{"id":1408,"date":"2017-01-31T06:51:39","date_gmt":"2017-01-31T11:51:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/henrykarlson\/?p=1408"},"modified":"2017-01-31T06:51:39","modified_gmt":"2017-01-31T11:51:39","slug":"the-christian-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/henrykarlson\/2017\/01\/the-christian-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"The Christian Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

In nineteenth century Russia, and throughout Europe, the relationship between Christians and Jews were strained, not because Jews were causing harm to Christians, but because Christians consistently and unjustly attacked the Jews. Riots and pogroms killed many Jews falsely accused of ridiculous crimes such as blood libel. Claims of international conspiracy theories about the Jews and their desire to take over and destroy Europe were spread, and as a result, their rights and privileges in the societies they lived in were questioned, diminished, if not outright revoked. Paranoia fueled by propaganda justified grave evils done against the Jews. Anyone who spoke out against the evil would be given a litany of justifications, stating all the supposed evils of the Jews, all coming from twisted misrepresentation or outright creation of the facts.<\/p>\n

This brought into political discussions the so-called \u201cJewish Problem.\u201d How should the Jews be treated? What rights, if any, should they possess? Should they be forced to integrate into society and abandon their cultural and religious heritage? Why have they not been assimilated into the society and instead, have kept to themselves and their own traditions against the norm? What can be done to encourage them to become productive members of society by rejecting their own traditions when they came in conflict with the lands they live in? What should be done with them if and when they resist such forceful assimilation?<\/p>\n

While the \u201cJewish Question\u201d was sometimes raised by those who sought to defend the Jews from injustice, by focusing the question on the Jews, it put them on the defensive. The victims had to justify themselves instead of their unjust accusers. The victims were put on the dock, and as happens when the accused have to prove their innocence, the manner the question was raised made it nearly impossible for the Jews to defend themselves against their assailants.<\/p>\n

\"Vladimir<\/a>
Vladimir Solovyov\u00a0 [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>This is why Vladimir Solovyov saw the issue differently. He saw the question was fundamentally a question of Christians and how a society founded upon Christian principles should be run. The problem was not with the Jews, but with the Christians. They failed to lived up to Christ and Christ\u2019s expectations. Their society was fundamentally unchristian, despite its invocation of Christian principles. The Jews were not the ones who should be put on the dock, the Christians were, and they had to accept not only the criticism of justice, which they failed, but of Christ and his new law, the law of love, which they denied in their actions. The opening of his \u201cThe Jews and the Christian Problem\u201d demonstrated rather quickly the problem he thought Christians had to face:<\/p>\n

The relations between Judaism and Christianity during the many centuries of their co-existence presents one remarkable feature. The Jews have always and everywhere regarded Christianity and behaved towards it in accordance with the precepts of their religion, in conformity with their faith and their law. The Jews have always treated us in the Jewish way; we Christians, on the contrary, have not learned to this day to adopt a Christian attitude to the Jews. They have never transgressed their religious law in relation to us; we, on the other hand, have always broken the commandments of the Christian religion in relation to them. If the Jewish law is bad, their obstinate loyalty to that bad law is, of course, regrettable. But if it is bad to be loyal to a bad law, it is far worse to be disloyal to a good law, to an absolutely perfect commandment. We have such a commandment in the Gospel. It is perfect, and for that very reason extremely difficult. Special help, however, is given to us \u2013 the help of grace which does not abolish the law, but gives us the strength to fulfill it. Consequently, if we first reject that help and then refuse to fulfill the Gospel commandment because we find it difficult, we have no excuse. The point is not whether the Gospel commandment is difficult, but whether it can be fulfilled. If it cannot, why should it have been given? In that case, the Jews are right in blaming Christianity for having introduced into the world fantastic ideas and principles which can have no practical application. But if the Gospel commandment is practical, if we can stand in a Christian relation to all, including the Jews, we are entirely to blame if we fail to do so. [1]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What Solovyov said about Christian relations with the Jews should not stop merely with the Jews, but should be true for all peoples, all nations, all religious groups and traditions. Christians are called to be Christians, to follow the Gospel commandments, in their treatment with anyone, Christian or non-Christian alike. They are not to act in accordance to how others treat them, but in how Christ told them to treat others: they are not to be like the non-believing Gentiles who treat others through selfish concern, but rather, to treat them as they would like to be treated, to love them, desiring just treatment for all. The Law is to be founded upon love:<\/p>\n

But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they came together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, to test him. \u00a0\u201cTeacher, which is the great commandment in the law?\u201d \u00a0And he said to him, \u201cYou shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. \u00a0This is the great and first commandment. \u00a0And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets\u201d (Matt. 22:34 \u2013 40 RSV).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

All that is sin breaks the law of love. And that law remains with us, as Christians are expected to fulfill it. Christians are called to perfection, the perfection which is love, a love which manifests itself in seeing all as their neighbor. As to those who we can conventionally call our enemy, we must realize that our response still is the same, the response of love:<\/p>\n

You have heard that it was said, `You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.\u2019 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you salute only your brethren, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matt. 5:43-8 RSV).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Christians should judge themselves in accordance to how they follow Christ, and what Christ told them to do, not according to the way they perceive non-Christians act. They cannot justify abuse of non-Christians because non-Christians do not hold the same faith as them. Nor can they justify mistreatment and bigotry against them merely because their ways can be shown to be in error. Christians cannot justify themselves on non-Christian grounds, for when they do, they repudiate Christ and affirm the non-Christians are fundamentally correct. \u00a0To see someone as an enemy requires us to love them, and so someone who is not seen as an enemy is also to be loved, for all to be our neighbor, as Jesus presented with the parable of the Good Samaritan.
\n<\/p>\n

We tend to excuse our rejection of Christ, our rejection of his law, by blaming those who we reject as being at fault. They make it impossible for us to love them. Victim blaming always does this, and so Solovyov saw, with the mistreatment of the Jews, Christians turned away from Christ, blaming the Jews for their what they, the supposed Christians, \u00a0were doing:<\/p>\n

In this case the blame is shifted from us on to the victims themselves. Living among us, the Jews treat us in a Jewish fashion; clearly, we must treat them as pagans do; they do not want to love us \u2013 clearly, we ought to hate them; they cling to their isolationism, do not want to be merged with us, do not recognize their solidarity with us, but, on the contrary, try every way to profit by our weakness \u2013 clearly, we must exterminate them. [2]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The problem has not just been the way Christians treat Jews. That is a terrible history, full of twists and turns, with heroes like Reuchlin and Solovyov, and villains, who sought to expel or destroy the Jews in Europe. But such attitude was not found merely with the Jews. Such attitude was often found in the way Christians treated any non-Christian people. From the treatment of Native Americans in the Americas, the Aborigines in Australia, to the abuse and exploitation of Africans in the slave trade, Christians have a long history of claiming Christ but following a non-Christian law creating, in actuality, an anti-Christian ideology over the mindset of the Christians themselves. When questioned, they always excused themselves by the supposed actions of the other \u2013 saying that if Christian nations did not remain strong and do as they did, the other would see our weakness as a way to gain control over and dominate us. The law of the jungle, instead of the law of Christ, was, and continues to be invoked as justification for grave evil by Christians.<\/p>\n

The problem Solovyov faced in 19th<\/sup> century Russia remains with us today. It is the Christian problem, the problem of how Christians have assumed authority over the earth, but in taking such authority to themselves, they live as non-Christians in their treatment and expectations of others. They argue through ideology, using ideology as cause to reject the love Christ demands Christians to have for all. The problem is Christians repudiate Christ by their actions, and so they reinforce the law of sin in the world instead of transcend it with the law of love. They put their so-called enemies on the dock, constantly making accusations against them, all to justify their own power over their enemies; the desire to constantly build up dossiers on the other, to show all their evils (however twisted and distorted such dossiers end up being) demonstrates they do not look to Christ and his way as a solution the world\u2019s ills, but rather, they listen to Satan and his temptation in the desert, giving in to the power he grants if they only bow down to Satan and follow him in unlove.<\/p>\n

This then is the Christian problem which has yet to be overturned, and yet must be if we are to be Christians in the world. When Christians desire to promote themselves first among all, or worse, to promote some political group, like a particular nation or state, as first, is to look to the world with selfish eyes, and preach for their own well-being in a way which they do not give to others. When so many Christians speak about Religious Liberty, they only speak for themselves; if their way of life, if they are free to worship and act as they desire as Christians, so many who one day speak for Religious Liberty quickly forget it, and demand it to be banned for their ideological or religious opponents (such as Muslims). This hypocrisy demonstrates how the Christian problem manifests itself in real world situations, and why it is a problem which must be confronted and denounced.<\/p>\n

Why would non-Christians take Christ seriously if Christians do not take him seriously, and not only act contrary to his dictates, but find excuses to undermine and reject his words to them? How are Christians to be taken seriously if they are unwilling to be Christians to others, because the rest of the world is seen to be, in one form or another, their enemy who is to be controlled if not outright destroyed?\u00a0 How are Christians to be taken seriously if they are unwilling to love their enemy,\u00a0 and care about them, merely because their enemy does not return such love back? Christ did not say love only those who will love you back, but to love your enemy, for it is how God works: while we were sinners, God still loved us.<\/p>\n

To be sure, loving enemies does not mean we need ignore evil which they do, but it means when we respond to them, we must respond in love, desiring that they turn away from their evil and become our friend. We should act in justice, treating them as we would like to be treated, respecting them and their dignity, and so punish them as we would be punished for grievous wrongdoing. But all justice must be touched with mercy; it should not be out of vengeance, for vengeance is not justice, as vengeance does not restore order but creates more disorder and reifies the divisive structures of sin.<\/p>\n

The Christian problem then is the question of how to be a Christian in the world, without trying to respond to the problems of the world by the ways of the world. The Christian problem is how to guide and judge justly through the lens of love. The Christian problem is the problem which has been with Christianity since the conversion of Constantine, but it is also a problem which has grown as the Christian ideal continues to be abandoned by Christians themselves.<\/p>\n

How we are to treat Jews, Muslims, Zoroastrians, Shamanists, and other non-Christian religions should come from our faith in Christ and his command to love. Justice must be preached, and sought after, but justice can never be justice if love and its mercy is repudiated.<\/p>\n

Vatican Council II, to be sure, has begun the process by which the Christian Question can be raised and discussed in the modern day. It declared Christians must treat others with dignity and respect, and outright bigotry and violence against non-Christians is to be repudiated.\u00a0 In Dignitatis Humanae<\/em>, we read:<\/p>\n

The Vatican council declares that the human person has a right to religious freedom. Freedom of this kind means that everyone should be immune from coercion by individuals, social groups, and every human power so that, within due limits, no men or women are forced to act against their convictions nor are any persons to be restrained from acting in accordance with their convictions in religious matters in private or public, alone or in association with others. The council further declares that the right to religious freedom is based on the very dignity of the human person as known through the revealed word of God and by reason itself. This right of the human person to religious freedom must be given such recognition in the constitutional order of society as will make it a civil right.[3]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Photograph<\/a>
Photograph from the World Day of Prayer for Peace, 2011, in Assisi by Stephan K\u00f6lliker (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>Religious liberty, for it to be true liberty, will not allow certain groups special privileges over others, but will make sure all are treated fairly, equally, so that their religious sensibilities are respected and given equal protection under the law. When one religious group or another is unfairly treated, religious liberty is being denied, and it is the duty of Christians to speak up for that group, whether or not their beliefs and practices abhor Christian sensibilities. Targeting one religious group and restricting their rights and giving them substandard justice undermines civil society itself, and so it is bad enough from a secular point of view, but from a Christian point of view which looks at the dignity of the human person, such activity is an active violation of the Christian commandment to love and so serves as an active repudiation of the Christian faith.<\/p>\n

Likewise, preaching falsehood against other religious traditions, inciting hate against members of other religious traditions, violates the love of Christ, the love which must hold on to the truth, and so also serves as a repudiation of the Christian faith. This is why Vatican Council II in Nostra Aetate <\/em>had to declare, \u201cIndeed, the church reproves every form of persecution against whomever it may be directed.\u201d[4]<\/a> The Christian faith is preached in the practice of love. \u201cIt is the duty of the church, therefore, in its preaching to proclaim the cross of Christ as the sign of God\u2019s universal love and the source of all grace.\u201d[5]<\/a> This cross and all it represents is the sign of Christ in us; like our Lord, we must take all that others give to us and respond to them in a way which shows that we love them. When love is violated, Christ is rejected by us. Where prejudice and bigotry allows persecution, Christianity is rejected. \u201cTherefore, the church reproves, as foreign to the mind of Christ, any discrimination against people or any harassment of them on the basis of their race, color, condition in life or religion.\u201d[6]<\/a><\/p>\n

The solution to the Christian problem is found in the mind of Christ,\u00a0 the mind which reveals to those attuned to Christ the way of love. Love of others must be affirmed. Our actions must be done, not in hate or fear, not in disgust, but in love. Justice is good and true when it is cemented by love, while it is tyranny and legalism when such love is undermined. The Christian problem is that Christians have rejected Christ, leaving the world feeling like Gandhi who said he loved Christ but not Christianity. This problem remains with us today as Christians seek preferential option for themselves as a way to justify their hate and bigotry of others. They have turned Christianity into tribalism instead of the universal bearer of God\u2019s grace for all. Only by seeking the wisdom of God, turning to the mind of Christ, can the Christian problem be solved. Only then will Christians become true Christians, and the world can then begin to be made a better place as they mediate God\u2019s love into the world.<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Vladimir Solovyov, \u201cThe Jews and the Christian Problem,\u201d in A Solovyov Anthology. <\/em>Ed. S.L. Frank. Trans. Natalie Duddington (New York: Charles Scribner\u2019s Sons, 1950), 105.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Solovyov, \u201cThe Jews and the Christian Problem,\u201d 106.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> \u201cDignitatis Humanae\u201d in Basic Sixteen Documents: Vatican Council II. <\/em>ed. Austin Flannery, OP (Northport, NY: Costello Publishing Company,\u201d1996), \u00b62 (552-3).<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> \u201cNostra Aetate\u201d in in Basic Sixteen Documents: Vatican Council II. <\/em>ed. Austin Flannery, OP (Northport, NY: Costello Publishing Company,\u201d1996), \u00b64 (573).<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> \u201cNostra Aetate,\u201d\u00b64 (574).<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> \u201cNostra Aetate,\u201d\u00b65 (574).<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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A Little Bit of Nothing<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In nineteenth century Russia, and throughout Europe, the relationship between Christians and Jews were strained, not because Jews were causing harm to Christians, but because Christians consistently and unjustly attacked the Jews. Riots and pogroms killed many Jews falsely accused of ridiculous crimes such as blood libel. 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