![\"Christians](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1251\/2019\/12\/Jews.png\")
Jews should be read Judeans<\/em> in our Bibles and lectionary, and this correction could help us eventually bury the criminal absurdity that Jewish people killed Christ.<\/h2>\nThe lights of Christmas and Hanukkah are dimmed by hatred and violence in Trumpland. Once more, another antisemitic attack in this country turns bloody. Sadly, hate crimes committed against Jews in the U.S. have been rising for years. We American Christians would sure like to believe that we are safely removed from the possibility of genocidal acts, that we have evolved past pogroms and anything remotely like an Adolf Hitler. But no matter how pleasant our dream-world is, awake is better. Intellectual dishonesty and denial debilitate transformation and the shootings and stabbings keep coming.<\/p>\n
Fruit from an Unofficial Christian Tradition<\/h2>\n
Our Church, and especially its hierarchy, have made intellectual dishonesty and denial into an art form. This is especially true when it comes to the long history of hateful violence committed against Jews.<\/p>\n
John Paul II the Late, the first pope (in the modern sense) ever to visit a synagogue (as known after 500 CE), was repeatedly praised for his commitment to Catholic-Jewish dialogue. He even asked for forgiveness for actions and displays of antisemitism committed by Christians against Jews throughout history. But look closer at his statements: never is the Catholic Magisterium guilty according to JPII, despite its direct role in these horrors which is easy to demonstrate. He expunges from memory bishops and priests who supported the Nazis (even with the papal limousine that once bore the swastika!).<\/p>\n
We Christians, one and all, need to wake up to this sinister hatred which we have mothered and nursed down through the centuries. Despite the many sharp differences between us, one unspoken doctrine has been treasured on both sides of the Tiber and Bosporus\u2014lethal hatred of Jews and damning them as \u201cChrist killers.\u201d Just because we don\u2019t defend or advocate the Holocaust in a formal teaching, doesn\u2019t mean our hands remain un-bloodied of what happened.<\/p>\n
The same thing can be said of all the December attacks against Jews worldwide, including the stabbing incident at a rabbi\u2019s home in Monsey, New York. Christianity down through the ages has played a part in making these horrors happen.<\/p>\n
The Sinning Church<\/h2>\n
Author Garry Wills makes a fascinating and an insightful comment in this regard, in his \u201cPapal Sin, Structures of Deceit,\u201d p. 17\u2014<\/p>\n
\u201cLet us apply that kind of thinking to a current situation. The teaching church says that abortion and contraception are mortal sins and crimes against human persons. Is the church guilty of those crimes (assuming, for the sake of argument, that they are such)? No, says the Vatican, because the Pope has condemned them. On the other hand, polls confirm that a majority of Catholics (88 percent in 1993) accept contraceptive methods in theory, and those in a position to act on that acceptance do so. Catholics are also no different from the rest of the population in the number of abortions they undergo. The church, then, is \u2018committing\u2019 abortion and contraception, though its leaders say that they must not. In the same way, Catholics were active in the Nazi state, even though their leaders (some of them, some of the time) told them not to be.\u201d <\/em><\/span><\/p>\nA Long Way to Go<\/h2>\n
Have there been improvements in these regards? Yes, but not enough. And even though there have been tremendous improvements compared to previous centuries, those improvements came at a hefty price on the Jewish side. I am talking about the cost of millions of lives for the Christian wake-up call. But admittedly we actually have inter-religious dialogue now between Jews and Christians. This RECENT marvel, born only in the 20th<\/sup> century, is a great first step. It would be injustice to not credit JPII with making breakthroughs there, despite his shortcomings. A child of the 70s, I have yet to hear Jews called \u201cperfidious\u201d at liturgy on Good Friday.<\/p>\n
A Long Way to Go<\/h2>\n
Have there been improvements in these regards? Yes, but not enough. And even though there have been tremendous improvements compared to previous centuries, those improvements came at a hefty price on the Jewish side. I am talking about the cost of millions of lives for the Christian wake-up call. But admittedly we actually have inter-religious dialogue now between Jews and Christians. This RECENT marvel, born only in the 20th<\/sup> century, is a great first step. It would be injustice to not credit JPII with making breakthroughs there, despite his shortcomings. A child of the 70s, I have yet to hear Jews called \u201cperfidious\u201d at liturgy on Good Friday.<\/p>\n