(NOTE: I came across this article today, November 10, 2023, as I was continuing the task of going through Daddy’s voluminous files – a task that is in its 17th year, having begun with his passing in June 2007. From January 1957 until his retirement at the end of 1978, at the age of 65, Daddy was Midwest/Southwest Area Missionary Director of the Department of Interfaith Witness of the Southern Baptist Convention Home Mission Board. Though his ministry and witness involved all faiths, his greatest love was for the Jewish people. This article, ANTI-SEMITISM!, was published in the April 1977 issue of the SBC journal The Baptist Program. In light of the current war between Israel and Hamas, and the hateful attitudes it has exposed, I find Daddy’s article – published over 46 years ago – very timely.)
ANTI-SEMITISM! This word evokes memories of the Inquisition and the butcheries of the Jews by the Crusaders; of Hitler, Goebbels, and Eichmann; of Auschwitz and Treblinka, ghettoes and yellow stars; of pogroms, gas chambers, and death trains; of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and “the final solution to the Jewish problem.” It reminds one of centuries of suffering for the Jewish people and the deaths of millions of Jews. Anti-Semitism is not just the stuff of memories such as these, however. The Holocaust (the name given to Hitler’s murder of Jews) ended, but that was not the end of Anti-Semitism. It is always present.
Anti-Semitism exists in the United States today. It is currently a source of anguish to Jews and concerned non-Jews and a cause of mistreatment and disprivilege for American Jews. In addition to present dangers, its continued existence insures its availability as the fuse for a future Holocaust. For these reasons, Anti-Semitism is a matter which can never be ignored. It must trouble the Christian conscience and impel the Christian to uncover its cause and remove it from the American scene.
There are many causes of Anti-Semitism. Are there some for which the Christian community bears responsibility? It is difficult for Christians, especially Baptists, who have themselves been persecuted for their beliefs, to acknowledge the possibility of Christian responsibility for persecuting Jewish people. The spirit of Anti-Semitism is contrary to the spirit of their Lord, and the spirit which they know the Christian should have.
That Jewish people have suffered their greatest tragedies in Christian lands is a challenge to Christians’ view of themselves. To respond to this with the disclaimer, “Oh, well, they were only nominally Christian,” is to avoid the issue. The same can be said of a common, rather prideful assertion that “Baptists have never persecuted Jews.”
As far as actual physical persecution of Jewish people is concerned, one can say that Southern Baptists are not guilty, if by that one means open, official, organized activity of the denomination (conventions, associations, and churches). We cannot, however, ignore the fact that individual Southern Baptists (including their spiritual leaders, in some instances) were among those who formulated the doctrines and carried on the activities of the anti-Catholic, anti-Jewish Ku Klux Klan. I observed this phenomenon in my boyhood.
This self-study can begin with an examination of Christian teachings about Jewish people in Bible study classes and in the pulpit. The teachings can be looked at from the standpoint of content, attitude, and purpose. As for the last, it is a personal opinion that most Christians (to say this of all Christians would be unrealistic) do not make Anti-Semitic remarks with the intention of harming Jewish people. They make them thoughtlessly and in ignorance of their falsity and consequences.
The harm they do, however, is just as real as though it was intended. For their thoughtless remarks strengthen misconceptions already held by the hearers and can result in actions that range from the annoying to the vicious (many of the things said today were said in Hitler’s time and flowered in the Holocaust).
The content of statements about Jews, some out of a biblical setting and others of a personal, more general nature, is often distorted or altogether inaccurate. Some are unsupportable generalizations, attributing to all Jews the characteristics of a few. Others single out Jewish people for blame in the crucifixion and ignore other people whose responsibility is just as great. To say, “the Jews killed Jesus” and stop with that is to overlook the part played by the Romans and the sin of all mankind in the crucifixion. Although the Jews had a part in the crucifixion, not all the Jews did (some were followers of Jesus), nor were the Jews alone in accomplishing the crucifixion.
Inaccurate comparisons reflect unfairly on Jewish people and their religion. Christianity is depicted as the religion of love and grace, while Judaism is labeled the religion of law and legalisms. Yet, Judaism was a religion of love, too. When Jesus gave the two great commandments of the law, he quoted from the Hebrew Scriptures (Deut. 6:5, Lev. 19:18). It is true that Jews did not always exemplify that love. Do Christians?
Great stress is often placed on the Jews’ flirtation with the gods of their neighbors, and they are berated for their fickleness. But who were the first great monotheists? It was through the Jew that God finally got across to mankind his oneness and his uniqueness, and when the Jews absorbed that lesson, they held tenaciously to the one God of their shema.
Misconceptions concerning Jewish personal characteristics have been repeated for centuries. That old image of the Jew and his love for money is reflected in the snickering that follows the pulpit comment, “Can you imagine a Jew buying a piece of land without looking at it?” (Lk. 14:18). Yet, it was a Jewish widow whom Jesus used as a model for giving to God. Why do we not emphasize her Jewishness and think of her generosity as a Jewish trait? Generosity is a Jewish trait, as those with Jewish friends know.
Comments in Sunday School classes can reveal the effect of centuries of attitude conditioning. One man in a Sunday School class said, “There is nothing more hard-headed than a hard-headed, stubborn religious Jew.” Why did he single out the Jews from all people? Was it because he had heard about “stiff-necked Jews”?
The importance of this discussion, and the seriousness of it, is the connection existing between Anti-Semitism and Holocausts. It was easy for Hitler to make scapegoats of the Jews and lay on them the blame for Germany’s troubles because of centuries of psychological conditioning. Martin Luther, for example, became viciously Anti-Semitic in his preaching when the Jews resisted his effort to convert them.
The Christian sensitive to the ethical demands of the gospel, and when made aware of the Anti-Semitic nature of certain attitudes and expressions, will want to avoid them just because it is the right thing to do. He will also want to avoid them because of the possible contribution to outbreaks like the Holocaust. Some people complacently say, “It can’t happen here, not in the United States.” But who would have thought the vulgar and barbaric Anti-Semitism of Nazism could prevail in the religious, intellectual, and cultural climate of Germany? Our recent American moral storms should have shaken out any complacency that Americans might have had about what can or cannot happen here.
Anti-Semitism is like some great plague whose germs lie dormant in the public body for decades or generations. Christians must be alert to its presence, care about the danger it poses for fellow human beings, and be active in the struggle against it. As they do, they emulate Jesus Christ, so much of whose earthly ministry involved healing humanity’s hurts.
Jesus called upon his disciples to “be witnesses for me,” to make disciples of all nations. But witnessing is more than just speaking. It is a life, a life of love, of goodwill in action. As such, it validates verbal witness, gives it credibility, and makes it convincing.