without their knowledge or permission.
Mirman said she’s “freaked out a little bit” at how Cantor has been able to deliver his book to so many people.
“What concerns me the most is that people have my address and know that I’m Jewish, and if people are wanting to be anti-Semitic or something, all they have to do is find a list of Jewish addresses,” she said. “That’s really what kind of worried me about the whole thing.”
Worrel said the group learned that Cantor purchases mailing lists from for-profit mail houses, which includes Jewish and non-Jewish households, because “there’s not technically a way for him to figure out where the Jewish households are.”
Although the group finds “proselytizing mailings and door-to-door solicitations offensive, insulting, and troubling, they are not illegal nor are they necessarily anti-Semitic in nature,” Worrel said.
Mirman said she’s offended that Cantor targeted specific Jewish communities because she was taught to love all religions.
“I don’t mind any other religion,” she said. “I am all about people. If your religion helps you and makes you a good person then by all means go for it, but I just don’t want to be told that I ‘need to be saved by Jesus.’”
This story was originally published June 4, 2021 at 6:30 AM.
