Resisting Genocide | Resisting Anti-Semitism
Yesterday was my first Sunday as "not a pastor of a congregation." Not sure yet how that feels! But we are camping in Vermont with my family, and that fees really good.
Last week's post brought up many responses, including from my dad and mom who grew up with the anxiety produced by World War II. That reminded me of standing in the hallway with our hands on our necks as protection from a nuclear attack and the fear of violence during the civil rights era.
I pray you are finding get-a-ways and peace in your life.
-Liz
Resisting Anti-Semitism
"I don't believe in the Old Testament God. I believe in the God of Jesus."
This is a comment I hear from someone, or from many people, at every congregation I serve. These are progressive, anti-racist, good people who say it. They are trying to say that they do not believe in the God described in the historical books, they do not believe in the God of destruction.
But Jesus believed in and followed the God of the Hebrew Bible. And people who are Jewish believe in, and follow, the God of the Hebrew Bible. To presume that the God in the Old Testament is somehow worse than the God we hear about in the New Testament is to declare that the Jewish people are following the wrong God.
This points out how hard it is to eradicate anti-semitism from our Christian faith. Therefore is very important that our preaching address anti-semitism often. We must to do it during the Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter especially. (Check also the language in hymns.) Add in anytime Jesus or Paul seems to be saying something against Judaism. We need to do it anytime the reading speaks of ancient Israel in a way that it might be confused with present day Israel. And we need to do it anytime we are standing up for the rights of the Palestinian people, and against the work of the present day Israeli government.
Anti-semitism is baked into our Christian story, and as such it is a sin that we are especially responsible for addressing.
Next Sunday's lectionary includes Isaiah 1:1, 16-20, which feels particularly relevant right now. This is the prophet's words to "Jerusalem and Judah" (v. 1). (Note that it is not addressed to the rulers of Sodom and Gomorrah, this much older story is referenced as a way to deride the kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.) Isaiah speaks for God and proclaims to Jerusalem and Judah: "Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove your evil deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do good; seek justice; rescue the oppressed; defend the orphan; plead for the widow" (v. 16-17).
At a time when the present day government of Israel is failing to care for justice, the oppressed, the orphan, and the widow, we can fall into the trap of believing that Isaiah's words are meant for Israel more than for any other nation. We must help our congregants see that these words are meant for every nation that is harming people. This text that requires us to speak up for the people of Palestine also requires us to speak up for the people of Ukraine, Sudan, Nigeria, North Korea, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, and more.
My point is not that we must list everyone of these--we certainly have more responsibility in the US for the violence we are funding--but that we must not use Biblical texts about ancient Israel to make the point that only Israel is guilty of violence against innocent people.
God was calling out the ancient nation of Israel not because they were the worst among nations, but because our bible is about God's special covenant with the Jewish people. Today, as Christians see God's expanded relationship with all people. Thus all people, all nations, are similarly called out for failing to live up to God's vision of care for others.
Here are some tips for helping our churches to avoid anti-semitism.
• Read texts about ancient Israel as instructive for our modern nation, our own government, our own leadership. Call out our role in supporting violence in many nations and at home. Interpret the prophets as condemnation of us, rather than as condemnation of them. The prophets were speaking to their own nation, and we should follow suit.
• When calling out our funding of the present day Israeli government, make comparisons to other governments that have been violent, rather than to the story of biblical Israel. The point is that people go against God's will, not that Jewish people go against God's will. Power, greed, and indifference are the crimes, not jewishness.
• Emphasize the difference between descriptive and prescriptive language. The stories of God's violence are how an earlier people made sense of the horrible things happening around them. They are not telling us about God, but are telling us about the struggles of those people, describing how they made sense of a hard life. These descriptions are not prescriptions for how we should act.
Jesus read those descriptive stories, and the words of the prophets, and the language of the poets, and found in them the God we know. A God who is with us always, calls us to act with justice, and loves as we are. Jesus' message of Repent, and believe the good news; the kingdom of God is at hand is a message about the one God of both testaments.
What is your congregation doing to address the violence in the international sphere? Give a reply to let me know what you think.
Here is a list of places where genocide is happening, or could be developing. When I see lists such as this I remember how little attention our news sources give to activities in Africa and South America.
This article from May, 2024, offers ten political statements that attempt to support Palestinian people without being anti-semitic.
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