Antisemitism

When working as a nurse, I don't bring up religious topics unless the patient does so first. Most don't but a few do. I try to avoid controversies because I am functioning as a healthcare professional and not as clergy. In a couple of cases I have been able to provide spiritual comfort to patients who were in distress over a personal religious problem. And in a small community like the lower Keys it's common knowledge that I am ordained. So patients will occasionally ask me questions about the Bible or theology. It was during just such a discussion that I noted that Jesus was Jewish. To which my patient, a self-identified Methodist, replied, "You don't really believe that, do you?" Even Archie Bunker was smarter than that. When his son-in-law Mike pointed out that Jesus was Jewish, Bunker said, "Only on his mother's side!"

Antisemitism is the shame of the church. And its presence throughout most of church history is undeniable. Which is what prompted our sermon suggestion this week. But it's a big subject and I can't treat it all here.

It's a little known fact that antisemitism actually began long before the church existed. The earliest anti-Jewish writings go back to the Egyptian historian Manetho in 270 BC. His sentiments were picked up by other pagan and Greek writers. Some scholars see this as merely the way Greeks looked down on all other people, whom they called barbarians. But when the successors of Alexander the Great tried to spread Greek culture throughout the lands he conquered, the Jews were a thorny problem. They were not polytheists so they had no pantheon with which to accommodate the Greek gods. This came to a head when Antiochus Epiphanes tried to replace Judaism with Hellenism. He desecrated the Temple at Jerusalem, banned circumcision and the study of the Torah and more. He thereby ignited the Maccabbean revolt that led to Judea's independence. Most scholars see this form of anti-Semitism as being primarily aimed at the religion and culture of the Jews and not at the people themselves.

Things didn't get a lot better when the Romans conquered the remnants of Alexander's Empire. They wanted to add the cult of the divine emperor to everyone's pantheon. Once more, the Jews could not do this. There were several uprisings and incidents, leading to the destruction of the country and the Second Temple in 70 AD. Many Jews were killed; thousands of others were enslaved and paraded as captives through Rome. The emperor Titus imposed a tax on the Jews that was used to build a temple to Jupiter in Rome. The Romans were just as brutal in putting down the Bar Kokhba revolt in 136 AD. Jews were periodically banned from the city of Rome, even during New Testament times. Things eventually got somewhat better for the Jews of the Diaspora. They even won a concession from the emperor Hadrian when he banned the practice of circumcision for everyone else. Again scholars disagree on whether these Roman actions were any different than their harsh actions towards other conquered peoples who rebelled.

In the early days of the church, Christians were considered just another Jewish sect. Eventually the two groups differentiated themselves. When Nero blamed the Christians for burning Rome, executing Peter and Paul, and using other Christians as living torches in his gardens, it was obvious that the Jews did not wish to be mistaken for Christians. And when the Roman Empire, Judea and Galilee fought beginning in 66 AD, Christians did not want to be lumped in with the Jews. So towards the end of the first century, the church, which had started out as a Jewish movement dedicated to Jesus the Jewish Messiah, was by then largely Gentile. This is reflected in the last gospel, that of John, which uses the term "Jews," which should include Jesus and his disciples, in a way that instead clearly means the Jewish leaders who opposed Jesus. Still both were despised minority groups in the Roman Empire. And once it was recognized as distinct from Judaism, Christianity was illegal. You could be killed for refusing to curse Christ and make a sacrifice to the emperor. Yet Christianity continued to grow.

By the early 4th century, Constantine made Christianity legal. While he didn't make it the official religion, he did pass laws that forbade Jews from owning Christian slaves or circumcising their slaves. It was illegal for Christians to convert to Judaism. And church councils prohibited Christians from celebrating Passover or the Jewish Sabbath.

Eventually Christianity was made the official religion of the Roman Empire. And there was no separation of church and state in those days. So what the church leaders decided became policy. Jews were barred from entering government service, the army and the law. Synagogues were confiscated and converted into churches or allowed to fall into ruins.

But one of the worst developments in antisemitism was the idea that the Jews, collectively, were guilty for all time of killing God in the form of Jesus Christ. The roles of Pilate and the Romans were minimized or ignored. This never became official church doctrine. But lots of Christians, including some clergy, thought this way. Add to that a persistent urban legend that Jews murdered Christian children to use their blood in their religious ceremonies and small wonder that in the Middle Ages antisemitic violence increased. Most Christians had little contact with Jews who were often confined to the ghetto and so were ready to believe all kinds of horrible things about them, including that they had magic powers and had made a pact with the devil. So they were blamed whenever things went wrong, resulting in rampages and massacres. Ironically the safety of a local population of Jews might depend on the local bishop. Being literate and having studied the Old Testament, the bishops knew that the blood libels were false and that Jews would never eat blood. We have many letters from bishops and even papal bulls refuting these nonsensical accusations, often to little effect. Mobs don't reason. The height of anti-Jewish violence took place during the Crusades. Though the crusaders were supposed to fight to free Jerusalem from Muslims, they  often killed Jews along the way--in defiance of repeated bans on such attacks by the Pope! When the Black Plague swept Europe, Jews were accused of poisoning wells and massacred. In Strasbourg 900 Jews were burned. In addition, countries like England, France, Austria and Spain expelled their Jews, many of whom fled to Poland. Even converting to Christianity didn't always save Jews from persecution. Ferdinand and Isabelle of Spain distrusted these Marranos or conversos. They had the Spanish Inquisition torture those they considered to be secret Jews to extract confessions. In the end 30,000 were burned.

The Reformation did not end the mistreatment of Jews. Martin Luther's writings on them changed over time. In 1519, he wrote, "Absurd theologians defend hatred of the Jews….What Jew would consent to enter our ranks when he sees the cruelty and enmity we wreak on them--that in our behavior towards them we less resemble Christians than beasts?" He was progressive in urging Christians to treat Jews with kindness. Luther thought his recovery of the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith, so different from the way the Roman church presented the gospel, would help Jews see the Jesus as their Messiah and convert. But they didn't.

By 1536 he had reversed his attitude towards them. In 1543 he wrote "On the Jews and their Lies," which advocated the harshest policies against Jews. Unfortunately, this text has been used by anti-Semites ever since including the Nazis, though their objection to the Jews was racial rather than theological. Nevertheless, because of the huge influence of Luther on later generations, the ELCA, in concert with the Missouri-Synod and other Lutheran denominations worldwide, have both acknowledged and rejected the violent invective found in some of his writings.

But just as antisemitism didn't originate with Christianity, it continued to  exist outside it. Originally Jews living in Islamic lands were generally well-treated, though they had to pay a special tax. But harsher Muslim regimes arose which expelled Jews and sometimes forced them to convert on pain of death. And in the 19th century, well after the Enlightenment saw a gradual granting of rights to Jews in Europe, things got much worse in Muslim countries. Riots broke out periodically. Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues were burned. In 1864 alone, 500 Jews were killed in Morocco. And today, some of the most virulent anti-Jewish sentiments are expressed by radical Islamic regimes.

Even when religion is removed from the equation antisemitism exists. Jews never had an easy time in Tsarist Russia. Things got so bad that between 1881 and World War 1 that 2.5 million Jews fled Russia. When the atheistic Communists took over, there was no rational reason for them to persecute the Jews as the Russian Orthodox Church and the imperial family had. In fact, many Bolshevik leaders were Jewish and denounced antisemitism. Yet the anti-religion laws led to the seizure of synagogues, the abolition of religious education, the forced resignation of rabbis, and the dissolution of Jewish communities. Similar measures were taken against other religious groups. Yet, especially under Stalin, Zionism was condemned and Jewish intellectuals, called "rootless cosmopolitans," were targeted. During the infamous Doctors' Plot, hundreds of Jews were arrested. Some were sent to the Gulag, others were executed. Only Stalin's death ended this particular campaign. Many historians now feel Stalin was using the Jews as an excuse to justify a party purge, making the them political scapegoats once more. Ironically, this was a tactic Lenin accused his enemies of using.
    
Nor are we Americans exempt. When our country was founded, Jews could not hold elected office. Private clubs and even resorts here in the Keys wouldn't admit Jews. More virulent expressions exist here in the form of the KKK, and the American Nazi party.

Antisemitism still exists. People expressing hatred of Jews may give religious or cultural or economic or political or racial reasons. Some still believe the old Tsarist forgery "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," a long-discredited conspiracy theory that the Jews plan to take over the world.

Why all the hate? No one knows for sure. The best guess is that by preserving their distinctive religion and culture Jews tended to stick out when living in other cultures and thus make good targets for hatred. But this really doesn't explain hatred of assimilated Jews.

It goes without saying that Christians should never have hated Jews. For one thing, we are expressly forbidden by Jesus to hate anyone, whether neighbor or enemy. He did not say love only those who agree with you. The good Samaritan was of a different religion than the man he rescued. It's even a religion Jesus disagreed with, as we know from his discussion with the Samaritan woman at the well. Yet Jesus made this "heretic" the hero of what is arguably his most famous parable. The Samaritan's actions showed him to be a better example of godly love than the more theologically correct priest and Levite. Love of God and other people are our primary commandments.

Besides that, the Jewish people are, as Paul points out, also descendents of Abraham and heirs of God's promise. And, as he writes in Romans 11:46, all Israel will be saved. Writing them off reveals our impatience with God's timetable. It shows ignorance of his mercy and love for the people he called.

Our attitude should be that of the younger, unembittered Martin Luther, who wrote in a 1523 essay, "When we are inclined to boast of our position we should remember that we are but Gentiles, while the Jews are of the lineage of Christ. We are aliens and in-laws; they are blood relatives, cousins, and brothers of our Lord. Therefore, if one is to boast of flesh and blood the Jews are actually nearer to Christ than we are….If we really want to help them, we must be guided in our dealings with them not by papal law but by the law of Christian love. We must receive them cordially, and permit them to trade and work with us, that they may have occasion and opportunity to associate with us, hear our Christian teaching and witness our Christian life." Luther then points out that Christians aren't perfect either. And there you have it. Love and a humble recognition that we all need God's grace and mercy is the Christian way to approach to anyone, especially our elder brothers and sisters in God.