Middlepath:”computer777, actually, I think it DOES apply here. Obviously, we must do our best to try to have a positive influence on other religious Jews to make them want to stay religious, but if someone DOES become non-religious, we still should consider them Jews, and never treat them as second class. “
I agree with what you said, but I fail to see how that has to do with the goyim considering them Jewish enough to hate and persecute them. They are Jews and we must treat them like Jews because they have a yiddish neshama which cannot be changed, not because the goyim consider them Jews.
Oomis: what the world cares is not our concern. If the world would decide that being unobservant makes them not Jewish, would that give us license to treat them as not Jewish?